M1:405 — اسپ جانها را کُند عاری ز زین / سِرّ النَوْمُ اخُ المَوتست این

Translation: He strips the souls' steeds of their saddles; / This is the secret of 'sleep is the brother of death'. Meaning: Every night, God liberates souls, like horses, from the saddles of their bodies. This temporary detachment reveals the profound truth that 'sleep is the brother of death'.

In this verse, Rumi offers a foundational image of the relationship between soul and body, illuminating the profound meaning of the maxim 'sleep is the brother of death.' He states that the body is like a 'saddle' and the soul is the 'steed' that bears this saddle. This image completely reverses the common understanding that the body contains or carries the soul. Not at all! It is the soul that carries the body on its back, keeping it alive and upright. As Aristotle taught millennia ago, the soul is not a part of the body, but rather the principle and origin of the body's life and being.

Every night, God removes this 'saddle' from the 'steeds' of souls. In sleep, the body becomes inert and unconscious, much like a saddle cast aside. But the steed, the soul, continues its life, unburdened by the saddle. This temporary liberation of the soul from the body precisely reveals the meaning of that Prophetic tradition: al-Nawm akh al-Mawt — sleep is the brother of death. Sleep is a partial, temporary death, a daily rehearsal for the ultimate passing.

The events of sleep are not subject to our will. This is a moment of absolute passivity, another instance of the taqlīb-i Rabb (God's turning and revolving) that Rumi speaks of elsewhere, where the human being is like a pen in God's hand or a straw in a gale, moved hither and thither. This is the pure manifestation of divine will in the temporary separation of the soul from the body.

And if sleep is the brother of death, then death itself is an eternal sleep. Just as in our earthly sleep we sometimes experience sweet dreams and sometimes terrifying nightmares, death also carries us into an eternal sleep where our dreams and states become everlasting. Heaven and hell, more than external places, are the continuation and embodiment of those very dreams and inner states that actualize in that 'eternal sleep.' In short, with this verse, Rumi not only elucidates an existential question but also, with his unique subtlety and beauty, presents an entire ontological system.

Key takeaways

• Sleep is a symbol of death and a daily rehearsal for the soul's separation from the body.
• The soul carries the body, not vice versa; the body is merely the soul's saddle and vehicle.
• In sleep, our will ceases, serving as an example of our passivity before divine governance.
• Death can be understood as an eternal sleep in which our dreams (states of heaven or hell) become everlasting.