M6:3471 — چشم شه دو گز همی دید از لغز / چشم آن پایان‌نگر پنجاه گز

Translation: The Shah's eye, from that perplexing word, saw only two yards; The eye of that end-seer, a full fifty yards.

Meaning: This verse contrasts the shortsighted person, who sees only the immediate and superficial, with the farsighted one, who perceives long-term consequences and deeper realities.

This verse arrives in the middle of a crucial story about sight and perspective. The Khwarazmshah owns a heavenly horse and is captivated by it. His vizier, Imad al-Mulk, however, wishes to extinguish this love in the Shah's heart. He accomplishes this with a single utterance, a subtle temptation. He says the horse is magnificent, 'but its head is defective in its body.' He suggests its head resembles that of a cow. This one sentence, this laghz—a perplexing and deceptive word—does its work, rendering the celestial steed base and worthless in the Shah's eyes.

Mowlana juxtaposes two kinds of vision here: the 'eye of the present' (cheshm-e hāl) and the 'eye of the consequence' (cheshm-e ma'āl). The eye of the present is superficial, stopping at the immediate moment, at the two yards directly in front of it. This is the Shah's eye. He is captive to the vizier's beguiling words and can no longer see the horse's beauty. But the eye of consequence is farsighted, looking fifty yards ahead. This is the eye of the cunning vizier, who knows the result and outcome of his words, calculating their effect from a distance.

But Mowlana moves beyond this specific example. The issue is not merely a vizier's stratagem; it is the very definition of intellect. In Mowlana's view, 'aql (intellect) is nothing other than farsightedness. The wise person is an 'end-seer' (ākhar-bīn), not a 'manger-seer' (ākhur-bīn). He is not deceived by the sweet promises and unripe fruits at the beginning of the path. He understands that many of this world's affairs are, in Mowlana's own phrase, a 'rotten walnut' (jowz-e pūsideh)—a nut with a tempting exterior but no kernel inside. The prudent one 'sees this from afar' and has no need to test it, crack it open, and be disappointed.

The apex of this end-seeing vision belongs to the prophets. Mowlana states, 'Since the Master's eye was paired with the end / With that vision he called the world a carcass (jīfeh).' Because the Prophet's sight was fixed upon the ultimate end, the Hereafter, it was with that perspective that he saw the world as a carcass around which dogs gather. This is not pessimism; it is a realism born of viewing reality from a vastly elevated and distant vantage point.

Thus, this verse teaches an epistemological and ethical principle. It warns us not to lend our eyes to others, especially to the 'base ones' (khasān) who, like vultures, will lead us toward carrion. The story's ultimate moral is that you have eyes, so look with your own eyes. And if you need a guide, do not choose a staff-bearer who is 'blinder' than yourself. You must seek a vision that truly sees fifty yards ahead, not one that leaves you stranded within the two yards at your feet.

Key takeaways

• Our perception is fragile and can be completely transformed by a single, motivated word.
• True intellect is farsightedness—the ability to see long-term consequences (ma'āl), not just immediate appearances (hāl).
• Many worldly attractions are internally hollow; the wise person recognizes this emptiness from a distance.
• The highest level of insight is the prophetic vision, which judges matters from the perspective of the ultimate end.
• In spiritual matters, either trust your own sight or follow a guide who is genuinely more seeing, not blinder, than you are.