M6:734 — عکس خود در صورت من دیده‌ای / در قتال خویش بر جوشیده‌ای

This couplet is part of a larger argument about spiritual self-annihilation, summed up in the Prophetic saying, "Die before you die." Rumi, speaking as the spiritual guide, addresses a disciple or antagonist who is resisting him. He explains that this resistance is a form of projection: the person sees their own despised ego—their own manī (I-ness)—reflected in the guide and attacks it, believing the guide to be the source of their agitation.

The guide acts as a pure mirror. Whatever the disciple sees in him, whether love or hatred, is a reflection of their own inner state. The anger and aggression directed outward is, in reality, a misguided internal war. Rumi immediately follows this verse with the famous story of the lion and the rabbit from Book 1, where a lion, seeing its own fearsome reflection in a well, attacks it and drowns. The point is that the true enemy is one's own unexamined self, and attacking its external reflection is a futile and self-destructive act.