M6:1448 — چون برون شد این خیالات از میان / گشت نامعقول تو بر تو عیان

Translation: When these khayālāt (illusions/fancies) depart from your midst, / Your nā-maʿqūl (unreasoned, non-conceptual self) will become manifest to you. Meaning: This couplet suggests that once a person sheds their self-generated illusions and fancies, their true, non-conceptual reality will reveal itself to them.

This profound couplet from Mawlana, nestled within a discussion of determinism (jabr) and free will (ikhtiyār), and the concept of 'non-being' (ʿadam) or 'existential poverty' (faqr-i wujūdī), in fact lays bare one of the most critical insights into the very truth of the human being. Mawlana states unequivocally here that our 'existence' (wujūd) and our 'fancies' (khayālāt) about ourselves are both lā-shay—nothing. These self-perceptions and illusions we hold about ourselves, our position, and the very nature of our being are veils over the truth.

I firmly believe that Mawlana here points to an existential transformation: when these khayālāt, these illusory conceptions we have woven and attributed to ourselves, depart from our midst, it is then that our nā-maʿqūl—our 'unreasoned' or 'non-conceptual' self—becomes 'manifest' (ʿayān) to us. Nā-maʿqūl here does not mean illogical or irrational in a pejorative sense, but rather 'beyond reason'; that aspect of our being that cannot be confined by conceptual frameworks and rational arguments. As I have indicated in other lectures, one of the most crucial insights in the Mathnawi is the narrative of 'formlessness' (bi-ṣūratī); that this world of forms has emerged from the formless, and the truth of everything lies in its formlessness. The soul, like water or light, is shapeless and only takes form upon entering vessels and forms. The human nā-maʿqūl is that formless truth which becomes manifest upon the dissolution of mental and illusory forms.

It is for this very reason that Mawlana, a little before this couplet, says: "Fear that wujūd (existence) in which you now dwell / Your khayāl (fancy) is nothing, and you are nothing / A nothing has fallen in love with a nothing / A non-being has waylaid a non-being." We fear that 'existence' in which we have imprisoned ourselves, even though both that fancy and our very selves are in truth 'nothing' and lā-shay. The love and connection established at this level is the love of 'nothing' for 'nothing', which obstructs the path of truth. The path to salvation is liberation from this illusory 'existence' and these self-made khayālāt. It is only in this 'non-being' (nīstī) and 'annihilation' (fanāʾ) that our true self, that indeterminate and trans-conceptual aspect, becomes manifest to us. This is the return to ʿadam that Mawlana repeatedly emphasizes, not in the sense of absolute non-existence, but as liberation from apparent and false existence.

Key takeaways

• Human truth transcends one's mental fancies and self-perceptions.
• The nā-maʿqūl refers to what is beyond reason and conceptual grasp, not what is illogical.
• Our apparent existence and self-generated khayālāt are in reality lā-shay (nothing).
• Liberation from illusory existence and mental forms paves the way for the manifestation of one's formless truth.
• This insight connects to the Mathnawi's themes of 'formlessness' (bi-ṣūratī) and 'existential poverty' (faqr-i wujūdī).