In Book 5, Section 37 of the *Masnavi*, Rumi uses the metaphor of divine alchemy (*kimiyā*) to describe God's absolute power to transform both the physical and spiritual worlds. He notes how God alters physical substances, such as turning earth into gold, fashioning humanity (Adam) from clay, and converting salty soil into life-sustaining bread. Rumi then extends this concept of transmutation to the human soul, supplicating God to transform his inherent human flaws—such as error, forgetfulness, and fault—into divine virtues like knowledge, patience, and forbearance. The passage emphasizes that just as God effortlessly changes physical elements, only divine grace can transmute the base nature of human weakness into spiritual perfection.

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## Original content
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ای مبدل کرده خاکی را به زر 
خاک دیگر را بکرده بوالبشر
کار تو تبدیل اعیان و عطا 
کار من سهوست و نسیان و خطا
سهو و نسیان را مبدل کن به علم 
من همه خلمم مرا کن صبر و حلم
ای که خاک شوره را تو نان کنی 
وی که نان مرده را تو جان کنی
ای که جان خیره را رهبر کنی 
وی که بی ره را تو پیغمبر کنی
می کنی جزو زمین را آسمان 
می فزایی در زمین از اختران
هر که سازد زین جهان آب حیات 
زوترش از دیگران آید ممات
دیده دل کو به گردون بنگریست 
دید که اینجا هر دمی میناگریست
قلب اعیانست و اکسیری محیط 
ایتلاف خرقه تن بی مخیط
تو از آن روزی که در هست آمدی 
آتشی یا بادی یا خاکی بدی
گر بر آن حالت ترا بودی بقا 
کی رسیدی مر ترا این ارتقا
از مبدل هستی اول نماند 
هستی بهتر به جای آن نشاند
هم چنین تا صد هزاران هستها 
بعد یکدیگر دوم به ز ابتدا
از مبدل بین وسایط را بمان 
کز وسایط دور گردی ز اصل آن
واسطه هر جا فزون شد وصل جست 
واسطه کم ذوق وصل افزونترست
از سبب دانی شود کم حیرتت 
حیرت تو ره دهد در حضرتت
این بقاها از فناها یافتی 
از فنااش رو چرا برتافتی
زان فناها چه زیان بودت که تا 
بر بقا چفسیده ای ای نافقا
چون دوم از اولینت بهترست 
پس فنا جو و مبدل را پرست
صد هزاران حشر دیدی ای عنود 
تاکنون هر لحظه از بدو وجود
از جماد بی خبر سوی نما 
وز نما سوی حیات و ابتلا
باز سوی عقل و تمییزات خوش 
باز سوی خارج این پنج و شش
تا لب بحر این نشان پایهاست 
پس نشان پا درون بحر لاست
زانک منزلهای خشکی ز احتیاط 
هست دهها و وطنها و رباط
باز منزلهای دریا در وقوف 
وقت موج و حبس بی عرصه و سقوف
نیست پیدا آن مراحل را سنام 
نه نشانست آن منازل را نه نام
هست صد چندان میان منزلین 
آن طرف که از نما تا روح عین
در فناها این بقاها دیده ای 
بر بقای جسم چون چفسیده ای
هین بده ای زاغ این جان باز باش 
پیش تبدیل خدا جانباز باش
تازه می گیر و کهن را می سپار 
که هر امسالت فزونست از سه پار
گر نباشی نخل وار ایثار کن 
کهنه بر کهنه نه و انبار کن
کهنه و گندیده و پوسیده را 
تحفه می بر بهر هر نادیده را
آنک نو دید او خریدار تو نیست 
صید حقست او گرفتار تو نیست
هر کجا باشند جوق مرغ کور 
بر تو جمع آیند ای سیلاب شور
تا فزاید کوری از شورابها 
زانک آب شور افزاید عمی
اهل دنیا زان سبب اعمی دل اند 
شارب شورابه آب و گل اند
شور می ده کور می خر در جهان 
چون نداری آب حیوان در نهان
با چنین حالت بقا خواهی و یاد 
هم چو زنگی در سیه رویی تو شاد
در سیاهی زنگی زان آسوده است 
کو ز زاد و اصل زنگی بوده است
آنک روزی شاهد و خوش رو بود 
گر سیه گردد تدارک جو بود
مرغ پرنده چو ماند در زمین 
باشد اندر غصه و درد و حنین
مرغ خانه بر زمین خوش می رود 
دانه چین و شاد و شاطر می دود
زآنک او از اصل بی پرواز بود 
وآن دگر پرنده و پرواز بود

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## English translation
O You who have transformed dust into gold,
and of another dust made the Father of Mankind!
Your work is the transformation of essences and giving bounties;
my work is error, forgetfulness, and mistake.
Transform my error and forgetfulness into knowledge;
I am entirely anger, make me patience and forbearance.
O You who turn salty earth into bread,
and You who turn dead bread into life!
O You who guide the bewildered soul,
and You who make a prophet of one who is pathless!
You turn a particle of earth into heaven,
and You increase stars upon the earth.
Whoever seeks to make this world the Water of Life,
death comes to him sooner than others.
Where is the eye of the heart that, looking up to the sky,
saw that here at every moment there is creative transformation?
It is the transmutation of essences and an all-encompassing elixir,
the piecing together of the robe of the body without a tailor.
Since the day you came into existence,
you were fire or wind or dust.
If you had remained in that state,
how would this elevation have reached you?
Through the Transformer, your first existence did not remain;
He seated a better existence in its place.
And so on through a hundred thousand existences,
one after another, the second always better than the first.
Look to the Transformer and leave the intermediaries,
for by intermediaries you are distanced from the Origin.
Wherever intermediaries increase, union is sought [with difficulty];
the fewer the intermediaries, the greater the sweetness of union.
Knowing the cause diminishes your wonder;
but your wonder is what gives you access to the Divine Presence.
You found these endurances through passings away;
why then did you turn your face away from His extinction?
What harm did you suffer from those passings away,
that you cling so tightly to this earthly survival, O escapist?
Since your second state is better than your first,
then seek extinction and worship the Transformer.
You have seen a hundred thousand resurrections, O obstinate one,
at every moment since the beginning of your existence until now:
From the inanimate without awareness toward growth,
and from growth toward life and trial,
Then again toward intellect and pleasant discernments,
and then again beyond these five and six.
These footprints exist only up to the shore of the sea;
then, inside the sea of non-existence, there is no footprint.
For the stages on land, measured with caution,
consist of villages, homelands, and inns.
But the stages of the sea, during halts,
are times of waves and containment without space or ceiling.
The peaks of those stages are not visible;
those dwellings have neither sign nor name.
Between the two stations on that side,
from growth to the essential spirit, is a hundred times more.
You have seen these endurances through passings away;
why have you clung so to the survival of the body?
Come, O crow, give up this life and be daring;
be a hazard-player before God's transformation!
Keep receiving the new and surrender the old,
for each of your 'this year' is better than three of yesteryears.
If you are not like a date-palm [giving fruit], then hoard;
lay old upon old and accumulate.
Take the old, the rotten, and the decayed
as a gift to those who have not seen the new.
He who has seen the new is not your customer;
he is the prey of God, not captured by you.
Wherever there is a flock of blind birds,
they will gather around you, O salty stream!
So that their blindness increases from the salty water,
for salty water increases blindness.
For that reason, the people of the world are blind of heart;
they are drinkers of the salty water of water and clay.
Give what is salty and buy the blind in the world,
since you do not possess the Water of Life within.
With such a condition, you seek survival and remembrance,
happy in your black-facedness like a black slave!
The black slave is at peace in his blackness
because he was born black by birth and origin.
But he who was once beautiful and fair-faced,
if he turns black, he seeks a remedy.
When a flying bird is trapped on the ground,
it is in sorrow, pain, and longing.
The domestic fowl walks happily on the ground,
picking up seeds, running joyful and alert,
Because it was flightless from the very origin,
while that other was a flyer and made for flight.

دفتر پنجم - بخش ۳۷ - مناجات / Book Five - Section 37 - Supplication

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