# LXXVIII explained — The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

> Chapter companion for The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám by Omar Khayyám.

## What happens

The quatrain questions the theological paradox of a creator who would endow humans with consciousness and the capacity for pleasure, only to punish them eternally for indulging in it. It challenges the notion of a just deity who creates beings from nothingness and then condemns them for exercising the very desires they were given.

## Themes in this chapter

### Skepticism and Doubt

The stanza expresses profound skepticism about the fairness and logic of a deity who punishes humans for actions enabled by their own created nature.

### Determinism and Fate

The imagery of 'unpermitted Pleasure' under 'Everlasting Penalties' suggests a predetermined system where humans are trapped by divine rules they did not choose.

## Key lines

> What! out of senseless Nothing to provoke A conscious Something to resent the yoke Of unpermitted Pleasure, under pain Of Everlasting Penalties, if broke!

How can it be that from meaningless nothingness, God creates a conscious being who then resents the restriction of forbidden pleasure, knowing that breaking that rule leads to eternal punishment?

_This paraphrase captures the rhetorical outrage of the original, highlighting the absurdity of creating beings with desires only to punish them for those desires._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_rub_iy_t_of_omar_khayy_m_se/chapters/lxxviii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_rub_iy_t_of_omar_khayy_m_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_rub_iy_t_of_omar_khayy_m_se/chapters