M2:150 — چون غم خود نیست این بیمار را / چون غم جان نیست این مردار را

In the story, Jesus's companion begs to learn the divine name that resurrects the dead. Jesus, in a prayer to God, expresses his bewilderment at the man's misplaced priorities. This couplet is the core of his complaint.

Rumi uses a powerful metaphorical escalation. First, he calls the companion a "sick man" (bīmār), implying a spiritual illness. The man's sickness is precisely his lack of self-awareness; he doesn't grieve his own condition. In the second line, the diagnosis worsens: the man is not just sick, he is a "corpse" (murdār). This spiritual death is defined by a total lack of concern for his own soul (jān).

The point is a central one in Sufi ethics: the primary spiritual task is to attend to one's own inner state. The companion is focused on a spectacular, external miracle—reviving a pile of bones—while ignoring the far more urgent need to revive his own deadened soul. He has, as the next verse clarifies, "abandoned his own corpse" to try and mend a stranger's.