M6:3776 — ز امر شاه خویش بیرون آمدیم / با عنایات پدر یاغی شدیم

Translation: From our own king's command, we stepped out / With the father's graces, we became rebels. Meaning: This verse is a confession of how over-reliance on one's own intellect, and a disregard for benevolent guidance and grace from superiors, can lead to rebellion and eventual calamity.

This verse is a confession from the perspective of youths who, due to pride and self-reliance, have fallen into calamity. They acknowledge: From our own king's command, we stepped out / With the father's graces, we became rebels. This means they defied the command and guidance of a king and father who represented boundless grace and compassion. Their admission, We considered easy the king's word / Those peerless graces, indicates they undervalued and dismissed divine, unparalleled advice and benevolence. This self-conceit resulted in their fall into the 'ditch' of affliction: Now we all fell into the ditch / Killed and wounded by calamity without a battle. They suffered wounds and destruction, not from external conflict, but purely from errors in judgment and over-reliance on themselves. The root of this calamity, as Rumi explicitly states, is our reliance on our own intellect and culture/upbringing. Here, Rumi offers one of his deepest critiques of autonomous, unchecked reason. I have always maintained that our intellect, despite its immense preciousness and importance, is profoundly vulnerable. Is this intellect sound or diseased? Is it complete or flawed? More crucially, is it free, or has it become a slave to emotions, self-interest, and carnal desires? Who can guarantee their intellect is free from such afflictions? Rumi rightly notes that we saw ourselves as free from illness and servitude (بی‌مرض دیدیم خویش و بی‌رق); meaning, we deemed ourselves perfect and independent of hidden bondages. One of the most fundamental functions of prophets and saints is the liberation of the intellect. They prioritize freeing the intellect from the shackles of ignorance, prejudice, whims, and passions, even more than political and social freedoms. Human reason is like a ripe, sweet fruit, beset by hundreds of pests and worms. Relying on such an intellect, without constant vigilance and self-examination, is tantamount to self-destruction. This is precisely the point Rumi emphasizes here: our error lay in relying on our own intellect—an intellect that might be diseased and enslaved—and this reliance alone brought upon us a great calamity.

Key takeaways

• Undue reliance on one's own intellect, without assessing its condition (healthy or diseased, free or enslaved), leads to calamity.
• Prophets and saints primarily sought the liberation of the intellect from the bonds of ego and desires.
• Divine counsel and graces should not be taken lightly; ignoring them has severe consequences.
• Intellect, for all its worth, is vulnerable and requires constant care to be free from the afflictions of self-conceit and servitude.