M6:2522 — از نفیر و فتنه و خوف نکال / هر دلی رفته به صد کوی خیال

Translation: From the lament, the strife, and the dread of reprisal, Every heart was led to a hundred streets of fancy. Meaning: Mowlana describes the chaotic state of a populace gripped by unsettling news or sudden events, where fear, rumour, and the threat of retribution drive each individual heart into a labyrinth of personal fears and imaginings. The verse illustrates how external turmoil can lead to internal disarray, making people prisoners of their own mental constructs.

In this verse, Mowlana meticulously paints a picture of a society's psychological turmoil, where people, confronted with sudden and ambiguous news, become bewildered and distressed. This couplet is part of the story of a jester who frantically arrives at the court of the Sultan of Termez. His delay in delivering the news plunges the populace into a vortex of delusion and imagination. What Mowlana teaches us here is not merely the fear of an external threat, but how this fear intertwines with groundless fancies.

"Nafir" refers to loud noises and often rumours spreading by word of mouth, amplifying the fear. "Fitna" can be understood as both internal and external chaos arising from uncertainty and speculation. "Khawf-e nekāl" is the fear of retribution, whether from the ruler or even from the heavens. These three elements—rumour, chaos, and fear of punishment—combine to send "every heart... to a hundred streets of fancy."

The crucial point Mowlana subtly reveals in this verse is that the suffering and distress of the people do not stem from the external event itself (which is still unknown), but from their internal reactions and fantasizing. This is precisely where Mowlana implicitly shows his particular view of reality; that many of our calamities are not “divine gifts” but “mental afflictions.” He states elsewhere: “If one crooked hair can veil the sky / What if all your parts are crooked, why?” Meaning, if you yourself are crooked, the world will appear crooked. Here too, distressed hearts, riding the steed of imagination, are pulled in a hundred directions and stray from the truth.

This is a profound lesson in self-knowledge. Instead of focusing on an external enemy or a heavenly disaster, Mowlana redirects our gaze toward internal thoughts and conjectures. People, instead of understanding and analyzing reality, wander in their “streets of fancy.” This is exactly what Mowlana cautions against. He has repeatedly emphasized that the cosmos is flawless, and any crookedness lies in our perception. Those who see the world as flawed are themselves flawed in their vision. Therefore, this verse is an invitation to reconsider how we confront fears and unsettling news; an invitation to depart from the streets of fancy and step onto the path of reality.

Key takeaways

• People often wander in the alleys of their own imagination and conjecture, rather than engaging with reality.
• Our distress and suffering frequently stem from our internal reactions and fantasizing, not necessarily the external event itself.
• Mowlana critiques distorted perception; if we see the world as flawed, the root lies in our own vision.
• This verse serves as an invitation to self-knowledge and liberation from mental illusions born of fear.