M6:3748 — ور ز غیر صورتت نبود فره / صورتی کان بی‌تو زاید در تو به

Translation: If you have no recourse but to your (self-made) form, Then a form that is born within you without your agency is superior. Meaning: This verse instructs the seeker not to actively construct forms or concepts, but rather to empty themselves, allowing divine and spiritual forms to spontaneously manifest within their being without conscious effort.

This verse emerges from a profound discussion on the relationship between the 'Formless' (which is God) and 'Form' (manifestations and creations), offering guidance on the path the seeker should take. Rumi declares: if you have no recourse but to 'form' (that which you yourself create, perceive, and understand), and you believe that the path to perfection lies in grappling with these forms, then desist from creating them. Instead, allow for a 'form that is born within you without your doing' ( ṣūratī kān bī-tū zāyad dar tū bih). This means a form that manifests in your heart and mind without your conscious effort or creative act is far nobler and superior.

This statement is a call to 'become nothingness.' As Khaghani said, 'If nothingness can cast a shadow, I am that shadow of nothingness.' Rumi urges humans to empty their existence of self-made forms. We typically strive to construct images, concepts, and even definitions of God, yet these are all forms, and like other forms, they are needy and imperfect. Rumi advises us to discard them. Become empty, like a thirsty vessel awaiting rain. Recall the beautiful story of a prophet instructing his community to dig pits so that rain might fall. 'Seek less water, bring forth thirst, so your water may spring from above and below.' This means prepare yourself to receive, not to create. This sublime analogy deciphers the verse: empty your heart like a pit, and divine forms will be born and shower upon it.

Rumi's intent here is not to advocate abandoning material efforts or seeking apparent remedies; rather, his insistence is that to find God and higher truths, one must not get lost in the realm of 'intellection' and conceptual form-making. Thought and deliberation, whatever their nature, ultimately produce forms; forms which themselves are dependent on the Formless. The path to accessing the Formless is through 'self-annihilation' (afnā-ye khwīsh) and emptying oneself, not by filling oneself with mental forms. As long as 'you' exist and create forms, you will not reach God; you must remove yourself for Him to enter.

Rumi elaborates that, in reality, all our movements in this world, even towards material forms, are driven by a formless delight—a joy that is itself placeless and timeless. We go to a city (the form of the city) for the pleasure (formless delight) it offers. We approach a beloved (the form of the beloved) for the companionship (formless delight) we find with them. In essence, we move from one form to another to reach the timeless, formless origin. All of us are ultimately seeking the Formless, seeking God, even if we are unaware of our true objective and err in identifying its specific manifestations. It is this quest for the Formless that draws humanity from crude and coarse forms to subtler and more refined ones, until finally attaining the 'Subtlest of Subtleties' and the Absolute Formless.

In this journey, even those who turn towards the 'tail' (the secondary or lower manifestation) of forms, having lost sight of the 'head' (the essence and core), are not deprived of the grace and generosity of the Absolute Formless. The Formless extends its grace to them even through the 'tail.' But the most fortunate are those who lose both the 'head and tail'—the manifest and hidden aspects—of forms, utterly annihilating themselves in the Absolute Formless. 'When all was lost, all was found'; when they surrender everything, they gain everything, rushing from fragmentation and particularity towards the Whole. Like a drop, they merge with the Formless Ocean and themselves become formless.

Key takeaways

• Instead of creating forms, empty yourself so that divine forms may be born within you.
• The path to the Formless is 'becoming nothing' and self-annihilation, not intellectual thought or mental form-making.
• Every human pleasure and quest, even for material forms, has a formless, divine root.
• Cultivate thirst for truth, and the 'water' of divine wisdom will well up within you.
• The grace of the Formless reaches seekers even through the 'tail' (secondary manifestations) of forms.