M6:1105 — می‌شکنجد حور دستش می‌کشد / کور حیران کز چه دردم می‌کند

Translation: The houri caresses and pulls his hand, / The blind one wonders: "What pain does she inflict upon me?" Meaning: This verse portrays an individual so heedless of truth that they mistake the caresses and affection of the Eternal Beloved for suffering, preferring their spiritual slumber over awakening.

This verse paints a vivid, yet profoundly sorrowful, picture of the depth of human heedlessness. Prior to this, Rumi speaks of the bashir (bearer of good tidings) who whispers into the ears of the sad, urging them to awaken and seize their fortune. Yet, we know how spiritual deafness and blindness can render one insensible to the world's truths and the call to guidance. How can one hear whispers if the thunder of a hundred drums goes unnoticed?

Rumi here depicts an even more tragic state. Mi-shekanjad ḥoor dastash mi-kashad – here, shekanjidan does not carry its usual connotation of torment. In Rumi's idiom and context, shekanjidan means to caress, to flirt, to draw with tenderness. The ḥoor – a symbol of divine beauty and affection – approaches this heedless human with utmost grace and gentleness, caressing his hand, pulling him gently, eager to awaken him from his deep slumber.

But observe the reaction of this koor (blind one), who is utterly bewildered: Koor heyran kaz che dardam mi-konad? He not only fails to perceive this caress for what it is but mistakes it for a source of pain and torment. The divine grace and beauty, intended to awaken and call him, transforms into suffering and torture in his distorted and sick perception. He grasps neither who is doing what to him, nor why, because his perceptive eye is fundamentally shut. Thus, he laments: "What is this struggle on my hand and body? I am asleep, let me sleep." It is as if he tells the Eternal Beloved: "Leave me be, let me sink back into my heedlessness, do not disturb my sleep!"

This narrative illustrates how the hardships and trials visited upon God's chosen ones are often a form of divine lāgh (playful teasing or flirtation) to sharpen their awareness. Yet, the same lāgh, when directed at the heedless and blind ones, can manifest as pain intended tā gharīb az kooy-e koorān bar-jahad (so the stranger may leap out of the village of the blind). This verse is a prime example of profound spiritual insensitivity, a state where the human being is not only deprived of grace but interprets grace itself as pain. It is akin to a deep sleep where even the most beautiful calls and sweetest touches are experienced as an unpleasant nightmare.

Key takeaways

• Spiritual ignorance causes one to mistake divine grace and affection for pain and affliction.
• Profound heedlessness plunges an individual into a sleep where spiritual awakening is unwelcome.
• The ḥoor in this context symbolizes the manifestations of divine beauty and grace reaching out to the heedless human.
• The perceived pain or suffering often stems from our own insensitivity and misinterpretation of reality, rather than the intrinsic nature of events.
• Divine interactions, even playful ones (lāgh) with lovers, are often perceived as hardship and calamity by the unperceptive soul.