M6:1740 — آنک گل آرد برون از عین خار / هم تواند کرد این دی را بهار

Translation: He who brings forth the rose from the very heart of the thorn / He too can turn this winter into spring. Meaning: This verse expresses the Sufi's question: why has God, with His immense power to bring roses from thorns and spring from winter, not created a world without suffering, always joyous, and free from loss?

This verse, articulated by the Sufi, raises a fundamental question that resonates deeply within many human hearts. Here, the Sufi, with a decisive yet pleading tone, reminds us of God's absolute power. He asks: "He who transformed blazing fire into a rose garden for Abraham, who brings forth fire from green wood, or causes roses to bloom from the heart of sharp thorns – why can He not entirely transform this world, filled with suffering and loss, into perpetual spring?"

As I have often noted, Rumi relies on allegorical methods, and the Sufi in this context symbolizes the ordinary human grappling with the world's hardships. This question from the Sufi continues his earlier preoccupation: why does God not make our endeavors lossless? He cites miraculous proofs of divine power: the creation of a rose from a thorn, a symbol of beauty emerging from hardship, and the transformation of winter into spring, an allegory for overcoming suffering and transience. If God is capable of bringing forth the rose from the very heart of the thorn and turning winter into spring, why has He not created the world in such a way that it is always spring, always joyous, and never touched by the winter of pain and death? Why must there be such things as thorns or a season like winter, and more profoundly, why must there be suffering, loss, and death?

This inquiry ultimately leads back to the concern of loss and forfeiture. The Quran states: "Indeed, mankind is in loss" (Inna al-insana lafi khusr); humanity is perpetually experiencing loss. The Sufi asks: what would it take for God, with His limitless power, to create a world where we are always in profit and increase, never losing anything? What if all of life, like an eternal spring, were full of freshness and joy, without any sorrow or grief? This is, in essence, the yearning for a world that shares the characteristics of the angelic realm—a world without pain, without transience, without change, and without death. This is the same yearning that, in every human being, even in the direst conditions and illnesses, strengthens the will to survive, as David Hume so aptly observed: that a person, even at the peak of suffering, would give anything just to extend their life by a few days.

However, Rumi eventually answers these questions, offering a more transcendent perspective. He views the world, with all its ups and downs, all its winters and springs, as perfect and flawless. In his view, any complaint about this architecture of the world stems from a distortion in our own perception and understanding. This verse represents the apex of humanity's desire to eliminate the negative aspects of life, a desire that, in Rumi's mystical gaze, gradually gives way to an acceptance of absolute wisdom and love for this very world, with all its contradictions and dialectics. In Rumi's school of thought, suffering and separation are not calamities, but rather an inseparable part of the spiritual journey that leads humanity to the destination of union.

Key takeaways

• This verse symbolizes humanity's perennial question in the face of suffering and loss.
• The Sufi challenges God's miraculous power, questioning why, with such might, He did not create a perfect world devoid of all evil.
• The hidden desire within this question is for a world without death, pain, and in perpetual spring, akin to the angelic realm.
• The imagery of 'rose from thorn' and 'turning winter to spring' emphasizes God's boundless power.
• This verse sets the stage for Rumi's later responses, which attribute perceived crookedness to our own gaze, not the world's architecture.