M2:2218 — سوی مکه شیخ امت بایزید / از برای حج و عمره می‌دوید

This couplet opens a well-known story about the Sufi saint Abu Yazid al-Bistami (Bayazid). Rumi presents him as a paragon of spiritual authority—the Shaykh-e Ummat (master of the community)—undertaking the most revered ritual journey in Islam. The verb mī-davīd (was running/hurrying) conveys not just travel, but an intense, goal-oriented spiritual striving.

However, this opening sets up a dramatic reversal. The story's title, "The Shaykh Abu Yazid being told, 'I am the Kaʿba; circumambulate me,'" signals that Bayazid's conventional pilgrimage will be interrupted. The subsequent verses immediately pivot from the physical journey to Mecca to Bayazid's deeper practice: in every town, his first priority was to seek out a true 'Man of God.'

Rumi uses this narrative to subordinate the outward, geographical pilgrimage to the inward, human one. The physical Kaʿba in Mecca is a symbol, a destination of stone. The true destination, Rumi argues, is the perfected human being, the 'living Kaʿba,' whose heart reflects the divine presence. Bayazid's journey, therefore, begins as a conventional act of piety but becomes a lesson in distinguishing form from essence, ritual from reality.