M6:358 — دزد آمد آن زمان پیشش نشست / چون گرفت آن سوخته می‌کرد پست

Translation: The thief came and sat before him then, / As soon as the wick caught fire, he extinguished it. Meaning: This verse recounts a tale where, in the dead of night, a thief enters a man's house. The man tries to ignite a flame using a flint and a wick, but the thief, unseen in the darkness, repeatedly puts out the nascent fire as soon as it takes hold, leaving the man bewildered as to why his efforts fail.

Mowlana, in these verses, presents a profound and revealing allegory of the human inner state. It tells the tale of a man who, in the darkness of night, seeks to ignite a light to find a hidden thief. Yet, each time a spark leaps from the flint (ātash-zaneh) and illuminates the wick (sūkhte), an unseen thief in the same darkness extinguishes it (post mī-kard), leaving the man unaware of the true cause of his repeated failures.

I interpret this as nothing less than the story of our own selves. Mowlana asserts that human beings are filled with bīgānegān (strangers, aliens) within their own existence. This hidden thief is, in reality, our khud-e ālūdeh (the polluted self); that aspect of our being which is in conflict with our authentic, pure self. We often imagine we despise ourselves or are at war with ourselves, when the truth is that we dislike these bīgānegān within us. However, they wear such perfect masks of our own identity that we fail to recognize them. This phenomenon is what Western philosophers refer to as alienation (self-estrangement), yet Mowlana articulates it with greater precision: khud rā ‘avazī gereftan – to mistake oneself for another. It is to perceive ourselves as something we are not, much like viewing the physical body (tan-e khākī) as the entirety of our being, rather than merely a part.

Whenever a spark of spirituality, a longing for goodness, or a resolve to abandon wrongdoing arises within our hearts, this internal thief immediately springs into action and extinguishes it. We then assume that our wick is damp – meaning the fault lies with us, unaware that an opposing inner force, counter to our conscious will, has intervened. This weakness of resolve is precisely what Mowlana observes in the story of Adam (peace be upon him), who lam najid lahu ‘azmā (we found no resolve in him). The absence of tukhm-e ṣidq (the seed of sincerity) and pure intention paves the way for nisyān (forgetfulness) and a weakening of resolve.

Mowlana emphasizes that to keep the inner lamp lit, one must first expel this thief from the abode of the soul. This expulsion of the stranger is the difficult process of pīrāyish va pardāzish (purification and refinement) of the self, achieved through ‘āshiqī (love) and the renunciation of ārzū (desires). Desires are the very traps upon which the inner thief feeds. Until this hidden thief is banished, the situation remains the same: a hundred sparks and a hundred extinctions. The heart's lamp cannot remain lit and stable except by the negation of the ego and the abandonment of desires, for worldly desires are the sustenance of this thief. As long as they exist, there will be no room for illumination and the opening of the heart. This approach, in its profound depth, resonates strongly with Buddhist philosophy, which views the relinquishment of desires as the path to salvation.

Key takeaways

• The internal thief is a metaphor for the polluted self or stranger within, hindering the heart's spiritual illumination.
• Divine sparks or virtuous resolutions are extinguished by this internal thief, representing the impure part of one's being.
• A weakness of resolve (‘azm) and absence of sincerity (tukhm-e ṣidq), like Adam's weakness, enables the inner thief's activity.
• Alienation means mistaking one's true self for these strangers (e.g., the physical body) and failing to recognize one's authentic identity.
• Expelling this thief and lighting the heart's lamp requires self-purification and the renunciation of desires (ārzū), which feed this inner antagonist.