M6:956 — جغدها بر باز استم می‌کنند / پر و بالش بی‌گناهی می‌کنند

Translation: Owls oppress the hawk; they make its innocence a crime. Meaning: This verse illustrates how ignorant, worldly individuals persecute mystics and seekers of truth, considering their purity and inner rectitude to be an offense.

In the Masnavi, Rumi consistently employs the metaphor of the owl (joghd) and the hawk (bāz) to illuminate the inherent conflict between the worldly and the seekers of truth. It is clear to me that the 'hawk' symbolizes God's saints, prophets, or any soul intimately connected to the higher realm and the true King; a noble, royal bird that rests on the sovereign's arm. In contrast, the 'owl,' traditionally an ill-omened inhabitant of ruins in our culture, represents those steeped in worldliness, oblivious to the profound truths of existence, content in their spiritual desolation, even mistaking their 'ruin' for a palace or garden.

This verse encapsulates Rumi's core message: What is the hawk's crime? Its crime is its 'innocence' (bi-gonāhī); indeed, its sole offense is simply 'being a hawk.' It is this noble nature and inherent purity that enrages the owls and leads them to oppression. This echoes Rumi's sentiment elsewhere: 'What then was Joseph's crime but goodness?' Joseph the Righteous had no crime but his beauty and purity, which incited his brothers' envy and cruelty.

The owls, having found a false peace in their 'ruin,' resist any disruption to this tranquility. When the hawk speaks of the King's palace, of the garden and rose-bower of absolute Being, the owls' world shatters. They cannot tolerate reminders of the other world; such remembrance causes 'anxiety' (tashvīsh) and disturbs their 'peace of mind.' This perfectly mirrors the situation Rumi describes in the story of the prophets and the 'people of Saba': that قوم declared to the prophets, 'We have grown fat on idleness and play,' and by reminding us of death and the afterlife, you have made us 'birds of death-thought,' embittering our lives. They prefer to remain in their heedlessness and pleasure, refusing to acknowledge any deeper truth.

Another crucial point is that the owls not only fail to comprehend the message of truth but perceive it as a 'trick' (shēd) or 'ploy' to gain power. They accuse the hawk of concocting this 'illusion and folly' (wahm va sodā) in people's hearts to become their 'king and leader,' lamenting, 'Our dwelling, which was the envy of the ether, you call a ruin and a despised name!' This manner of treating the divine elite is timeless; they are perpetually accused of seeking prestige and power under the guise of religion and truth, whereas their true 'crime' is nothing but their innocence and their insistence on recalling the noble origin and ultimate destination. Rumi, rather than merely lamenting these oppressions, profoundly analyzes the psychological and ontological roots and motivations behind this resistance to truth; an analysis that does not complain about the crookedness of the world, but delves into the nature of 'separation' (jodāʾī) and its consequences within the human soul.

Key takeaways

• The ruin-dwelling owls symbolize ignorant, worldly individuals content with their current state of spiritual desolation.
• The royal hawk represents saints, spiritual guides, and those who remember the higher realms.
• The true 'crime' of the enlightened is solely their innocence, inner purity, and truth-seeking, which disturbs the heedless.
• Reminders of the other world and higher truths disrupt the false tranquility of the worldly, inciting their anger.
• The inhabitants of the 'ruin' perceive the message of truth not as guidance, but as a ploy for power and leadership by the messengers.
• Rumi, instead of lamenting oppression, profoundly analyzes the internal nature of human resistance to truth.