M6:423 — تا تو عالم باشی و عادل قضا / نامناسب چون دهد داد و سزا

Translation: As long as You [O God] are Knowing, and Your Decree is Just, How can it render an unfitting reward and punishment? Meaning: This verse rhetorically questions how an All-Knowing and Just God could ever issue inappropriate or unfair retribution. Rumi here emphasizes divine knowledge and justice, asserting that the consequences of actions are inherently tied to those actions.

This verse, situated in the sixth book of the Masnavi, carries profound significance, especially as Rumi, in the later years of his life, heavily leans towards emphasizing free will, presenting a decisive argument for human volition. My interpretation is that Rumi here aims to establish the concept of the “intrinsic retribution of deeds.” That is, the punishment or reward for our actions is not a contractual or external matter but a truth that emanates from the very heart of the act itself; it is an effect inseparable from its cause.

Rumi’s rhetorical question simultaneously addresses God’s All-Knowingness (ʿālim) and the Justice of Divine Decree (qazāʾ). If God is the Absolute Knower and His decree is the embodiment of justice, how could an unfitting or unjust reward or punishment ever issue from Him? This itself serves as proof that whatever befalls us is a product of divine knowledge and justice, entirely commensurate with our deeds.

A crucial point that Rumi introduces just before this verse, to which it is inextricably linked, is that “actions are given form in the Unseen” (feʿl rā dar ghayb ṣūrat mīkunand). This means that every action we perform takes on a specific form in the realm of the Unseen, and this very form inherently contains its punishment or reward. In other words, the link between an action and its retribution is not merely contractual but a real, intrinsic connection stemming from divine hidden knowledge. The All-Knowing God, who knows the Unseen, implants this image and plan into the heart of the shāhneh (the human ruler or judge). Thus, when a human judge decrees hanging for robbery, this judgment is not merely a human convention; rather, it is a divine inspiration that links the unseen form of the act of robbery to its appropriate punishment.

If human rulers, through divine inspiration and insight, can make such just judgments, then “how will the judgment of the most just of these judges be?” (chun kunad ḥukm aḥkam-i in ḥākimīn?) This implies that God Himself, who is the “most just of judges” (aḥkam al-ḥākimīn), and whose knowledge and justice are boundless, could never issue an unjust decree. It is here that Rumi teaches us that the sufferings that befall us must be recognized as the product of our own “ill-doing” (bad kardanī), not “fate” (bakht). “Recognize ill from your own deed, not from fate” (bad ze feʿl-e khwod shenās az bakht nay). This verse emphatically prevents us from attributing our sufferings to blind destiny or bad luck and stresses our full responsibility for our actions. This is a message for us to accuse ourselves and reconcile with divine justice, for everything that comes from Him is justice itself.

Key takeaways

• Divine Justice and Knowledge guarantee the appropriateness of reward and punishment for actions.
• Retribution is not a contractual matter; it's an intrinsic consequence stemming from the deed itself.
• Actions are 'imaged' in the unseen, containing their own inherent reward or punishment.
• Just human judgments are divine inspirations reflecting God's ultimate knowledge and justice.
• Humans bear full responsibility for their actions; suffering should be attributed to one's deeds, not fate.