M6:1680 — ترک را آن شب نبرد از غصه خواب / با خیال دزد می‌کرد او حراب

Translation: That night, sleep did not come to the Turk from his sorrow, He was at war (ḥarāb) with the thief in his imagination. Meaning: This verse describes the Turk's restless night, filled with anxiety and imaginary battles against the cunning tailor, fearing the loss of his fabric after their wager.

Here, in the midst of the Turk and the Tailor's unfolding narrative, Rumi introduces a didactic pause. He halts the scene to delve into the Turk's inner state, and from that specific condition, he extracts a universal truth. This naive Turk, having made a wager with the cunning tailor, is now plagued by sleeplessness. The term ḥarāb, which Rumi himself clarifies means ḥarb (war or struggle), depicts a mental battle; in his imagination, the Turk grapples with the imminent theft of his fabric. He hasn't even handed over the cloth yet, but the anxiety of its potential loss has stolen his sleep.

However, this is not merely a description of a literary character's state of mind; it is a profound allegory for the human condition. With his characteristic artistry, Rumi moves from this specific tale to a more general principle. This worried Turk, in essence, is a narrative about us. We, human beings, who as Rumi puts it, have become "fat with frivolity and jest" (به لهو و لاغ فربه گشته‌ایم), spend our entire lives in jest and heedlessness. We constantly seek laṭīfa (jokes), afsanā (tales), and sargarmī (entertainment) to remain oblivious to life's harsh realities and to our own selves. In this heedlessness, just like the Turk who loses sleep but is unaware that his capital is being stolen, we too surrender our ʿumr (life-span), energy, and existential capital to the "cosmic tailor" (darzī-yi ʿām) of time, who, with the "tricks and wiles of the heavens" (lāgh va dastān-i falak), cuts and steals the precious fabrics of our being.

Rumi asks earlier in the same story: "O you who have become a tale, vanished from existence / How many more tales do you wish to experience? / Is there any tale more laughable than yourself?" He implies that we ourselves are the most ludicrous tale, the subject of laughter, not the stories we consume. Our eyes are closed from intoxicating, distracting laughter, just like the Turk's narrow eyes eventually closed from excessive mirth, allowing the tailor to seize his opportunity. Rumi aims to convey that the story of the Turk and the Tailor is a depiction of us, succumbing to the "allure of this world" (ʿishva-yi īn jahān), and in the cacophony of stories and jokes, becoming oblivious to our true "capital." He wants to pose the question: how much of our time and awareness, our nights and days, is spent on worries and fruitless mental battles that distance us from understanding reality and true challenges? This beyt is a warning to awaken and avoid heedlessness.

Key takeaways

• The Turk's mental anxiety symbolizes humanity's general heedlessness towards its life's capital.
• His struggle with the "thief in imagination" represents fruitless preoccupations and illusory concerns.
• The world (and time) acts as a "cunning tailor" who, by distracting us, steals our true assets.
• The Turk's sorrow and sleeplessness serve as a warning to awaken from the slumber of heedlessness.
• The Turk's tale mirrors our tendency to provide opportunists and the world with a chance to steal through our ill-timed laughter.