M6:4274 — جز دل محجوب کو را علتیست / از نبیش تا غبی تمییز نیست

Translation: Except for the veiled heart, which harbors an ailment, It makes no distinction from its prophet to its dullard.

Meaning: Mowlana asserts that a heart afflicted by spiritual sickness or veil loses its discerning faculty, becoming unable to differentiate between a prophet's profound insight and a dullard's ignorance.

In this verse, Mowlana unveils a pivotal insight, one upon which the comprehension of existence and truth hinges. He states that some hearts are “veiled” (mahjūb) and “ailing” ('illat). These tainted, sick hearts have lost the faculty of “discernment” (tamīz). What is discernment? It is the ability to distinguish, to differentiate. Such hearts fail to differentiate between a “prophet” (nabī) and a “dullard” (ghabī). The prophet, of course, is a bearer of divine revelation, while Mowlana clarifies that a dullard is an ignorant and foolish person.

Thus, the veiled heart not only sees no difference between a prophet and a fool but also fails to distinguish between truth and falsehood, honest and deceitful speech, or virtuous and wicked individuals. This is a truth Mowlana insists upon repeatedly. It is for this reason that, in understanding prophets, Mowlana—like Ghazali—attaches little importance to miracles. Miracles serve to silence enemies, not to establish the truthfulness of a prophet. Instead, Mowlana points to the “pure human nature” (fitrat-i pāk), a nature that, when confronted with the words of prophets, finds them “heart-pleasing” (dilneshīn) and accepts them due to their intrinsic appeal. This is a call that rises from the depths of human nature and settles in the soul.

Deceptive and cunning individuals may mislead some for a while, but ultimately, their deception fades and does not endure. However, the word of truth endures and persists, just as God promised the Prophet that His miraculous word would be preserved and would fill the horizons with minarets. This is divine affirmation: a word that God taught His prophet, which, by settling in hearts and being accepted by souls, reverberated throughout the world. This indicates that truth, unlike falsehood which breeds suspicion (rība), brings tranquility (ṭam'anīna), just as a thirsty person finds peace with water.

Mowlana continues by stating, “The moon may split, but not the veiled heart.” (Mah shekāfad v-ān dil-i mahjūb nī). Even the moon might split (alluding to the Prophet's miracle of Shaqq al-Qamar, the splitting of the moon), but the veiled heart will not split or be transformed. This attests to the stubbornness and hardness of a heart that is shielded from truth. Elsewhere, Mowlana distinguishes between “hellish speech” and “heavenly speech”: “One utterance comes from hell to the lips / Another comes from the city of the soul to the street of the lips.” The human lip acts as a maraj (like a barrier, akin to the barzakh between two seas) that distinguishes between these two oceans of speech (soul-nourishing and burdensome speech). But the veiled heart fails to perceive this distinction.

This situation is analogous to a marketplace (yapnalū, a Mongolian word for market or customs house) where both “defective and counterfeit goods” (kāleh-i ma'yūb-o qalb) and “profitable goods, like pearls” (kāleh-i pur-sūd-o chūn dur) are found. A more “experienced merchant” (bāzargān-tar) can, with a single glance, recognize genuine (pure) goods from counterfeit ones. Such a person finds a “house of profit” (dār-ul-ribāḥ). But for one who is “blind” (kūr) and “unaware” ('amā), meaning lacking expertise in goods, this market becomes a “house of sin” or loss (dār-ul-janāḥ) instead of a house of profit. The veiled heart, like an inexperienced merchant, errs in identifying the soul’s true commodities, and this very ailment obstructs its insight. Ultimately, weariness with truth does not stem from the repetition of words but from a lack of “hunger” (bī-jū'ī); if one possesses a genuine thirst and hunger for truth, even repeated words appear fresh and never tire them.

Key takeaways

• Spiritual ailment and veiling of the heart eradicate the faculty of discernment.
• A veiled heart cannot distinguish between a guiding prophet and an ignorant fool.
• Truthfulness (ṣidq) possesses an inherent, appealing 'scent' that a healthy heart perceives, but a diseased heart is deprived of it.
• Mowlana emphasizes that the affirmation of prophets stems not from miracles, but from the impact of divine speech on pure human nature.
• The hardness and indifference of a veiled heart remain unchanged even in the face of profound truths and miracles.
• A lack of understanding or weariness with truth originates from the heart's satiety and lack of appetite, not from the truth's antiquity.