M6:1469 — هر کجا این نیستی افزون‌ترست / کار حق و کارگاهش آن سرست

Translation: Wherever this nothingness is more abundant, God's work and His workshop are there, at the summit.

Meaning: Mowlana asserts that the more one empties oneself of ego and attachments, the more one becomes a receptive space, a 'workshop,' for divine action and presence.

This couplet, without doubt, unlocks one of Mowlana's most crucial insights into the relationship between contingent being and necessary being. I have often emphasized that in Mowlana's intellectual framework, 'niysti'—nothingness or non-being—is not merely an absence, but an active void, a prepared ground for the manifestation and effulgence of Truth. It is a blank canvas, an unplowed field, or a heart 'torn to pieces' (sharḥa-sharḥa) ready to receive the reed's lament. Mowlana declares: 'Wherever this nothingness is more abundant / God's work and His workshop are there, at the summit.' The more this void, this emptiness of ego, preconceived notions, and attachments, is intensified, then right there, at that very summit, lies the core of God's work and manifestation.

I have repeatedly stressed in my lectures that all masters and artisans, to display their art, seek an empty and pristine scene: the painter inscribes upon an unpainted canvas, the builder constructs on fallow ground, and the farmer sows seeds in an uncultivated field. Therefore, if the Creator of existence is the Master of masters and the Maker of makers, He, too, establishes His workshop in this very 'niysti'—where there is 'lā' (nothing) and 'hīch' (zero), and where ego and selfhood do not cast a veil between Creator and creation. This is precisely true humility (tavāzoʿ) and genuine 'inkesār' (self-effacement), which shatters the human ego and empties it of ulterior motives, afflictions, desires, and whims.

This 'niysti' is deeply intertwined with the concept of 'bī-ṣūratī' (formlessness), one of the most pivotal insights in the Masnavi. The world of forms arises from the formless, and Mowlana employs examples like water (which assumes the shape of any vessel), light (which is colorless yet reveals all colors), and the reed's breath (which has no melody of its own yet all melodies arise from it) to elucidate this truth. Nothingness is that existential formlessness which makes it receptive to the divine breath. Recall the verse: 'We are like the reed, and the melody within us is from You.' It is this nothingness that shapes us into an empty, melody-ready reed.

Mowlana continues this discourse by stating: 'Since nothingness holds this exalted rank / The dervishes have surpassed all others.' The apex of spiritual rank and station is reaching this state of nothingness. For this reason, dervishes surpass and outstrip all others, for they tread the path of nothingness. This 'niysti' signifies both 'taking little from the world' (asceticism or zuhd) and 'abandoning the false self' to attain the 'true self.' It is the state of being emptied of all but God and adorned with virtues, so that the human heart becomes entirely preoccupied with the remembrance of God. This emptiness is not a cold passivity, but a condition of thirst and yearning that transforms the heart into a crucible of the fire of love—a fire kindled within the reed, turning it into a 'sugar-reed' (ney-shekar) whose sound bears the taste of sugar and the fragrance of fidelity. Thus, this nothingness, in truth, is the very essence of true being and absolute presence.

Key takeaways

• The empty space, devoid of ego and attachments, is the primary workshop for God's activity and manifestation.
• 'Nothingness' (niysti) in Mowlana's thought is not mere absence, but an 'active void' ready for divine manifestation.
• Emptiness of self-centeredness and preconceptions is essential for true humility and inner self-effacement (inkesār).
• Humans must become like a hollow reed or a blank canvas to receive the divine breath and sacred imprint.
• Dervishes, in their pursuit of this state of 'nothingness,' surpass all others in their spiritual journey.
• This nothingness is synonymous with existential formlessness, preparing one to receive divine grace.