M6:2154 — دو علم بر ساخت اسپید و سیاه / آن یکی آدم دگر ابلیس راه

Translation: He fashioned two banners, one white, one black; One became Adam, the other Iblīs, the blocker of the way.

Meaning: God created two opposing principles, good and evil, embodied by Adam and Iblīs respectively, as a means to unveil knowledge of Himself and the cosmos.

This beyt unveils the wisdom behind the creation of opposites, elucidating the roots of good and evil in existence from an epistemological perspective. I must assert, with utmost certainty, that Rumi presents a comprehensive theory here concerning the philosophy of contradiction and conflict in the cosmos.

As I have often remarked in my lectures, God, by the very intensity of His manifestation, is unique and without peer. He has neither an nad (like) nor a zidd (opposite). If He had an opposite, that opposite would contend with Him, and one would necessarily eliminate the other. But since God's existence is absolute, He has no opposite. The question then arises: how is God, who has neither like nor opposite, to be known? The sages have said, ‘al-ashyāʾu tuʿrafu bi-aḍdādihā’ — things are known by their opposites. A fish does not appreciate water until it is cast out of it. Humans do not truly grasp justice until they witness injustice. Therefore, for knowledge, we need an opposite, yet God has none.

Here lies Rumi’s answer: For His self-knowledge, God created the Khalifa (Caliph or vicegerent). He appointed a sāḥib-sīnah (a master of the heart), a self-aware gnostic, as His Khalifa, to be a ‘mirror’ (āyineh) for God's sovereignty. This mirror, unlike the divine essence, can have an opposite. Rumi states: ‘So He gave it boundless purity, / And then by the darkness of its opposite, He defined it.’ This means God bestowed infinite purity upon this human mirror, but simultaneously, He created its ‘opposite’ from darkness. This opposite can be external darkness or the internal rust of the mirror itself. This is Rumi’s intelligent ladder of knowledge: knowledge of God through knowledge of His Khalifa, and knowledge of His Khalifa through knowledge of its opposite.

This beyt reveals the apex of this philosophy: ‘He fashioned two banners, one white, one black.’ These are two symbols or standards, one white and one black. ‘One became Adam, the other Iblīs, the blocker of the way.’ The white banner is held by Adam, and the black banner by Iblīs or Satan. Thus is the philosophy of contradiction and opposites made manifest in the world. Good and evil, justice and injustice, life and death, joy and sorrow—all find their meaning in this field of opposing forces. The universe itself, in Rumi’s own words, ‘is sustained by this conflict.’ This world is a stage of struggle and contention, and this struggle is essential for its very existence.

However, it is crucial to note that the other world (the Hereafter) is free from this composition of opposites: ‘That world is nought but everlasting and prosperous, / One whose composition is not of opposites.’ There, life is without death, joy is without sorrow. But in this world, this contradiction and challenge are necessary for knowledge. This struggle between the army of Adam and the army of Satan, which began on the first day with Iblīs's refusal to prostrate before Adam and culminated in humanity's Fall, is precisely the crucible for the realization of knowledge and gnosis. This is why humanity was created ‘fī kabad’ (in toil and struggle), so that through confrontation with opposites, one might better know oneself and one's Creator.

Rumi, in essence, ‘weaves and spins the world around the axis of human existence.’ Without humanity, there is no sorrow or joy, no knowledge or suffering. It is we, human beings, who bring these concepts into being. We have fashioned the world in our own image, just as he said: ‘The wine became intoxicated by us, not we by it; / The form came into being from us, not we from it.’ We give shape to events and label them as painful or joyful. Thus, these contradictions are rooted in the being of God's Khalifa (humanity), and therefore, the creation of these two banners, white and black – these two armies of Adam and Iblīs – is an epistemological necessity for God, who is without opposite or like, to manifest Himself through the mirror of humanity, reflected in the mirror of opposites.

Key takeaways

• Knowledge of God, who is without opposite or like, is made possible through the creation of a 'Khalifa' (vicegerent) like humanity, serving as His 'mirror.'
• Unlike God, humanity (the Khalifa) can possess an opposite, and this duality creates the context for divine knowledge.
• Adam and Iblīs symbolize the two 'banners' (white and black) that manifest good and evil in the world.
• The cosmos is founded upon the 'war' and conflict between these opposing forces, a struggle essential for its existence and for knowledge.
• In contrast to this world, the Hereafter is free from opposites, promising life without death and joy without sorrow.
• Human existence is the axis of cosmic contradictions; it is we who bring concepts like suffering, joy, and knowledge into being.