M6:2031 — نیست اندر بحر شرک و پیچ پیچ / لیک با احول چه گویم هیچ هیچ

Translation: The Sea is free from shirk (duality/idolatry) and pīch pīch (complications); but to the aḥwal (double-visioned) what can I say? Nothing, nothing at all. Meaning: This verse declares that the ultimate reality, likened to a vast sea, is absolutely unified and free from all forms of duality or complexity. It then expresses the poet's despair at trying to communicate this indivisible truth to those who, due to their spiritual condition, inherently perceive multiplicity.

Here, Mevlana unequivocally points to the absolute unity of the Sea of Existence. The Sea of Truth, the Sea of the Divine Essence, is utterly singular, undivided, and simple. No composition, multiplicity, opposition, or duality can enter it. It is here that Mevlana decisively states: “The Sea is free from shirk and pīch pīch.” This Sea is exempt from any form of polytheism, plurality, and even from any complexity or ambiguity. Pure simplicity and unity are the distinct characteristics of this boundless Sea. For the ancients, water was a simple element, and Mevlana leverages this quality of water to express the simplicity of Existence itself.

However, after this definitive declaration, Mevlana addresses a fundamental predicament: how can this absolute unity be explained to someone who perceives the world as multiple? One who is aḥwal—squint-eyed or double-visioned—sees a single object as two. The defect lies in the eye of the beholder, not in the object itself. Reality is one, but the aḥwal eye perceives it as dual. Mevlana asks with a rhetorical, yet despairing, question: “But to the aḥwal what can I say? Nothing, nothing at all.” To such a person, nothing can truly be said, because their fundamental perception is predicated on multiplicity. Whatever one says, they will interpret it through the lens of duality and will not grasp unity.

This condition of being aḥwal describes our human cognitive state. Due to our familiarity with the material world—the realm of numbers and opposites—we also view the singular Truth through the spectacles of multiplicity. The pearls and fish of the Sea of Truth are themselves merely waves of that same Sea. As Sheikh Attar put it, “This is a unity, yet it comes in repetition.” This apparent fluctuation and repetition lead us into the error of perceiving multiplicity, while in reality, all are one with that very Sea and that singular Existence. Our relationship with God is precisely like that of waves to the sea; we are the very undulations of His existence and the emanation of His consciousness, not separate and independent beings. But our double-visioned eye conceals this unity from us. It is for this reason that Mevlana continues, saying: “Since we are companions of the aḥwal, O shaman, it is inevitable for us to speak of polytheists.” As long as we ourselves are, in a sense, aḥwal and double-visioned, speaking of and accepting shirk and multiplicity becomes unavoidable for us. This verse is not merely a description of Truth, but an elucidation of the inadequacy of human perception in encountering it.

Key takeaways

• The ultimate reality is an absolutely unified and simple Sea of Existence, free from all composition and multiplicity.
• This Sea is exempt from both shirk (duality/polytheism) and pīch pīch (complexity/ambiguity); it is pure unity.
• The difficulty in comprehending this unity stems from our own perceptual defect: we are aḥwal (double-visioned), perceiving the singular as multiple.
• The pearls and fish within the Sea are merely its waves, not distinct entities; unity manifests in apparent multiplicity.
• Mevlana implies that as long as we remain double-visioned, we cannot truly grasp the singular truth, and explaining it to those who perceive duality is futile.
• This verse critiques the inherent limitations of human language and perception in expressing and comprehending absolute unity.