M6:4024 — ور بگفتی گل به بلبل راز گفت / ور بگفتی شه سر شهناز گفت

Translation: And if she said, "The rose confided its secret to the nightingale," Or if she said, "The king spoke the secret of his beloved," Meaning:* This verse illustrates how Zuleikha, utterly consumed by her love for Yusuf, would use seemingly ordinary phrases and observations—like a rose sharing secrets or a king speaking of his beloved—as coded references to her ultimate Beloved, Yusuf.

In the story of the princes and Zuleikha's love, Mawlana unveils a profound truth: how love utterly transforms the language and worldview of the lover. Zuleikha was so enamored and infatuated with Yusuf that, it is as if her entire lexicon, her every observation of the world, and all her utterances, had but one single referent, and that was Yusuf.

This couplet is a brilliant example of this transformed language. When Zuleikha spoke of 'the rose' and 'the nightingale,' or of 'the king' and 'his beloved,' she appeared to be referring to ordinary, familiar matters. Yet, in essence, every word and every phrase was a symbolic and coded reference to her own Beloved. This is a crucial point: the language of the lover is no longer ordinary language; rather, it transforms into a deeply personal and esoteric code. As Mawlana himself further explains in this narrative, if Zuleikha spoke of something good and pleasing, her intention was union with Yusuf; and if she complained of something unpleasant, her aim was separation from Yusuf.

This phenomenon guides us to the profound epistemology of love: for the lover, reality is no longer fragmented into its constituent parts and objects; instead, everything takes on the hue and scent of the Beloved. The world, in its entirety, is distilled into the Beloved, and every part of it becomes a mirror reflecting the Beloved's presence or absence. This is not a conscious act of encoding; no, it is the most natural and spontaneous expression of her inner state. Zuleikha's companions, familiar with her condition, also understood this coded language. This indicates that the language of love, though personal and symbolic, is, for attuned hearts, comprehensible and revelatory. This is the very secret hidden behind all mystical allusions and references—allusions that, for those in a similar state of spiritual readiness, are more eloquent than explicit statements, revealing secrets within a veil of familiarity.

Key takeaways

• All-consuming love transforms the lover's entire language into coded references to the Beloved.
• Every word uttered by the lover, even if seemingly unrelated, secretly points back to the Beloved.
• Mawlana, through Zuleikha's story, illustrates how profound love redefines all reality for the lover.
• Discerning the lover's state through their symbolic language requires empathy and understanding of their condition.
• This manner of speech is not artifice, but the most natural expression of the lover's inner state.