M6:1537 — مرده از یک روست فانی در گزند / صوفیان از صد جهت فانی شدند

Translation: The dead one, from one aspect, is perishing and in decay. But the Sufis, from a hundred directions, have undergone annihilation (fana). Meaning: This verse differentiates between the ordinary physical death of a human and the Sufi's continuous, voluntary annihilation. While a physically dead person experiences perishing in one dimension, a Sufi constantly dies to myriad aspects of their self to attain true existence.

This verse emerges from the ongoing story of the judge and the Sufi, where Rumi presents a sickly, dying man before the court. The judge dismisses him as 'one of the graveyard dwellers,' a mere shadow of his former self. But Rumi, in his customary fashion, uses this 'natural death' as a bridge to 'mystical death.'

I submit that it is here Rumi's elephant recalls India; his mind turns to poverty, to fana, to dying for God. He says, yes, that dying man is perishing from one aspect – his body has ceased, his physiology no longer functions, and he dies a physical death. But Sufis, these wayfarers on the path of Truth, have annihilated themselves from a hundred directions. This is not mere exaggeration; it points to a quality of spiritual life in which the seeker dies and is reborn repeatedly, in all dimensions of their being.

I have previously articulated that Rumi, throughout the Masnavi, expounds on this hundredfold death and life. For instance, in Book Three, in the story of the Lover of Bukhara, he says: 'He possesses two hundred souls from the light of God / And sacrifices those two hundred every moment.' This implies that the seeker has not just one soul, but hundreds of souls of divine light, which they sacrifice for the Beloved at every turn. In the same vein, he states: 'I have tested it: my death is in my life / When I escape this life, I gain permanence.' The Sufi's death is not an end, but the beginning of their permanence and everlasting existence.

This is the same struggle evident in the tale of the warrior-Sufi in the hermitage from Book Five of the Masnavi; there, the valiant warrior, after years of jihad against infidels, engages in asceticism against his nafs (lower self), and his nafs says to him: 'So-and-so, here in this hermitage, in this cave, you kill me a hundred times a day. Go kill me once and be done with it.' This 'killing a hundred times' is precisely the 'perishing from a hundred directions.' This fana is the annihilation of the commanding self, the annihilation of attachments, of ego, and self-conceit. This death is not a single killing, but 'three hundred thousand' killings, each with immeasurable 'blood-money.' God has ordained immense and countless rewards for each of these deaths, as the Quran states: 'Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties in exchange for Paradise.' This is a most generous transaction.

Rumi goes even further, alluding to the story of Prophet Georgis, who was killed and revived many times: 'Like Georgis, each one on the path / Has been killed and brought back to life sixty times.' This is an allegory for the seeker who, on the path of love, embraces suffering and annihilation with zeal and passion. As Rumi says: 'Killed by the delight of the just spear / He burns, asking for another wound.' It is here that pain itself becomes a balm, and a wound appears more alluring than a shield: 'Is His blade more alluring, or a shield?'

The loving Sufi not only does not fear death but welcomes it; for he knows that every death on the path of the Beloved leads him to the royal treasure beneath the ruins: 'What sorrow do I have that there is ruin? / Beneath the ruin lies a royal treasure.' This is the voluntary drowning in the sea of absolute existence: 'Drowned in Truth, he wishes to be more drowned / Like the ocean's wave, the soul is turned upside down.'

Key takeaways

• The Sufi's death is not the end of life, but the beginning of true, eternal life.
• To 'perish from a hundred directions' signifies the continuous annihilation of the ego and worldly attachments on the path of Truth, not a single event.
• Each mystical 'death' is accompanied by an immense and countless reward from God, beyond human comprehension.
• The Sufi embraces suffering and annihilation with love, considering the Beloved's wound as a balm for the soul.
• This annihilation leads to 'divine life'; by dying to oneself, the seeker becomes alive in God.
• There is a fundamental distinction between natural death (physical decay) and mystical annihilation (dying to the self).