M6:626 — رو کزین جو برنیایی تا ابد / لم یکن حقا له کفوا احد

Translation: Go, may you never rise from this stream, forever / For truly, there is none comparable to it.

Meaning: This verse proclaims the singularity and incomparability of love; all that is not love is insignificant and worthless before its grandeur and must be cast aside.

This verse emerges from an impassioned section of the Masnavi where Mawlana first identifies himself as a candle whose burning illuminates others, declaring this very immolation his qibla. He then points to the 'street of the sleepless' and the 'love-crazed,' those consumed by love, who, like moths, cast themselves into the fire of union. Mawlana crafts a potent image of love, a hidden, captivating dragon that draws even mountain-like reason as if by amber.

Continuing this imagery, Mawlana turns to the 'attar' (perfumer). The perfumer here symbolizes the wise human being who, upon catching the musky, intoxicating scent of love, casts all his boxes of other perfumes into the stream. Why? Because the fragrance of love is so penetrating and peerless that it renders every other scent trivial and worthless in comparison. The true perfumer is one who, faced with love's enchanting aroma, values no other perfume and instantly dismisses them from existence. It is from this perspective that Mawlana declares with unparalleled certainty:

Go, may you never rise from this stream, forever

This address is not to empty boxes, but to those worthless perfumes themselves; to all the manifestations of life and petty, trivial attachments that hold no value against authentic love. Mawlana, it seems, curses them to remain forever buried in that stream, never to resurface.

And then, to emphasize this peerlessness and singularity of love, Mawlana directly echoes the Quran: lam yakun ḥaqqan lahu kufuwan aḥad. This phrase is taken from the fourth verse of Surah al-Ikhlas (112:4), revealed concerning the singular essence of God and asserting His attribute of 'peerlessness.' But Mawlana applies this verse here to love. This is one of Mawlana's interpretive masterpieces: he demonstrates that 'love' itself, in its state of incomparability and uniqueness, is so unrivaled and singular that it is the most fitting concept for this noble verse. Nothing else can be a peer to love, neither in the realm of meaning nor in the realm of form. Love, like the divine essence, is unique and absolute, and anything that claims to compete with it is condemned to eternal annihilation. Here, love itself attains a divine status, and its singularity seems to be a verse from the singularity of God.

Key takeaways

• In Mawlana's ontology, love holds a divine and unparalleled status.
• Disregarding worldly and trivial attachments is a prerequisite for experiencing love's grandeur.
• Mawlana's application of the Quranic verse 'lam yakun lahu kufuwan aḥad' to love underscores its absolute and unrivaled singularity.
• The 'perfumer' (attar) symbolizes reason and wisdom, which, when confronted with love's radiance, relinquishes all its prior achievements.
• The verse asserts that nothing, neither in the material world nor in the realm of meaning, can be comparable to true love.