M1:394 — شب ز زندان بی‌خبر زندانیان / شب ز دولت بی‌خبر سُلطانیان

Translation: At night, the prisoners are unaware of their prison; At night, the rulers are unaware of their sovereignty. Meaning: This couplet highlights how sleep equalizes all, rendering both the incarcerated and the powerful oblivious to their worldly conditions and statuses.

This couplet, presented allegorically, serves as a gateway to understanding the state of mystics, the arifs. Here, Mowlana draws on the universal phenomenon of sleep to illuminate a deeper reality. In sleep, it is as if a veil is drawn over worldly consciousness. The prisoner is no longer bound, and the sovereign forgets their throne and glory. Worries of gain and loss, and even thoughts of 'this one and that one,' fade from memory. This universal equality and oblivion in sleep is a prelude to explaining the 'state of the arif.'

Mowlana asserts: 'The arif's state is like this even without sleep.' This means that the arif, even while awake, exists in a condition akin to sleep. Not that they are unconscious, but rather, they are 'asleep' to the world and its superficial circumstances. The world appears to them like a dream; scenes witnessed in a slumber. This is not mere isolation or indifference, but rather, the arif perceives beyond the veil of appearances, grasping secrets that the 'awake' eyes of ordinary people cannot. This profound insight allows them to discern the 'invisible hands' – as I refer to them – guiding the world, while others might only perceive surface-level laws.

An arif sees themselves as a 'pen in the hand of the Divine Revolver' (qalam dar panjeh taqlīb-i rabb). This metaphor echoes the reed (ney) in the mouth of the reed-player from the Masnavi's opening. The reed itself has no sound except from the breath blown into it; the pen itself does not write except by the hand that wields it. The arif perceives their own existence as devoid of inherent independence, experiencing all their movements, intentions, and actions as entirely within the grasp of divine orchestration and 'revolving.' Taqlīb means to turn, to flip, to alter, implying that the arif perceives not only themselves but all worldly affairs as a pen in the hand of a singular Writer. Before the surging flood of divine will, they are a mere straw in a strong wind, yet this acceptance and surrender is not a source of weakness for them, but rather the very essence of strength and richness, for they have become unified with the very principle and truth of existence.

Whoever does not see this 'hand' imagines the pen to be autonomous; they believe humans are self-governing, that the world is independent and stands on its own feet. But the arif, from behind the veil of appearances, sees that 'hand' and knows that independence is an illusion. To make this peculiar state of the arif somewhat tangible for us, Mowlana refers to our own sensory sleep: in sleep, we, too, have no will or agency; we are passive and in the hands of other forces. Thus, from our own sleep, we can grasp a glimmer of the arif's state. This couplet teaches us that liberation from worldly constraints and attainment of deeper awareness is possible not by abandoning life, but by changing one's perspective and the quality of one's presence within it. The arif is in the world but free from it; they see, but not with the physical eye; they hear, but not with the physical ear. In wakefulness, they taste the liberation of night.

Key takeaways

• Sleep is a phenomenon that liberates and equalizes all humans from the constraints of worldly status and awareness.
• The arif (mystic), even while awake, is oblivious and detached from worldly affairs, as if in a deep slumber.
• The arif perceives the world as dreamlike scenes and discerns the hidden hands of divine providence orchestrating all matters.
• In the mystical state, one finds oneself as a pen in the hand of God, where one's will and actions originate from the Divine Essence.
• The experience of sensory sleep offers a small window into understanding the arif's passivity and surrender to divine will.