M2:143 — مر مرا آموز تا احسان کنم / استخوانها را بدان با جان کنم

This couplet captures a pivotal moment of spiritual arrogance disguised as pious desire. A foolish man, traveling with Jesus, sees a pile of bones and becomes fixated on the miracle of resurrection he has heard about. He asks Jesus to teach him the secret — the divine name (ism-i aʿẓam) — that accomplishes this.

The man frames his request as a desire to do good (iḥsān), to perform a kindness by restoring life. This is a classic Rumi scenario illustrating a profound spiritual error: the desire to possess the form of a miracle without having the inner state required to wield it. The man sees the power as a technique to be learned, like a craft, rather than as an expression of a soul's purity and connection to God. He wants the tool, but has not done the work on himself to become the hand worthy of holding it.

Jesus's subsequent refusal (M2:144 ff.) clarifies Rumi's point. Such power isn't a transfer of information but the result of a lifetime of purification. The man's request is not just foolish but dangerous, revealing that he is more interested in the spectacle of power than in the arduous path of self-transformation that makes such grace possible. He wants to fix the dead outside himself while ignoring the "deadness" within his own soul.