In Book Six, Section 62 of the Masnavi, Rumi narrates a dispute between a husband and wife over their extreme poverty and her coarse clothing. The husband frames the conflict by asking her to choose between their current physical hardships or the finality of divorce. This narrative serves as a spiritual allegory: the core lesson is that enduring the rigorous 'pain of work', worldly austerities, and the difficulties of the spiritual path is significantly easier and far more bearable than suffering the ultimate spiritual agony of separation (firaq) from the Divine Beloved.