M1:3513 — که از آن سو جملهٔ ملت یکیست / صد هزاران سال و یک ساعت یکیست

Translation: For on that side, all epochs (nations/creeds) are one; A hundred thousand years and a single hour are the same. Meaning: This verse refers to a mystical experience where the seeker, by transcending the confines of time, reaches a state where temporal multiplicity and the distinctions of ages vanish, and everything converges into an eternal oneness.

As I have often stated, our minds, as Kant rightly observed, are structured to perceive objects within the categories of time and space. We place everything within these frameworks, and to imagine comprehension without them seems almost impossible. Yet, Rumi, centuries before Kant, speaks of an experience that transcends these mental prerequisites—an experience of timelessness and spacelessness. This verse is part of the extraordinary tale of Zayd and his dialogue with the Prophet. The Prophet asks Zayd, “How have you fared this morning, O faithful companion?” and Zayd replies, “A servant firmly convinced,” meaning he stands upon certainty, seeing realities with inner insight. The Prophet asks for a sign, and Zayd recounts seeing the inhabitants of heaven and hell, and other unseen realities, until the Prophet, with a gesture, bids him to cease further revelations. Yet, before this silence, Zayd explains how he attained such a station. He describes how, through the pain and ardor of ascetic practices, he became separated from day and night: “For days I have been thirsty, for nights I have not slept from pain and anguish / Until from day and night I became so severed / That like a spearhead passing through a shield.” This “severance from day and and night” is the key to understanding this verse. He states that like a spear piercing a shield, he has passed through the shield of time, reaching beyond it. On that side of time—in that realm of timelessness and spacelessness—“all epochs are one.” Here, millat refers not merely to nations or communities, but to ages and durations; meaning all times are one there. “A hundred thousand years and a single hour are the same.” This statement clearly indicates that in this profound mystical experience, the vastness and distinctions of time become meaningless, and all temporal fragments gather into an eternal, primordial unity. Rumi explicitly adds in the subsequent verses: “Eternity (azal) and infinity (abad) are united / Reason has no way to that place of absence (of time).” In that station, pre-eternity and post-eternity, past and future, present and coming, are all united. The crucial point, however, is that human reason and intellect have no access to this realm; in a land where time is absent, reason is blind and finds no path. Time itself is a form of the natural world, and formlessness is concomitant with timelessness and spacelessness. A timeless entity is present not only in all times but also in all places, because its relation to all times and places is uniform, which is what renders it timeless and spaceless. It is here that the Prophet’s hadith finds its meaning: “There is no morning or evening with your Lord.” This saying, in the view of mystics and philosophers, means that God is fundamentally outside of time. What Rumi conveys is that we humans, even in this temporal existence, are connected to the timeless realm. We are already in eternality, not that we will join it in the future. Our relationship to the timeless is equal, and azal and abad are united there. This is a “secret” (rāz), not an “unknown” (maj’hūl) to be solved by reason; it is a reality to be entered into through experience.

Key takeaways

• Our minds perceive reality through time and space, yet Rumi speaks of an experience beyond these categories.
• Through ascetic practice, the mystic transcends the confines of day and night, entering a realm of timelessness.
• In the state of timelessness, temporal multiplicity vanishes, making thousands of years equal to a single hour.
• This experience of the unity of pre-eternity and post-eternity is beyond the grasp of human reason.
• God is fundamentally outside of time, and we humans are already situated in timelessness and eternity.
• This insight is a 'secret' (rāz) to be entered into through experience, rather than merely understood by argument.