M6:2184 — او خود از لب خرد معزول بود / شد ز حس محروم و معزول از وجود

Translation: He himself was dismissed from the lip of intellect (khirad); He became deprived of sense and dismissed from existence (vujud). Meaning: One who is consumed by mere conjecture eventually denies the very faculty of reason, then loses touch with sensory experience, and ultimately dismisses the reality of existence itself.

This couplet unveils a perilous intellectual trajectory that Mawlana, with his profound insight, meticulously depicts. I contend that these verses are deeply connected to Mawlana's invitation for "deep contemplation" (imʿān-e naẓar). He has previously told us that many humans possess "sight" (naẓar) but lack "deep contemplation"; that is, they do not hold a profound and penetrating gaze upon existence. This beyt precisely illustrates the ultimate fate of one who fails in this deep contemplation and becomes ensnared in intellectual stagnation.

Mawlana here guides us towards understanding sophistry (sophistā'ī-garī). A sophist is someone who, having become excessively immersed in "imagination, conjecture, and fantasy" (khayāl va gumān va khayāl-bāfī), gradually grows "suspicious" (bad-gumān) of all truth. This individual first doubts the "existence of intellect" and finds themselves "dismissed from the lip of intellect" (maʿzūl az lab-e khirad). This means they cast aside or entirely deny the capacity for rational and argumentative thought. This is the very starting point of their descent.

Once intellect is discarded, it is natural that the individual becomes "deprived of sense" (maḥrūm az ḥiss). When one is no longer bound by rational frameworks, their connection to sensory perceptions and tangible experiences is also severed. They no longer trust sensory realities, for the bridge that connected sense to understanding – intellect – has been demolished. At this stage, the individual becomes trapped in a purely subjective world that bears no relation to external reality.

And the culmination of this path is being "dismissed from existence" (maʿzūl az vujūd). Mawlana beautifully articulates this outcome: one who initially doubted the existence of intellect and then became deprived of sense, subsequently doubts "the existence of everything" (vujūd-e hame chīz) and ultimately denies the entire cosmos. This is the anti-realism promoted by the Sophists in ancient Greece, which resurfaces in various forms today. Sophists were those who "made right wrong, and wrong right"; and Mawlana delicately traces this destructive progression to its end, seeing its consequence in the denial of "existence." This is a serious warning from Mawlana to all of us: if we do not allow the "fountain of the soul" (cheshme-ye jān) to flow and instead remain in the stagnation of fantasy, we too will transform into such "suspicious sophists."

Key takeaways

• Immersion in imagination and conjecture gradually severs one's connection to intellect, sense, and ultimately existence itself.
• Sophistry is the result of intellectual stagnation and an unwillingness to engage in "deep contemplation" (imʿān-e naẓar).
• This couplet illustrates that the denial of intellect is the beginning of denying sense, followed by the denial of existence.
• Mawlana depicts the danger of denying reality as intertwined with the loss of fundamental capacities for understanding and perception.