M6:3235 — که ترا از عین این عکس نقوش / حق حقیقت گردد و میوه‌فروش

Translation: That for you, from the very essence of these depicted forms and images, Truth will become Reality itself and the seller of fruits.

Meaning: This verse suggests that with the right perception, what appears to be mere images or reflections of reality will reveal itself as the full, fruitful, and undeniable Truth.

This verse presents one of the Masnavi’s profound insights, where Rumi, with subtle artistry, lifts the veil on the nature of our perception. The reality of the world appears to each according to their vision; what you perceive as mere 'etched images' (ʿaks-i noqūsh) can, for another, be 'Truth, Reality itself' (ḥaqq ḥaqīqat) and a 'fruit-seller' (mīveh-forūsh). This imagery stands in direct opposition to 'double-vision' (dubīnī) or 'squint-eyedness' (aḥwalī), which keeps humans enshrouded in multiplicity, cut off from unity.

Rumi illustrates this point with the story of a man named 'Omar' who travels to the city of Kashan. In this city, all shopkeepers are Shi'a, and due to his name, no one will sell him bread. The man is referred from one shop to another, failing to grasp that 'all the shops are one' in their shared refusal to serve someone named Omar. As long as he remains 'aḥwal' (double-sighted), seeing the shops as separate entities and expecting to get bread from another, he remains deprived. If the illumination of 'non-aḥwalī' (unity-vision) were to shine upon his heart, and he understood that there is no difference between these shops, then 'Omar would become Ali in the heart of Kashan.' This means his 'name' – his perception, his allegiance, his identity – would shift from Omar to Ali, or as Nicholson suggests, he would gain such insight that the distinction between names would become meaningless, and he would perceive the underlying unity. Only then would he be saved from this 'constant referral' and find his bread. The 'earthy Kashan,' this 'world full of fear and hope,' brings nothing but wandering and ennui to the 'aḥwal' person, yet for the people of insight, every corner is brimming with Truth.

Rumi then turns to another metaphor to make the point more tangible: “The eye, washed clean of the fear of double-vision, sees a reflection, and the basket fills.” You might merely see the reflection (ʿaks) of a fruit in flowing water, but if your eye is freed from the dread of 'dubīnī' and cleansed of its 'ḥarr' (dust/heat), you suddenly find your basket filled with real fruits. Here, the reflection and the reality become one; what you perceived as mere illusion was, in fact, the very essence of reality appearing to you in the guise of imagination.

This is precisely the mystical experience that, for many, is considered fantasy or illusion. Yet for the seeker, it is the form of Truth itself. Truth does not always need to take material form; it can manifest in the guise of imagination or even as mere images and patterns. “I desire an eye that recognizes the King, so it may recognize the King in every garment.” This is the unity-perceiving insight that observes the hidden in the manifest, and the formless in the formed.

Rumi also brings in his critique of Bilqis from this context. When Bilqis arrived before Solomon, she crossed his glass palace and mistook it for water, lifting her skirts. Solomon informed her, “It is a pavement of smoothed glass” (Quran 27:44); it was glass, not water. Bilqis was deceived by appearances. However, in our current verse, the point is often the reverse: what you perceive as a deceptive appearance or a mere image is itself the inner reality and the source of fruitfulness, and it should be embraced. One must not dismiss the 'bubble' (ḥubāb) of appearance but find depth within it and witness the Truth. Thus, “this water, in its true meaning, is a garden” — for if water yields fruit, it is no longer just water; it is a garden in its essential meaning.

Key takeaways

• The world's reality resides not in its outward appearance, but in our unity-perceiving vision; what the surface eye sees as an image, the inner eye perceives as Truth.
• Deprivation and wandering (like the story of Omar in Kashan) result from a fragmented, 'double-vision' perspective that obstructs the perception of unity.
• Mystical experiences, though outwardly seeming like mere imagination, are the very essence of Reality manifested in a different guise (the form of imagination).
• The 'filling of the basket from a reflection' illustrates that by shifting our perception, what we deemed an illusion becomes the very source of reality and grace.
• To attain 'Truth, Reality itself,' one must cleanse the eye from the 'dust of double-vision' (hawl-i ḥarr), enabling the recognition of the Divine in every manifestation.