M1:1801 — ده زکات روی خوب ای خوب‌رو / شرح جان شرحه شرحه بازگو

Translation: O fair-faced one, give zakāt (alms) from your beautiful countenance; Recount the story of the soul, torn to pieces. Meaning: In this verse, Rumi implores the Beloved to bestow grace from their beauty and then to narrate in detail the fragmented tale of the longing, afflicted soul.

This verse, at first glance, appears as an invitation to the Beloved for grace and a recounting of the fragmented soul's tale. Yet, embedded within it lies a profound truth about our relationship with the world. I believe Rumi here alludes to a concept that in Western philosophy, Kant termed the 'Copernican Revolution': that we impress form upon the world, rather than the world reflecting its form in us. The world, as it were, is a formless matter, and it is through our perceptions, desires, and presuppositions that we imbue it with shape and meaning. Nothing is inherently beautiful or ugly; we make it so. If we ourselves undergo a transformation, the world, in turn, reveals a different face to us. This perspective fundamentally diverges from the notion that the world is a fixed, independent reality awaiting our discovery.

Rumi explicitly expands on this epistemological stance in other verses, where he states:

«لطف شیر و انگبین عکس دل است هر خوشی را آن خوش از دل حاصل است»

The sweetness of milk, the pleasantness of honey—these are reflections of our own hearts. It is we who bestow upon them the quality of 'pleasantness,' not the other way around. The heart, in this context, is the 'substance' (jawhar), and the world is the 'accident' (ʿaraḍ). The world is but a shadow of our heart. Thus, Rumi laments that some spend their lives chasing 'milk and honey,' meaning worldly attachments, while in truth, they are pursuing their own shadow. This is a grave error in discerning the essence from the derivative, or being a 'hunter of shadows' instead of a 'hunter of self.' The bird soaring high above, whose shadow an ignorant hunter pursues in vain until exhausted and sore-footed, illustrates this very mistake.

He goes even further, declaring:

«تا بدانی کاسمان‌های سمیع هست عکس مدرکات آدمی»

This is a verse that Rumi himself describes as both 'hidden and very manifest.' The lofty heavens are a projection of our human perceptions. We have made the sky the sky. To substantiate this claim, Rumi references the hadith, 'The first thing God created was intellect' (Awwal mā khalaqa Allāh al-ʿaql). If intellect was the first creation, and as philosophers contend, a transcendent entity, and our own intellect participates in that primal intellect, then the external world, including the heavens, are in essence the outward manifestations of our perceptions. This view closely resonates with the idealistic philosophies of Hegel and, prior to him, Plotinus, underscoring the profound extent to which the wellspring of existence and perception resides within us. This verse, in essence, is a prelude to the grand discovery that everything originates from us, and the world is a mirror reflecting the form of our inner being.

Key takeaways

• The beauty and grace of the world are reflections of our inner state and perception, not inherent qualities of objects themselves.
• We imbue the formless world with shape and meaning; an idea comparable to Kant's 'Copernican Revolution' in Western philosophy.
• Our heart and perception are the 'substance' (jawhar), and the world is the 'accident' (ʿaraḍ); meaning the cosmos is a shadow of our inner being.
• Chasing worldly pleasures is akin to 'hunting shadows,' distracting us from understanding our true essence.
• Even the lofty heavens are a projection of human perceptions and intellectual faculties.
• The belief that 'the first thing God created was intellect' highlights the paramount role of human perception in creation, viewing the world as a manifestation of intellect.