M6:3814 — خنده‌اش آمد مال داد آن پیر را / پیر تنها برد آن توفیر را

Translation: Laughter came to him, and he gave the wealth to that old man; The old man alone carried away that benefit (or surplus).

Meaning: The Chief Minister, confronted by the old man's audacity and sharp retort, was forced to laugh and grant him a gift. Only this old man, among all the petitioners, managed to secure any benefit from him.

This couplet marks the culmination of the confrontation between the powerful Chief Minister (Ṣadr-e Jahān) and the impoverished, yet audacious, old man. The Chief Minister, upon hearing the old man's fearless and biting retort — which accused him of greedy aspirations for both this world and the next — could no longer contain himself. Laughter erupted, a laughter that, in my estimation, was not born of joy but rather a mixture of pique and suppressed anger. It was an anger he had no choice but to mask. He had been outmaneuvered in public by a seemingly destitute old man and had received a poignant taunt. There was no alternative but to release himself from the old man's grip, conceding with a dismissive, "Here, take it and leave me in peace."

Mowlana explicitly states that "the old man alone carried away that tawfir." Tawfir here means 'benefit' or 'profit'; in Arabic, it also connotes 'to increase' or 'make abundant.' This signifies that only this old man, through his wit and daring — with that 'trickery or wisdom' (nairang or farhang) that Mowlana alludes to — was able to extract something from the Chief Minister. The others, despite standing as silent as walls, gained nothing. This old man symbolizes the spirit of freedom that refuses to bow before power, boldly demanding what he perceives as his due.

I view this incident as the prelude to Mowlana's critique of the avarice of the faqihs (Islamic jurists). Mowlana, later in this very story, depicts a faqih who, inspired by this old man's success, resorts to various stratagems to obtain the Chief Minister's bounty. This reveals Mowlana's critical gaze upon a segment of his society that, in their pursuit of power and wealth, would sometimes sacrifice their honor and integrity. Just as Ghazali, in his Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn, profoundly analyzed the pride and greed of faqihs, deeming fiqh a worldly science that diverts them from the true spiritual and ethical knowledge, so too Mowlana, despite having been a faqih and mufti himself and receiving stipends from endowments to ensure a lawful livelihood, never shied away from subtly criticizing avaricious and worldly faqihs. This couplet, in essence, sets the stage for the subsequent display of the faqih's greed and his desperate attempts to secure the Chief Minister's generosity.

Key takeaways

• Even the powerful sometimes have no choice but to retreat when confronted by the audacity and truthfulness of the dispossessed.
• The Chief Minister's laughter signified his defeat and hidden anger in the face of the old man's boldness.
• Only this old man, through his courage and cunning, managed to extract a benefit from the Chief Minister's largesse.
• The term 'tawfir' here denotes the 'profit' or 'benefit' gained through the old man's audacious action.
• This couplet sets the stage for a subsequent narrative where Mowlana critiques the greed of faqihs and their pursuit of worldly gain.