M6:1535 — شرع بهر زندگان و اغنیاست / شرع بر اصحاب گورستان کجاست

Translation: Sharʿ (Divine Law) is for the living and the wealthy; Where is Sharʿ for the denizens of the graveyard?

Meaning: The judge in this tale pragmatically asserts that worldly laws and religious decrees apply only to the living and capable, not to those so close to death that they are considered inhabitants of the graveyard.

This verse is uttered by the judge in the story, facing a frail, severely ill old man who allegedly wronged a Sufi. The judge, with a pragmatic and legal perspective, dismisses the Sufi’s complaint. He states: "Who is the aggressor? Who is the subject of retribution? This poor soul, from the intensity of his illness, has become a mere phantom, a shadow." In essence, there is no longer a living agent to hold accountable or exact retaliation from. This sick man is, in the eyes of the law, as good as dead, a denizen of the graveyard, rather than a courtroom.

I concur wholeheartedly with the judge’s statement. Sharʿ, with all its detailed injunctions and responsibilities, is intended for living, accountable individuals. It is for those whose physical and mental faculties are intact, who possess the capacity to act, and who are engaged in the affairs of this world. For the dead, there is no prescribed prayer, no fasting, no retribution, and no other religious obligation. The judge in the narrative, due to the man's extreme proximity to death, classifies him among the "denizens of the graveyard" (aṣḥāb-i gūristān); that is, those whose worldly life has concluded and who fall outside the purview of superficial Sharʿ rulings.

However, Mowlana, the unparalleled master of metaphor and interpretation, upon hearing the words "graveyard" and "death," transcends their literal meaning. For him, this becomes an opportunity to use physical death as a bridge to "mystical death" and fanā fi’llāh (annihilation in God). He posits that while this sick man is "dead" in one sense, Sufis, the wayfarers on the path of truth, have died many times over in a far deeper sense. "That group who are headless from poverty (faqr, meaning Sufism or spiritual discipline) / are a hundred times more annihilated than those dead." Faqr here refers to the spiritual discipline of becoming utterly detached from one's ego and apparent existence. These Sufis, instead of undergoing a single physical death, are annihilated in their being from a hundred directions.

Physical death occurs but once, yet the Sufi on the path of love dies hundreds, even three hundred thousand times a day. This is exemplified in the story of the ghāzī and the nafs (ego), where the spiritual warrior’s ego pleads: "Here in this hermitage, you kill me a hundred times a day; go kill me once in battle and be done!" This repeated, voluntary death, undertaken with conscious will, is for the sake of attaining eternal life in the Beloved. Indeed, such a seeker possesses "two hundred souls from God's light" and "sacrifices those two hundred every moment." This dying is not out of helplessness, but out of fervent yearning: "I tested my death, and it is in life; when I escape this life, there is permanence." This death is accompanied by a boundless "blood-money" (khūn-bahā), for every drop of which God places kingly treasures beneath the ruins of our selfhood: "What grief do I have if there is ruin / beneath the ruin is the treasure of a king?"

It is at this juncture that the loving seeker not only does not fear death but eagerly rushes towards the Beloved’s sharp blade. "Killed by the delight of the just spear / he burns, asking for yet another wound." He is equally enamored of the Beloved’s grace and wrath: "I am a lover of His grace and His wrath, truly / strangely, I am a lover of these two opposites." For him, all the hardships of love are pure joy. This is not death, but a hundredfold life. It is the very essence of Miʿrāj (ascension), where the lover sacrifices himself at the Beloved's feet, and in return, receives a hundred eternal lives: "What is one life? You are a hundred lives!" In this realm of love, Azrael has no sway over lovers, because "lovers are killed by love and passion itself."

Key takeaways

• Divine law (Sharʿ) and worldly injunctions apply only to the living and capable, not to those considered virtually dead.
• Mowlana uses the concept of "death" to elaborate on "mystical annihilation" (fanā) beyond physical demise.
• The Sufi, not once but repeatedly and from many directions, voluntarily dies to self to achieve true life.
• These successive deaths are acts of self-sacrifice born of love, leading to "countless blood-money" and manifold life.
• The lover embraces both the grace and wrath of the Beloved, perceiving the hardships of love as joy.
• On the path of love, the Angel of Death (Azrael) has no dominion over the lover, for love itself guides the lover to their ultimate perfection.