M6:3151 — خلق زشتت اندرو رویت نمود / که ترا او صفحهٔ آیینه بود

Translation: Your ugly nature showed your face within him, For he was a mirror's page for you. Meaning: This verse teaches that the faults and shortcomings we perceive in others are often mere reflections of our own undesirable traits; in essence, others serve as mirrors confronting us with our true selves.

In the Masnavi, Rumi, drawing upon the fable of the lion and the rabbit, offers a profound lesson on projection. This particular verse, situated within that narrative context, explicitly states that many of our enmities and fault-finding tendencies toward others are rooted within ourselves. I firmly believe that Rumi here delivers a fundamental psychological admonition that we must heed with utmost care.

Just as the foolish lion in the tale saw his own reflection in the well and mistook it for another lion, viewing it as prey and attacking it, we too often battle with our own 'reflection' in others. Rumi's clear statement here is telling: “Your ugly nature showed your face within him, / For he was a mirror's page for you.” This means that what you perceive as ugliness and fault in another is, in reality, your own undesirable aspect, reflected in that person who serves as a mirror for you. The other person reveals that ugliness not due to their inherent badness, but by virtue of their mirror-like function.

This is an unparalleled lesson for self-knowledge and self-improvement. I have often emphasized in my lectures that “very often, the suffering you see, the fault you perceive in others, many things you see in others, are in fact yourself, and then you attribute them to others.” We humans have an instinctive tendency to claim good deeds for ourselves and to disclaim bad ones, resorting to projection. When a student gets a good grade, they say, “I earned it myself,” but when they get a bad grade, they say, “The teacher gave me a bad grade!” This cognitive distortion exists in all of us. Rumi, with this verse, prompts us to pause and turn the camera inward before blaming others.

So the main message is clear: if you harbor resentment towards someone or perceive a fault in them and reproach them for it, this enmity and sin might be a reflection of divine wrath manifesting in them, but another part of it is “of the same kind as your own wrongdoings.” The path to healing and rectification is to “wash away that habit from your own nature”; that is, instead of fighting with the image in the mirror, you should rectify the 'original' that resides within you. Ultimately, Rumi calls us to asl-bīnī (seeing the origin): “How long can a reflection endure in sight? / Practice seeing the origin, O you who gaze crookedly.” Instead of fixating on the shadow and reflection, one must turn to the origin and source; and in this instance, the source is ourselves.

Key takeaways

• The faults and shortcomings we perceive in others are often reflections of our own undesirable traits.
• Others function as mirrors for us, revealing our inner countenance.
• Projection hinders deep self-knowledge and personal accountability.
• Instead of blaming and opposing the 'reflection' in others, we must strive to correct our own 'original' self.
• This verse, drawn from the fable of the lion and the rabbit, is an invitation to 'asl-bīnī' (seeing the origin) and turning inward.