Rumi, who is one of the greatest Persian poets, said that the

Hear the words of Mohsen Makhmalbaf, who carried forward the wisdom of the mystic Rumi: “Rumi, who is one of the greatest Persian poets, said that the truth was a mirror in the hands of God. It fell, and broke into pieces. Everybody took a piece of it, and they looked at it and thought they had the truth.” In this vision lies a parable of human pride and human limitation. The truth is whole, vast, eternal, yet fragile in our grasp. When it shattered, each person clutched only a fragment, mistaking the part for the whole. Thus division, arrogance, and blindness grew among men, for each proclaimed, “I alone possess the truth.”

The origin of this saying belongs to the mystical tradition of Rumi, the Sufi poet who saw the divine as both hidden and revealed in the world. Rumi taught that the truth is too great for any one heart or mind to contain. The mirror of God’s wisdom reflects the infinite, but when it is broken, each shard reflects only a portion of that light. To Makhmalbaf, a filmmaker who wrestled with art, politics, and faith, this image carried profound meaning: humanity’s conflicts often arise not because truth is absent, but because each clings fiercely to their fragment, refusing to see beyond it.

History reveals this pattern. Consider the wars of religion that swept across Europe. Each sect claimed to hold the entire mirror of truth, yet each held only a shard. Instead of recognizing the partial nature of their understanding, they drew swords against one another, drowning the continent in blood. The truth was not absent; it was broken, refracted, misunderstood. Had they seen their shard as part of a greater whole, humility and peace might have prevailed.

So too in the modern age. Nations boast of ideologies, declaring their system—capitalist or socialist, secular or theocratic—to be the final embodiment of truth. Yet history shows that no system is flawless, no human order eternal. Each is but a shard of the mirror, revealing something of the divine order, yet never capturing its fullness. When nations mistake their piece for the whole, they fall into tyranny or collapse beneath the weight of their own certainty.

The lesson is clear: humility must accompany the search for truth. To recognize that your knowledge is only partial is not weakness but strength. The wise do not scorn the shards held by others, nor do they claim their own to be complete. Instead, they seek to bring the pieces together, to listen, to learn, to weave a fuller vision of reality. This is the path of wisdom: not possession of all truth, but reverence for its mystery and a willingness to see beyond one’s own reflection.

O children of tomorrow, do not clutch your shard of truth with arrogance. Lift it instead with humility, knowing it is but one piece of the divine mirror. Look also at the shards of others, for though different in shape and angle, they too reflect light. In dialogue, in compassion, in openness, more of the mirror is revealed. Division is born of pride, but unity is born of humility before the greatness of truth.

Therefore, let your practice be thus: listen before you judge, honor the perspectives of others, and never claim to hold the whole. Remember that all knowledge, all wisdom, all vision is partial in human hands. By gathering the fragments together—in friendship, in scholarship, in love—you may come closer to seeing the face of the divine reflected in the mirror of creation.

Thus remember the teaching of Rumi, carried through the voice of Makhmalbaf: “The truth was a mirror in the hands of God. It fell, and broke into pieces. Everybody took a piece of it, and they looked at it and thought they had the truth.” Walk humbly, seek widely, and let your heart remain open to the greater whole, for only then will you glimpse the radiance that no single shard can ever reveal.