M6:1037 — من ز استیزه نمی‌جوشیدمی / خود به عشر اینش بفروشیدمی

Translation: I would not have struggled with such obstinacy; Indeed, I would have sold him for a tenth of this (price). Meaning: The seller of Bilal tells Abu Bakr al-Siddiq that had Abu Bakr not been so intensely eager to purchase Bilal, he would not have bargained so fiercely and inflated the price; instead, he would have sold Bilal for merely one-tenth of the final sum.

This couplet is uttered by the Jewish merchant selling Bilal the Abyssinian, in the midst of a transaction ostensibly between him and Abu Bakr al-Siddiq. The seller, reveling in the fact that he has extracted a hefty sum from Abu Bakr for a 'black slave,' bursts into laughter, convinced he has swindled Abu Bakr. When Abu Bakr questions the reason for his mirth, the merchant delivers these lines.

Here, I, Abdolkarim Soroush, must emphasize that the merchant's words betray a thoroughly materialistic and superficial worldview. He declares: 'Had you not been so earnest, so utterly infatuated with this slave in purchasing this dark-skinned servant, I would not have struggled with such obstinacy.' This implies that his stubborn bargaining and price inflation were not due to any intrinsic value he saw in Bilal, but solely because he perceived Abu Bakr's boundless desire—his gharam or intense love—for the slave. In other words, he believed it was Abu Bakr's fervent passion that drove the price up, not Bilal's inherent quality or spiritual essence. He explicitly states, 'Indeed, I would have sold him for a tenth of this (price),' meaning that without Abu Bakr's gharam, he would have sold Bilal for a mere tenth of the final price, as, in his estimation, Bilal 'was not worth half a dāng' (a trivial coin).

This couplet starkly illuminates the clash between two worldviews: the mercantile, superficial perspective that sees only color and outward appearance ('you see only his hue') and is driven by material gain, versus the mystical, profound perspective that attends to the soul and essence ('I am attentive to his soul') and discerns true value in the inner reality. What the seller perceives as 'obstinacy' and opportunism is, for Abu Bakr, the 'purchase of a jewel.' The merchant believes he has deceived Abu Bakr, but Abu Bakr, with profound insight, responds, 'You gave away a jewel for a nut, like a child,' because the merchant lacked the discerning eye to recognize a true gem. This echoes a familiar theme in the Masnavi: 'Whoever buys cheaply, sells cheaply; a child gives away a jewel for a piece of bread.' Bilal, for Abu Bakr, was not merely a 'dark-skinned' slave, but 'red gold, blackened with soot,' a jewel worth 'two worlds,' meaning all of existence.

Key takeaways

• The couplet highlights the fundamental clash between a materialistic, superficial worldview and a mystical, essence-oriented perception.
• True valuation, from Rumi's and Abu Bakr's perspective, is based on inherent worth and love, not outward appearance or market price.
• The seller's 'obstinacy' and insistence stemmed not from his own valuation of Bilal, but from his discernment of the buyer's (Abu Bakr's) ardent desire and love.
• This beyt emphasizes that a 'jewel' might be valued at a paltry sum by the undiscerning, while for those with insight, it is worth 'two worlds'.