M6:3694 — این تسفسط نیست تقلیب خداست / می‌نماید که حقیقت‌ها کجاست

Translation: This is not sophistry, but God's inversion of truth; it thereby reveals where truths lie (or: how truths become crooked). Meaning: This verse posits that at times, truth appears inverted or distorted in our perception. This is not due to the non-existence of objective truth (sophistry), but is rather an act of God, intended to demonstrate His ultimate sovereignty and the surprising mutability of perceived realities.

Here, Rumi addresses a fundamental question of epistemology and ontology: the problem of certainty and determinism versus free will and the unpredictability of the cosmos. The discussion starts from our human habit of assuming that everything in nature proceeds according to a fixed chain of causality and continuity. Kant, too, suggested that we impose this continuity upon nature. However, Rumi goes further, positing that this continuum and causality have a 'Rider.' This world is not self-sufficient.

I have often emphasized in my lectures that Rumi not only rejects historical determinism but fundamentally repudiates any form of determinism or absolute certainty in the world. He offers numerous examples: an arrow shot to the right that flies left; intending to hunt a gazelle but catching a pig; striving for profit only to end up in jail; digging a pit for others and falling into it oneself. These all demonstrate that our plans do not always come to fruition, and our aims can go awry. These are signs of the 'Lord's thwarting' (bī-murādī-ye Rabb), which should compel us to re-examine our failures and avoid 'ill-suspicion of the means.'

Rumi explicitly states that one should not rely on asbāb (causes or means) with absolute certainty. Relying on means is necessary, but it should not be done dalīlāna — with absolute conviction or unwavering proof. This 'prudence and caution' (ḥazm o ḥadhar) and this circumspect view are the essence of the 'exception' (istasnā). Why? Because God, or destiny, sometimes 'shows a donkey as a goat' (khar rā boz namāyad); that is, He inverts reality. It is here that Rumi speaks of 'God's inversion' (taqlīb-e Khudā). He likens this inverted phenomenology to aḥvali (squint, crooked vision), from which even a gorbaz (shrewd and clever) person is not exempt. This inversion is an act of God that transforms our 'perceptions and thoughts' (abṣār va afkār).

The Greek Sophists believed that there was no objective truth, and that everything was merely a construct of our minds and language; they were skilled lawyers who could acquit or condemn any accused person. But Rumi definitively rejects this view. He says: 'This is not sophistry, it is God's inversion.' In other words, the apparent crookedness or inversion of truths is not due to sophistry or human denial of truth, but rather an act of God, who sometimes presents truths to us in a different guise. This taqlīb is purposeful: 'it thereby reveals where truths lie.' These inversions and exceptions are meant to awaken us, to make us understand that the reins of affairs are in the hands of a more dominant force. As stated in Nahj al-Balagha: 'I knew God through the annulment of resolves and the breaking of wills.' These 'gaps' in the world are windows into God's seemingly absent, yet ever-present, will.

Ultimately, Rumi also admonishes the Sophists. He states: 'He who denies realities, he is entirely weaving upon a fancy.' That is, the very denial of reality is nothing but a fancy. One who claims that 'truths are nothing but fancy' must also accept that 'this very fancy of yours might also be a fancy'—otherwise, 'rub your eye' and see that you cannot evade acknowledging truth. This is a Cartesian point: one cannot doubt the act of doubting itself. Thus, there is a reality, but that absolute and dominant reality is in the grasp of God, and He is the one who occasionally inverts truths for us to awaken us from heedlessness and free us from the illusion of control over the world. This scientific and practical humility before the cosmos is always present in the Masnavi.

Key takeaways

• The inherent uncertainty in the world is neither a flaw nor sophistry; rather, it is a manifestation of Divine Will.
• The world's occasional defiance of our plans signals the presence of a dominant power holding the reins of affairs.
• This 'divine inversion' liberates us from the illusion of determinism and absolute control over the future.
• Every unconventional event serves as a jolt to awaken us to the hidden hands behind the veil of apparent causes.
• Rumi, unlike the Sophists, does not deny the existence of truth but acknowledges its complexity and hidden nature.