In Jalaluddin Rumi's *Masnavi*, the story of the lover who knocks on his friend's door serves as a profound allegory for the annihilation of the ego (*fana*) as a prerequisite for divine union. When the lover answers 'It is I' (*manam*), the beloved refuses to open the door, explaining that there is no room for two 'I's' in the house of love. Only after a year of separation and spiritual burning does the lover return and answer, 'It is you, O ravisher of hearts!' (*ham toyi*), allowing the door to finally open. This narrative illustrates that the human ego and self-assertion are barriers to experiencing the ultimate reality, and spiritual maturity requires transitioning from duality to absolute unity with the Divine.

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## Missing Content

This node represents Section 144 of Masnavi Book One. It sequentially follows Section 143 and precedes Section 145. The original Persian text and English translation are to be added.

دفتر اول - بخش ۱۴۴ / Book One - Section 144

## Original content
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آن یکی آمد در یاری بزد 
گفت یارش کیستی ای معتمد
گفت من گفتش برو هنگام نیست 
بر چنین خوانی مقام خام نیست
خام را جز آتش هجر و فراق 
کی پزد کی وا رهاند از نفاق
رفت آن مسکین و سالی در سفر 
در فراق دوست سوزید از شرر
پخته گشت آن سوخته پس باز گشت 
باز گرد خانهٔ همباز گشت
حلقه زد بر در بصد ترس و ادب 
تا بنجهد بی‌ادب لفظی ز لب
بانگ زد یارش که بر در کیست آن 
گفت بر در هم توی ای دلستان
گفت اکنون چون منی ای من در آ 
نیست گنجایی دو من را در سرا
نیست سوزن را سر رشتهٔ دوتا 
چونک یکتایی درین سوزن در آ
رشته را با سوزن آمد ارتباط 
نیست در خور با جمل سم الخیاط
کی شود باریک هستی جمل 
جز بمقراض ریاضات و عمل
دست حق باید مر آن را ای فلان 
کو بود بر هر محالی کن فکان
هر محال از دست او ممکن شود 
هر حرون از بیم او ساکن شود
اکمه و ابرص چه باشد مرده نیز 
زنده گردد از فسون آن عزیز
و آن عدم کز مرده مرده‌تر بود 
در کف ایجاد او مضطر بود
کل یوم هو فی شان بخوان 
مر ورا بی کار و بی‌فعلی مدان
کمترین کاریش هر روزست آن 
کو سه لشکر را کند این سو روان
لشکری ز اصلاب سوی امهات 
بهر آن تا در رحم روید نبات
لشکری ز ارحام سوی خاکدان 
تا ز نر و ماده پر گردد جهان
لشکری از خاک زان سوی اجل 
تا ببیند هر کسی حسن عمل
این سخن پایان ندارد هین بتاز 
سوی آن دو یار پاک پاک‌باز
گفت یارش کاندر آ ای جمله من 
نی مخالف چون گل و خار چمن
رشته یکتا شد غلط کم شو کنون 
گر دوتا بینی حروف کاف و نون
کاف و نون همچون کمند آمد جذوب 
تا کشاند مر عدم را در خطوب
پس دوتا باید کمند اندر صور 
گرچه یکتا باشد آن دو در اثر
گر دو پا گر چار پا ره را برد 
همچو مقراض دو تا یکتا برد
آن دو همبازان گازر را ببین 
هست در ظاهر خلافی زان و زین
آن یکی کرباس را در آب زد 
وان دگر همباز خشکش می‌کند
باز او آن خشک را تر می‌کند 
گوییا ز استیزه ضد بر می‌تند
لیک این دو ضد استیزه‌نما 
یک‌دل و یک‌کار باشد در رضا
هر نبی و هر ولی را ملکیست 
لیک تا حق می‌برد جمله یکیست
چونک جمع مستمع را خواب برد 
سنگهای آسیا را آب برد
رفتن این آب فوق آسیاست 
رفتنش در آسیا بهر شماست
چون شما را حاجت طاحون نماند 
آب را در جوی اصلی باز راند
ناطقه سوی دهان تعلیم راست 
ورنه خود آن نطق را جویی جداست
می‌رود بی بانگ و بی تکرارها 
تحتها الانهار تا گلزارها
ای خدا جان را تو بنما آن مقام 
کاندرو بی‌حرف می‌روید کلام
تا که سازد جان پاک از سر قدم 
سوی عرصهٔ دور و پنهای عدم
عرصه‌ای بس با گشاد و با فضا 
وین خیال و هست یابد زو نوا
تنگ‌تر آمد خیالات از عدم 
زان سبب باشد خیال اسباب غم
باز هستی تنگ‌تر بود از خیال 
زان شود در وی قمر همچون هلال
باز هستی جهان حس و رنگ 
تنگ‌تر آمد که زندانیست تنگ
علت تنگیست ترکیب و عدد 
جانب ترکیب حسها می‌کشد
زان سوی حس عالم توحید دان 
گر یکی خواهی بدان جانب بران
امر کن یک فعل بود و نون و کاف 
در سخن افتاد و معنی بود صاف
این سخن پایان ندارد باز گرد 
تا چه شد احوال گرگ اندر نبرد

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## English translation
One person came and knocked at a friend's door. His friend said, “Who are you, trusted one?” He said, “I.” The friend said, “Go; this is not the time. At such a table there is no place for the raw. What but the fire of separation and parting can cook the raw, and free him from hypocrisy?” That poor man went away and traveled for a year; in separation from the friend he burned from the sparks. The burned one became cooked, then returned; he came back around the house of his partner. He knocked the ring on the door with a hundred fears and courtesies, lest some discourteous word leap from his lips. His friend called, “Who is at the door?” He said, “At the door it is you, heart-ravisher.” He said, “Now, since you are I, O I, come in; there is no room for two I's in the house. The needle has no end for a double thread; since you are single, come through this needle. The thread belongs with the needle; the eye of the needle is not fit for the camel. How can the camel of existence become slender except by the scissors of disciplines and works? The hand of the Real is needed for that, so-and-so, for over every impossibility He says, ‘Be,’ and it is. Every impossibility becomes possible by His hand; every restive one becomes still from fear of Him. What are the man born blind and the leper? Even the dead becomes alive through the charm of that Mighty One. And nonexistence, which is deader than the dead, is helpless in the palm of His bringing-into-being. Recite, ‘Every day He is upon some task’; do not think Him idle or without action. His least work every day is this: He sends three armies this way: an army from loins toward mothers, so that a plant may grow in the womb; an army from wombs toward the dust-heap, so that the world may be filled with male and female; an army from dust toward the far side of death, so that each person may behold the beauty of his work. This discourse has no end; come, hurry toward those two pure, selfless friends.” His friend said, “Come in, O all of me, not opposing like rose and thorn in the meadow. The thread has become single; now make fewer mistakes if you see the letters kaf and nun as two. Kaf and nun are like a drawing lasso, to draw nonexistence into events. Thus the lasso must be double in form, though the two are one in effect. Whether two-footed or four-footed, it carries the road; like scissors, double, it cuts as one. Look at those two washer-partners: outwardly there is opposition between this one and that. One puts the cloth in water, and the other partner dries it. Then that one wets the dry cloth again; it seems as if, from contention, an opposite is weaving against an opposite. Yet these two seeming opposites are one-hearted and one-working in consent. Every prophet and every saint has a kingdom, but when the Real leads them, all are one. When sleep carried off the assembled listeners, water carried off the millstones. This water's movement is above the mill; its movement through the mill is for your sake. When you no longer need the mill, He returns the water to the original channel. The speaking faculty goes toward the mouth for instruction; otherwise that speech itself has a separate channel. It flows without noise and repetitions, ‘beneath them rivers,’ toward the rose-gardens. O God, show the soul that station in which speech grows without letters, so that the pure soul may set foot from the head toward the remote and spacious expanse of nonexistence, an expanse very open and roomy, from which this imagination and existence receive nourishment. Imaginations are narrower than nonexistence; therefore imagination is a cause of grief. Existence, again, is narrower than imagination; therefore the moon within it becomes like a crescent. The existence of the world of sense and color is narrower still, for it is a narrow prison. The cause of narrowness is composition and number; the senses draw toward composition. Beyond sense, know the world of unity; if you want oneness, drive toward that side. The command ‘Be’ was one act, but nun and kaf fell into speech, while the meaning was pure. This discourse has no end; return to what became of the wolf in the fight.

دفتر اول - بخش ۱۴۴ - قصه آنکس کی در یاری بکوفت از درون گفت کیست آن گفت منم گفت چون تو توی در نمی‌گشایم هیچ کس را از یاران نمی‌شناسم کی او من باشد برو / Book One - Section 144 - The Tale of the One Who Knocked at a Friend's Door; From Inside He Said 'Who Are You?' He Said 'I.' He Said 'Since You Are You, I Will Not Open the Door; I Do Not Know Any of the Friends Who Would Be Him as Me, Go'

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The Metaphor of the Lover at the Beloved's Door in the Masnavi

In Book 1 of Jalaluddin Rumi's Masnavi, the tale of a man knocking on his friend's door serves as a profound allegory for the spiritual necessity of fana (annihilation of the ego) in the presence of the Divine. When the man first knocks and identifies himself as 'I,' his friend refuses him entry, stating that there is no room for 'two I's' in one house. Rumi explains that the 'raw' soul must be 'cooked' by the fire of separation to transcend its self-centeredness. After a year of suffering and purification, the man returns and, when asked who is at the door, replies, 'It is you.' Recognizing that the visitor has shed his illusion of a separate existence, the friend invites him in. Rumi likens this unitive state to a single thread passing effortlessly through the eye of a needle, emphasizing that true spiritual union can only occur when the seeker entirely surrenders their individual ego.

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