M1:2711 — آب بارانست ما را در سبو / ملکت و سرمایه و اسباب تو

This couplet is spoken by the wife of a poor desert-dweller. Having collected some precious rainwater, she urges her husband to offer it to the Caliph in Baghdad. The gift is objectively worthless to a ruler whose city sits on the mighty Tigris river, but for this couple, it is everything they have.

The wife frames the offering not by its material value, but by the sincerity (ṣidq) behind it. The phrase "kingdom, capital, and all we possess" (mulkat va sarmāya va asbāb) is deliberately grand. It highlights the spiritual principle that the value of a gift lies in what it represents to the giver, not the receiver. For the bedouin, this jug of water is his entire estate. By giving it, he is giving his whole world.

Rumi later uses this story as an allegory for the spiritual seeker's offering to God. Our prayers and acts of devotion, like the bedouin's water, are laughably insignificant compared to the Divine Ocean. Yet, when offered with total sincerity—as the entirety of one's "possession"—they are accepted by God's grace.