M6:619 — خوش بسوز این خانه را ای شیر مست / خانهٔ عاشق چنین اولیترست

Translation: Happily burn down this house, O intoxicated Lion / The lover's house is most befittingly so. Meaning: The lover invites the Beloved, depicted as a wild, intoxicated lion, to burn down the lover's very being, asserting that this complete annihilation is the most fitting state for one consumed by love.

This verse encapsulates the pinnacle of surrender and sacrifice that defines the lover's stance before the Beloved; a surrender that finds meaning solely within pure mysticism and profound love, transcending the boundaries of reason and jurisprudence. Here, in this part of his ghazal, Rumi addresses the Beloved, imploring that the house of the lover's being, with all its attachments, be utterly consumed by fire. Yet, this burning is not a bitter or painful ordeal; rather, it is welcomed with joy: "خوش بسوز" – burn happily, implying a complete and joyous consent to this annihilation.

Why does the lover harbor such a wish? Rumi here introduces a profound point. He says to the Beloved: "Burn your own house, for it is yours to burn / Who is there to say to you, 'It is impermissible?'" This 'house,' which is the lover's very existence, is in truth the Beloved's property. In the logic of love, absolute ownership belongs to the Beloved. The lover has surrendered their entire being. If the Owner wishes to burn His own property, who can declare it "unlawful" (la yajūz)? This is where fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), which operates on the principles of permissibility and impermissibility, recedes, and absolute submission reigns. Just as the Ash'ari theologians argued that God is permitted to do anything within His dominion, for "He acts within His own property, not another's," so too does Rumi apply this principle to the realm of love. In this context, any act of the Beloved upon the lover's being is the essence of lawfulness and rectitude.

The epithet "intoxicated Lion" (shīr-e mast) for the Beloved is also deeply thought-provoking. This image portrays the Beloved as both a formidable and absolutely powerful entity, and one who, in a state of intoxication, acts seemingly unconsciously and without deliberation. The Beloved is intoxicated by His own beauty and grandeur, continuing this 'slaughter' and 'destruction' either knowingly or unknowingly. This 'intoxication' signifies love's dominance over reason and calculation, both in the Beloved and in the lover. In this wine-drinking of love, all rational considerations and logics are set aside.

Ultimately, this verse is an invitation to transcend any concern for self-preservation and attachment to the ego. The lover's 'house' – that abode where egoistic attachments and selfhood have taken root – is most fittingly consumed by the fire of love, so that the lover's pure and unadulterated essence may remain. This is not an end, but the beginning of another path; a path where the lover, by burning, gains light and, like a candle, illuminates others. This burning is not out of vengeance, but out of purification and transcendence.

Key takeaways

• The pinnacle of a lover's submission: gladly allowing the house of one's being to be consumed.
• The Beloved's absolute ownership over the lover's existence, transcending legal notions of 'permissibility'.
• The "intoxicated Lion" metaphor for the Beloved: symbolizing love's fierce, unrestrained, and uncalculating power.
• "Happily burn": a destruction embraced with joy and for transcendence, not pain.
• The annihilation of the ego's 'house' as a path to a purer, unadulterated existence.
• Love's triumph over reason, setting aside conventional logic.