M6:2834 — گفت حقش ای کمندانداز بیت / آن ز من دان ما رمیت اذ رمیت

Translation: God addressed him: "O lasso-thrower of the House! Know that was from Me: 'You did not throw when you threw.'"

Meaning: God tells the Prophet that his profound spiritual ascent (Mi'raj), akin to throwing a lasso towards the heavens, was in truth God's will and empowerment. This verse invokes the Quranic principle, "You did not throw when you threw," to explain the relationship between human action and absolute divine power.

This verse appears in the midst of the "Story of the Thieves," where Sultan Mahmud, disguised, asks each thief about their special skill. One thief boasts of his strong arm, capable of throwing a lasso to the top of a mountain. Mawlana immediately diverts our attention from this worldly skill to the spiritual sublime, connecting this "lasso-throwing" to the Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) Mi'raj, or ascension.

Mawlana explicitly speaks of the Prophet's "spiritual Mi'raj" and "ascension of the soul," rather than merely a physical one. It is as if the Prophet cast a lasso into the heavens with his "soul," an endeavor born from his inner longing and aspiration for a celestial flight. But the crucial point is that God immediately reminds him: "Know that this is from Me: 'You did not throw when you threw.'" (Quran 8:17). God tells the "lasso-thrower of the House (or Bayt al-Ma'mur)" that this success and capability were from Him.

This verse showcases the pinnacle of mystical paradox; paradox here is not a sign of error, but the very essence of truth. Philosophy strives to escape contradiction, but mysticism, because it speaks of a world beyond ordinary language, inevitably plunges into it. Language itself falters and stammers before such truths. How can an act simultaneously originate from man and from God? This paradox has deep roots in Islamic theology, particularly in the Ash'arite perspective, which emphasizes God's absolute and boundless power to such an extent that it can subject free will, causality, even logic and ethics, to His unconditioned will. In the Western tradition, we can find parallels in Nominalism, which ultimately refers all general laws back to God's specific and infinite will.

Mawlana, with his characteristic joy and fervor, embraces this inexhaustible divine power. For him, this is not a cause for fear but for security; it is faith in a God who is present in all actions, even the most exalted human ones, and is the ultimate agent. This paradox of "You did not throw when you threw" teaches us that behind every effort and every success, the powerful hand of God is always concealed. This is the expression of Tawhid al-Af'ali (Unity of Acts), which ultimately traces every action back to the true agent (God), without negating human effort and will, but rather defining it within a divinely ordained trajectory.

Key takeaways

• Mystical Paradox: Human action is simultaneously human and divine; contradiction in mysticism is a means to express truths that philosophy avoids.
• Prophet's Mi'raj as a Spiritual Ascent: Even the highest efforts for spiritual ascension are ultimately rooted in divine will and grace.
• Quranic Principle of "You Did Not Throw When You Threw": Clarifying the relationship between human will and action and God's absolute power, attributing every endeavor ultimately to the Divine.
• Absolute Divine Power: Mawlana joyfully embraces God's presence in all human actions, finding security in this omnipotence.
• Language of Awe: Ordinary language is insufficient to describe such profound truths, leading the mystic to embrace paradox and contradiction.