M6:2062 — هشته‌اند این قوم صد علم و کمال / مکر و تزویری گرفته کینست حال

Translation: This group has laid out a hundred claims of knowledge and perfection, Yet what they've adopted is deceit and hypocrisy, for this is their true state. Meaning: In this verse, Rumi critiques superficial Sufis who, despite claiming spiritual knowledge and high station, have actually fallen into hypocrisy and deceit. Their true state, he suggests, is not perfection, but cunning.

This ardent and cutting verse serves as a mirror Rumi holds up to a segment of the Sufis of his era—those who, instead of diving into the ocean of gnosis, contented themselves with the shores of deceit and pretension. I am thoroughly convinced that Rumi here refers to a certain class of khānqāh-nashīnān (lodge-dwellers) who, instead of genuine asceticism and spiritual endeavor, had fallen prey to what I call 'lodge-pride' (ʿujb-i khānqāhī).

This 'group' would utter a hundred claims of knowledge and perfection, as if they had reached the highest pinnacles of wisdom and sainthood. But Rumi, with his perspicacious vision, pierces through the superficiality, unveiling their hypocrisy and pretense. Those who 'laid out a hundred claims of knowledge and perfection' had, in reality, 'adopted deceit and hypocrisy,' for their true 'state' was nothing but cunning.

One of Rumi's most serious critiques of this group was their aversion to learning. It was a prevalent belief among them that studying was even forbidden, and illiteracy was seen as a sign of piety and detachment from the world. The story of a Sufi whose pen fell from his pocket, prompting another to exclaim, 'Cover your nakedness!' is a poignant testament to this unhealthy mindset. Ghazali, too, in his Ihyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn, laments this phenomenon, raising the jurisprudential question of whether an educated Sufi is entitled to receive donations from the lodge—implying that the default assumption was that a Sufi should be unlearned.

Instead of pursuing true knowledge, these individuals sought after 'illuminations' (ishrāqāt). They would say, 'We will polish this tablet of the heart until truths shine within it.' Alas, they achieved neither these illuminations nor any true knowledge. The result was that they neither engaged in nightly worship ('corpse by night,' jīfat al-layl) nor in daily work ('idle by day,' baṭṭāl al-nahār), but rather passed their time in idleness and laziness. This very condition drove them to 'deceit and hypocrisy,' compelling them to present themselves as possessors of 'Sufi and spiritual states' to deceive people.

Elsewhere in the Masnavi, Rumi compares them to the 'calf-worshippers' (ʿābidān-i ʿijl) of Moses's people, who 'cast religious law and piety aside.' He yearns for the presence of an 'Omar' (the second Caliph), renowned for his 'harsh enjoining of good and forbidding of evil' (amr bi-maʿrūf va nahy az munkar), to guide this group to the right path and deter them from 'permissiveness' (ibāḥat)—the practice of deeming all actions permissible. This verse must be understood within the broader context of Rumi's extensive critiques of false Sufis and those who exploited Sufism as a pretext for abandoning religious law and attaining social standing.

Key takeaways

• Rumi explicitly criticizes the hypocrisy of superficial Sufis, whose true state contradicted their claims.
• Illiteracy and aversion to knowledge were significant afflictions among some Sufis of Rumi's time, leading to many deviations.
• These Sufis, instead of pursuing genuine knowledge or spiritual illuminations, succumbed to idleness and laziness, resorting to deceit and cunning.
• Rumi likens this group to the calf-worshippers who had abandoned religious law and piety.