M2:145 — کان نَفَس خواهد ز باران پاک‌تر / وز فرشته در روش دراک‌تر

This couplet is Jesus's explanation for why his foolish companion cannot be taught the divine name that revives the dead. The power is not in the words themselves, but in the spiritual state of the one who utters them. Rumi uses two powerful images to define this state.

First, the breath (nafas) of the speaker must be "purer than rain." Rain is a symbol of divine mercy and life-giving purity descending from the heavens. To be purer than this archetypal purity implies a spirit completely cleansed of ego, desire, and worldly attachment. It is a breath that has become a direct conduit for divine will, unclouded by personal motive.

Second, this spirit must be "more discerning in its way than an angel" (darrāk-tar). Angels are beings of light and obedience, but they act according to their fixed, divinely-appointed nature. The perfected human saint, in the Sufi view, possesses a higher form of perception—one born from the trials of earthly existence and the free-willed struggle to know God. This discernment allows them to understand the divine wisdom (ḥikmat) behind life and death, and to wield such power only in perfect alignment with that wisdom, unlike the companion who is driven by mere whim and ego.