M6:822 — جمله عالم زین غلط کردند راه / کز عدم ترسند و آن آمد پناه

This couplet comes in a section where Rumi is discussing the true nature of existence and the illusion of separation. He argues that what appears as 'non-existence' (عدم, adam) is not something to be feared, but rather a 'refuge' (پناه, panah) or a return to the source. This concept is central to Sufi thought, particularly the idea of fana' (annihilation of the self) as a path to baqa' (subsistence in God). People mistakenly cling to their temporary, individual existence and fear its end, failing to see that the dissolution of the ego and the return to the formless is actually liberation and reunion with the Divine. Rumi implies that this fear prevents people from finding the true path, as they are fixated on the transient forms of the world rather than the eternal essence from which all things originate and to which they ultimately return. The preceding verses discuss how the eye of the senses is 'frozen' on passing forms, unable to see the underlying permanence, setting the stage for this critique of humanity's fundamental error.