M6:1525 — در دکان کفشگر چرمست خوب / قالب کفش است اگر بینی تو چوب

Translation: In the shoemaker's shop, there is good leather; There is a shoe mold if you see wood. Meaning: This couplet asserts that every shop possesses its particular merchandise and purpose. In a shoemaker's shop, everything is geared towards the making of shoes.

For me, this couplet, M6:1525, serves as an illuminating clarification, following immediately after its preceding verse (M6:1524) which declares the Mathnawi to be "the shop of faqr". In this segment of the Mathnawi, as we have observed elsewhere, Mowlana found himself in the position of a faqih (jurist), compelled to speak on matters of jurisprudence. However, he promptly halts and, with characteristic decisiveness, asserts: "Every shop has a different trade / The Mathnawi is the shop of faqr, O son!" This couplet, M6:1525, then acts as a vivid parable illustrating this very truth.

A shoemaker's shop is where one finds good leather and wooden shoe molds. Here, they neither sell bread nor medicine, nor do they discourse on wisdom or philosophy. The function of this shop is clear and specific: the production of shoes. This is a self-evident principle in everyday life; one approaches a specific shop for a specific need. If you wish to buy shoes, you turn to the shoemaker, not the apothecary.

Mowlana's message through this parable is far deeper than a mere practical injunction. He is, in fact, defining the very nature and essence of the Mathnawi. The Mathnawi, despite occasionally being obliged to touch upon matters of fiqh or even contemporary politics, has faqr (spiritual poverty) as its primary shop. Faqr here does not mean material destitution, but rather the emptying of the self and union with the Divine — the very Sufi annihilation (fana) that I have repeatedly discussed. The Mathnawi teaches us the path of 'selflessness' (bī-khudī) and 'effacement' (maḥv), not grammar (naḥv) or external laws.

This reminder from Mowlana is profoundly significant. He himself was a faqih and wrote fatwas; indeed, to legitimate his earnings from religious endowments, he would ask his son, Hoseyn Hosamoddin, to bring fatwas for him to write. Yet, despite all this, he "did not attach much importance" to fiqh, regarding it as a discipline for "rectifying people's affairs" whose rulings could even be altered according to expediency. In his view, fiqh was a worldly science, whereas the Mathnawi was of a different genre and a different shop: the shop of love (ʿishq), of union (wiṣāl), of "annihilation in God" (fana fī Allāh) and "subsistence in God" (baqa billāh). Therefore, we should not expect the Mathnawi to be a shop for fiqh or any other external science. The Mathnawi, in other words, is the shop of 'mystery' (rāz), where truth pours into the seeker's soul beyond external forms, not a place for the quibbles of juristic reason. This means that from the Mathnawi, one should not expect naḥv, but rather maḥv; this is what I have emphasized countless times.

Key takeaways

• Mathnawi's Purpose: The Mathnawi is the shop of faqr (mystical knowledge and selflessness), not fiqh (external jurisprudence).
• The Shop Metaphor: Each shop has its specific merchandise; one should expect from the Mathnawi what it genuinely offers.
• Sufi Annihilation: This couplet points to the fundamental concept of 'emptying the self' and 'union with the Divine'.
• Distinction of Fiqh and Mysticism: Mowlana, though a jurist himself, considered fiqh a worldly science for societal order, while mysticism was a path beyond.