M6:2696 — بود آلایش شد آرایش کنون / چون برو بر خواند خورشید آن فسون

Translation: It was defilement, it became adornment now, / As the sun chanted that spell upon it. Meaning: This verse illustrates the sun's transformative power, showing how defilement and impurity can be turned into beauty and order through its enchanting influence.

Here, Rumi unveils a profound cosmic secret: how divine universal grace (loṭf-e ʿāmm) transforms the most repulsive and undesirable phenomena into the most beautiful and beneficial states. This verse appears in the context of the mouse's fervent longing for union with the frog, but Rumi swiftly elevates the discourse from a mere fable to an ontological and theological plane. When the mouse states, "Your universal grace seeks no credentials, it shines upon impurities (ḥadath)," Rumi introduces this couplet to explicate that very process.

I contend: what unfolds here demonstrates God's grand "factory" in the cosmos – a factory that transmutes poison into nectar, impurity into purity, and defilement into adornment. The sun, a potent symbol of this universal divine grace, does not discriminate, saying, "You are unworthy of my light." Its radiance embraces everything, from roses and nightingales to ḥadath (excrement or filth). This grace, indeed, "seeks no credentials"; it requires no justification for showering its beneficence upon one and withholding it from another.

Initially, the sun shines upon the ḥadath, drying it out. This very radiation, which neither diminishes the sun nor contaminates it, transforms the fluid, odorous waste into "fuel" (hīzum). This dried fuel then becomes a source of energy. Rumi explains that this former ḥadath now, in the "furnace" (gulḵan) of a bathhouse, transmutes into light and heat, warming the bathhouse walls. This is precisely what Rumi means: "It was defilement, it became adornment now, / As the sun chanted that spell upon it." What was moments ago utter impurity has now become utter beauty and utility.

But the story does not end there. Even the ashes of this fuel are not without purpose. The sun, by warming the "stomach of the earth" – that is, by facilitating biological and bacterial processes in the soil – draws in and decomposes the remaining waste. These impurities become part of the soil, from which "vegetation" (nabāt) sprouts. These plants, in turn, become food for the pure and for animals, perpetuating life in a biological cycle. This is how "Thus does God erase evil deeds" (hakadā yumḥi 'l-ilāhu 's-sayyi'āt). Human sayyi'āt (bad deeds), defilements, and evils, though painful in their time and requiring resistance, ultimately, through this divine alchemy, lead to goodness and well-being. This perspective reveals the boundless depth of divine mercy and wisdom, which can bring forth narcissus and jasmine even from the "worst" of things, promising a reward for the pure that "no eye has seen and no ear has heard" (lā ʿayn ra'at wa lā udhn samiʿat).

Key takeaways

• Divine universal grace is unconditional and all-encompassing, not predicated on individual merit or worthiness.
• The alchemical nature of existence: defilements and impurities (ḥadath) can be transformed into beauty and utility (ārāyish).
• The sun symbolizes the transformative power of divine grace, which, through its 'spell,' alters the essence of things.
• This process of transformation operates not only in the natural world (drying of impurities into fuel) but also in the spiritual realm (erasing of bad deeds).
• Rumi's worldview portrays the cosmos as a vast factory that ultimately extracts good and benevolence even from malice and evil.