M3:3283 — آدمی را عجز و فقر آمد امان / از بلای نفس پر حرص و غمان

This couplet is part of Rumi's commentary on the story of a man who insists that Moses teach him the language of animals. Moses resists, knowing the man lacks the spiritual capacity to handle such a power. Rumi uses this narrative to explore a core Sufi theme: the paradoxical benefit of weakness and need.

Here, ajz (powerlessness, inability) and faqr (poverty, neediness) are not presented as misfortunes but as a form of divine protection (amān). They act as a natural barrier against the ravenous ego (nafs), which, if given power and wealth, would lead a person to ruin. The anxieties (ghamān) mentioned are not ordinary sorrows but the perpetual, self-inflicted distress that comes from limitless desire (ḥirṣ). By being unable to get everything it wants, the soul is saved from the very calamities its own greed would create.

In the context of the story, the man's insistence on gaining a special power is a perfect example of this dangerous greed. His limitation—his ignorance of animal speech—is actually his safeguard. Rumi argues that what we often perceive as a lack is, from a higher perspective, a mercy that keeps our destructive potential in check.