M6:2668 — پنج وقت آمد نماز و رهنمون / عاشقان را فی صلاة دائمون

Translation: Five times the prayer came, a guiding light, But lovers are fi salāt daʾimūn (in eternal prayer). Meaning: This verse states that while ritual prayer is ordained five times a day as a guide for all, true lovers are perpetually immersed in prayer and remembrance of their Beloved, never ceasing their devotion.

This profound verse, charged with Mevlana's characteristic fervor, draws a clear distinction between obligatory worship and boundless love. Undoubtedly, the five daily prayers (namāz), like a divine 'guiding light' (rehnamoon), are ordained for humanity to maintain a minimal relationship of servitude with God. This minimum, this remembrance (dhikr) of the Divine, even if initially performed without genuine spiritual state (hāl) or presence of heart (hozoor-e qalb), places the individual within a sacred magnetic field. This field can gradually create an attraction, perpetuate a tradition, and pave the way for a deeper meaning. It's quite possible that an act performed by me out of imitation might have a hundredfold effect on another, guiding them to the core of meaning; as it has been said, 'Many a bearer of jurisprudence conveys it to one who is more learned than himself.' It is through forms (sūrat) that we access meaning (ma'nā), and were it not for these forms, meaning would find no path to the heart.

However, Mevlana immediately transcends this. For 'lovers' (ʿāshiqān), these five prescribed times, or even five hundred thousand times, cannot quench an iota of their 'intoxicated longing' (khomār) or thirst. Love is a thirst of a different kind; an insatiable 'dropsy-like' (mostasqī-vār) craving that finds no rest within any limit. Like a dropsy patient who drinks endlessly, growing thirstier, and knows that this very water – which is their remedy – will ultimately be their demise, the lover in this boundless ocean of love grows ever more thirsty and enchanted, knowing that their annihilation lies within this very water of life. This estesqā (dropsy) signifies the ultimate intensity of thirst, arising from the unity of the lover and the Beloved.

Hence, the principle of 'visit every other day to increase love' (zurq bin tazdad ḥubbā) is inapplicable to lovers. This rule is for 'ordinary friends' (dūstān-e maʿmūlī), for those who are still in the 'station of multiplicity' (maqām-e kathrat), whose souls have not yet unified with the other. They grow weary and bored of constant visits. But how can lovers, whose souls have become one with the Beloved, grow weary of themselves? How can they keep away from the water when their very life depends on it? Just as fish cannot live without the sea and cannot be told to meet the water every other day, lovers are perpetually fi ṣalāt dāʾimūn; meaning they are never for a moment oblivious to the remembrance of the Beloved, for their life and existence depend on this constant presence. This is the true meaning of ṣalāt, which, beyond any form or obligation, focuses on the absolute remembrance and presence of the Beloved, and in which the true paradise of the gnostics (ʿārifān) is precisely the joy of beholding God, rather than mere food, sleep, anger, or lust.

Key takeaways

• The five daily prayers are a minimum obligation for servitude, but for lovers, a moment without the Beloved's remembrance is impossible.
• For lovers, fi ṣalāt dāʾimūn signifies constant presence and immersion in the remembrance of the Beloved, beyond mere ritual prostrations.
• The lover's thirst for the Beloved is akin to estesqā (dropsy); an infinite, unquenchable craving where even drinking from the water of life intensifies the longing.
• The rule to 'visit every other day to increase love' applies only to ordinary friends; lovers are so unified with the Beloved that they never grow weary.
• The analogy of the lover to a fish in the sea illustrates that the lover's very existence is utterly dependent on the presence and remembrance of the Beloved.