M1:3512 — تا ز روز و شب گذر کردم چنان / که ز اسپر بگذرد نوک سنان

Translation: So that I passed beyond day and night, in such a way As the spear's tip passes through a shield.

Meaning: Zayd, through intense spiritual discipline, describes transcending the boundaries of time, reaching a state where the divisions of day and night lose their meaning for him.

This verse emerges from the dialogue between the Prophet Muhammad and Zayd, where the Prophet asks, "How did you spend your morning, faithful friend?" and Zayd responds, "As a certain servant." This utterance expresses one of Mowlana's deepest mystical insights, articulated through Zayd; he speaks of an experience of severance from the confines of time. He states that through such profound asceticism and inner burning, he passed beyond day and night – meaning, beyond the constraint of time – as definitively as a spear's tip pierces a shield. This simile underscores the decisive and penetrating nature of this transcendence; time, for the seeker, is like a firm shield that must be breached with sharpness and vigor.

Years ago, in my own discussions, I pointed out that Kant, the great German philosopher, considered time and space as a priori conditions for our scientific and mental understanding of the world. Yet Mowlana, centuries before him, speaks of the possibility of transcending these mental preconditions. He believed that our minds and intellects remain within the enclosure of time and space, but the seeker's soul can escape this enclosure. In this very section, he continues: "Beyond that (realm), all nations are one; a hundred thousand years and a single hour are the same; eternity and infinity become united; intellect has no path to this state of non-temporality." This means that beyond time, multiplicities converge into unity, years and hours become one, and eternity and infinity merge. And undoubtedly, the intellect, with its limitations, has no access to this timeless station (where iftiqād signifies the absence of time).

This transcendence of time is a prerequisite for grasping bi-ṣūratī (formlessness), a concept Mowlana repeatedly emphasizes. Just as the formless is spaceless, so too is the timeless present in all times. This aligns with the noble Hadith, "There is no morning or evening with your Lord," which describes God as being beyond temporal constraints. Thus, this verse is not merely a report of an individual experience, but an opening to a fundamental ontological and epistemological truth in the Masnavi: a truth that the intellect cannot comprehend, but which spiritual discipline and inner burning can lead us to attain.

Key takeaways

• Mystical experience allows for transcendence of temporal constraints through spiritual asceticism.
• In the state of timelessness, multiplicities (such as nations, years, and hours) converge into unity, and eternity and infinity merge.
• Our limited intellect cannot grasp this supra-temporal realm; such understanding is achieved through intuitive and inner realization.
• Mowlana's insight into transcending time predates similar philosophical theories in the West (e.g., Kant) by centuries.
• The aim of this transcendence is to reach the state of formlessness and liberation from the material constraints of the world.