Sama' as Self-Transcendence, Not Self-Centered Motion

In the thirty-fourth knot of Jami's Haft Awrang, spiritual audition (sama') is defined by its title-thesis: it is passing beyond oneself and shaking one's sleeve at creation (renouncing worldly attachment), not merely wandering around oneself while remaining held back from God.

The poem opens by addressing the heedless who lie asleep in the world's lodging like the blind and deaf, urging them to lift their heads because the sound of song reaches this pavilion from every direction. Jami then reads the whole of nature as a cosmic concert: the nightingale chants from the pulpit of the rose, the turtledove intones from the slender cypress, the ring-dove turns its collar into a tambourine, the reed-pipe (nay), lute (oud), and harp (chang) all sound a single melody that opens the gates of spiritual victory (futuh) and draws the intoxicated seeker onward.

The learning point is that authentic sama' is an inward event of annih...