M6:2700 — تا به نسرین مناسک در وفا / حق چه بخشد در جزا و در عطا

Translation: Considering how He transforms even impurities to jasmine, then for those who perform the rites in loyalty, what will Truth bestow in recompense and as gift? Meaning: This verse uses an a fortiori argument: if God grants such transformative grace even to the lowest of things, His gifts and rewards for those who truly practice loyalty will be immeasurable.

Here, in expounding upon this pivotal verse of the Masnavi, I wish to underscore a central point: Mowlana, after describing the profound transformation of hadath — impurities and defilements — first into kindling, then to light and warmth in a bathhouse furnace, and subsequently into soil from which nabāt (plants), narges (narcissus), and nesrīn (jasmine/wild rose) emerge, is in fact speaking of a grand divine alchemy. God, in this cosmos, has established a factory that transmutes poison into nectar, and waste into blossoms; this is precisely how "God erases bad deeds" (hakadhā yamḥū al-ilāhu al-sayyiʾāt).

This hadath, which represents the vilest and most repulsive of things, under the universal grace of the divine sun, dries, burns, and eventually returns to the earth, from which narcissus and jasmine spring. This is a cosmic-scale "transformation of sins into good deeds."

Now, Mowlana's question is poignant: If God acts in such a manner with an entity that is the very epitome of impurity, transforming it into such beauty and utility, what then will He do for those who uphold the "rites of loyalty" (manāsik dar vafā)? What about those whose souls are inherently pure and good, and who walk the path of faithfulness? This is an a fortiori argument: if the impure receive such a "robe of honor" and bestowal, what reward awaits the "pure ones" (ṭayyebīn)?

Mowlana's answer, explicitly and from the depths of his gnosis, is something that transcends imagination and that language utterly fails to capture. He states himself: "He will grant them that which no eye has seen / And which cannot be contained in speech or word." This is a direct echo of the famous Hadith Qudsi, which declares: "That which no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and has not crossed the heart of any human." This signifies a reward beyond all human sensory, intellectual, and imaginative capacities. This bī-ṣūratī (formlessness) and mawarāʾ-yi dhihnī (beyond-the-mental) quality of divine bestowal is a theme that resonates throughout the Masnavi and the Dīwān-i Shams. It is a gift that originates from the realm of the formless and leads to the realm of formlessness.

I want to emphasize that this is not merely a promise for the afterlife, but rather a manifestation of that divine alchemy that is continuously at work in this very world. These very transformations and metamorphoses occur within human souls as well, where our spirit is freed from the shackles of "forms" and ascends towards "formlessness." This is the ultimate faithfulness of the Beloved to His lovers and wayfarers, who places their reward beyond anything that can possibly be conceived.

Key takeaways

• God's divine alchemy transforms even the lowest impurities into beauty and utility (e.g., waste into blossoms).
• If the impure receive such transformative grace, the reward for those loyal to the Truth is boundless and beyond imagination.
• The divine gift for the faithful transcends what any eye has seen, ear heard, or human heart conceived; it emanates from and leads to the realm of 'formlessness'.
• This divine alchemy is active not only in nature but also in the transformation of human souls, where the spirit is freed from the confines of 'forms'.