When “I” Was Left Outside
بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ مَّا جَعَلَ ٱللَّهُ لِرَجُلٍۢ مِّن قَلْبَيْنِ فِى جَوْفِهِۦ Mā jaʿala Allāhu li-rajulin min qalbayni fī jawfih. “Allah does not place two hearts in any person’s chest.” Sūrat al-Aḥzāb 33:4 There are stories small enough to remember. And large enough to spend a life inside. Rūmī tells one such story in the Mathnawī . A lover came to the door of the beloved. He knocked. From inside, the beloved asked: “Who is there?” The lover answered: “It is I.” The door did not open. Not because the beloved had not heard. Not because the lover had not travelled. Not because longing was absent. The door remained closed because the answer was still full of the self. “It is I.” That small sentence carried a whole kingdom. I have come. I have suffered. I have loved. I deserve entrance. I am waiting. I. Sometimes the most dangerous idols are grammatically small. The lover had reached the door, but not the state by which the door op...