M6:1553 — این حیات از وی برید و شد مضر / وان حیات از نفخ حق شد مستمر

Translation: This (worldly) life was severed from Him and became harmful; But that (true) life, from God's breath, became continuous.

Meaning: This verse posits two distinct forms of life: the worldly existence, when detached from its divine source, proves detrimental, while the spiritual life, animated by God's breath, is truly eternal and enduring.

This couplet unveils a core epistemological distinction in Mowlana's thought, laying bare two fundamentally different modes of life. Undeniably, "this life" (īn hayāt) refers to our worldly, corporeal existence, a life severed from its true origin: the soul and the Divine Reality. Mowlana teaches us that whenever this life loses its connection to its divine source, it becomes "harmful" (mużirr) – not merely useless, but damaging and destructive. This echoes the judge's pronouncement in a famous Masnavi tale, where the ailing warrior is deemed "more dead than the dead in the grave"; for anything disconnected from its source loses its meaning and permanence, its very essence becoming corrupted.

In stark contrast, "that life" (ān hayāt) of which Mowlana speaks is one that "from God's breath became continuous" (az nafk-e Ḥaqq šod mustamirr). This "breath of God" (nafk-e Ḥaqq) is the divine insufflation that God breathed into humankind – the "My Spirit" (Rūḥī) mentioned in the Quran. This breath is the primal source of true, spiritual life, which is not only vibrant but also "continuous" and eternal. Unlike the "butcher's breath" (nafk-e qaṣṣāb), which merely serves to skin a carcass, the divine breath is the very agent of life and perpetuity. The butcher's breath is cunning and temporary, but the divine breath is authentic and everlasting, nourishing the very roots of existence.

The seekers, those treading the path of love, continually strive to extinguish this "harmful" life, which is the commanding self (nafs-e ammāra) and the false ego. This is precisely the "hundred deaths" of the ghazi in his hermitage, or the prophet Jarjis being "killed and revived sixty times." They knowingly and eagerly rush toward the "just spear-point" (sinān-e dādgar), imploring, "Burn me, strike me with another wound." These deaths are not annihilation but rebirth. Each death of the ego signifies the renewed blossoming of that continuous and eternal life from the divine breath. Here, annihilation itself becomes subsistence; a death that is life itself, thereby intensifying the lover's yearning for the "second, tenth, and hundredth murder." Mowlana reminds us here that only by dying to this apparent, worldly "life" can one attain that truly enduring and everlasting "life."

Key takeaways

• Life exists in two forms: the material (severed from God) and the spiritual (connected to divine breath).
• Worldly life, when disconnected from its divine source, becomes not just valueless but "harmful" and destructive.
• True and eternal life stems solely from the "Breath of God" (Nafk-e Ḥaqq), the divine inspiration.
• The mystic's repeated 'deaths' on the path of love are, in essence, renewals of life and access to "continuous life."
• Embracing the self-willed deaths of the ego is the pathway to immortality and authentic existence.