M6:3605 — پیش از آن بر راست و بر چپ می‌دوید / که بچینم درد تو چیزی نچید

Translation: Before that (the day of death), they would run right and left, / Saying, "Let me pluck your pain," yet plucked nothing. Meaning: This verse underscores the futility and inefficacy of worldly assistance when death arrives; those who once eagerly promised to alleviate suffering become powerless and absent in the face of ultimate need.

I believe that in this verse, Rumi offers a clear and unvarnished depiction of the impermanence of worldly supports. He speaks of the “Day of Passage” (Yawm al-ʿUbūr), the day we must cross from this world, and in that critical moment, all our attachments and dependencies become “severed from their means” (qāṭiʿ al-asbāb). Prior to that, when life was favorable, people, friends, and all that we held dear, “would run right and left”; as if eagerly wishing to render service, to place a hand on our shoulders, and to kindly say, “Let me pluck your pain”—may your pain be mine, allow me to relieve your sorrow, to care for you. These are the warm, comforting words of prosperous times, uttered out of kindness and friendship, and seemingly hopeful.

But Rumi continues with unparalleled certainty: “yet plucked nothing.” In that final moment, facing the army of death, these empty words and promises prove to be futile. No one can lift another’s burden; no hand can work a cure for the pain of death. It is here that the veil is lifted from the deceit of the world, the “Abode of Delusion” (dār al-ghurūr); a world that yesterday embraced you and promised aid, now, on the “Day of Passage,” withdraws its foot and declares: “My path with you ends here.”

This meaning echoes the Quranic truth: “Indeed, you have come to Us alone, just as We created you the first time”—you will appear before Us alone, just as you came into the world alone. This solitude is not the agonizing existentialist loneliness of an absent God, but a solitude in the presence of an ever-present God, free from worldly intermediaries. Christians, too, beautifully articulate that each person carries their own cross. No one can bear another’s burden. Friends and supporters are but “flies around sweetness” who vanish once the sweetness and joy are gone.

Rumi’s aim, in essence, is to guide us to the point that true support must well up from within; that “inner well” or the “spring of the Beloved’s face” that we have prepared within our own souls. When confronted by death’s “severing of means,” only that inner spring can quench our thirst, not the empty, superficial promises that in good times “ran right and left” but in times of dire need “plucked nothing.” This is a lesson in self-sufficiency from creation and reliance on the Absolute Truth.

Key takeaways

• All worldly supports are ultimately fleeting and unreliable.
• Promises of help and solidarity from others, abundant in good times, prove ineffectual at the moment of death.
• Death is the 'severer of means,' cutting all threads of worldly dependency.
• Each person appears before God alone, just as they came into the world alone.
• True support must spring from within, from the 'inner well' and connection with the 'spring of the Beloved's face.'
• This verse is an invitation to self-sufficiency from creation and reliance on Absolute Truth.