M6:1920 — که بود کان حس چشمش ز اعتبار / زان حجاب غیب هم یابد گذار

Translation: Oh, that his sense of sight, with such gained standing and merit, Might also find passage through that veil of the Unseen!

Meaning: After the seeker's inner ear has heard the hidden call and brought him joy, he ardently hopes that his sense of sight will also attain the spiritual capacity to pierce the veils of the Unseen and behold truth directly.

This verse reveals a profound yearning and an intrinsic law of spiritual journeying, a point I have consistently emphasized. Here, Mowlana speaks through the voice of a seeker who, having undergone a marvelous inner, spiritual experience, is now seized by a new longing. This seeker, as Mowlana puts it, has traversed "six hundred veils" and his "ear heard a reply from the Divine Presence," meaning he has heard the call of the Beloved and received a response from the Unseen realm, leaving him joyous and enraptured.

I understand this spiritual elation and expansion to be the fruit of certainty; a certainty that the seeker is no longer speaking to an inert wall, a dead nature, or an indifferent world. He realizes he is in communication with a living God and a conscious universe, and this is the supreme joy. It is in this state that a new hope blossoms within his heart: the hope that his eye, too, might gain the e'tebār – the merit, standing, or spiritual credibility – to find a passage through those same veils of the Unseen. He wishes to see what he has heard, to perceive and feel it.

Mowlana beautifully articulates this principle elsewhere, stating: "When one of the senses breaks its bond / The others will follow in sequence, one after another." This means that once one of our inner faculties achieves a breakthrough and opens a path to the Unseen, the other senses naturally follow, pursuing that opening. This is akin to a flock of sheep, where if one jumps over a stream, the rest will follow. Thus, the seeker's hope is not in vain but stems from an inherent spiritual law. If the ear hears the inaudible calls, the eye will behold the invisible vistas, and the heart will consequently be drawn to the higher realm, establishing a continuous and enduring communication of divine "seeing and address" (dīd va kheṭāb).

This is a crucially important point: if one's ear is lent to falsehood and ugliness, their eye will also pursue falsehood and ugliness, and their heart will likewise become darkened on this path. However, if an ear is opened to the voice of Truth, the other portals of the senses also open towards light. This path of sensory opening towards the world of meaning is a gateway to a more complete understanding and unmediated spiritual vision of reality. This journey is not passive; rather, it is an active unfolding that necessitates the e'tebār and worthiness that the spirit must itself acquire.

Key takeaways

• The opening of one inner sense (e.g., hearing) paves the way for the opening of other senses (e.g., sight).
• The seeker's joy upon hearing a divine response ignites a profound hope for directly beholding the truth.
• Spiritual progress is an active and dynamic path, requiring the acquisition of inner "standing" or merit to perceive unseen realities.