M6:1783 — تو بر آن رنگی که اول زاده‌ای / یک قدم زان پیش‌تر ننهاده‌ای

Translation: You remain in the hue you were first born with; You have not stepped one pace beyond that.

Meaning: Rumi here reprimands an individual who, despite the passage of time, has made no spiritual progress or inner transformation, remaining in their initial, raw state.

This verse, without any pretense, is a whip lashing at souls that stagnate in the desert of time. Rumi, that physician of souls, here speaks with an inner 'judge' that must occasionally cry out to a person: 'O dried-up meat! You have boiled much in this long epoch, yet you have not even become half-cooked!' What does this mean? It means you are like old, desiccated flesh that, no matter how much it boils in the cauldron of worldly events, remains raw. You are stuck in your initial crudeness.

This reproach of Rumi's is not solely directed at the old priest whose beard turned white but whose heart remained dark. This address is to every seeker who, on the path of spiritual journey, remains mired. The beard may whiten, but the ugly disposition (khoy-e zesht) persists; the hair may turn silvery, but the inner essence remains raw, unbaked dough. This verse is the pinnacle of Rumi's admonition to someone who has spent 'a lifetime in the furnace of Azar,' meaning a lifetime tested by the fires of events and examinations, yet remains 'dough.' Like that primordial dough from which, in mythological creation narratives, God fashioned the clay of Adam. That very 'khamertine' which never became bread.

The essence of Rumi's message here is that outward maturity and physical aging offer no guarantee of inner ripeness. The beard turns white, but the heart can remain 'like tar.' We go through experiences, but do we learn from them? Do we take lessons from 'night and day'? Or do we remain 'more naive than the unseeing'?

This verse is Rumi's call for perfectionism, but a realistic perfectionism. He does not say 'be everything,' but rather 'have taken a step forward.' Do not claim 'you can contain the whole world within yourself'; that is a wish, not an aspiration. The aspiration is to be better than you are; to become more colorful than the 'hue you were first born with.' Take one step, just one step, beyond. One who does not take even a single step forward is trapped by 'sowda-ye sarid,' enamored of worldly goods, enslaved by the 'Samiri's calf.' Like the people of Moses who wandered for forty years in the wilderness of Tih, but did not cast out the calf from their souls, and thus never reached their destination. This 'calf' represents any idol or attachment that hinders the movement and progress of the soul.

Thus, the lesson Rumi imparts from this verse is: your life passes, your beard turns white, but if your soul does not move, if it stagnates, and does not transcend the 'hue you were first born with,' then regret and sorrow are yours. This is a call for transformation, a cry against those who act with 'ox-like temperament' (gāv-tabʿī) and sell magnificent divine blessings for the love of a worldly calf. This is the 'purification of character' (taṭhir-e akhlāq) that the Masnavi promises; a purification achieved only through movement and liberation from the bonds of rawness and stagnation.

Key takeaways

• Spiritual stagnation, even with the passage of time, is strongly admonished by Rumi.
• Outward maturity (white beard) does not equate to inner ripeness; the heart can remain 'like tar.'
• Experiencing life's events ('furnace of events') without learning from them leads to crudeness and stagnation.
• Attachment to worldly possessions ('desire for tharid' or 'love of the calf') is the main impediment to spiritual movement and inner transformation.
• Rumi emphasizes taking 'one step' beyond one's initial state, rather than striving for unattainable absolute perfection.