In Jalaluddin Rumi's *Masnavi*, responding to the prey animals' plea for passive reliance on divine providence (*tawakkul*), the lion presents a vigorous defense of personal exertion (*jahd*). He argues that God has equipped humans with faculties and tools, which act as divine indications for action. To illustrate this, the lion uses the metaphors of a ladder and a spade: one must climb the ladder "step by step" to reach the roof, and a servant handed a spade by his master implicitly understands he is meant to work. The lion asserts that actively using one's God-given abilities—such as hands and feet—is a profound form of gratitude for these blessings, whereas passive necessitarianism or fatalism (*jabr*) is an ungrateful denial of them. He concludes that true trust in God must be coupled with active effort, summarizing his philosophical stance with the directive to first "sow, then rely on the Compeller."

The Lion's Argument for Exertion (Jahd) in the Masnavi

In the *Masnavi*, during the lion's debate with the prey animals over exertion (*jahd*) versus trust (*tawakkul*), the metaphors of the ladder and the spade represent divine intentionality and human agency. The ladder represents the step-by-step progress required to achieve spiritual or worldly goals, demonstrating that passive determinism is a foolish expectation when tools are provided. The spade given to a servant by a master represents an implicit command; even without words, the possession of the tool clearly indicates the expectation of work. Thus, Rumi argues that God's gift of physical and intellectual faculties to humans is an implicit command to use them actively.

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## Original content
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گفت شیر آری ولی رب العباد 
نردبانی پیش پای ما نهاد
پایه پایه رفت باید سوی بام 
هست جبری بودن اینجا طمع خام
پای داری چون کنی خود را تو لنگ 
دست داری چون کنی پنهان تو چنگ
خواجه چون بیلی به دست بنده داد 
بی زبان معلوم شد او را مراد
دست همچون بیل اشارتهای اوست 
آخراندیشی عبارتهای اوست
چون اشارتهاش را بر جان نهی 
در وفای آن اشارت جان دهی
پس اشارتهای اسرارت دهد 
بار بر دارد ز تو کارت دهد
حاملی محمول گرداند ترا 
قابلی مقبول گرداند ترا
قابل امر ویی قایل شوی 
وصل جویی بعد از آن واصل شوی
سعی شکر نعمتش قدرت بود 
جبر تو انکار آن نعمت بود
شکر قدرت قدرتت افزون کند 
جبر نعمت از کفت بیرون کند
جبر تو خفتن بود در ره مخسپ 
تا نبینی آن در و درگه مخسپ
هان مخسپ ای کاهل بی‌اعتبار 
جز به زیر آن درخت میوه‌دار
تا که شاخ افشان کند هر لحظه باد 
بر سر خفته بریزد نقل و زاد
جبر و خفتن درمیان ره‌زنان 
مرغ بی‌هنگام کی یابد امان
ور اشارتهاش را بینی زنی 
مرد پنداری و چون بینی زنی
این قدر عقلی که داری گم شود 
سر که عقل از وی بپرد دم شود
زانک بی‌شکری بود شوم و شنار 
می‌برد بی‌شکر را در قعر نار
گر توکل می‌کنی در کار کن 
کشت کن پس تکیه بر جبار کن

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## English translation
The lion said: Yes, but the Lord of servants has set a ladder before our feet. Step by step one must go toward the roof; being a necessitarian here is raw greed. You have feet; why make yourself lame? You have hands; why hide your claws? When a master gives a spade into a servant's hand, his intention is known to him without speech. The hand, like the spade, is among His indications; looking to the end is among His expressions. When you take His indications into your soul and give your life in fidelity to those indications, then He gives you intimations of the mysteries; He lifts your burden from you and sets your work for you. He makes you, the carrier, carried; He makes you, the receptive, accepted. You are fit for His command; you will become one who assents. Seek union; after that you will become one who has arrived. Striving is gratitude for His blessing, namely power; your necessitarianism is denial of that blessing. Gratitude for power increases your power; necessitarianism removes the blessing from your hand. Your necessitarianism is sleeping on the road: do not sleep. Until you see that door and threshold, do not sleep. Take care: do not sleep, idle and unreliable one, except beneath that fruit-bearing tree, so that at every moment the wind may shake its branches and scatter sweets and provisions on the sleeper's head. Necessitarianism and sleeping among highwaymen: when does an untimely bird find safety? And if you regard His indications as womanly or weak, you imagine yourself a man; but when you truly see, you are womanly or weak. This little intellect you have will be lost; the head from which intellect flies becomes a tail. For ingratitude is ill-omened and disgraceful; it carries the ungrateful into the depth of the Fire. If you practice trust in God, work as you do so: sow, then rely on the Compeller.

دفتر اول - بخش ۴۷ - ترجیح نهادن شیر جهد را بر توکل / Book One - Section 47 - The Lion's Preference for Exertion over Trust

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In Book 1 of Jalaluddin Rumi's *Masnavi*, the fable of the lion and the prey beasts serves as a profound allegorical debate between the Islamic concepts of *tawakkul* (absolute trust in divine providence) and *jahd* (personal exertion or effort). The beasts argue that since God is the ultimate provider and destiny is preordained, human effort is a form of spiritual agitation that challenges the divine decree; therefore, they advocate for passive surrender. The lion, representing the spiritual master or the active intellect, counters this by arguing that God provided humans with limbs and faculties, and failing to use them is an act of ingratitude. He cites the Prophetic tradition to 'trust in God, but tie your camel', presenting a synthesis where human effort is not contradictory to, but rather the practical manifestation of, true trust in God.

The Debate Between Trust (Tawakkul) and Exertion (Jahd) in the Masnavi

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جمله با وی بانگها بر داشتند 
کان حریصان که سببها کاشتند
صد هزار اندر هزار از مرد و زن 
پس چرا محروم ماندند از زمن
صد هزاران قرن ز آغاز جهان 
همچو اژدرها گشاده صد دهان
مکرها کردند آن دانا گروه 
که ز بن بر کنده شد زان مکر کوه
کرد وصف مکرهاشان ذوالجلال 
لتزول منه اقلال الجبال
جز که آن قسمت که رفت اندر ازل 
روی ننمود از شکار و از عمل
جمله افتادند از تدبیر و کار 
ماند کار و حکمهای کردگار
کسپ جز نامی مدان ای نامدار 
جهد جز وهمی مپندار ای عیار

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## English translation
All raised their voices against him: "Those greedy ones who planted causes, hundreds of thousands upon thousands of men and women, why then did they remain deprived by Time? Hundreds of thousands of generations from the beginning of the world, like dragons with a hundred mouths opened, those learned groups devised stratagems; from those stratagems a mountain would be uprooted from its base. The Lord of Majesty described their stratagems: 'so that the mountain-peaks might be removed thereby.' Except for that allotment which had passed in pre-eternity, nothing showed its face from hunting or from action. All fell away from contrivance and work; the work and decrees of the Creator remained. Know acquisition as nothing but a name, O renowned one; do not think effort anything but an illusion, O sly one."

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