M6:1375 — زانک داری جمله دل برکنده‌ای / شست دل در بحر لا افکنده‌ای

Translation: For you have detached your heart from all that you possess, and cast the fishing-hook of your heart into the Sea of No. Meaning: This verse illustrates how humans, often implicitly, relinquish their present possessions and commit their hearts to non-existence in pursuit of something novel and unmanifested.

In this verse, Rumi employs a 'subtle stratagem' (لطائف‌الحیل) to guide us from the common understanding of 'non-existence' towards the mystical 'non-existence' of fana (annihilation of self). He begins by pointing out that all human beings, regardless of their profession, are inherently in pursuit of 'عدم' (non-existence) or 'لا' (no). An artisan seeks an unbuilt or ruined plot, a water-carrier looks for an empty pitcher, a carpenter targets a house without a door, and a hunter lies in wait for what has not yet been caught. These are all examples of seeking 'what is not' or 'what has not yet come into being'.

The present verse directly follows this logic: 'For you have detached your heart from all that you possess.' To attain something new, one must inevitably detach oneself from what one already has and what is currently realized. A student, in the quest for knowledge, detaches from their ignorance; a capitalist, to create, detaches from existing capital and puts it to work. This act of detaching from 'what is' – from current possessions – is itself a step towards casting the 'fishing-hook of your heart into the Sea of No.' The term 'شست' (shast) refers to a fishing hook, and 'بحر لا' (bahr-i lā) is the Sea of Non-existence. Rumi states that we effectively cast the hook of our heart towards those things that have not yet come into existence or reside in the realm of non-existence.

Rumi's intent here is to build an intelligent bridge. If all our daily lives, all our desires and ambitions, are in pursuit of 'لا' (what is not), then why should we fear that other 'لا' – the mystical non-existence and fana in the Divine? Why should we flee from a 'sea' that, in Rumi's words, has already yielded 'hundreds of thousands of catches' (صد هزاران صید) to our hook? This Sea of Non-existence is not merely an emptiness or a void; rather, it is the reservoir and source of all potential existences. As Rumi says elsewhere, the future, in divine knowledge and in the chain of causes, already exists and merely unveils itself to us. We move towards a future that is intrinsically present, rather than creating it out of absolute nothingness. Therefore, the 'bahr-i lā' is not a place of fear, but a mine of desires and a hunting ground for aspirations, both material and spiritual. It is through these layers of meaning that Rumi subtly guides humanity on an inner journey towards the non-existence of the self, which is the origin of all new being.

Key takeaways

• Human pursuit of new things involves detaching from current possessions and venturing into 'non-existence' (lā).
• Rumi employs this innate human drive to seek the 'unpossessed' as a bridge to Sufi 'annihilation' (fana) and deeper spiritual 'non-existence'.
• The 'Sea of No' (bahr-i lā) encompasses both what has not yet come into being (goals, desires) and the supra-material realm of ultimate reality.
• The act of 'detaching the heart' from what one has is akin to casting a 'fishing-hook of the heart' into the 'Sea of No' to catch knowledge and fulfillment.
• Rumi's 'subtle stratagem' reveals that humans are constantly 'hunting' from non-existence, thus they should not fear fana.