In Jalaluddin Rumi's *Masnavi*, following the lion's fatal plunge into the well, the narrative describes the hare's ecstatic return to the other beasts. Rumi first uses this jubilant scene as a metaphor for spiritual liberation: just as branches dance when freed from the 'prison of earth,' human souls 'imprisoned in water and clay' (the physical body) experience flawless, boundless joy when emancipated by divine love. However, Rumi then fluidly shifts his allegorical focus to issue a stark psychological warning. He suddenly identifies the deceitful hare as the carnal soul (*nafs*) and the fallen lion as the noble human spirit. Rumi highlights the tragic paradox of an individual whose divine intellect is trapped in the 'pit of how and why' (worldly anxieties and doubts), while their base ego roams freely. He sharply criticizes the hypocrisy of those enslaved to lower desires who nevertheless demand honorable religious titles like 'Pride of the Faith.'

The Dance of Liberated Souls and the Carnal Soul Metaphor in the Masnavi

In Jalaluddin Rumi's *Masnavi*, the hare's escape from the lion is spiritualized as a metaphor for the liberation of the human soul. Rumi compares the hare's joy to leaves and branches freeing themselves from the dark confinement of the soil to dance in the wind. Similarly, when human souls (bound in water and clay) are released from material captivity, they dance ecstatically in the atmosphere of divine love, returning to their source and achieving spiritual perfection like a flawless full moon.

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چونک خرگوش از رهایی شاد گشت 
سوی نخچیران دوان شد تا به دشت
شیر را چون دید در چه کشته زار 
چرخ می‌زد شادمان تا مرغزار
دست می‌زد چون رهید از دست مرگ 
سبز و رقصان در هوا چون شاخ و برگ
شاخ و برگ از حبس خاک آزاد شد 
سر برآورد و حریف باد شد
برگها چون شاخ را بکشافتند 
تا به بالای درخت اشتافتند
با زبان شطاه شکر خدا 
می‌سراید هر بر و برگی جدا
که بپرورد اصل ما را ذوالعطا 
تا درخت استغلظ آمد و استوی
جانهای بسته اندر آب و گل 
چون رهند از آب و گلها شاددل
در هوای عشق حق رقصان شوند 
همچو قرص بدر بی‌نقصان شوند
چشمان در رقص و جانها خود مپرس 
وانک گرد جان از آنها خود مپرس
شیر را خرگوش در زندان نشاند 
ننگ شیری کو ز خرگوشی بماند
درچنان ننگی و آنگه این عجب 
فخر دین خواهد که گویندش لقب
ای تو شیری در تک این چاه فرد 
نقش چون خرگوش خونت‌ریخت و خورد
نفس خرگوشت به صحرا در چرا 
تو بقعر این چه چون و چرا
سوی نخچیران دوید آن شیرگیر 
کابشروا یا قوم اذ جاء البشیر
مژده مژده ای گروه عیش‌ساز 
کان سگ دوزخ به دوزخ رفت باز
مژده مژده کان عدو جانها 
کند قهر خالقش دندانها
آنک از پنجه بسی سرها بکوفت 
همچو خس جاروب مرگش هم بروفت

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## English translation
When the hare became glad from its deliverance,
It ran toward the animals out to the plain.
Having seen the lion slain in the pit,
It was spinning joyfully all the way to the meadow.
It clapped its hands, having escaped the grasp of death,
Green and dancing in the air like branch and leaf.
Branch and leaf, freed from the prison of earth,
Raised their heads and became companions of the wind.
When the leaves split open from the branch,
They hastened to the top of the tree.
With the tongue of the shoots, thanks to God
Each fruit and leaf sings separately —
That the Bestower of gifts nourished our origin
Until the tree grew thick and stood upright.
Souls imprisoned in water and clay,
When freed from water and clay, rejoice at heart.
In the air of the love of the Truth they dance,
And like the disk of the full moon they become flawless.
Eyes in dance, and souls — do not ask;
And of those who circle about the soul — do not ask.
The hare imprisoned the lion —
Shame upon a lion who is held back by a hare!
In such shame, and yet still this wonder:
He wants "Pride of the Faith" to be called his title.
O you who are a lion at the bottom of this solitary pit,
A phantom like the hare shed your blood and drank it.
Your hare-like nafs grazes in the plain,
While you are at the bottom of this pit of how and why.
That lion-catcher ran toward the animals:
"Receive glad tidings, O people, for the bearer of tidings has come!"
Glad tidings, glad tidings, O company of pleasure-makers!
That hellish hound has gone back to hell.
Glad tidings, glad tidings — that enemy of souls,
The wrath of its Creator has broken its teeth.
He who struck down so many heads with his paw —
Death's broom swept him away like chaff.

دفتر اول - بخش ۷۳ - مژده بردن خرگوش سوی نخچیران کی شیر در چاه فتاد / Book One - Section 73 - The Hare Bringing Glad Tidings to the Prey That the Lion Fell into the Well

In Jalaluddin Rumi's *Masnavi*, the fable of the lion and the beasts reaches its climax when the hare leads the arrogant king to a well, claiming a rival lion resides there. Looking into the water, the lion sees his own reflection holding the hare and, mistaking it for his enemy, leaps in to attack. He drowns in the very well he intended for his foe. Rumi elevates this narrative into a profound psychological and spiritual metaphor: the perceived enemy in the well is merely a reflection of the lion's own aggression, injustice, and unchecked ego. Rumi teaches that the flaws and injustices we violently condemn in others are often projections of our own lower nature. By blindly attacking the mirror of the world, we ultimately destroy ourselves, as the lion fell victim to the trap of his own disposition.

The Lion's Demise and the Metaphor of the Reflection in the Masnavi

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Ganjoor

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جمع گشتند آن زمان جمله وحوش 
شاد و خندان از طرب در ذوق و جوش
حلقه کردند او چو شمعی در میان 
سجده آوردند و گفتندش که هان
تو فرشتهٔ آسمانی یا پری 
نی تو عزرائیل شیران نری
هرچه هستی جان ما قربان تست 
دست بردی دست و بازویت درست
راند حق این آب را در جوی تو 
آفرین بر دست و بر بازوی تو
باز گو تا چون سگالیدی به مکر 
آن عوان را چون بمالیدی به مکر
بازگو تا قصه درمانها شود 
بازگو تا مرهم جانها شود
بازگو کز ظلم آن استم‌نما 
صد هزاران زخم دارد جان ما
گفت تایید خدا بد ای مهان 
ورنه خرگوشی کی باشد در جهان
قوتم بخشید و دل را نور داد 
نور دل مر دست و پا را زور داد
از بر حق می‌رسد تفضیلها 
باز هم از حق رسد تبدیلها
حق بدور نوبت این تایید را 
می‌نماید اهل ظن و دید را

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## English translation
All the beasts gathered then, joyful and laughing, seething with delight and rapture. They formed a circle, with him like a candle in the middle; they bowed and said to him: “Come now, are you a heavenly angel or a fairy? No, you are the Azrael of male lions. Whatever you are, our lives are sacrificed to you; you have performed a feat: may your hand and arm be sound. God has driven this water into your channel; praise to your hand and arm. Tell again how you contrived it by cunning, how you crushed that tyrannical enforcer by cunning. Tell again, so that the story may become remedies; tell again, so that it may become a salve for souls. Tell again, for from the oppression of that tyranny-displaying one our souls have hundreds of thousands of wounds.” He said: “It was God’s confirming aid, O great ones; otherwise, what is a hare in the world? He gave me strength and gave light to the heart; the heart’s light gave power to hand and foot. From God come acts of favoring; and from God, again, come transformations. In the rotation of turns, God displays this confirming aid to the people of supposition and of vision.”

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