M6:3064 — از کمال قدرت ابدان رجال / یافت اندر نور بی‌چون احتمال

Translation: From the perfect power of the bodies of noble men, they found the capacity to bear the peerless Light within themselves.

Meaning: This verse states that divine men, through the perfected strength of their physical and spiritual beings, are able to endure and contain the incomparable manifestation of Divine Light, unlike other material entities that cannot withstand such a radiance.

Rumi, in this couplet, alludes to a profound and paradoxical point that permeates the entire Masnavi: the capacity to bear infinite divine light. He begins by recalling the story of Moses and Mount Tur, where the mountain could not withstand a single flash of divine light and crumbled. However, as Rumi states, men of God — and by this, I mean prophets, saints, and perfected mystics — by virtue of their "perfection of power," can "ehtemāl" this "peerless light"; that is, they can truly endure and accept it. The power of these bodies is not of the nature of a mountain's rigidity, but rather a spiritual strength that enables even the physical body to withstand it.

I observe that Rumi, in developing this theme, employs the astonishing simile of "qārūreh" (a glass or crystal vial). He asks: how can that Light, which Mount Tur could not bear even a particle of, be contained within a "qārūreh"? This question takes us to the heart of the paradox. Here, "qārūreh" symbolizes a delicate and fragile exterior, which points to a powerful interior. In the Holy Quran, in Surah Ad-Dahr, regarding the celestial virgins, it says: "They were as vials of silver, which they have measured exactly" (76:15-16). Here too, a kind of delicacy and transparency is intertwined with a hidden capacity. The silver is so finely wrought that it is clear as glass, and light passes through it. This again signifies a combination of fragility and latent capacity.

This very simile of "qārūreh" is also used in a Prophetic tradition for women: "Be gentle with the qawarir" — meaning, treat glass vessels (women) with softness and gentleness, for they are fragile. And similarly, in Nahj al-Balagha, Imam Ali (peace be upon him), in a letter to Imam Hassan (peace be upon him), describes women as "qawarir," meaning they are like glass and break easily. These references to the seemingly delicate and fragile exterior of the qārūreh, simultaneously imply its unique capability to hold and transmit light. Through this simile, Rumi wishes to convey that the capacity to receive divine light is not dependent on outward grandeur or material hardness, but rather on inner subtlety and spiritual perfection — a subtlety that makes it transparent and receptive like glass for light, or a river for water. Thus, the power of "abdan-i rijal" lies in their ability, like those delicate glass vessels, to contain and transmit the Light of Truth without alteration, and this is the pinnacle of human perfection.

Key takeaways

• Bearing the infinite Divine Light is the distinguishing characteristic of "abdan-i rijal" (men of God).
• The capacity to receive the Truth depends not on outward grandeur, but on inner perfection and subtlety.
• Rumi elucidates the paradox of power and delicacy using the simile of "qārūreh" (glass vial): what shattered Mount Tur can be contained within a more delicate being.
• The reference to "qārūreh" in the Quran and Hadith opens deeper layers of meaning regarding hidden capacities within what appears fragile.