M6:2545 — از برای این قدر خام‌ریش / آتش افکندی درین مرج و حشیش

Translation: Said the King: "For this trivial matter, O raw-bearded (foolish) one, / you cast fire into this meadow and grass!" Meaning: In this verse, the king angrily tells the jester that for a small and insignificant error, his foolish haste has plunged the entire city into chaos and sedition.

This verse is spoken by a king, enraged by his jester's haste and folly. The jester has delivered news of his inability to undertake the mission to Samarkand, and the king views this simple confession, made with such urgency, as a source of sedition and anxiety. He declares to the jester: "For this much — this mere trivial report — O raw-bearded one (which Mowlana explicitly defines as a 'fool'), you have cast fire into this meadow and grass!"

Here, marj and ḥashīsh refer broadly to pastures, meadows, and all kinds of plants. Mowlana explicitly emphasizes this meaning, distinguishing it from the specific plant 'cannabis' to which the word ḥashīsh later came to refer, and from which the term 'assassin' in European languages originates. The king's intent is that through this 'raw-bearded' immaturity and thoughtlessness, "you have created discord and thrown the city into chaos." The discourse here is about an apparent simplicity and thoughtlessness that, through its unintended consequences, sets the harvest of society ablaze.

Yet, Mowlana immediately uses this anecdote as a bridge to a sharper, deeper critique of what he himself calls the "fools with drums and banners" of his era. This 'raw-bearded' jester, at least, had the honesty to say, "I do not possess that ability." But worse than him are those who "boast of shaykhhood throughout the world" and consider themselves awakened and arrived, while in truth, they are "donkeys in poverty and nothingness." It is here that Mowlana, with a decisive and direct tone, critiques hypocrisy and pretense among pseudo-clerics and claimants of gnosis.

For many years, I have observed this kind of 'raw-bearded' foolishness and 'shaykh-selling' among the clergy of our own time as well. Individuals who are inwardly empty, shallow, and greedy for power, yet market themselves to the public. To hide the secret of their ignorance and corruption, they are willing to inflict a thousand injustices. Mowlana considers this a "vicious tradition" that has permeated our history and other religions; the very affliction that transforms religion from a "lenient and easy Sharia" into a swollen, corpulent monster of superstitions and exaggerated claims. It is the duty of intellectuals and religious reformers to eradicate these 'afflictions' and prune these 'rusts' from the face of religion, for it is this corpulence of religion that repels individuals from it, robbing them of their joy and life.

Mowlana himself, to avoid being tainted by the corruptions of this faction, always distanced himself, as when he said: "If I possessed intellect and means / I would be at the shop like these shaykhs." This is his explicit statement that many of these 'shaykhs' have opened shops and amassed resources for themselves. From his perspective, these people neither speak the truth nor possess pure intentions; they are merely engaged in "boasting of shaykhhood" and "making claims," and these empty assertions cast fire into the core of societal peace and truth-seeking, much like fire into the meadow and grass.

Key takeaways

• Hasty and thoughtless actions, even if simple in intention, can become a source of sedition and chaos in society.
• Mowlana views the hypocrisy and deceit of spiritual claimants and 'shaykh-sellers' as even worse than the blatant folly of an ignorant person.
• Mowlana's sharp critique targets the self-interest and power-seeking of those who, through pretense of spirituality, turn religion into a tool for personal gain.
• A warning against the 'fattening' of religion with superstitions and exaggerated claims, which distances it from its original simplicity.
• Honesty in admitting one's inability, though it may be perceived as foolishness by power-seekers, holds moral superiority over hypocrisy.