M6:1810 — در جمال حال وا مانده دهان / چشم غایب گشته از نقش جهان

Translation: The mouth remains dumbfounded by the beauty of the present spiritual state (ḥāl-i waṣl); The eye has become absent from the forms of the world. Meaning: This verse describes the state of mystics who have attained divine union, so deeply immersed in the spiritual beauty of that union that they are rendered speechless and their eyes no longer perceive the forms and features of the material world.

Mowlana, like a skilled physician, gently guides us from the sensible to the intelligible, and from corporeal pleasures to spiritual ecstasies. After illustrating the hidden fire in water and the effervescence of foam as its visible signs, he transcends physical delights to reach the apex of spiritual joy, speaking of the 'intoxicated ones of union' (mastān-i waṣl). These mystics are those who have passed beyond the stage of ḥāl — fleeting and fluctuating spiritual states — and have been admitted to the maqām of union. Ḥāl is a momentary experience of euphoria, a fleeting divine breeze upon the soul. But maqām is the permanent dwelling in that state; as the 'images of states and utterances' (timthāl-hā-yi ḥāl u qāl) accumulate and recur, the person takes residence in that intoxication and becomes the Beloved's permanent guest.

In this beyt, Mowlana reveals two prominent characteristics of these intoxicated ones of union: Firstly, 'The mouth remains dumbfounded by the beauty of the present spiritual state.' This expression signifies that language fails before the boundless beauty of the state of union, losing its power to articulate it. This is the very experience to which great mystics and philosophers, including Wittgenstein, have referred as the 'unsayable.' That transcendent reality cannot be confined within words, and the mouth simply falls into awe and silence. This is not out of inability, but out of the grandeur of what is witnessed; beauty is so pervasive that it abolishes any possibility of description or expression.

The second characteristic is 'The eye has become absent from the forms of the world.' This means the mystic's eye is so fixed on the Beloved's beauty that it no longer perceives any of the forms and images of the material world. This is a gaze that has transcended forms and reached formlessness (bī-ṣūratī). As I have noted elsewhere, one of the most crucial insights in the Masnavi is the narrative of formlessness; this world of forms emerged from the formless, and the mystic in union passes beyond forms to the formless source of being. In this station, the seeker's gaze is withdrawn from the ornate and fleeting world, seeking only the Beloved's beauty. No other sight attracts them; they are immersed in the 'present moment' (ḥāl-i ḥāẓir) and in the divine presence of the now, past and future, and all worldly forms, lose their color and vanish. This is the pinnacle of presence in the One, leading one beyond the world and uniting with the Signless, such that the Sufi becomes ibn al-waqt, the child of their moment; a pure moment, untethered from anything other than union.

Key takeaways

• Spiritual union is the apex of pleasures, transcending fleeting states (ḥāl) to become a permanent station (maqām).
• Confronted with divine beauty, language fails, and silence signifies the profound depth of the experience.
• The mystic in union no longer perceives the forms of the material world, as their gaze is absorbed in the Beloved's beauty.
• This state exemplifies reaching formlessness (bī-ṣūratī) and passing beyond the transient forms of the world.
• Immersion in the 'present moment' (ḥāl-i ḥāẓir) and absolute presence in the now is a hallmark of the Sufi ibn al-waqt.