The World in the sight of the People of Insight

  بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

جَهَان اَز رَنگ و بُو سَازَد اَسِیرَت 

وَلِی دَر  پِیشِ اَرْبابِ بَصِیرَت 

نَه رَنگِ دِلْکَشَش رَا اِعْتِبَارِی‌سْت  

نَه بُویِ دِلْفَرِیبَش رَا مَدَارِی‌سْت 

 

Meaning: 

The world ensnares you with its colors and perfumes,

but in the presence of People of Insight,

its enchanting hues have no worth,

and its beguiling fragrance has no hold.

Language:

Persian/Farsi

Transliteration:

Jahān az rang o bū sāzad asīrat

Valī dar pīsh-e arbāb-e baṣīrat

Na rang-e delkashash rā eʿtebārīst

Na bū-ye delfarībash rā madārīst

Brief Explanation:

 

Kamāl al-Dīn Ḥusayn Wāʿiẓ Kāshifī (d. 910/1504–5) is quoted in Ismāʿīl Ḥaqqī’s Rūḥ al-Bayān on Qurʾān 18:8, in support of the idea of not getting entrenched in this world. The poem is about surface attraction versus inner insight. “Rang o bū” — color and fragrance — stands for the world’s outward charm: beauty, display, seduction, all the things that catch the senses. The first line says that the world can enslave a person through these attractions. But the second line shifts perspective: those with basīrat, inward sight or spiritual discernment, are not deceived by appearances.

The last two lines reinforce that point. Iʿtibār means weight, credit, worth, something that deserves to be taken seriously. Madār in classical Persian can carry senses like axis, center, basis, or that on which something turns, so here it suggests something one can rely on or revolve around. In other words, to the people of insight, the world’s beauty is not false in the narrow sense that it does not exist; rather, it is not ultimate, not dependable, and not worthy of spiritual attachment.

So the poem’s meaning is not “beauty is bad.” It is subtler than that: what dazzles the senses should not rule the heart. This is a classic Persian ethical and Sufi theme — the contrast between ẓāhir (outward appearance) and bāṭin (inner reality).