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The Luzumiyat · Chapter

XIII explained

The chapter reflects on the transient nature of dreams and the promise of renewal, as a messenger takes away faded garments of dreams to return them as new robes, symbolizing hope and transformation.

What happens

The chapter reflects on the transient nature of dreams and the promise of renewal, as a messenger takes away faded garments of dreams to return them as new robes, symbolizing hope and transformation.

Themes in this chapter

  • Mortality and Transience

    The faded garments of dreams symbolize the ephemeral nature of human aspirations and life.

  • Illusion and Reality

    The promise of new robes to-morrow contrasts the illusion of permanence with the reality of change.

Characters to notice

  • Allah

    Implied as the Dyer who receives and renews the faded garments of dreams.

Key passages

  • And he the Messenger, who takes away The faded garments, purple, white, and gray Of all our dreams unto the Dyer, will Bring back new robes to-morrow⁠—so they say.

    The messenger collects our worn-out dreams, colored in purple, white, and gray, and delivers them to the Dyer, who will return them as fresh garments the next day—or so the story goes.

    The passage uses the metaphor of a dyer and garments to express hope in renewal after loss.