M6:2365 — زود ویران کن دکان و بازگرد / سوی سبزه و گلبنان و آب‌خورد

Translation: Quickly demolish your shop and return, Towards the greenery, the rose-gardens, and the water-source. Meaning: Rumi admonishes the ignorant and false claimants of knowledge to dismantle their pretenses and revert to the pure, natural springs of truth.

This verse is an unequivocal call to dismantle the shop of self-conceit and false claims. Rumi here speaks forthrightly of the jāhil, the ignorant one, who disdains to sit at the feet of a master (ustād) and learn. This jāhil, instead of cultivating humility and seeking truth, embarks on establishing their own dokān (shop or stall), setting up a marketplace of pretensions right over the master's head. But what is this shop? Rumi states plainly: “That shop, above the Master, O beloved, / Is foul and full of scorpions and snakes.” This dokān is not a place for acquiring knowledge; it is a den of corruption, where the perfume of lies and assertions is toxic, and scorpions and snakes of ignorance and arrogance have made their nest. This complete demolition and liberation from this deadly shop is the first step. It is the zīrakī, the reprehensible cleverness, that Rumi frequently critiques throughout the Masnavi, a cleverness that buckles before love and surrender.

After this demolition, what is to be done? One must “return / Towards the greenery, the rose-gardens, and the water-source.” These are the unadulterated symbols of truth; pristine and pure springs of gnosis. The greenery and rose-gardens speak of the natural freshness and beauty of existence, where growth and flourishing, unlike artificial shops, are unpretentious and unadorned. And the water-source (āb-khord), which Rumi himself interprets as “a waterfall, a place of abundant water,” points to the plenitude of pure wisdom, the very sea of knowledge in which Rumi himself was a swimmer. This invitation is, in essence, a return to pristine human nature and a connection to the clear stream of divine wisdom, accessible through the pīshvāyān-i dīn (spiritual leaders) and ustādān-i rāh (guides of the path). As the Masnavi declares, “Whoever takes up a craft without a master / Becomes a mockery in town and village.” Only the Divine Essence is without need of a master; all other beings are perpetually in need of a qallāvūz (guide) on their journey. This verse is an urgent summons to abandon self-imitation and embrace the authenticity and original source of spiritual life.

Key takeaways

• A call to humility and the abandonment of self-conceit on the path of knowledge.
• The unveiling of false learning's 'shop' and the folly of ignorant pride.
• The imperative of following true masters and genuine sources of wisdom.
• Emphasis on returning to the freshness and simplicity of truth, in contrast to artificial complexities.