Concept

In Book Five of the Masnavi, Rumi uses the story of a father advising his daughter to avoid getting pregnant by her temporary husband as a spiritual allegory.

Metaphorical Interpretation

• The Father represents the intellect ('Aql') or spiritual guide, who foresees the consequences of actions and warns the soul.
• The Daughter represents the human soul ('Nafs'), which is easily swayed by immediate desires and worldly associations.
• The Husband symbolizes the temporal world ('Dunya') or base desires—unfaithful, poor, and prone to abandoning the soul.
• Pregnancy represents the accumulation of worldly attachments, sins, or heavy burdens that the soul must carry once the fleeting pleasures of the world have departed.

Spiritual Lesson

Rumi's advice to 'guard oneself' is an injunction to the seeker to engage with the material world only to the extent of necessity, without allowing worldly desires to take root ('become pregnant') and generate lasting...