عذر احمق بتر از جرمش بود

عذر نادان زهر هر دانش بود

“The excuse of the fool is worse than his crime.

His ignorance is the barrier to all wisdom.”

~Rumi

Source: Mathnawi I, 1060

Reflection on the Quote:

A message from Dr. Fariba Enteshari, Founder & Executive Director

For many, the journey through life includes tough traumatizing patches along the way that can shake the core of individuals and their identity. Traumas can change the DNA of who we are, leave us broken and entrapped in a life sentence of self confinement with no meaningful connection to ourselves or others. Traumas can crash the wings of physical and mental freedom for those who experience and survive the severity of sudden unwelcome interruptions in their daily life.

In recent world affairs, we witness horrifying images on our TV screens in the comfort of our home —images that pierce our psyches with such an enormous pain that we cannot digest or bear what we are forced to see. In truth, we know we are smart beings with many devastating foolish choices.

Facing the consequences of our foolishness never seems to sink in enough for us to change our behavior and the outcome of our bad choices.

We may be able to numb ourselves through wars and pandemics but ignoring the reality will take us only so far. The self preservation behavior has its own limits and has been tested millennium after millennium – as far as we can trace the foot steps of human behavior.

Where is our humanity when we choose to put ourselves first?

The sad news is the good news.

We may watch disaster after disaster without any actions and still the humanity that is bestowed upon us along with our innocence is always present, suffering. We all suffer when we leave others behind and this suffering is amplifying.

Who we can become after experiencing a horrendous event in life is up to so many factors. But nothing is more important than those people who are in our immediate reach—friends, family members, and the members of our communities. I know this firsthand in my own life, through lives of those who are close to me and those who journey with me on the wisdom path of Rumi’s teachings.

I know for sure if those who are close to us have the inner wisdom and love they can become the living water nurturing us through difficult phases of life. They are able to invite us back to a reality that while life is complex and difficult, it is worth living to experience the beauty of souls who spread the wisdom of love. They can restore our faith in humanity and teach the rest of us that the protective self has walls that can separate us from our true self.

Like many humanitarians throughout history, Rumi pleads with us to pass on the cup of love and calls us to the path of returning to our roots as the spirit. His invitation to us:

Choose to be an aid in the steep unknown journey ahead.

Lean into the wisdom of what we know and what we do not.

Do not exclude those who act out their fears.

Yes, this is what he is asking – include them, too, into the map of wisdom.

Wisdom won’t leave anyone behind. Love won’t allow it. And what is not love destroys life. We do not want to leave bodies of fallen hopes on a tarmac in a faraway country. Lack of love and wisdom can but humanity cannot.

All who truly witness the fallen leaves of our humanity have one voice and this voice says we do not want to live in a world of cruelty. We do not want to feed the imbalance of the world that leaves so many in disparity. We know we are intertwined in our destinies since we are the one spirit.

-Dr. Fariba Enteshari

Touched by Rumi

Read the quote of the month to yourself, then do it again. Then read it out loud, then read it out loud to someone nearby. Read it until the meaning of the words has sunk in. It took this practice for me to really understand the message that Rumi is conveying to us in this couplet. In maneuvering through the world, we make messes, hurt those around us, hurt ourselves, and act imperfectly. This is a given, it is a part of the human experience. Making mistakes offers an opportunity for wisdom to take over a more ignorant understanding or behavior. However, it is when responsibility is denied that wisdom is also barred away from the transgressor. Using excuses as a way to justify an unjust action removes responsibility and takes away the opportunity for learning that messing up so graciously offers us. If responsibility is taken, both internal wisdom, such as knowing your internal motivations for acting unjustly, and external wisdom, in learning better ways of interacting with the world, can be grafted into the experience, taking away from the pain of the original mistake and filling it instead with light.

-Kiana Ranjbaran, REC Intern

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