M6:580 — ور ندیدی چون چنین شیدا شدی / خاک بودی طالب احیا شدی

Translation: Had you not seen (His manifestation), how would you have become so passionately enamored? You were dust, (how then) did you become a seeker of revival and life? Meaning: This verse asserts that the passion and quest for life inherent in all beings are signs of the Beloved's eternal manifestation; without this manifestation, no desire for existence or fervor of love would arise even in dust.

Mowlana, in this verse, performs an istidrāk, an elaboration or correction, drawing out an unstated implication from his preceding words. He suggests that the manifestation of the Beloved's face and the vision of His essence are not exclusive to great saints and mystics. No, he says, you have all witnessed this divine manifestation; this very yearning and quest for life that has taken root in our existence is proof enough. This phrase, "how would you have become so passionately enamored" (chūn chunīn sheydā shodī), points to the very process of intense, evolutionary ascent that later philosophers like Mulla Sadra would articulate in detail. God is not merely the Mabda' al-Mabādi—the Origin of all origins—but also the Ghāyat al-Ghāyāt—the ultimate Goal and destiny of every being. Deep within nature and the cosmos, a hidden movement is ceaselessly at play, drawing all creatures, like a seed striving to sprout and bear fruit, towards Him. Mowlana names this primordial pull 'Love' (ʿishq). "You were dust, you became a seeker of revival" (khāk būdī, tālib-i iḥyā shodī) illustrates that even inert dust, by virtue of this cosmic love, yearns for life and vivification. This is a universal, inherent seeking that permeates all existence. This verse, in essence, speaks to the fiṭrat—the innate disposition—of humanity. If you had not received spiritual sustenance, if, as Mowlana puts it, "fodder" had not been placed before you from that "placeless realm" (bī-sū)—that dimension which has no direction or location—then why would the "eye of your soul" (chashm-i jānat) constantly turn towards it? This innate inclination towards God, this divine recognition, seems intrinsically woven into the human fabric. If left undisturbed by demonic whispers, humans would instinctively gravitate towards the Divine. This is the same meaning Mowlana clarifies elsewhere with the analogies of the cat by the food-hole or the prisoner at the dungeon door: the cat remains fixed by the hole because it has received sustenance from there. Prisoners gaze perpetually at the door of freedom, for they know salvation lies through it. Likewise, humanity is instinctively drawn to the Hand that has nourished it and granted liberation. The fact that we spontaneously raise our hands to the sky, that we confide in God in solitude, is because we came from Him. There was a time when we were with Him, companions in the realm of the unseen, beyond the confines of nature. Now we have descended and find ourselves in exile (ghurbat), but we have not forgotten our true homeland (vaṭan-i aṣlī) and perpetually long to return.

Key takeaways

• Love and the quest for life in all beings are signs of the Beloved's eternal manifestation.
• The passion and yearning for existence, even in dust, have a divine origin.
• The inclination towards God is an unconscious, innate disposition within humanity.
• The vision of the Beloved's face is not exclusive to great mystics but is present in the experience of every being.
• The inner pull towards the Origin testifies to our sustenance from that 'placeless' source.
• Our innate disposition remembers and yearns for its source of liberation and life.