M6:1004 — مر خران را هیچ دیدی گوش‌وار / گوش و هوش خر بود در سبزه‌زار

Translation: Did you ever see donkeys wear earrings? / A donkey's ear and mind were in the green pasture. Meaning: This couplet uses a rhetorical question to highlight that animals, unlike humans, lack the capacity for symbolic valuation and adornment, being wholly absorbed in their immediate physical needs and the sensory world.

Here, Mawlānā delves into one of the profound ontological distinctions between human and animal, a difference that illuminates the very essence of our humanity. The rhetorical question about donkeys not wearing earrings is not merely an observation of appearance; rather, it unveils the animal's incapacity for iʿtibār—the act of deeming, crediting, or assigning symbolic value. An animal cannot take something 'as' something else, or bestow upon it a symbolic worth. The donkey's ear and mind are wholly engrossed in the green pasture, meaning all its perceptions and desires are confined to the realm of animal needs, survival, and natural sensory input. It cannot distinguish a pearl from a pebble, not out of ignorance, but because it lacks the faculty of iʿtibār. From my perspective, this is precisely the point Max Weber makes in distinguishing between natural and human sciences: an act like casting a vote is, in the natural world, simply dropping a piece of paper into a box; yet humans deem it to signify 'voting.' This capacity for iʿtibār is the very root of language, ethics, religion, and all human culture. Adornment, however superficial it may seem, is one such iʿtibār: we consider a stone beautiful and wear it because we have deemed it to possess 'beauty.' This unique capacity originates from the rational soul (nafs-i nāṭiqa) of humanity—the very soul lauded in the Qur'an, in Sūrat al-Tīn, as being fashioned in the 'best of molds' (aḥsan al-taqwīm). Because the animal lacks this rational soul and this power of iʿtibār, it is devoid of any adornment or higher signification, and thus, it will never wear an earring.

Key takeaways

• The fundamental difference between humans and animals lies in the capacity for iʿtibār (symbolic valuation or deeming).
• Animals, unlike humans, are indifferent to adornment and symbolic values, focusing solely on material and sensory needs.
• Iʿtibār (the assigning of meaning and value) is the root of language, rituals, and all human sciences, absent in the animal realm.
• Through its 'rational soul,' humanity imbues objects with meaning and value beyond their material essence—a trait absent in animals.
• The animal's lack of adornment is indicative of its absence of symbolic and creditive consciousness.
• Humanity's creation in aḥsan al-taqwīm (the best of molds) makes it worthy of this trans-animal perception and capacity for iʿtibār.