M2:1532 — از محبت مرده زنده می‌کنند / از محبت شاه بنده می‌کنند

This verse is the climax of a short passage on the transformative power of love (muḥabbat). Rumi has just explained how love turns bitterness into sweetness (like Luqman eating the bitter melon), copper into gold, and pain into medicine. Here, he presents its ultimate miracles: it can perform the divine act of resurrection and invert the most rigid of social hierarchies, making a sovereign willingly become a servant to the beloved.

The first hemistich, "they bring the dead to life," evokes the power of prophets like Jesus, whose miracles were seen as a manifestation of divine love. In a Sufi context, it also refers to the spiritual master who revives the "dead" heart of a disciple, bringing it to true, spiritual life.

The second hemistich, "they make a king a slave," captures the voluntary submission that love inspires. The most powerful individual, a king, will humble himself completely out of love. This reflects the core Sufi attitude toward God: the seeker, who may be a king in worldly terms, becomes a devoted slave (bandeh) at the divine threshold. Love, therefore, is not just an emotion but the fundamental force that reorders reality, bringing life from death and joyful servitude from absolute power.