M6:2691 — بی‌نیازی از غم من ای امیر / ده زکات جاه و بنگر در فقیر

Translation: O Emir, who is free from my sorrow, Give the zakat of your high station, and look upon this poor one. Meaning: The lover implores the Beloved, who is indifferent to his pain, to bestow a portion of His exalted status and grace upon this humble, impoverished seeker.

This couplet is, in essence, a profound cry from the heart of a lover addressing a Beloved utterly immersed in self-sufficiency. Mowlana, with his characteristic eloquence, frames this plea: "O Emir, who is free from my sorrow." This "Emir" unequivocally refers to God, whose essence is transcendent of all need, all grief, all affect. The Beloved, in His utter independence, is indeed free from the lover's suffering, and this is an undeniable truth. But the question is: does this self-sufficiency necessitate indifference? The lover answers in the negative and proposes a remedy: "Give the zakat of your high station, and look upon this poor one."

Here, Mowlana introduces a deeply social and spiritual concept: the zakat-e jah (charity of high station). Just as wealth has its zakat ("zakat of wealth") and beauty has its zakat ("zakat of beautiful face, O beautiful one"), so too do rank, power, honor, and majesty have their zakat. The zakat of high station is a compassionate gaze and a generous attention to those who are lowly and poor. The lover, identifying himself as "poor" – poor both in material terms and in the existential sense of needing divine grace – asks the Beloved to bestow a portion of His elevated status by looking upon him. This look is not merely a superficial glance; it is a gaze imbued with grace and mercy, a look capable of transforming the impoverished soul.

This plea springs from a deeper premise in the Masnavi: "God's giving does not require worthiness." God does not consider our merit or deservingness when bestowing His favor. If I, the lover, am "unworthy" or "undeserving," this deficiency does not diminish the Beloved's universal grace. Divine universal grace does not seek a "document" (reason or justification); it does not need a rationale for to whom it should give or withhold. This all-encompassing mercy is like the sun, which shines indiscriminately on every low and high place, on every pure and impure thing; "The sun shines upon impurities (hadath)."

And it is here that Mowlana, with the alchemy of his words, transforms a hadath (impurity, refuse) into a profound symbol of transformation and healing. The sun shines upon hadath; not only is its light undiminished ("its light suffers no harm from it"), but it also transforms the hadath itself. The impurity dries up, becoming "firewood." This firewood is then taken to the gulkhani (a bathhouse furnace), and "when the hadath entered the furnace, it found light," meaning it turned into light and heat that warmed and illuminated the bathhouse walls. A wondrous metamorphosis occurs: "It was impurity; now it is adornment / As the sun recited that spell upon it." What was pure contamination has now become pure adornment and a source of light and warmth; it is as if the sun chanted a magical incantation over it.

Mowlana extends this analogy to nature: "The sun also warmed the earth's stomach / So that the earth might absorb the remaining impurities." The sun warms the earth's stomach so that the earth can digest refuse and impurities. These impurities "became part of the soil, and from them plants grew"; that is, they turn into soil, from which vegetation sprouts. And this is precisely the divine alchemical formula: "Thus does God erase sins (sayyi'āt)." God erases, and indeed transforms, our sins and impurities in this very manner. He turns bad into good, impurities into purity, just as "He does this with hadath, which is the worst / Turning it into plants, narcissus, and jasmine." If God does this with hadath, which is among the worst and most repulsive things, transforming it into narcissus and jasmine, then "when such robes of honor are given to the wicked / What will be given to the pure?" If the impure receive such bounty and blessing, what then awaits the pure? Undoubtedly, they will receive a reward "which no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ever occurred to the heart of any human." This is a Quranic expression that Mowlana uses to describe divine rewards, showing that His grace and mercy are beyond our imagination. This couplet, in essence, is an invitation to hope, to openness toward divine mercy, and to a belief in the transformative power of the Beloved's love and gaze.

Key takeaways

• The 'Zakat of High Station' (Zakat-e Jah): Greatness and rank also have their charity, which is benevolent attention and a compassionate gaze upon the poor and needy.
• The Beloved's self-sufficiency does not imply indifference; rather, it is the ground for His universal and unmerited grace.
• Divine giving does not require worthiness: God does not consider our merit or deservingness when bestowing His favor.
• The Sun and Impurity (Hadath) Analogy: Universal divine grace, like the sun, shines on both the pure and impure without being diminished.
• Divine Alchemy: Impurities (hadath) and sins (sayyi'āt) are not merely forgiven but, through the process of divine grace, are transformed into purity and goodness (flowers and plants).
• Reward for the Pure: If even the wicked benefit from universal divine grace, the reward for the pure is something beyond human imagination and comprehension.