M6:908 — گربه در انبانم اندر دست عشق / یک‌دمی بالا و یک‌دم پست عشق

Translation: A cat in my bag, in the hand of Love, / One moment it lifts me up, one moment it casts me down. Meaning: This verse vividly portrays the seeker's complete surrender to divine Love, likening the soul to a cat in a bag, tossed high and low without its own will, utterly yielding to Love's command.

Mowlana, an unparalleled master of imagery, employs a unique and almost visceral metaphor in this verse to portray the state of the seeker engulfed in divine Love. The 'cat in my bag' vividly captures utter helplessness, passivity, and absolute surrender. Just as a cat confined in a sack possesses no agency and is entirely at the mercy of the person shaking the bag, so too is the mystic's soul in the grip of Love. This beyt is a profound expression of Tawhid al-Af'ali (the unity of divine actions) conveyed in a simple, relatable language.

I have repeatedly stressed Mowlana's deep insights into Qaza (divine decree) and Jabr (determinism), but he frames this determinism within the context of Love's Jabbari (absolute power). He presents this verse after stating: I am but a blade of straw before You, O fierce wind, / I know not where I shall fall. Lovers have fallen into a swift torrent, / They have resigned their hearts to Love's decree. Here, the seeker perceives themselves not merely as a blade of straw tossed by a strong wind, but even as an animal in a bag, involuntarily rising and falling. This oscillation – rising and falling – reflects the spiritual Qabz (contraction) and Bast (expansion) that the seeker experiences along the path: one moment joy and expansion, the next sorrow and constriction. These states are beyond their control, for it is the hand of divine Love that manipulates them.

Recall Mowlana's famous analogies illustrating the relationship between agent and patient: 'The potter is the craftsman of the pot; / How else would the pot become wide or long?' or 'Wood in the carpenter's hand, seeking refuge, / Else how would it be cut and joined?' These examples demonstrate that objects are merely illat-i qabili (receptive causes) that have no inherent form and require an fa'il (agent) to shape them. The human soul, in the hand of Love, is likewise: at one moment it takes one form, at another, a different one; at one moment it rises, at another it falls. All this is from Love's wisdom and will, not the seeker's agency. In this sense, the human being is a tablet of mahv-o isbat (erasure and affirmation); their states and thoughts are continuously erased and replaced by others. 'It brings forth wrath and takes away contentment; / It brings forth avarice and takes away generosity.' These are all manifestations of subtle divine interventions within our being.

This complete surrender, importantly, stands in stark contrast to existentialist notions of human loneliness. In Mowlana's judayi (separation), reunion is always in sight, and the true Beloved is not absent but present and actively shaping events. This lack of agency in love does not imply emptiness or aimlessness; rather, it signifies an embrace that envelops the seeker's entire being, propelling them towards a transcendent destination, however arduous and unpredictable the path may be. These 'ups and downs' are themselves part of Love's wisdom, not a sign of caprice.

Key takeaways

• The human soul, like a cat in a bag in the hand of Love, possesses no will of its own and is entirely surrendered.
• Spiritual ups and downs (contraction and expansion) are involuntary experiences originating from divine Love's orchestration.
• Mowlana explains this surrender through analogies of agent and patient (potter and pot, tailor and cloth).
• This lack of agency is not an indicator of emptiness, but rather a manifestation of Tawhid al-Af'ali and the Beloved's constant presence.
• Unlike existentialist thought, in Mowlana's separation, a transcendent destination is always in view.