“ریاضت” in the Masnavi

This spiritual discipline and hardship are for the sole purpose that the furnace may purge the dross from the silver.

The testing of good and bad exists so that the gold may boil, its dross rise to the surface, and be revealed.

The spiritual path first ruins the body, but after that ruin, it restores it to true flourishing.

Like the one who ruins the house for the sake of a treasure of gold, and then with that very treasure rebuilds it more splendid than before.

Or like the one who cuts off the water and cleanses the riverbed, and then lets the water flow again through it to drink.

Or like the one who cuts open the skin and draws out the arrowhead, and after that, fresh skin grows anew.

Or like the one who tears down the fortress and seizes it from the infidel, and after that raises upon it a hundred towers and ramparts.