M6:3333 — نیم لحظه مدرکاتم شام و غدو / هیچ خالی نیست زین اثبات و محو

Translation: For half a moment, morning and evening, my perceptions Are never empty of this affirmation and effacement. Meaning: This verse conveys that our inner states and experiences are, at every fleeting moment, continuously subject to divine changes and transformations, as if constantly affirmed and effaced by a higher will.

This verse presents a profound and revelatory image of the human soul's mutable and fluid nature, serving as a complement to a point Rumi made earlier in the story of the debtor and the deceased market inspector: “You, esteemed one, have gone towards God / So I, too, shall go towards the Truth.” It is when humans turn away from reliance on creatures and directly face the Creator’s threshold that their eyes open to truths previously veiled. Here, one realizes that we, like paintings in the hands of the Eternal Painter, are constantly being drawn and effaced. “Whether conscious or unconscious, all forms / Are evanescent in the Painter’s hand.”

Rumi explicitly refers in this verse to the noble Quranic verse: “God erases what He wills and establishes what He wills, and with Him is the Mother of the Book” (Ar-Ra'd: 39). This is an allegory for God’s absolute power and will, and Rumi masterfully brings this cosmic principle into the core of human existence. The human spirit and soul are themselves a tablet of divine affirmation and effacement; a ledger upon which something is constantly written and then erased.

Our inner states, our “perceptions” (mudarrakāt), are at every moment caught in this struggle of affirmation and effacement. Do we possess absolute free will? No. Observe the changes in our states: “Anger He brings, and contentment He takes away / Stinginess He brings, and generosity He takes away.” Perhaps one moment we are in the peak of spiritual expansion and joy, overflowing with love and ready to soar, and the next moment in utter contraction and constriction, unable to bear even ourselves. These are not by our choice. If they were, we would always choose happiness. These are storms that blow, carrying us this way and that.

God’s subtle and hidden manipulations of our states are constantly in motion. Rumi cites the example of the Companions of the Cave, whom God turned over in the cave so their bodies would not decay. Precisely this turning over and rotation in the hand of Truth is true for our states as well. He turns us north and south, left and right. If we are vigilant and aware, and if the “dust” of desires, worldly aims, and egoistic intentions has settled, we can perceive these “subtleties and intricacies of God’s craftsmanship” within ourselves, and understand the consequence of every state that befalls us.

“Do you not see that wherever dust rises / The eye, though keen, cannot behold?” If dust rises, even a keen eye cannot find its way. Similarly, our desires and passions are veils over truth. If this veil is lifted, we will better see the Actor on the stage. Rumi, by presenting the examples of the potter and the pot, the carpenter and the wood, the tailor and the garment, the water-carrier and the waterskin, makes it evident that objects have no will of their own to form or to be filled and emptied; rather, all are “in the hand of His making.” We too are like that waterskin: “Every moment you are filled, you are emptied / So know that you are in the hand of His making.” This is the Tawhid al-Af’ali (Unity of Actions) that attributes all actions to God, leading humanity towards self-knowledge and recognition of absolute power.

Key takeaways

• The human soul is a divine tablet of “affirmation and effacement,” with its states constantly undergoing transformation.
• Changes in our inner states (e.g., anger vs. contentment, stinginess vs. generosity) often transcend our will, indicating subtle divine orchestrations.
• This verse references the Quranic verse “God erases what He wills and establishes what He wills” (Ar-Ra'd: 39), pointing to God’s absolute will.
• If we are vigilant and aware, and the dust of desires has settled, we can perceive the “subtleties of God’s craftsmanship” within ourselves.
• Humans, like a pot in the potter's hand or a waterskin in the water-carrier's, are continuously shaped, filled, and emptied by divine will.
• This insight leads to Tawhid al-Af’ali (Unity of Actions) and the submission of affairs to divine providence.