An Analysis of Rumi’s Remarks on Not Mentioning God’s Name in the Mathnawi

A true lover is one who, in every action and decision, considers only the desire and will of the Beloved, and subordinates their own wishes and desires to those of the Exalted Beloved.

The peerless God invites us to call upon Him by His beautiful names. The peerless Beloved wants us to invoke Him by His names.

Al-Aʿrāf 7:180: و لله الأسماء الحسنى‏ فادعوه بها و ذروا الذین یلحدون فی‏ أسمائه سیجزون ما کانوا یعملون

To God belong the most beautiful names, so call upon Him by them. Leave those who distort His names; they will soon be requited for what they have done.

There is no one in all existence more deeply in love than the exalted Prophets and the friends of God. Their way and practice before the peerless Beloved was to call upon God by His names.

The Ṣaḥīfa Sajjādiyya is an example of a complete book of love.

From another perspective, the one and only God is not the exclusive possession of any creature, such that He would begrudge another the use of His name. He is the one Beloved of all creation.

Al-Anʿām 6:102: ذلکم الله ربکم لا إله إلا هو خالق کل شی‏ء فاعبدوه و هو على‏ کل شی‏ء وکیل

Ar-Raʿd 13:16: … قل الله خالق کل شی‏ء و هو الواحد القهار

Not only is proclaiming God’s name pleasing to the Lord of the worlds; remembering and recalling His name, encouraging others to invoke it, and praying for others’ well-being in God’s name—through greetings, blessings, and other good prayers, for example—as well as reciting God’s names together, each have their own special virtue and are beloved to the Pre-eternal and Everlasting Beloved.

Indeed, since God’s names are signs of God made known to His creation, the origin and root of the name Allah—the hidden, innermost name of God—is such that, when that name was divided, four names appeared: one remained concealed and three were revealed. From those three, His other names were brought forth. If the God of all existence were to disclose that concealed, hidden, and treasured name to anyone, that person would have no permission to reveal it without the Creator’s leave.

Thus, by the permission and command of God Most High, we call upon Him by His names!

Once the states of God’s true lovers have been established and manifested, they enter the station of hidden love, where the most mysterious states unfold—states that cannot be described or explained.

If peerless Allah bestows that hidden, concealed, and treasured name upon His pure, chosen, beloved servants, and they call upon Him by it, then through invoking that name a special stage of servanthood and love is undoubtedly attained, and a bond beyond all bonds comes to be.

The architect of love is the Lord of Love Himself. Through their clumsy designs for the customs of love and loving, people lose the contest and become the losers in love. God is the One who cherishes love and His servants; a loving servant is one who responds beautifully to God’s love.

عن أبی عبد الله ع قال:- إن الله تبارک و تعالى خلق اسما بالحروف غیر متصوت و باللفظ غیر منطق و بالشخص غیر مجسد و بالتشبیه غیر موصوف و باللون غیر مصبوغ منفی عنه الأقطار مبعد عنه الحدود محجوب عنه حس کل متوهم مستتر غیر مستور فجعله کلمه تامه على أربعه أجزاء معا لیس منها واحد قبل الآخر فأظهر منها ثلاثه أسماء لفاقه الخلق إلیها و حجب منها واحدا و هو الاسم المکنون المخزون فهذه الأسماء التی ظهرت فالظاهر هو الله تبارک و تعالىو سخر سبحانه لکل اسم من هذه الأسماء أربعه أرکان فذلک اثنا عشر رکنا ثم خلق لکل رکن منها ثلاثین اسما فعلا منسوبا إلیها فهو الرحمن الرحیم الملک القدوس الخالق البارئ
المصور الحی القیوم لا تأخذه سنه و لا نوم العلیم الخبیر السمیع البصیر الحکیم العزیز الجبار المتکبر العلی العظیم المقتدر القادر السلام المؤمن المهیمن البارئ المنشئ البدیع الرفیع الجلیل الکریم الرازق المحیی الممیت الباعث الوارث فهذه الأسماء و ما کان
من الأسماء الحسنى حتى تتم ثلاث مائه و ستین اسما فهی نسبه لهذه الأسماء الثلاثه و هذه الأسماء الثلاثه أرکان و حجب الاسم الواحد المکنون المخزون بهذه الأسماء الثلاثه و ذلک قوله تعالى- قل ادعوا الله أو ادعوا الرحمن أیا ما تدعوا فله الأسماء الحسنى‏

Al-Kāfī (Islamic edition), vol. 1, p. 112

1—Imam al-Ṣādiq (AS) said: God, Blessed and Exalted, indeed created a name with these qualities:

1. It has no sound as a letter.
2. It is not spoken by the tongue.
3. It has no form or body.
4. It bears no resemblance to anything whatsoever.
5. It is not imbued with any colour.
6. It is beyond direction and beyond limit or end.
7. It is inaccessible to the perception of any sharp-minded person who might imagine it.
8. It is veiled, yet not hidden.
He made this Name a complete word, formed it from four elements that came together, and brought three of its names into view for the needs of creation, while veiling the fourth. That fourth is the concealed, treasured Name. The names that were revealed are outwardly Allah, Blessed and Exalted.

God appointed four pillars for each of these three names, making twelve pillars in all. For each pillar He appointed thirty names associated with it. They are: God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate, the King, the Most Holy, the Creator, the Originator, the Fashioner, the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting, who is touched by neither drowsiness nor sleep; the All-Knowing, the All-Aware, the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing, the All-Wise, the Almighty, the Compeller, the Supremely Great; the Most High and the Magnificent, the All-Powerful, the Omnipotent, the Source of Peace, the Giver of Faith, the Watchful Guardian, [the Originator], the Bringer into being, the Incomparable Originator, the Exalted, the Glorious, the Generous, the Provider, the Giver of life, the Giver of death, the One who raises the dead, and the Heir of the world.

These names, together with the other Most Beautiful Names, until they number three hundred and sixty, are all associated with these three. These three names are the pillars, and through them the concealed, treasured Name is hidden from sight. This is the interpretation of God’s words (17:110):

«بگو بخوانید خدا را یا بخوانید رحمان را، هر کدام را بخوانید براى او اسماء حسنى وجود دارد».

*Uṣūl al-Kāfī*, translated by Kamare’i, vol. 1, p. 327.