M1:2451 — کافر پیر ار پشیمان می‌شود / چونک عذر آرد مسلمان می‌شود

这句诗是丈夫对自己先前言行的深刻反思与道歉。在故事中，丈夫因贫困而对妻子恶语相向，甚至质疑天命。当他意识到自己的错误后，他将自己比作一个“苍老的信外之人”（کافر پیر）。

这个比喻非常有力。它不只是说“我错了”，而是说“我过去的整个存在方式都错了，就像一个一生都活在迷误中的人”。“苍老”一词（پیر）强调了这种错误的根深蒂固，似乎已无可救药。然而，鲁米紧接着指出，即使是这样的人，只要他真心“悔悟”（پشیمان）并“致歉”（عذر آرد），他就能“归信”（مسلمان می‌شود），即他的忏悔会被接纳，他的过错会被洗刷，他能重新回到正道。这不仅是伊斯兰教的核心教义——真主的无限仁慈——也是苏菲思想中关于“转化”（transformation）的根本信念。

因此，丈夫并非在进行神学辩论，而是在用一个极致的例子来恳求妻子的原谅。他在说：“如果连神都会宽恕一个一辈子都与祂为敌的人，那么，亲爱的妻子，你也一定能原谅我这一时的过错吧？”这句诗将人与人之间的宽恕提升到了神圣慈悲的高度，强调了悔改的巨大力量和宽恕的无上价值。

In the preceding verses, the husband, a poor Sufi, has been arguing with his wife about their poverty. He initially resisted her demands for worldly provision, but now he has had a change of heart, realizing his resistance was a form of spiritual pride. He sees her nagging not as a worldly distraction but as a divine signal calling him to humility and surrender.

He compares his own stubbornness to a kind of spiritual infidelity (kufr). Now, he repents before his wife, asking her forgiveness. This couplet is the core of his apology, functioning as a theological analogy for his own situation. He argues that if even a lifelong, aged unbeliever can be accepted into the fold of Islam simply by repenting and making an appeal (ʿudhr), then surely his own, much smaller 'sin' of stubbornness can be forgiven. The image of the 'old unbeliever' (kāfir-i pīr) emphasizes that the duration or gravity of the error is irrelevant in the face of sincere remorse.

For Rumi, this is a universal principle of divine mercy. God's grace is so vast that it can erase a lifetime of wrongdoing in an instant, provided the repentance is genuine. The husband applies this cosmic principle to his domestic dispute, transforming a personal apology into a profound statement about the nature of divine forgiveness and the path of return to spiritual submission (Islām).