M2:2272 — گفت گر کودک در آید یا زنی / کو ندارد عقل و رای روشنی

This couplet is part of a larger discussion about the importance of consultation (mashvarat) and the dangers of listening to one's lower self (nafs). Rumi explains that prophets always advised consultation to avoid regret. The community then asks a crucial question: what if the only person available for consultation is someone deemed to lack 'bright intellect and clear insight,' using the examples of a child or a woman? This reflects a common societal perception of the time, where the wisdom of certain groups was often underestimated. Rumi is not endorsing this view as an absolute truth about women or children, but rather using it as a rhetorical device to set up the prophets' surprising and counter-intuitive answer in the following couplet: to do the opposite of what such a person advises. This seemingly dismissive advice is a metaphor for how one should treat the counsel of their own nafs – the lower, egoic self – which Rumi equates to being 'worse than a woman' (M2:2274) because it is the 'totality of evil.' The wisdom here is not about gender or age, but about discerning unreliable advice, particularly from within oneself.