M6:3901 — ای زبان که جمله را ناصح بدی / نوبت تو گشت از چه تن زدی

Translation: O Tongue, who were the advisor to all, it became your turn; why did you fall silent? Meaning: This verse is a stern warning to scholars and preachers who are eloquent in advising others but become silent and ineffective when it comes to applying their own counsel to themselves.

This verse epitomizes one of Mawlana's most potent rebukes: the scholar or preacher who possesses knowledge but lacks practice. I have often emphasized in my lectures that the plight of the 'unpracticed scholar' is a central concern in the Masnavi. This is the individual who, like a physician to others, remains without a cure for their own ailments. Centuries ago, Mawlana diagnosed the affliction of 'preaching without practicing,' depicting it with a direct and often stern tone.

I interpret this verse as follows: O Tongue! O power of speech and expression! You were always ready to advise, counsel, and guide others. Whenever someone was mired in a problem, you would find a solution and untie their knot. But now that 'your turn has come' (نوبت تو گشت), meaning you yourself face a challenge, or the moment has arrived to apply these very counsels to yourself and don them as your own garment, 'why did you fall silent?' (از چه تن زدی؟) This 'falling silent' (tan zadan) refers to the silence and inability to act upon what one teaches others. It is as if the tongue, the instrument of expression and wisdom, falters before its own master.

Mawlana expands on this concept in subsequent verses: 'O intellect, where is your sweet-chewing advice? It's your turn now, what happened to your clamor?' (M6:3902). That is to say, O intellect, which offered sweet and pleasing counsel to others, now that it is your turn, why has your clamor and problem-solving vanished? Or, 'O one who took a hundred worries from hearts, it's your turn, shake your beard' (M6:3903). This alludes to the tale of Sultan Mahmud and the thieves, which you all know, where 'shaking the beard' (junbāndan-e rish) symbolizes employing one's true skill and ingenuity in a moment of necessity. Mawlana asks this unpracticed preacher: If you resolved hundreds of worries for others, why do you not 'shake your beard' for yourself and devise a plan?

This address is not confined to religious preachers; it encompasses philosophers, jurists, and anyone who has spent a lifetime in 'weaving' (bāfandegi). As my esteemed friend, the late Dr. Seyyed Jafar Shahidi, used to term many philosophical and mystical achievements as 'weaving'—the construction of a dazzling world of words that is, in essence, hollow. Mawlana beautifully expresses this same notion in another verse: 'What you wove for fifty years with awareness, wear a wide garment from that fabric' (M6:3909). If you have woven and spun for a lifetime, now weave a garment from it and wear it so we may see how it fits you. What has been the result of all this knowledge and discourse for your own self?

The essence of all knowledge lies in self-knowledge, and if one advises everyone else but loses their own way, they are utterly lost. This verse is an invitation to self-reflection and to practice what we know, before anyone else.

Key takeaways

• Mawlana's critique of hypocritical advisors who are eloquent for others but silent for themselves.
• The imperative to apply one's own wisdom and knowledge to oneself, especially in times of need ('it became your turn').
• A criticism of fruitless academic and mystical 'weavings' that yield no personal spiritual refinement.
• Emphasis on self-knowledge as the core of all learning, highlighting the necessity of practicing what one knows.
• The tongue and intellect, as instruments of counsel, must first be effective for their own possessor.