M6:1463 — یک نظر دو گز همی‌بیند ز راه / یک نظر دو کون دید و روی شاه

Translation: One gaze sees but two cubits from the road; Another gaze saw both realms and the face of the King.

Meaning: Mowlana contrasts a superficial, limited perception that grasps only the immediate and mundane, with a profound, spiritual vision that encompasses both the manifest and the hidden worlds, culminating in the apprehension of the Divine Reality.

Here, Mowlana engages with the profound concept of nazar — the gaze, vision, or contemplation, which is far beyond mere physical sight. As he asserts elsewhere, “We are all eye; the rest is but skin.” The very essence and truth of our being lie in this quality of our seeing, in this nazar. It is akin to what Western philosophers term ‘contemplation,’ a precise, penetrating, and meditative gaze into the cosmos and the depths of human existence.

The Qur'an, too, calls us to this deep looking: “Let man look to his food.” Here, ‘food’ is not merely material sustenance; we are enjoined to gaze into all our intellectual and spiritual nourishment. We must open our eyes and delve deep: Where does this food come from? What will it do to me? Is it lawful or unlawful? And beyond that, what do I intend to do with it? Am I merely to fatten the body or also the soul? The gaze must not halt at fleeting pleasure but must reach for lasting, spiritual benefits.

This beyt explicitly contrasts two types of nazar: one gaze “sees but two cubits from the road,” a severely limited and superficial vision that extends no further than one's nose. However, “another gaze saw both realms and the face of the King.” This is the penetrating, profound, and alchemical vision that encompasses both worlds (the temporal and the eternal, or the manifest and the hidden) and culminates in the apprehension of the ‘face of the King’ – the visage of absolute truth and divine beauty. These two forms of vision, Mowlana stresses, possess “countless differences.”

Mowlana teaches us to transform our stream-like eye into an ocean-eye. He advises: “Seek that kohl which mystics possess / So that this stream-like eye may become an ocean.” There is a collyrium with which this narrow, confined eye transforms into the boundless expanse of the sea; a gaze capable of encompassing the infinite. Sohrab Sepehri beautifully echoed this sentiment: “We are nothing, we are gaze.” The core of our being is our gaze. We must condense our entire existence into this act of seeing: “Cast your whole body into vision / Go into vision, go into vision, go into vision.”

However, the deeper and more pivotal point is the connection of this ocean-like nazar with the concept of niisti (non-being, emptiness). Immediately following this beyt, Mowlana elaborates on the “sea of non-being”: “Since you heard the explanation of the sea of non-being / Strive always to stand upon this sea.” Here, Mowlana presents a fundamental epistemological principle: “The origin of the workshop is that non-being / Which is emptiness, traceless, and void.” Wherever there is emptiness, tracelessness, and voidness, that is the primary workshop for manifestation. Just as a painter works on a blank canvas, and a farmer sows seeds in unplanted soil, “All masters, to manifest their work / Seek non-being and a place of brokenness.”

This niisti is not mere nothingness; rather, it is the state of being emptied of “biases and ailments, presuppositions and preconceptions, attachments and desires, whims and caprices.” It is why Mowlana explicitly urges: “You too, be that empty canvas.” In this void, this emptiness of the false self, God works. “The Master of masters, the Self-Sufficient (Samad), that is God / His workshop was non-being and nothingness.” The greater this niisti, the more active is God’s work and the divine workshop there. This is the effacement (muḥw) that Mowlana speaks of in the tale of the grammarian and the boatman: “Here know that effacement (muḥw) is needed, not grammar (naḥw).” We must be effaced for that true nazar to form, and for the ‘face of the King’ to manifest to us. Dervishes, for this very reason, surpass all others; for they move towards the station of niisti – non-being in the sense of detachment from the world, abandoning the false self, and forgetting all but God.

Key takeaways

• Our essence lies in the quality of our 'gaze' (nazar); this gaze must transform from superficiality to profundity.
• A shallow gaze perceives only immediate appearances, while a deep gaze apprehends all existence and the face of Divine Reality.
• Mowlana urges us to transform our 'stream-like eye' into an 'ocean-eye' to perceive the infinite.
• The pivotal concept of niisti (non-being, or emptying oneself of the false self, attachments, and preconceptions) is the prerequisite for true nazar and the divine workshop.
• Dervishes, by seeking the station of niisti, surpass all others, as this self-emptying is the condition for reaching God.