M6:2822 — هر که را شب بینم اندر قیروان / روز بشناسم من او را بی‌گمان

Translation: Whoever I see at night, within Qirwan (a distant city, or pitch darkness), / By day, I shall recognize him without a doubt. Meaning: This verse describes a thief's unique skill of identifying anyone seen only in the complete darkness of night, revealing a deeper mystical ability to discern hidden truths and inner identities despite outward veils.

This verse is spoken by one of the night thieves in the story of Sultan Mahmud and the thieves. This particular thief claims that if he sees someone in the absolute darkness of night, he can unfailingly recognize them in the clear light of day. This is not merely a superficial 'skill' of a burglar, but a profound symbol of insightful perception and truth-seeing that Mowlana aims to highlight.

I have often emphasized that our world, in Mowlana’s view, is like a 'dark night' overshadowed by the 'veil of heedlessness' (غفلت). In this dark night of worldly life, which Mowlana calls the 'prison of nature' (سجن طبیعت), many truths remain hidden, and many deeds, both good and bad, go unnoticed. The king in this story, who appears disguised among the thieves, is an allegory for God, who is present in the very fabric of cosmic events – even amidst great historical catastrophes such as the Holocaust, the Mongol massacres, or the atrocities in Gaza. God was 'among them' in these moments, not sitting afar, or asleep, or – as some Jewish philosophers imagined after the Holocaust – having run out of power. No, none of these; God was present.

However, the 'system of the night' must not be disrupted. The night cannot be turned into day, for then the entire cosmic order would be dismantled. Day follows night, and what was hidden in darkness becomes manifest in light. The thief who says, 'Whoever I see at night, within Qirwan, / By day, I shall recognize him without a doubt,' embodies this ultimate truth-seeing; the ability to perceive beyond appearances and discern the true identity of individuals, regardless of the coverings of the world's 'night.'

This capability of 'unfailing recognition' can be traced to several layers: one, to the 'king-recognizing eye' (چشم شاه‌شناس) that God's vicegerents (awliya) possess, enabling them to recognize the hidden King in any guise; second, to God Himself, the undeniable observer of all hidden deeds; and finally, to the Day of Judgment, when the true King sits on the throne of justice and all masks fall away. On that Day, humans will finally understand who that companion was, whom they had not recognized during the night. The veils will be lifted, and 'they will realize, to their astonishment, that He was among us, and we did not see Him.'

Mowlana uses the word 'Qirwan' here. 'Qirwan,' a city in Tunisia, is a literary symbol for a distant place or the utmost darkness, 'like the blackness of tar.' Thus, seeing in Qirwan means seeing in ultimate concealment and hiddenness. Therefore, the thief's skill is not merely a trick among rogues, but a subtle reference to the perception of humans' inner truths, which are veiled by worldly heedlessness; a perception that ultimately leads to recognizing the 'mines' of human existence (an allusion to the saying 'People are like mines'), allowing one to discern who is 'gold' and who is 'copper.'

Key takeaways

• This mortal world is like a dark night where truths and the Divine presence are hidden.
• True recognition means perceiving the inner essence and being of individuals, beyond their outward appearances and worldly disguises.
• God's presence is within all human suffering and calamities, never His absence.
• This world operates by its 'system of night,' deferring the full revelation of truths to the 'Day' of Judgment.
• The ability to discern the 'gold' from the 'copper' in people's existence is an inner insight and mystical intuition.
• Through this tale, Mowlana highlights the 'king-recognizing eye' of God's saints, who see beyond all veils.