In the *Masnavi*, Jalaluddin Rumi critiques the rationalistic and materialist philosophy of the *Dahri* (the eternalist/materialist who denies a divine creator and claims the universe has no temporal beginning). To illustrate the limitations of purely speculative intellect in comprehending cosmic origins and divine reality, Rumi employs the allegory of a small worm buried inside dung.

Just as a tiny worm living its entire existence underground cannot possibly comprehend the vastness, beginning, or end of the earth, a human relying solely on limited sensory perception and speculative philosophy cannot grasp the temporal creation (*huduth*) or ultimate reality of the sun, the heavens, and the divine. Rumi argues that true knowledge of creation and divinity requires spiritual illumination that transcends the physical senses and rationalistic skepticism.

The Critique of the Dahri and the Allegory of the Worm in Dung in the Masnavi

In the fourth section of the *Hadiqat al-Haqiqah*, Hakim Sana'i outlines the theological concept of *Tanzih al-Qidam* (the sanctification of Divine pre-eternity). He argues that God's eternal nature (*qidam*) is completely independent of, and transcendent over, time (*dahr*) and the physical universe (*tab'*). Sana'i refutes materialist (*Dahri*) views that deify time or nature, declaring both to be deficient, incomplete, and powerless without the Divine Word. By asserting that God's essence is neither bound by beginnings (*bidayat*) nor endings (*nihayat*), and cannot be perceived by the sensory or colored eye (*dideh-ye rang-bin*), Sana'i establishes that absolute pre-eternity belongs to God alone.

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دهر بی قالب قدیمی او 
طبع بی باعث کریمی او
نشود دهر و طبع بی قولش 
همچو جان از نهاد بی طولش
این و آن هردو ناقص و ابتر 
این و آن هردو ابله و بی بر
مادت او زکهنه و نو نیست 
اوست کز هستها به جز او نیست
بنهایت نه ملک او معروف 
به بدایت نه ذات او موصوف
زرق و تلبیس ومخرقه نخرد 
سوی توحید و صدق به نگرد
دیدهٔ عقل بین گزیند حق 
دیدهٔ رنگ بین نبیند حق
باطل است آنچه دیده آراید 
حق در اوهام آب و گل ناید
عقل باشد به خلط و وهم محیط 
هر دوان لیک بر بساط بسیط
خلق را ذات چون نماید او 
در کدام آینه درآید او
جای و جان هر دو پیشکار تواند 
کوتوال و نفس شمار تواند
چون برون آمدی ز جان و ز جای 
پس ببینی خدای را به خدای
بار توحید هرکسی نکشد 
طعم توحید هر خسی نچشد
هست در هر مکان خدا معبود 
نیست معبود در مکان محدود
مرد جسمی ز راه گمراهست 
کفر و تشبیه هر دو همراهست
در ره صدق نفس را بگذار 
خیز و زین نفس شوم دست بدار
از درونت نگاشت صنع اله 
نه ز زرد و سپید و سرخ و سیاه
وز برونت نگاشتهٔ افلاک 
از چه از باد و آب و آتش و خاک
فعل و ذاتش برون ز آلت و سوست 
بس که هویتش پر از کن و هوست
کن دو حرفست بی نوا هر دو 
هر دو بحر است بی هوا هر دو
ذات او سوی عارف و عالم 
برتر از این و کیف وز هل و لم
دادهٔ خود سپهر بستاند 
نقش الله جاودان ماند
آنکه بی رنگ زد ترا نیرنگ 
باز نستاند از تو هرگز رنگ
نگذارد به تو فلک جاوید 
رنگ زرد و سیاه و سرخ و سپید
جمع کرد از پی تو بیش از تو 
آنچه اسباب تست پیش از تو
آفریدت ز صنع در تکلیف 
کرد فضلش ترا به خود تعریف
گفت گنجی بدم نهانی من 
خلق الخلق تا بدانی من
کرده از کاف و نون به در ثمین 
دیده را یک دهان پر از یاسین
زیر گردون به امر و صنع خدای 
ساخته چار خصم بر یک جای
جمع ایشان دلیل قدرت اوست 
قدرتش نقشبند حکمت اوست
همه اضداد ولیک ز امر اله 
همه با یکدگر شده همراه
همه را ابد به امر قدم 
زده نیرنگ در سرای عدم
چار گوهر به سعی هفت اختر 
شده بیرنگ را گزارشگر
آنکه بی خامه زد ترا نیرنگ 
هم تواند گزاردن بی رنگ
نیست گویی جهان ز زشت و نکو 
جز از او و بدو و بلکه خود او
همه زو یافته نگار و صور 
هم هیولانی اصل و هم پیکر
عنصر و مادهٔ هیولانی 
طبع و الوان چار ارکانی
همه را غایت تناهی دان 
نردبان پایهٔ الهی دان

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## English translation
Time without form is His pre-eternity,
Nature without cause is His generosity.
Time and nature would not exist without His word,
Like the soul without His long-reaching essence.
Both of these are imperfect and incomplete,
Both of these are foolish and fruitless.
His matter is not of the old or the new,
He is the one, for there is none other than He among all existences.
His dominion is not known by an end,
Nor is His essence described by a beginning.
He does not buy hypocrisy, deceit, and trickery,
He looks only toward unity and sincerity.
The eye of the intellect chooses the Truth,
The eye that sees only colors does not see the Truth.
False is whatever adorns the eye,
Truth does not enter the illusions of water and clay.
Intellect encompasses mixtures and illusions,
Both of them, however, on a simple, vast plain.
How can His essence manifest to the creations?
In which mirror could He enter?
Space and soul are both Your servants,
They are Your castle-guards and breath-counters.
When you emerge from soul and space,
Then you shall see God through God.
Not everyone can bear the burden of monotheism,
Not every worthless straw can taste the flavor of unity.
God is the worshipped One in every place,
Yet the worshipped One is not limited to any space.
The bodily man is lost from the path,
Infidelity and anthropomorphism go hand in hand.
In the path of sincerity, leave your self behind,
Rise and wash your hands of this ominous ego.
From within you, the divine craftsmanship painted,
Not from yellow, white, red, or black.
And from without you, the heavens painted,
From what? From wind, water, fire, and earth.
His action and His essence are beyond instrument and direction,
For His identity is full of 'Kun' (Be) and 'Hu' (He).
'Kun' is two letters, both silent and powerless,
Both are seas without desire.
His essence, to the gnostic and the scholar,
Is far above 'how', 'why', 'what', and 'if'.
The heavens will take back what they gave,
But the design of 'Allah' remains eternal.
He who colored you without color,
Will never take back any color from you.
The heavens will not leave to you forever,
The colors yellow, black, red, and white.
He gathered for you, more than you,
What was your provision before you existed.
He created you with craft in obligation,
His grace defined Himself to you.
He said: 'I was a hidden treasure, and I loved to be known, so I created creation that I might be known.'
Made a precious pearl out of Kâf and Nûn,
Left the eye as a mouth filled with Yâ-Sîn.
Beneath the heavens, by the command and craft of God,
He made four adversaries dwell in one place.
Their gathering is a proof of His power,
His power is the designer of His wisdom.
All are opposites, yet by divine command,
All have become companions of one another.
Pre-eternity has magically cast all of them
Into the house of non-existence by His command.
Four jewels, through the effort of seven stars,
Have become interpreters for the Colorless.
He who designed you without a pen,
Can also explain it without color.
It is as if you say the world, in both ugliness and goodness,
Is nothing but from Him, by Him, and rather Himself.
All have found form and image from Him,
Both the primal hyle (matter) and the body.
The element and the primary hyle (matter),
The nature and colors of the four elements.
Know them all as reaching their ultimate end,
And know them as the ladder rungs to the Divine.

بخش ۴ - فصل تنزیه قِدم / Section 4 - The Chapter on the Sanctification of Pre-Eternity

In the third section of *Hadiqat al-Haqiqah*, Hakim Sana'i outlines the doctrine of absolute Divine Unity (*Tawhid*) through the lens of divine transcendence (*tanzih*). He argues that God's oneness (*Ahadiyat*) and self-sufficiency (*Samadiyat*) transcend both rational comprehension (*'aql*) and sensory perception (*wahm*). Sana'i asserts that quantity, multiplicity, and descriptive inquiry (asking 'how, why, when, or where') are entirely inapplicable to the Divine Essence. By declaring that God is beyond numbers ('یکی اندر یکی یکی باشد') and that intellectual doubting is a path of misdirection ('به چراگاه دیو بر ز یقین'), Sana'i establishes a foundational Sufi epistemological principle: that the divine reality can only be approached through certainty and spiritual realization, not through speculative reason.

The Transcendence of Divine Unity and the Limits of Human Intellect in Sana'i's Hadiqah

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Sana'i's Concept of Divine Pre-Eternity and the Transcendence of God over Time and Nature

Both Hakim Sana'i in the *Hadiqat al-Haqiqah* and Farid al-Din Attar in *The Conference of the Birds* formulate absolute Divine Unity (*Tawhid*) as a reality transcending numerical representation. Sana'i's description of God being beyond numbers ('one within one is one') directly informs Attar's description of the Valley of Unity, where all numbers dissolve into the absolute One. However, while Sana'i focuses on the epistemological limits of the human intellect (*'aql*) in comprehending this unity, Attar emphasizes the mystical journey and the spiritual experience of the wayfarer traversing the valley.

Comparison of Divine Unity in Sana'i's Hadiqah and Attar's Valley of Unity

In the fifteenth section of the *Hadiqat al-Haqiqah* (the Chapter on Sanctification), Hakim Sana'i explains the concept of Divine incomprehensibility and transcendence over human thought (*khatir*) and imagination (*wahm*). To illustrate the limitation of human intellect in comprehending the Divine Essence (*dhat*), he introduces the metaphor of a blind man and his mother (*madar-e a'ma*). Sana'i argues that just as a blind person is absolutely certain of their mother's existence yet remains entirely unable to visualize or imagine her physical form ('how-ness' or *chuni*), so too does humanity know and affirm God's existence with certainty while being fundamentally incapable of comprehending or defining the Divine 'how-ness'. This metaphor highlights the strict boundary between knowing that God exists and knowing what God is, emphasizing that God transcends all anthropomorphic descriptions, categories, and rational boundaries.

Sana'i's Metaphor of the Blind Man and His Mother regarding Divine Incomprehensibility

In Section 51 of the *Hadiqat al-Haqiqah*, Sana'i explains the contradiction between the material world and the divine realm. He argues that duality (*du'i*), exemplified by worldly distinctions and desires, is a construct of the rational intellect (*aql*) rather than divine unity (*tawhid*). To attain spiritual oneness (*yeki'i*), the seeker must relinquish attachments to temporal status, represented by crowns and belts, as the material and spiritual abodes are mutually exclusive.

Sana'i's Concept of the Contradiction of the Two Abodes in the Hadiqat al-Haqiqah

In Section 41 of the 'Hadiqat al-Haqiqah', Sanai explains that spiritual detachment (Tajrid) is a mandatory step before attaining divine unity (Tawhid). He describes Tajrid as the journey's provision and the counterpart to Tawhid, arguing that a seeker cannot comprehend unity without first stepping away from material attachments and renouncing worldly creation.

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