M6:1288 — می‌شود مبدل به خورشید تموز / آن مزاج بارد برد العجوز

Translation: The scorching summer sun transforms / The cold temperament of old winter. Meaning: This verse promises that even a soul in a state of spiritual coldness, despair, and old age can be transformed into the warmth and hope of youth, just as the summer sun dispels the chill of winter.

Mowlana, in this and the surrounding verses, speaks of the sublime possibility of spiritual transformation—a radical and fundamental change that can turn any cold, aged, and despairing soul into the warmth of hope and the freshness of youth. This particular verse follows Mowlana's critique of those who falsely don the garb of spiritual knowing, presenting themselves as pious through empty rhetoric and self-aggrandizement, while their inner selves remain hollow and barren. Mowlana warns these pretenders that the moment of ‘rahīl’ (departure, i.e., death) will arrive, and in the ‘ʿālam-e khāmūshī’ (realm of silence), nothing but what they have cultivated within will serve them.

In this atmosphere, heavy with the scent of despair and emptiness, Mowlana suddenly offers a message of hope and profound change. He laments, “Woe to him who has no inner solace,” but immediately presents the path to liberation: “For a day or two, polish your heart / Make that mirror your own ledger.” If one polishes their heart and turns towards inner purity, a wondrous transformation will occur, just as Zuleikha, old and blind, became young and sighted by the very shadow of Yusuf.

This verse, “The scorching summer sun transforms / The cold temperament of old winter,” is, in this context, a grand promise. Bārd al-ʿAjūz, an archaic Arabic term meaning ‘the old woman’s cold’ or ‘the end of winter,’ symbolizes despair, decrepitude, and spiritual coldness. Yet, Mowlana declares that this prolonged cold cannot withstand the ‘khurshīd-e Tamūz’ (the scorching summer sun) and will melt away. The winter of the soul is not eternal; it can give way to spring and summer. Woe to those who die in this spiritual winter, denying themselves the chance for transformation. But blessed are those who, with hope and by seeking the guidance of spiritual masters, traverse this winter and reach the summer of hope and gnosis.

Just as in the story of Maryam, a dry date palm branch, through Maryam's ‘sūz’ (her burning passion and spiritual pangs of childbirth), was transformed into a fruit-laden tree, here too, inner coldness is dispelled by the warmth of aspiration and love. The core message is that no spiritual state, however cold, dry, or aged it may seem, is permanent; transformation is constant and flowing. It is only sincere longing and aspiration that bring this ‘summer sun’ to bear upon the ‘old winter’s cold,’ rejuvenating it and making it warm and fruitful. With this verse, Mowlana sends a decisive message of hope and inner renewal not only to false pretenders but to every weary and despairing soul.

Key takeaways

• Any inner coldness or despair is temporary and capable of transforming into the warmth of hope.
• Divine graces and spiritual transformations are often bestowed regardless of one's apparent capabilities, purely out of sheer benevolence.
• Opposite the Bārd al-ʿAjūz (the old woman's cold), symbolizing spiritual decrepitude, is the khurshīd-e Tamūz (scorching summer sun), representing fervent divine grace and transformation.
• The path to liberation from cold, dry spiritual states is hope and recourse to spiritual guides.
• This verse emphasizes the dynamism and non-stasis of human spiritual states, and the possibility of rebirth at any moment.