Rumi

Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, commonly known as Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a Sufi mystic, poet, and founder of the Islamic brotherhood known as the Mevlevi Order. Rumi is an influential figure in Sufism, and his thought and works loom large both in Persian literature and mystic poetry in general. Today, his translated works are enjoyed all over the world.

See also: Coleman Barks · Shahram Shiva

Quotes

He whose intellect overcomes his desire is higher than the angels; he whose desire overcomes his intellect is less than an animal.
- Kabir Helminski (ed.) The Rumi Collection: An Anthology of Translations (2000)

The fault is in the one who blames. Spirit sees nothing to criticize.
- Timothy Freke, Rumi Wisdom: Daily Teachings from the Great Sufi Master (2000)

Masnavi

Love is the ark appointed for the righteous.

God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites, so that you will have two wings to fly, not one.

This discipline and rough treatment are a furnace to extract the silver from the dross. This testing purifies the gold by boiling the scum away.
- I, 232-3 (tr. Helminski, 1990)

Fortunate is he who does not carry envy as a companion.
- I, 431 (tr. Helminski, 1990)

The idol of your self is the mother of all idols. To regard the self as easy to subdue is a mistake.
- I, 760-2 (tr. Helminski, 1990)

If you wish mercy, show mercy to the weak.
- I, 822 (tr. Helminski, 1990)

If you dig a pit for others to fall into, you will fall into it yourself.
- I, 1311 (tr. Helminski, 1990)

Many of the faults you see in others, dear reader, are your own nature reflected in them.
- I, 1319 (tr. Helminski, 1990)

The lion who breaks the enemy's ranks is a minor hero compared to the lion who overcomes himself.
- I, 1389

Whoever gives reverence receives reverence.
- I, 1494 (tr. Helminski, 1990)

Were there no men of vision, all who are blind would be dead.
- I, 2133 (tr. Helminski, 1990)

If you are wholly perplexed and in straits, have patience, for patience is the key to joy.
- I, 2908 (tr. Helminski, 1990)

If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?
- I, 2980 (tr. Helminski, 1990)

Anyone in whom the troublemaking self has died, sun and cloud obey. As his heart is afire with knowledge and love, the sun cannot burn him.
- I, 3004-5 (tr. Helminski, 1990)

If you wish to shine like day, burn up the night of self-existence. Dissolve in the Being who is everything.
- I, 3009-12 (tr. Helminski, 1990)

There is no worse sickness for the soul, O you who are proud, than this pretense of perfection. The heart and eyes must bleed a lot before self-complacency falls away.
- I, 3213-5 (tr. Helminski, 1990)

God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites, so that you will have two wings to fly, not one.
- II, 1552; 1554 (tr. Helminski, 1990)

When the remedy you have offered only increases the disease, then leave him who will not be cured, and tell your story to someone who seeks the truth.
- II, 2067 (tr. Helminski, 1990)

Whoever enters the Way without a guide will take a hundred years to travel a two-day journey.
- III, 588 (tr. W. C. Chittick, 1983)

Whoever undertakes a profession without a master becomes the laughingstock of city and town.
- III, 590 (tr. Chittick)

Even though you're not equipped,
keep searching:
equipment isn't necessary on the way to the Lord.
- III, 1445-49 (tr. Helminski, 1996)

If an ant seeks the rank of Solomon,
don't smile contemptuously upon its quest.
Everything you possess of skill, and wealth and handicraft,
wasn't it first merely a thought and a quest?
- III, 1445-49 (tr. Helminski, 1996)

Come, seek, for search is the foundation of fortune:
every success depends upon focusing the heart.
- III, 2302-5 (tr. Helminski, 1996)

That which God said to the rose,
and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty,
He said to my heart,
and made it a hundred times more beautiful.
- III, 4129 (tr. Helminski, 1996)

Many have been led astray by the Qur'an:
by clinging to that rope many have fallen into the well.
There is no fault in the rope, O perverse man,
for it was you who had no desire to reach the top.
- III, 4210-11 (tr. Helminski, 1996)

Some Hindoos were exhibiting an elephant in a dark room, and many people collected to see it. But as the place was too dark to permit them to see the elephant, they all felt it with their hands, to gain an idea of what it was like. One felt its trunk, and declared that the beast resembled a water-pipe; another felt its ear, and said it must be a large fan; another its leg, and thought it must be a pillar; another felt its back, and declared the beast must be like a great throne. According to the part which each felt, he gave a different description of the animal. One, as it were, called it "Dal," and another "Alif."
- III, Story 5 (tr. E. H. Whinfield, 1898)

The eye of outward sense is as the palm of a hand,
The whole of the object is not grasped in the palm.
The sea itself is one thing, the foam another;
Neglect the foam, and regard the sea with your eyes.
- III, Story 5 (tr. Whinfield)

When you see anyone complaining
of such and such a person's ill-nature and bad temper,
know that the complainant is bad-tempered,
forasmuch as he speaks ill of that bad-tempered person,
because he alone is good-tempered who is quietly forbearing
towards the bad-tempered and ill-natured.
- IV, 771-4 (tr. Helminski, 1996)

Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon how much he has polished it.
Whoever has polished it more sees more — more unseen forms become manifest to him.
- IV, 2909-10 (tr. Chittick)

Love is the ark appointed for the righteous,
Which annuls the danger and provides a way of escape.
Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.
Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment intuition.
- IV, Story 2 (tr. Whinfield)

Reason is like an officer when the King appears;
The officer then loses his power and hides himself.
Reason is the shadow cast by God; God is the sun.
- IV, Story 4 (tr. Whinfield)

How can these works and this earning in the way of righteousness be accomplished without a master, O father?
Can you practice the meanest profession in the world without a master's guidance?
- V, 1051-55 (tr. Chittick)

Are you fleeing from Love because of a single humiliation?
What do you know of Love except the name?
Love has a hundred forms of pride and disdain,
and is gained by a hundred means of persuasion.
Since Love is loyal, it purchases one who is loyal:
it has no interest in a disloyal companion.
The human being resembles a tree; its root is a covenant with God:
that root must be cherished with all one's might.
- V, 1163-1169 (tr. Helminski, 1996)

If in thirst you drink water from a cup, you see God in it. Those who are not in love with God will see only their own faces in it.
- VI, 3640 (ed. Fadiman and Frager, 1997)

The lower self does not want anyone to receive anything from anybody else, and if it is aware of something receiving a special boon, it seeks to destroy it.
- "The Lower Self" (ed. Fadiman and Frager)

Whatever possessions and objects of its desires the lower self may obtain, it hangs on to them, refusing to let them go out of greed for more, or out of fear of poverty and need.
- "The Lower Self" (ed. Fadiman and Frager)

I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was Man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar
With angels blest; but even from angelhood
I must pass on: all except God doth perish.
When I have sacrificed my angel-soul,
I shall become what no mind e'er conceived.
Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence
Proclaims in organ tones, 'To Him we shall return.'
- "I Died as a Mineral" (tr. R. A. Nicholson, 1914)
  - Alternate translation:
  - Originally, you were clay. From being mineral, you became vegetable. From vegetable, you became animal, and from animal, man. During these periods man did not know where he was going, but he was being taken on a long journey nonetheless. And you have to go through a hundred different worlds yet.
    - Robert Ornstein, Multimind (1986)

This is what is signified by the words Anā l-Ḥaqq, "I am God." People imagine that it is a presumptuous claim, whereas it is really a presumptuous claim to say Ana 'l-'abd, "I am the slave of God"; and Anā l-Ḥaqq, "I am God" is an expression of great humility. The man who says Ana 'l-'abd, "I am the servant of God" affirms two existences, his own and God's, but he that says Anā l-Ḥaqq, "I am God" has made himself non-existent and has given himself up and says "I am God", that is, "I am naught, He is all; there is no being but God's." This is the extreme of humility and self-abasement.
- "Deification" (tr. R. A. Nicholson, 1950)
- Commenting on the famous expression of Mansur al-Hallaj, for which al-Hallaj was executed as a blasphemer

The branch might seem like the fruit's origin:
In fact, the branch exists because of the fruit.
- "You Are the Macrocosm" (tr. Andrew Harvey, 1999)

"There's no courage", The Prophet said, "before the war has begun."
Drunkards vaunt their bravery when you speak of war.
But in the blaze of battle they scatter like mice.
I'm astonished by the man who wants purity
And yet trembles when the harshness of polishing begin...
When a man beats a carpet again and again
It's not the carpet he's attacking, but the dirt in it.
- "Give the Serpent a Kiss" (tr. Andrew Harvey)

Love is the path and road of our Prophet
We were born from Love and Love was our mother.
O you who are our mother, you are hidden within veils,
Concealed from our disbelieving natures
- "The States of the Lover" (tr. Gamard and Farhadi, 2008)

The fire of Love cooks me
Every night it drags me to the Tavern.
It seats me with the People of the Tavern
So that no one except the People of the Tavern will know me.
- "The States of the Lover" (tr. Gamard and Farhadi)

By eating meagerly, you become clever and aware.
And by eating gluttonously, you become foolish and idle.
Your being full of misery is entirely from your gluttony.
You will become less miserable if you become a sparse eater.
- "Advice to the Disciple and Aspirant" (tr. Gamard and Farhadi)

If you dwell with unaware people, you will be cold,
But if you dwell with aware ones, you will be a true man
Go, and build your hermit cell inside a furnace, like gold
If you go out of the furnace, you will be frozen solid
- "Advice to the Disciple and Aspirant" (tr. Gamard and Farhadi)

Dwell in the place where your companions are spiritual heroes,
So that they may wash the foul soot from your [heart]
Don't think about their faults, for they
Will know about it before you think.
- "Advice to the Disciple and Aspirant" (tr. Gamard and Farhadi)

Divan-i Shams

I am so happy, I cannot be contained in the world;
But like a spirit, I am hidden from the eyes of the world.
If the foot of the trees were not tied to earth, they would be pursuing me;
For I have blossomed so much, I am the envy of the gardens.
- 1740:1-3 (tr. Fatemeh Keshavarz, 1998)

Study me as much as you like, you will not know me,
for I differ in a hundred ways from what you see me to be.
Put yourself behind my eyes and see me as I see myself,
for I have chosen to dwell in a place you cannot see.
- 1372:A1:168 (tr. John Baldock, 2005)

We have a way from this visible world to the Unseen, for we are the companions of religion's messenger.
We have a way from the house to the garden, we are the neighbor of the cypress and jasmine.
Every day we come to the garden and see a hundred blossoms.
In order to scatter them among the lovers, we will our robes to overflowing...
Behold our words! They are the fragrance of those roses--we are the rosebush of certainty's rosegarden.
- "The Beloved's Beloved" (tr. Chittick)

Attributed

Little by little, wean yourself. This is the gist of what I have to say. From an embryo, whose nourishment comes in the blood, move to an infant drinking milk, to a child on solid food, to a searcher after wisdom, to a hunter of more invisible game.
Think how it is to have a conversation with an embryo. You might say, "The world outside is vast and intricate. There are wheatfields and mountain passes, and orchards in bloom. At night there are millions of galaxies, and in sunlight the beauty of friends dancing at a wedding."
You ask the embryo why he, or she, stays cooped up in the dark with eyes closed. Listen to the answer.
There is no "other world." I only know what I've experienced. You must be hallucinating.
- Stephen Mitchell (ed.) The Enlightened Mind (1991)

Our caravan leader is the pride of the world, Mustafa [Muhammad].
- Annemarie Schimmel, And Muhammad is his Messenger: The Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety (1985) p. 215

Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.
- Jan Phillips, Marry Your Muse: Making a Lasting Commitment to Your Creativity (1997) p. 75

The men of God are like fishes in the ocean; they pop up into view on the surface here and there and everywhere, as they please.
- Nur Elmessiri, "A feather on the breath of God" in Al-Ahram Weekly Online, no. 385 Issue (9-15 July 1998) [1]

Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.
- Linda J. Ferguson, Path for Greatness: Spiritualty at Work (2000) p. 51

I want a heart which is split, part by part, because of the pain of separation from God, so that I might explain my longing and complaint to it.
- Fethullah Gülen, "Mevlana Jalal al-Din Rumi" in The Fountain, no. 24 (July-September 2004)

The Sufi is hanging on to Muhammad, like Abu Bakr.
- Ibrahim Gamard, Rumi and Islam: Selections from His Stories, Poems, and Discourses — Annotated and Explained (2004) p. 171

I am the servant of the Qur'an as long as I have life.
I am the dust on the path of [Muhammad], the Chosen one.
If anyone quotes anything except this from my sayings,
I am quit of him and outraged by these words
- Ibrahim Gamard, "Rumi and Self-Discovery" in Islamica Magazine, no. 15 (Summer 2005)

You were born with wings. Why prefer to crawl through life?
- Larry Chang, Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing (2006) p. 26

I have endowed everyone with a temperament of his own, given everyone an idiom of his own; so that what is praise for him is blame for thee, what is honey for him is poison for thee, what is light for him is fire for thee, what is rose for him is thorn for thee, what is good for him is evil for thee, what is beautiful for him is ugly for thee. In the people of Hindustan the idiom of Hindustan is praiseworthy; in the people of Sind, the idiom of Sind is praiseworthy. I do not see the outward and the speech; I see the inward and the state [of feeling]. For the heart is the substance and speech an accident. So, the accident is subservient, the substance is the [real] object. The religion of love stands apart from all religions. For lovers the [only] religion and creed is God.
- Harsh Narain, Myths of Composite Culture and Equality of Religions (1990) pp. 20-21 [2]

Wherever you stand, be the soul of that place.
- Patricia Flasch, Becoming a Love Dog: From Emptiness to Tenderness (2009) p. 16

Pebbles, Pearls and Gems of the Orient (1882)

Reported in Charles D. B. Mills (ed.) Pebbles, Pearls and Gems of the Orient (Boston, MA: George H. Ellis, 1882)

Seek truth from thought, not in mouldy books. Look in the sky to find the moon, not in the pool.
- "Knowledge and Wisdom", no. 121

Ah, me! so poor, can I declare that friend, who never had another friend his like,—none, therefore, who could know his soul?
- "The Ineffable One", no. 493

Supreme Being soars above thought and imagination. We are lost when we would comprehend or even suspect that which he is. How vain, then, to seek words worthy of that Being! Let it suffice us to adore in reverent silence!
- "The Ineffable One", no. 495

Thou, nearer to me than I to myself.
- "Presence", no. 513
  - Compare: "More within us than we within ourselves." — Giordano Bruno

O heart! weak follower of the weak,
That thou shouldst traverse land and sea,
In this far place that God to seek
Who long ago had come to thee!
- "Presence", no. 519 (Alger. Words ascribed to Rabia)

The prophets hear in their mind voices that others never perceive, as the voices of the Peris, which, although they sound out clearly, are never apprehended by our ears.
- "Inner Perception", no. 525

This universe is a drop from the ocean of his beauty, unable from its fulness to find place in the parent bosom.
- "The Symbolism and Incarnation", no. 545

"Tell me, gentle traveller, thou
Who hast wandered far and wide,
Seen the sweetest roses blow
And the brightest rivers glide,—
Say, of all thine eyes have seen,
Which the fairest land has been."
"Lady, shall I tell thee where
Nature seems most blest and fair,
Far above all climes beside?—
’Tis where those we love abide;
And that little spot is best
Which the loved one’s foot hath pressed.
"Though it be a fairy space,
Wide and spreading is the place;
Though ’twere but a barren mound,
’Twould become enchanted ground.
With thee, yon sandy waste would seem
The margin of Al Cawthar's stream;
And thou canst make a dungeon’s gloom
A bower where new-born roses bloom.
- "The Symbolism and Incarnation", no. 560 (Miss Costello)

When rises the sun and chases the night,
What need have we then of the lamp for a light?
When the friend all beloved appears to the eye,
What want dost thou feel that the post bring him nigh?
But when the rose-time is past, and the rose-bloom gone by,
Then gladly the eye seeks the water of roses to spy.
Is the Master within to thy soul not revealed?
Well then may’st thou turn to the Volume of message unsealed.
- "Celebration and Worship", no. 583

As water from the glasses is all poured into one vessel, so all the praises are mingled together. Since He that is celebrated is wholly one, all religions form but one religion.
- "Universality", no. 649

The compass only serves to direct the prayers of those who are outside of the Caaba, whilst within it no one knows the use of it.
- "Universality", no. 652

I was, ere a name had been named upon earth,
Ere one trace yet existed of aught that has birth;
When the locks of the Loved One streamed forth for a sign,
And being was none save the Presence Divine.
Ere the veil of the flesh for Messiah was wrought,
To the godhead I bowed in prostration of thought.
I measured intently, I pondered with heed
(But, ah, fruitless my labor!) the cross and its creed.
To the pagod I rushed and the magian's shrine,
But my eye caught no glimpse of a glory divine.
The reins of research to the Caaba I bent,
Whither, hopefully thronging, the old and young went.
Candahár and Herát searched I wistfully through,
Nor above nor beneath came the Loved One to view.
I toiled to the summit, wild, pathless, and lone,
Of the globe-girding Kâf, but the phœnix had flown.
The seventh earth I traversed, the seventh heaven explored,
But in neither discerned I the court of the Lord.
I questioned the pen and the tablet of fate,
But they whispered not where He pavilions his state.
My vision I strained, but my God-scanning eye
No trace that to godhead belongs could descry.
But when I my glance turned within my own breast,
Lo, the vainly sought Loved One, the godhead confessed!
In the whirl of its transport my spirit was tossed,
Till each atom of separate being I lost;
And the bright sun of Tauriz, a madder than me,
Or a wilder, hath never yet seen, nor shall see.
- "The Divine Intoxication", no. 687
  - "Ringlets of curls" is one of the appellations employed by the mystics, Sufis, to describe the divine mysteries, radiant with beauty ravishing with delight, holding the soul in a sweet bondage, and betimes intoxicating, transporting it with visions of the inner and eternal. "For they only are free," says Hafiz, "who are chained in sweet bondage to thee." — See Tholuckh's Ssufismus, p. 305

If this world were our abiding place, we might complain that it makes our bed so hard: But it is only our night-quarters on a journey; and who can expect home comforts?
- "Trial and Sorrow", no. 702

The reed bewailed departed bliss and present woe: "Plucked untimely from my native banks, my heart is torn, that through me may sound the notes that charm the grave and gay. Who that hears my strains knows the secret of my bleeding heart?" Not fruitless was the pain of the reed that made it melodious. And thou, brave heart, arise. Be free of every chain, though blazing with gold. Be nobly bold. Follow the true bride of thy life, though her name be Sorrow. Let the shell perish, that the pearl may appear. Men may not know the secret of thy sad life, but through a bruised heart must be breathed the strain of love and hope which shall enrapture human souls.
- "Trial and Sorrow", no. 707
  - Somewhat differently translated by Sir W. Jones, Works, Vol. IV, p. 231:
    New plans for wealth your fancies would invent;
    Yet shells, to nourish pearls, must lie content.
    The man whose robe love’s purple arrows rend
    Bids avarice rest, and toils tumultuous end.

As the stranger, far distant in foreign climes, draws towards home, so the soul, from midst of this world of multiplicity, pants and soars upward to the Unity.
- "Aspiration and Immortality", no. 713

Rabia, sick upon her bed,
By two saints was visited,
Holy Malik, Hassan wise,—
Men of mark in Moslem eyes.
Hassan says, "Whose prayer is pure
Will God's chastisements endure."
Malik, from a deeper sense,
Uttered his experience:
"He who hears his Master's voice
Will in chastisement rejoice."
Rabia saw some selfish will
In their maxims lingering still,
And replied, "O men of grace!
He who sees his Master's face,
Will not in his prayer recall
That he is chastised at all."
- "The Perfect Deliverance and Rest: Nirvana", no. 736 (Dr. J. F. Clarke)

I once journeyed long, said Dakiki, seeking the souls wherein my friend had mirrored himself,—in the drop of the: bucket to find the sea and its wealth, in the atoms, in the sunbeam, to know the great sun.
I came in my wanderings to the shore of ocean, where time and space disappeared from my thought. Seven lights I saw, whose flames lapped the heavens. Again the lights flowed together, the lights joined in one whose splendor cleft the bosom of the skies. Amazed, overcome, I sank to the ground; but when I awoke, instead of the flame, seven persons I see walking on shore. I could not trust my eyes, since; instead of seven men, seven trees come to view. Their peaks transcend the throne-dwelling of God, their roots pierce the inmost recesses of earth and the deeps.
But, wonder of wonders over all! to no eyes but mine was the vision revealed. Hundred thousands pass along there, but never one sees the trees and their fruits. A strange spell is upon their organs: they see the mote in the sunbeam, but never the sun.
I shout to them, Hither: come here, eat this fruit, living bread you shall find. They laugh at me, call me foolish, giddy, and demented. But I know I don’t dream. Yet never could I hold my senses sound, were it not that every instant the fruits refresh and inspire me.
Then of a sudden again the fruits and trees evanish, and seven persons appear before me. Seven blend in one, one flows out and divides into seven.
- "Miscellaneous", no. 767 (Tholuck)

"Allah!" was all night long the cry of one oppressed with care,
Till softened was his heart, and sweet became his lips with prayer.
Then near the subtle tempter stole, and spake: "Fond babbler, cease!
For not an 'Here am I' has God e'er sent to give thee peace."
With sorrow sank the suppliant's soul, and all his senses fled;
But, lo! at midnight the good angel Chiser came and said:
"What ails thee now, my child, and why art thou afraid to pray?
And why thy former love dost thou repent? declare and say."
"Ah!" cries he, "never once spake God to me, 'Here am I, son.'
Cast off, methinks I am, and warned far from his gracious throne."
To whom the angel answered: "Hear the word from God I bear:
'Go tell,' he said, 'yon mourner, sunk in sorrow and despair,
Each "Lord, appear!" thy lips pronounce, contains my "Here am I!"
A special messenger I send beneath thine every sigh,
And, sleeping in thy "Come, O Lord!" there lies "Here, son!" from me.'"
- "Miscellaneous", no. 770 (Alger.)
  - Tell him that his very longing is itself an answering cry;
    That his prayer, 'Come, gracious Allah!' is my answer, 'Here am I!'
    Every aspiration is God’s angel undefiled;
    And in every 'O my Father!' slumbers deep a 'Here, my child!'
    (The same in Dr. J. F. Clarke's rendering)

A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)

Edited by Claud Field

Love is the water of life; receive it in thy heart and soul.
- p. 1, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

None but the sun can display the sun.
- p. 4 (Whinfield)

Pants thy spirit to be gifted
With a deathless life,
Let it seek to be uplifted
O’er earth’s storm and strife.
Spurn its joys,—its ties dissever,
Hopes and fears divest;
Thus, aspire to live for ever,
Be for ever blest.
- p. 4, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Falconer)

'Tis marvellous by what way thou wentest from the world
Thou didst strongly shake thy wings and feathers and having broken thy cage
Didst ae to the air and journey towards the world of soul.
Thou wert a favourite falcon kept in captivity by an old woman
When thou heard’st the falcon-drum, thou didst fly away into the void.
- p. 6, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

After all soul is linked to body
Though it in nowise resembles the body
The power of the light of the eye is mated with fat
The light of the heart is hidden in a drop of blood
Joy harbours in the kidneys and pain in the liver
The lamp of reason in the brains of the head.
These connections are not without a why and how
But reason is at a loss to understand the how.
- p. 6 (Whinfield)

For this cause, O son, the Prince of men declared
'The majority of those in Paradise are the foolish'.
Cleverness is as a wind raising storms of pride
Be foolish, so that your heart may he at peace.
- p. 7 (Whinfield)

This world of illusions, fancies, desires and fears
Is a mighty obstacle in the traveller's path.
Thus when these forms of delusive imaginations
Misled Abraham, who was a very mountain of wisdom.
He said of the star 'This is my Lord'.
Having fallen into the midst of the world of illusion
Seeing then that this world of eye-fascinating illusion
Seduced from the right path such a mountain as Abraham.
So that he said of the star 'This is my Lord',
What will not its illusions effect on a stupid ass?
- p. 10 (Whinfield)

First he appeared in the class of inorganic things,
Next he passed therefrom into that of plants,
For years he lived as one of the plants,
Remembering naught of his inorganic state so different,
And when he passed from the vegetive to the animal state
He had no remembrance of his state as a plant.
- p. 15 (Whinfield)

The prophets chose the better part, futurity.
The foolish chose the worst, the world's fatuity.
Each bird will flock with birds of its own feather still
The cock well knows his mate and follows where she will.
- p. 16 (Redhouse)

The lover is a monarch; two worlds lie at his feet;
The king pays no heed to what lies at his feet;
'Tis love and the lover that live to all eternity
Set not thy heart on aught else; 'tis only borrowed.
- p. 20, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

The root of hatred is hell and that hate of yours
Is a part of that whole and is the foe of your religion
Since you are a part of hell, beware!
For the part ever tends towards its whole
But if you are a portion of heaven, O renowned one,
Your joy will be as lasting as heaven itself.
- p. 20

Let us seek refuge with Allah from Satan;
Alas! we are perishing from his insolence.
The dog is one yet he enters a thousand forms;
Whatever he enters, straight becomes himself;
Whatever makes you shiver, know he is in it,
The Devil is hidden beneath its outward form.
When he finds no form at hand, he enters your thoughts
To cause them to draw you into sin.
- p. 21 (Whinfield)

For love of our Almighty God, the Lord of all,
Who would not die; a stock, a block, we needs must call.
- p. 26 (Redhouse)

Imitate the water-wheel that groans and weeps;
By prayers and groans and tears a man his heart pure keeps;
Wouldst thou shed tears? Feel pity when thou meetest woe,
Wouldst mercy find? Show mercy, when men bow them low.
- p. 29 (Redhouse)

How many sparks of fire from flint and steel have flown
How many hearts like tinder, make those sparks their own.
But in the dark some thief his finger presses there
And every train puts out that has been lighted here.
Extinguished if those sparks were not, a flame would rise
A burning light be kindled, flashing beyond the skies
A thousand snares are laid to catch our tripping feet
But Lord, if thou us shield, harm never shall us meet.
If but Thy grace will guide us, lead us on our way,
No thief can steal our peace of mind, our light of day.
- p. 30 (Redhouse)

Our celestial spirit is free to eternity,
Although for a short time we are imprisoned in forms of flesh.
- p. 31, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz

With thee hell would he a mansion of delight
With thee a prison would be a rose garden.
- p. 31 (Whinfield)

With thee how should we be afraid of loss
O thou, who turnest every loss to gain.
- p. 31, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Why, when God’s earth is so wide, have you fallen asleep in prison?
- p. 32, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

The majority of those in Paradise are the simple
Who have escaped the snares of philosophy.
Strip yourself bare of overweening intellect
That grace may ever be shed upon you from above.
- p. 32 (Whinfield)

Whereas want of fidelity is shameful even in dogs,
How can it be right in men?
God Almighty himself makes boast of fidelity
Saying 'Who is more faithful to his promise than we?'
- p. 33 (Whinfield)

Open your arms if you desire an embrace,
Break the idol of clay that you may behold the face of the fair.
- p. 35, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Earth receives the seed and guards it,
  Trustfully it dies:
Then what teeming life rewards it,
  For self-sacrifice.
With green leaf and clustering blossom
  Clad, or golden fruit,
See it from earth’s cheerless bosom
  Ever sunward shoot.
- p. 35, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Falconer)

Hearken to the reed-flute, how it discourses
When complaining of the pains of separation;
'Ever since they tore me from my osier-bed,
My plaintive notes have moved men and women to tears.
I burst my breast striving to give vent to sighs,
And to express the pangs of yearning for my home;
He who abides far away from his home,
Is ever longing for the day he shall return.'
- p. 37 (Whinfield)

Come, come for you will not find another friend like Me,
Where indeed is a Beloved like Me in all the world?
Come, come, and do not spend your life in wandering to and fro,
Since there is no market elsewhere for your money.
- p. 38, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Come, and think of Me, Who gave you the faculty of thought,
Since from my mine you may purchase an ass-load of rubies;
Come, advance towards Him Who gave you a foot,
Look with all your eyes upon Him Who gave you an eye.
- p. 38, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

That spiritual garden accompanies them everywhere
Yet it is never revealed to the eyes of the people,
Its fruits ever asking to be gathered,
Its fount of life welling up to be drunk.
- p. 39 (Whinfield)

We used to be on the earth, ignorant of the earth,
Ignorant of the treasure buried within it.
- p. 39 (Whinfield)

Thou wert a love-lorn nightingale among owls,
The scent of the rose-garden reached thee, and thou didst go to the rose-garden.
Thou didst suffer sore headache from this bitter ferment,
At last thou wentest to the tavern of eternity.
- p. 39, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

'Tis slave-caressing thy love has practised,
Else, where is the heart worthy of that love?
Every heart that has slept one night in thine air
Is like radiant day; thereby the air is illuminated.
- p. 42, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

How many letters thou writest with Thy Almighty pen
Through marvelling thereat stones become as wax;
These letters exercise and perplex reason,
Write on, O skilful Fair-writer,
Imprinting every moment on Not-being the fair forms
Of the world of ideals to confound all thought.
- p. 42 (Whinfield)

Mine eye is from that source, and from another universe
Here a world and there a world: I am seated on the threshold;
On the threshold are they alone, whose eloquence is mute,
'Tis enough to utter this intimation: say no more, draw back thy tongue.
- p. 43, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

What pearl art thou that none possesseth the price of thee?
What does the world possess that is not thy gift?
- p. 44, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Why does not the soul take wing when from the glorious presence
A speech of sweet favour comes to it saying, 'Aloft!'
- p. 46, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Why should a falcon not fly from the quarry towards the King
When it hears by drum and drum-stick the notice of 'Return?'
Why should not every Sufi begin to dance like a mote,
In the sun of eternity that it may deliver him from decay.
- p. 47, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

When the sun goeth up, where stayeth night?
When the joy of bounty came, where lagged affliction?
- p. 47, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Weave no more with soot, like the spider, a web of care,
Wherein both woof and warp are rotten.
While thou art silent, His speech is thy speech,
While thou weavest not, God is the weaver.
- p. 47, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

When thou seest in the pathway a severed head,
Which is rolling toward our field,
Ask of it, ask of it the secrets of the heart,
For of it thou wilt learn our hidden mystery.
- p. 48, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

How long shall we, like children in the earthly sphere
Fill our lap with dust and stones and sherds?
Let us give up the earth and fly heavenwards,
Let us flee from childhood to the banquet of men.
- p. 49, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Were there no hostility, war would be impossible,
Hadst thou no lust, obedience to the law could not be
Hadst thou no concupiscence there could be no abstinence
Where no antagonist exists, what need is there of armies?
- p. 50 (Whinfield)

Such grace and beauty and loveliness and bestowal of life,
O misery and error, if anyone dispense with Him!
Fly, fly O bird, to thy native home,
For thou hast escaped from the cage, and thy pinions are outspread.
Travel away from the bitter stream towards the water of life,
Return from the vestibule to the high seat of the soul.
- p. 50, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Whereas the springhead is undying, its branch gives water continually;
Since neither can cease, why are you lamenting?
Conceive the Soul as a fountain and these created things as rivers;
While the fountain flows, the rivers run from it
Put grief out of your head, and keep quaffing this river water,
Do not think of the water failing; for this water is without end.
- p. 50, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

When you have seen the millstone turning round,
Then, prithee, go and see the stream that turns it.
When you have seen the dust rising up into the air,
Go and mark the air in the midst of the dust.
You see the kettles of thought boiling over,
Look with intelligence at the fire beneath them.
God said to Job "Out of my clemency
I have given a grain of patience to every hair of thine"
Look not then, so much at your own patience,
After seeing patience, look to the giver of patience.
- p. 51 (Whinfield)

Our wakefulness fetters our spirits,
Then our souls are a prey to various whims,
Thoughts of loss and gain and fears of misery.
They retain not purity nor dignity nor lustre,
Nor aspiration to soar heavenwards.
That one is really sleeping who hankers after each whim
And holds parley with each fancy.
- p. 52 (Whinfield)

As there are many demons with men’s faces,
It is wrong to join hands with every one.
- p. 52 (Whinfield)

Since the latter of your states were better than the former,
Seek annihilation and adore change of state;
You have already seen hundreds of resurrections
Occur every moment from your origin till now;
One from the inorganic state to the vegetive state,
From the vegetive state to the animal state of trial;
Thence again to rationality and good discernment,
Again you will rise from this world of sense and form.
- pp. 52–3 (Whinfield)

Since you are properly a clod you will not rise into the air;
You will rise into the air if you break and become dust,
If you break not, He who moulded you will break you.
- p. 53, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Having chosen thy Director, be not weak of heart
Nor yet sluggish and lax like water and mud;
But if thou takest umbrage at every rub
How wilt thou become a polished mirror?
- p. 53 (Whinfield)

When God decides to humble any sinner proud
A demon stirs this last to insult some man of God
And he whom God elects to cloak where 'tis he halts
Has grace bestowed on him to cover others' faults.
- p. 54 (Redhouse)

Since all things are dependent on probability,
Religion is so first of all, for thereby you find release.
In this world no knocking at the door is possible
Save hope, and God knows what is best.
- p. 54 (Whinfield)

When the preacher himself has no light or life,
How can his words yield leaves and fruit?
He impudently preaches to others to walk aright,
While himself he is unsteady as a reed shaken by wind.
Thus though his preaching is very eloquent,
It hides within it unsteadiness in the faith.
- pp. 54–5 (Whinfield)

When thou endurest not the pains of abstinence,
And fulfillest not the terms, thou gainest no reward;
How easy those terms! how abundant that reward!
A reward that enchants the heart and charms the soul.
- p. 55 (Whinfield)

Should envy fill thy breast ’gainst one that envies not
Foul stains ensue; thy heart’s impure; all good’s forgot
Prostrate thyself then at the feet of holy men,
Cast dust upon thy head, God’s pardon to obtain.
- p. 55 (Redhouse)

When the discourse touched on the matter of love,
Pen was broken and paper torn;
None but the sun can display the sun.
If you would see it displayed, turn not away from it.
- p. 57 (Whinfield)

Traditional knowledge when inspiration is available
Is like making ablutions with sand when water is near
Make yourself ignorant, be submissive, and then
You will obtain release from your ignorance.
- p. 57 (Whinfield)

When, O spiritual one, thou hast become thy own fortune
Then, being thyself thy fortune, thou wilt never lose it
How, O fortunate one, cans't thou ever lose thyself
When thy real self is thy treasure and thy kingdom.
- p. 57 (Whinfield)

When the drop departed from its native home and returned
It found a shell and became a pearl.
Did not Joseph go on a journey from his father weeping?
Did he not in the journey come to fortune and kingdom and victory?
- p. 59, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

As the arrow speeds from the bow, like the bird of your imagination
Know that the Absolute will certainly flee from the imaginary;
His name will flee when it sees an attempt at speech;
He will flee from you so that if you limn his picture
The picture will fly from the tablet, the impression will flee from the soul.
- p. 60, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Thou wilt never more endure without the flame, when thou hast known the rapture of burning.
If the water of life should come to thee, it would not stir thee from the flame.
- p. 60, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

O brave friend, grasp His skirt,
Who is removed alike from the world above and below;
Who will abide with thee in the house and abroad
When thou lackest house and home
He will bring forth peace out of perturbations
And when thou art afflicted, will keep His promise.
- p. 61 (Whinfield)

The seed of the spirit sown beneath this water and clay (the body)
Becomes not a tree until it reach Thy spring.
- p. 61, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Pass over names and look to qualities
So that qualities may lead thee to essence;
The differences of sects arise from His names
When they pierce to His essence, they find His peace.
- p. 63 (Whinfield)

There is a tradition ‘The heart is like a feather
In the desert, which is borne captive by the winds;
The wind drives it everywhere at random,
Now to right and now to left in opposite directions.’
- p. 63 (Whinfield)

David said ‘O Lord, since Thou hast no need of us,
Say then, what wisdom was there in creating the two worlds?’
God said to him ‘O temporal man, I was a hidden treasure;
I sought that that treasure of loving kindness and bounty should be revealed.’
- p. 65, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

One must have king-recognising eyes
To recognise the king in each disguise.
- p. 67

Let others grow pale from fear of misfortune,
Do thou smile like the rose at loss and gain.
For the rose, though its petals be torn asunder
Still smiles on, and it is never cast down.
It says ‘Why should I fall into grief in disgrace?
I gather beauty even from the thorn of disgrace.’
What is Sufism? ’Tis to find joy in the heart
Whensoever distress and care assail it.
- p. 67 (Whinfield)

O heart, why art thou a captive in the earth that is passing away?
Fly forth from this enclosure, since thou art a bird of the spiritual world;
Thou art a darling bosom-friend, thou art always behind the secret veil;
Why dost thou make thy dwelling-place in this perishable abode?
- p. 68, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

The spirit ever leads to haunts of holy men,
The flesh would cast thee in the pit of sin again.
Beware! Feed thou thy soul with love from holy ground;
Make haste! seek means of grace from one who grace hath found.
- p. 69 (Redhouse)

Yesterday the Master with a lantern was roaming about the city,
Crying ‘I am tired of devil and beast, I desire a man.’
- p. 69, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

It behoves not, son, to beat a drum under a quilt,
Plant like brave men, thy banner in the midst of the desert.
- p. 70, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

This world which is only a dream
Seems to the sleeper as a thing enduring for ever
But when the morn of the last day shall dawn,
The sleeper will escape from the cloud of illusion.
- p. 71 (Whinfield)

Makers of base coin hate the daylight
Coins of pure gold love the daylight,
Because daylight is the mirror that reflects them
So that they see their own perfect beauty.
God has named the resurrection ‘that day,’
Day shows off the beauty of red and yellow.
- p. 72 (Whinfield)

O lovers, O lovers, it is time to abandon the world,
The drum of departure reaches my spiritual ear from heaven
Behold, the driver has risen and made ready the files of camels
And begged us to acquit him of blame; why, O travellers are you asleep?
These sounds before and behind are the din of departure and of the camel-bells;
With each moment a soul and a spirit is setting off into the void.
- p. 75, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

O the many pure heads scattered beneath the clay,
That thou mayest know the head depends on that other head;
That original head hidden, and this derived head manifest,
Forasmuch as behind this world lies the infinite universe.
- p. 75, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

O Brother, you are essentially thought,
All the rest of you is bone and sinew,
If your thoughts are rose-like, you are a rose-garden
If they are thorn-like, you are fuel for the furnace.
- p. 76

Ah! many are the conditions which at first are hard,
But are afterwards relieved and lose their harshness
Oftentimes hope succeeds to hopelessness
Many times does sunlight succeed to darkness.
- p. 76 (Whinfield)

Thou who dost blame injustice in mankind
'Tis but the image of thine own dark mind;
In them reflected all thy nature is
With all its angles and obliquities;
Around thyself thyself the noose hast thrown
And dost a self-inflicted wound bemoan;
‘Back to each other we reflections throw’
So spoke the holy Prophet long ago:
And he who gazes through a glass that’s dim
What wonder if the world look dark to him?
- p. 77

O indestructible Love! O divine minstrel
Thou art both stay and refuge; a name equal to thee I have not found.
- p. 78, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Whence did this breath come to thee, O my soul;
Whence this throbbing, O my heart?
O bird, speak the language of birds
I can understand thy hidden meaning.
The soul answered ‘I was in the divine factory
While the house of water-and-clay was a-baking
I was flying away from the material workshop
While the workshop was being created
When I could resist no more, they dragged me
To mould me into shape like a ball.’
- p. 78, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

How blessed are the eyes that smart with sorrow’s brine,
How blessed is the heart inflamed with love divine!
Contrition’s tears are ever hallowed by heaven’s smile,
The latter end of all things man should scan awhile.
- p. 79 (Redhouse)

Lo! a besotted fool like thee to scorn,
The votaries of love! God’s wine has drowned
Thy wits and bidden thee wrestle with thy Lord,
As when a bird his airy flight resumes
Exultingly, nor dreads the distant lure,
Fate to his bosom speeds the shaft of woe.
- p. 79, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

O Thou, who art my soul’s comfort in the season of sorrow,
O Thou, who art my spirit’s treasure in the bitterness of dearth,
That which the imagination has not conceived, that which the understanding has not seen,
Visiteth my soul from thee; hence in worship I turn towards Thee.
- p. 79, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

O Thou, Who art exempt from ‘us’ and ‘we’
Who pervadest the spirits of all men and women;
When man and woman become one, thou art that one.
When their union is dissolved, lo Thou abidest.
Thou hast made these ‘us’ and ‘we’ for that purpose
To wit, to play chess with them by thyself.
- p. 80 (Whinfield)

O chosen cup-bearer, O apple of mine eyes, the like of thee,
Ne’er appeared in Persia, nor in Arabia have I found it;
Pour out wine till I become a wanderer from myself,
For in self-hood and existence I have felt only fatigue.
- p. 80, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Thee to thy goal wit-sharpening will not bring,
Only the broken-hearted find the favour of the king.
- p. 83

The philosopher denies the existence of the Devil
At the same time he is the Devil’s laughing-stock.
If thou hast not seen the Devil, look at thyself,
Without demon’s aid how came that blue turban on thy brow.
- pp. 83–4 (Whinfield)

Alas for this life so light, beware of this slumber so heavy,
O soul seek the Beloved,
O friend seek the Friend
O watchman be wakeful; it behoves not a watchman to sleep.
- p. 88, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Thought is an arrow shot by God into the air
How can it stay in the air? It returns to God.
- p. 91 (Whinfield)

The angel grew with knowledge, the beast with ignorance,
Man remained in dispute between them.
Sometimes knowledge draws him to the seventh heaven,
Sometimes ignorance drags him down, so that (he says) 'Come what will!'
- p. 91, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

The ice that remains in the shade is frozen
It saw not the brilliance of my glowing sun.
All ice that has seen the smile of the sun’s face
Grows itself again, and says ‘I am the water of life.’
- p. 93, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

In man’s esteem the world is vast without an end
With Power Infinite compared, a grain of sand
The world’s around the soul a dismal prison den
Arise! Escape! Regain the fields at large! Be men!
- p. 95 (Redhouse)

If wheat were not valued as sweet and good for food,
The cheat who shows wheat and sells barley would make no profit.
Say not then that all these creeds are false
The false ones ensnare hearts by the scent of truth.
Say not that they are all erroneous fancies
There is no fancy in the universe without some truth.
In the crowd of rag-wearers there is one faqir,
Search well and find out that true one.
- pp. 96–7 (Whinfield)

If there were no bitter things,
And no opposition of fair and foul, stone and pearl,
And no lust or Satan or concupiscence,
And no wounds or war or fraud,
Pray, O destroyer of virtue, by what name and title
Could the King of kings address his slaves?
How could He say ‘O temperate’ or ‘O meek one,’
Or ‘O courageous one’ or ‘O wise one.’
- p. 97

If you desire that God may be pleasing to you,
Then look at Him with the eyes of those that love Him.
Look not at that Beauty with your own eyes,
Look at that Object of desire with His votaries’ eyes.
- p. 99 (Whinfield)

Though thy nurse may frighten thee away from water
Do thou fear not, but haste on into the ocean;
Thou art a duck, and flourishest on land and water,
And dost not like a domestic fowl dig up the house.
- p. 99 (Whinfield)

The soul of the prophet cares for nought but God,
It has nothing to do with approving or disapproving His works.
- p. 99 (Whinfield)

Human reason is drowned like the high mountains
In the flood of illusion and vain imaginations.
The very mountains are overwhelmed by this flood,
Where is safety to be found save in Noah's ark?
By illusions that plunder the road of faith
The faithful have been split into seventy-two sects;
But the man of conviction escapes illusion,
He does not mistake his eye-brow for the new moon.
- pp. 101–2 (Whinfield)

Why should setting be injurious to the sun and moon?
To thee it seems a setting, but ’tis a rising;
Tho’ the vault seems a prison, ’tis the release of the soul.
- pp. 102–3, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Weep that at length thou may’st be of a smiling countenance,
For this lamentation hath great value with God;
And the value which sorrow hath there, where else has it such?
Happy the eye that thus weeps,
Noble the heart that thus burns,
In the end all our weeping shall be turned to smiles,
The man who considers the end is a blessed servant.
- p. 103 (Keene)

You say 'Although the fear of loss is before me,
Yet I feel greater fear in remaining idle.
I have a better hope through exerting myself
My fear is increased by remaining idle.'
Why then, O faint-hearted one in the matter of religion,
Are you paralysed by the fear of loss?
See you not how the traders in this market of ours
Make large profits, both apostles and saints?
- p. 104 (Whinfield)

O man of double vision, hearken with attention,
Seek a cure for your defective sight by listening
Many are the holy words that find no entrance
Into blind hearts but they enter hearts full of light.
But the deceits of Satan enter crooked hearts
Even as crooked shoes fit crooked feet.
- p. 104 (Whinfield)

They say ‘What is love?’ Say ‘renunciation of will’
Whoso has not escaped from will, no will has he.
- p. 105, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

He said ‘Who is at the door?’ Said I ‘Thy humble servant.’
He said ‘What business have you?’ Said I ‘Lord, to greet thee.’
He said ‘How long will you push?’ Said I ‘Till thou call.’
He said ‘How long will you glow?’ Said I ‘Till resurrection.’
- p. 105, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

‘Qh heart,’ said I, ‘may it bless thee
To have entered the circle of lovers,
To look beyond the range of the eye
To penetrate the windings of the bosom.’
- p. 105, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

He saith ‘These saints are My children
Though remote and alone and away from their Lord.
For their trial they are orphans and wretched
Yet in love I am ever holding communion with them.
Thou art backed by all My protection,
My children are as it were parts of Me.
- p. 106 (Whinfield)

He speaks to the rose’s ear and causes it to bloom,
(He speaks to the stone and it becomes a jewel of the mine),
He speaks a spell to body and it becomes soul,
He speaks to the sun and it becomes a fount of light
Again in its ear He whispers a word of power
And its face is darkened as by a hundred eclipses.
- p. 107 (Whinfield)

He said ‘O friends, God has given me inspiration
Oftentimes strong counsel is suggested to the weak.
The wit taught by God to the bee
Is withheld from the lion and the wild ass.
It fills its cells with liquid sweets,
For God opens the door of this knowledge to it.
The skill taught by God to the silkworm
Is a learning beyond the reach of the elephant.
- pp. 107–8 (Whinfield)

The khalifa said to Laila ‘Art thou really she
For whom Majnun lost his head and went distracted?
Thou art not fairer than many other fair ones.’
She replied, ‘Be silent; thou art not Majnun!
If thou hadst Majnun’s eyes,
The two world’s would be within thy view.
- p. 108 (Whinfield)

The Prophet said to Ali ‘O Ali
Thou art the Lion of God, a hero most valiant;
Yet confide not in thy lion-like valour
But seek refuge under the palm-trees of the truth
Come under the shadow of the Man of Reason,
Thou canst not find it in the road of the traditionists.
His shadow on earth is as that of Mount Qaf,
His spirit is as a Simurgh soaring on high.
Were I to tell his praises till the last day
My words would not be too many nor admit of curtailment;
That sun is hidden in the form of a man
Understand me. Allah knows the truth.
- pp. 108–9 (Whinfield)

The Prophet said that God has declared,
‘I am not contained in aught above or below,
I am not contained in earth or sky or even
In highest heaven, know this for a surety, O beloved,
Yet am I contained in the believer’s heart,
If ye seek Me, search in such hearts.’
- p. 109 (Whinfield)

Cease to behave as wolves and dogs that you may experience the Shepherd’s love.
- pp. 109–10, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

As a stone which is changed into a pure ruby
Is filled with the bright light of the sun,
In that stone its own properties abide not
It is filled with the sun’s properties altogether.
- p. 112 (Whinfield)

You wish to have both God and the base world together,
This is impossible, ridiculous and mad.
- p. 112

God sent the prophets for this purpose
Namely to sever infidelity from faith,
Infidel and faithful, Mussalman and Jew,
Before the prophets came, seemed all as one.
- p. 112 (Whinfield)

All the four elements are seething in this cauldron (the world)
None is at rest, neither earth nor fire nor water nor air
Now earth takes the form of grass on account of desire
Now water becomes air for the sake of this affinity,
By way of unity water becomes fire
Fire also becomes air in this expanse by reason of love.
- p. 114, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Both sorts of bee (i.e. bee and wasp) draw nourishment from one place but from this comes the sting and from that other the honey.
Both sort of deer feed on the same grass and water; by this only dung is produced, by that pure musk.
Both reeds (the common reed and the sugar-cane) are fed from one source; this one is hollow, while that one is full of sugar.
- p. 115 (E. G. Browne)

He, the door of whose breast has been opened, sees the sun reflected in every atom.
- p. 117

Impossibities are possible to Him,
The stubbornest is docile when His will curbs whim,
The blind from birth, the leper, e’en the dead arise
Whole, sound, whene’er the Omnipotent ‘Come forth!’ but cries.
His smallest daily toil, a work-like pleasure still,
Is to send forth three armies, bound to work His will.
- p. 118 (Redhouse)

Every moment the voice of Love is coming from left and right
We are bound for heaven; who has a mind to sight-seeing?
- p. 118, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Every form you see has its archetype in the placeless world,
If the form perished, no matter, since its original is everlasting,
Every fair shape you have seen, every deep saying you have heard,
Be not cast down that it perished, for that is not so.
- p. 118, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Sensual desire is a bridle and men are as camels
Do not suppose there is any bridle except that for the senseless camel.
- p. 119, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

The noise of clapping of hands is never heard
From one of thy hands unaided by the other hand
The man athirst cries, ‘Where is delicious water?’
Water too cries ‘Where is the water-drinker?’
This thirst in my soul is the attraction of the water
I am the water’s and the water is mine.
- p. 120 (Whinfield)

Know you a name without a thing answering to it?
Have you ever plucked a rose (Gul) from Gaf and Lam?
You name His name; go seek the reality named by it.
Look for the moon in heaven, not in the water.
If you desire to rise above mere names and letters
Make yourself free from self at one stroke.
- p. 121 (Whinfield)

Ah! O crow, give up this life and live anew!
In view of God’s changes cast away your life!
Choose the new, give up the old,
For each single present year is better than three past.
- p. 122 (Whinfield)

Ah! make not thyself a eunuch, become not a monk,
Because chastity is mortgaged to lust.
Without lust, denial of lust is impossible,
No man can display bravery against the dead.
- pp. 122–3 (Whinfield)

His argument is this; he says again and again
‘If there were aught beyond this life, we should see it.’
But if the child sees not the state of reason,
Does the man of reason therefore forsake reason?
And if the man of reason sees not the state of love
Is the blessed moon of love thereby eclipsed?
- p. 124 (Whinfield)

Jesus, thy spirit, is present beside thee,
Ask aid of Him for He is a sufficient helper.
- p. 135

Jesus, son of Mary, went to heaven and his ass remained below,
I remain on the earth but my spirit has flown to the sky.
- p. 135, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Love is that flame which, when it is kindled,
Devours everything except the Beloved.
- p. 135

This is Love; to fly heavenward
To rend every instant a hundred veils.
- p. 135<, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)>

Love of God cuts short reasonings, O beloved,
For it is a present refuge from perplexities.
Through love bewilderment befalls the power of speech
It no longer dares to utter what passes;
Therefore it closes lips from saying good or bad
So that its treasure may not escape it.
- p. 135 (Whinfield)

Love and mistress are both veiled and hidden
Impute it not as a fault if I call Him ‘Bride.’
I would have kept silence from fear of my Beloved
If He had granted me but a moment’s respite.
But He said, ‘Speak on, ’tis no fault,
’Tis naught but the necessary result of the hidden decree
’Tis a fault only to him who only sees faults
How can the Pure Hidden Spirit notice faults.’
- p. 136 (Whinfield)

Union exists beyond all thought and speech
Between great Allah and the soul of each.
- p. 137 (Whinfield)

The world without that king is like a headless body;
Fold yourself turban-wise, round such a head.
Unless you are black, do not let the mirror go from your hand
The soul is your mirror, while the body is rust.
- p. 139, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Although a fool may show you sympathy
At the end he will wound you with his folly.
- p. 139

The souls of our first parents, even before their hands,
Flew away from fidelity after vain pleasure.
- p. 140 (Whinfield)

My soul is grown weary of Pharaoh and his tyranny,
I desire the light of the countenance of Moses, son of ʿImran.
- p. 141, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

When thou seest my hearse, cry not, ‘parted! parted!’
Union and meeting are mine in that hour.
If thou commit to the grave, say not ‘farewell! farewell!’
For the grave is a curtain hiding the communion of Paradise.
- p. 141, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

The soul resembles a clear mirror, the body is dust upon it,
Our beauty is invisible since we are under the dust.
- p. 141, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

The soul resembles day and the body night and we in the middle
Are like the dawn between oar own day and night.
- p. 142, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

The bough’s attraction drew the sap from root to summit,
Even as attraction draws the soul upward without a ladder.
- p. 143, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Exert thyself, O man; put shoulder to the wheel
The prophets and the saints to imitate in zeal.
Exertion’s not a struggle against Providence,
’Twas Providence enjoined it; made it our defence
Blasphemer may I be, if ever single man
Bestowed in vain one effort to fulfil God’s plan.
- pp. 143–4 (Redhouse)

Love exalts our earthly bodies to heaven,
And makes the very hills to dance with joy!
O Lover, ’twas love that gave life to Mount Sinai
When it quaked and Moses fell down in a swoon.
Did my Beloved only touch me with his lips
I too, like the flute would burst out in melody.
- p. 144 (Whinfield)

Pleasures of the flesh are as nuts and raisins, O son,
If you are a man dispense with these two things;
And if you dispense with them the goodness of God
Will set you above the nine heavens.
- p. 144

The bodies of the righteous are as pure souls
Their words, their actions, their praises
Are all as a pure soul without spot or blemish.
- p. 145 (Whinfield)

Can eye now behold Thee as truly Thou art?
Can heart Thy love picture and smiles e’en in part?
The heart that’s a slave to a love or a smile
Can never be worthy to see thee awhile.
Engrossed he that’s now with pleasure and pain
Can he by these accidents live o’er again?
Green pastures of love in their infinitude
More fruits yield than care and than beatitude.
- p. 145 (Redhouse)

The motion of every atom is towards its origin
A man comes to be the thing on which he is bent;
By the attraction of yearning and fondness the soul and the heart
Assume the qualities of the Beloved and the soul of souls.
- pp. 145–6, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Men are moved by God’s decree and fixed ordinance,
As sharp-set teeth are caused by heat of belly,
'Tis Primal Soul that dominates the Second Soul.
- p. 146 (Whinfield)

Our every motion every moment testifies
For it proves the presence of the everlasting God,
So the revolution of the millstone so violent
Testifies to the existence of a stream of water.
O Thou who art above our conception and descriptions,
Dust be upon our heads and upon our similitudes of Thee.
- p. 146 (Whinfield)

Every moment the world and we are renewed
Yet we are ignorant of this renewing for ever and aye.
Life like a stream of water is renewed and renewed
Though it wears the appearance of continuity in form,
That seeming continuity arises from its swift renewal
As when a single spark of fire is whirled round swiftly.
- p. 146 (Whinfield)

The whole world is jealous for this cause
That God surpasseth the world in jealousy.
God is as a soul and the world is as a body
And bodies derive their good and evil from souls.
- pp. 146–7 (Whinfield)

All the seventy and two heresies lurk in you,
Have a care lest one day they prevail over you;
He in whose breast the leaf of true faith is grown
Must tremble as a leaf from fear of such a catastrophe.
- p. 147 (Whinfield)

All creatures are enslaved to thought,
For this cause are they sad at heart and sorrowful.
- p. 147 (Whinfield)

If all dissolute men were shut up in prison
They would all be temperate and devout and pious.
When power of choice is absent, actions are worthless
But beware lest death snatch away your capital,
Your power of choice is a capital yielding profit
Remember well the day of final account.
- p. 148 (Whinfield)

Except in the house of communion with God there is no peace.
- p. 148

Only in the night the moon shines,
Only in pain of heart seek the Beloved.
- p. 148

Opposites can only he know by opposites,
Only through a wound is a caress understood;
Certainly this world first comes into view,
That we may understand the value of that eternal world;
When you are released from this, you go to that;
In that eternal home of delight, you are grateful.
- p. 148

Nuts in plenty but no kernel in any of them,
Relish is needed for devotions to bear fruit,
Kernels are needed that seeds may yield trees,
How can seeds without kernels become trees?
Form without life is only a dream.
- pp. 148–9 (Whinfield)

Our earthly passions are a part of hell
And the parts always share the nature of the whole.
- p. 149

Infidels when enjoying prosperity do wrong
When they are in hell, they cry ‘O our Lord!’
The prison is the hermitage of the wicked thief
For when he is there, he is ever crying to God.
Whereas the object of man’s being is to worship God,
Hell is ordained as a place of worship for the proud.
- p. 150 (Whinfield)

He was not chaff which flew on the wind,
He was not water which froze in winter,
He was not a comb which was broken with a hair,
He was not a seed with the earth crushed,
He was a treasure of gold in this dust-pit,
For he valued the two worlds at a barley corn,
The earthly frame he flung to the earth,
Soul and intellect he bore to heaven,
The pure elixir mingled with the wine-dregs,
Came to the jar’s surface, and the lees settled apart.
The second soul, which the vulgar know not,
I protest by God that he surrendered to the Beloved.
- p. 150, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

What need were there of stars, O humble one,
To one who was guided by the light of the sun,
Neither moon nor planets would be needed,
By one who saw directly the sun of the truth.
- pp. 150–1 (Whinfield)

If a saint handles earth, it becomes gold
If a sinner handles gold, it turns to dust,
Whereas the saint is well-pleasing to God,
In his actions his hand is the hand of God.
But the sinner’s hand is the hand of Satan and demons,
Because he is ensnared in falsity and fraud.
- p. 151 (Whinfield)

Thy business is changing things and bestowing favours,
My business is mistakes and forgetfulness and error,
Change my mistakes and forgetlulness to knowledge
I am altogether vile; make me temperate and meek.
O thou that convertest salt earth into bread
And bread again into the life of men,
Thou makest some earth-born men as heaven
And multipliest heaven-born saints on earth.
- p. 153 (Whinfield)

The Worker is hidden in the workshop,
Enter the workshop and behold him face to face;
Since a veil is drawn over the Worker by his work,
Apart from His work you cannot see Him.
- p. 153 (Nicholson)

Mankind like waterfowl are sprung from the sea, the sea of soul
Risen from that sea, why should the bird make here his home?
Nay, we are pearls in that sea, therein we all abide,
Else why does wave follow wave from the sea of soul.
- pp. 155–6, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Men are as demons and lust of wealth their chain,
Which drags them forth to toil in shop and field;
This chain is made of their fears and anxieties,
Deem not that these men have no chains upon them.
It causes them to engage in labour and the chase,
It forces them to toil in mines and on the sea.
- p. 156 (Whinfield)

All hearts are the abodes of devils
Be not deceived by devil-men.
- p. 156

Your heart is as Solomon’s signet; take care
That it falls not a prey to demons.
- p. 156 (Whinfield)

Why does the formation of an infant take nine months,
Because God’s method is to work by slow degrees.
Not hurrying on like you, O raw one,
Who claim to be a Shaikh whilst yet only a child.
- p. 157 (Whinfield)

In the world there is nought so wondrous as the sun,
But the Sun of the soul sets not and has no yesterday.
- p. 157 (Whinfield)

’Tis blasphemy to praise Him: I proclaim
Myself extant and ‘self’ is mortal shame.
- p. 157 (Nicholson)

Who is he in my ear that hearkens to my voice,
Or who is he that utters words in my mouth?
Who is he in mine eye that looks out of mine eye
Or what is the soul—wilt thou not say—of which I am the garment?
- p. 158, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

You have seen the mountain, not the mine within the mountain.
- p. 158

What seed went down into the earth but it grew,
Why this doubt of thine as regards the seed of man?
- p. 158, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Read ‘I was a hidden treasure and desired to be known;’
Hide not the hidden treasure but disclose it;
Your true treasure is hidden under a false one,
Just as butter is hidden within the substance of milk,
The false one is this transitory body of yours,
The true one your divine soul.
Long time this milk is exposed to view
And the soul’s butter is hidden and of no account.
- pp. 160–1 (Whinfield)

Though the ruby has no stamp, what matters it?
Love is fearless in the midst of the sea of fear.
- p. 164 (Whinfield)

No favour was left which that winsome beauty did not bestow,
What fault of ours if he failed in bounty towards you?
Thou art reviling because that charmer wrought tyranny,
Whoever saw in the two worlds a fair one that played not the tyrant?
When the spirit became lost in contemplation, it said this
‘None but God has contemplated the beauty of God;’
This eye and that lamp are two lights, each individual,
When they came together, no-one distinguished them.
- p. 174, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

We are the family of the Lord and His sucking babes,
The Prophet said ‘The people are God’s family,’
He who sends forth the rain from heaven,
Can He not also provide our daily bread?
- p. 175 (Whinfield)

We have been in heaven, we have been friends of the angels
Thither, sire, let us return for that is our country,
How different a source have the world of dust and the pure substance,
Though we came down, let us haste back—what place is this?
- p. 175, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

I regard not the outside and the words,
I regard the inside and the state of heart;
I look at the heart if it be humble,
Though the words may be the reverse of humble;
Because the heart is substance and words accidents,
Accidents are only a means, substance is the final cause,
How long wilt thou dwell on words and superficialities,
A burning heart is what I want; consort with burning.
- pp. 175–6 (Whinfield)

Then think not lowly of thy heart, though lowly,
For holy is it and there dwells the holy,
God’s presence-chamber is the human breast,
Ah! happy spirit with such Inmate blest.
- p. 176, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Falconer)

As we are all members of Adam
We have heard these melodies in Paradise;
Though earth and water have cast their veil upon us
We retain faint reminiscences of those earthly songs;
But while we are thus shrouded by gross earthly veils
How can the tones of the dancing spheres reach us?
- pp. 177 (Whinfield)

The moon sheds her light and the dogs howl;
Everyone acts according to his nature,
To each his office is allotted by the divine decree.
- pp. 177 (Whinfield)

The body loves green pastures and running water,
For this cause that its origin is from them.
The love of the soul is for wisdom and knowledge,
That of the body for houses, gardens, and vineyards;
The love of the soul is for things exalted on high,
That of the body for acquisition of goods and food.
- pp. 177 (Whinfield)

Look not in the world for bliss and fortune, since thou wilt not find them,
Seek bliss in both worlds by serving Him.
- p. 178, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Read the text ‘I have not created Jinns and men but to worship me,’
The only object of the world is to worship God.
Though the object of a book is to teach an art,
If you make a pillow of it, it serves that purpose too,
Yet its main object is not to serve as a pillow
But to impart knowledge and useful instruction.
- p. 179 (Whinfield)

If for the Faith thou bear’st thy wealth, it then
The Prophet says, is pure to righteous men.
- p. 180 (Eastwick)

I am sweet-smiling Jesus by whom the world is revived,
But my lineage is from God: I know nought of Mary.
- p. 181, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

I was, ere a name had been named upon earth,
Ere one trace yet existed of aught that has birth:
When the locks of the Loved One streamed forth for a sign,
And Being was none save the Presence Divine!
Named and name were alike emanations from Me,
Ere aught that was ‘I’ yet existed, or ‘We’;
Ere the veil of the flesh for Messiah was wrought,
To the Godhead I bowed in prostration of thought.
- p. 182, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Falconer)

I extracted the marrow of the Koran, and threw the bone to the dogs.
- p. 182

I am thy lute, on every vein (chord) of mine
Thou strikest the quill, and I vibrate.
- p. 182, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

I’ll be the very slave of him who at each stage
Will not suppose the goal ’tis of his pilgrimage;
Before the traveller reach the home he bears in mind
How many stages are there must be left behind!
- p. 182 (Redhouse)

Repentance lights on him who tests one tested already.
- p. 183, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

I am ever in concord with this father of ours,
And earth ever appears to me as a Paradise;
Each moment a fresh form, a new beauty,
So that weariness vanishes at these ever-fresh sights;
I see the world filled with blessings,
Fresh waters ever welling up from new fountains.
- p. 184 (Whinfield)

Thou and I individuals no more shall be mingled in ecstasy,
Joyful and secure from foolish babble, thou and I.
All the bright plumed birds of heaven will devour their hearts with envy
In the place where we shall laugh in such a fashion thou and I.
- pp. 184–5, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Death of the body is a benefaction to the spiritual,
What damage has pure gold to dread from the shears.
- p. 186 (Whinfield)

If death be a human being say to him ‘Draw near
That I may closely fold him in a fond embrace,
From him I extort by force eternal life,
Whilst he but snatches from me the dervish’s party-coloured dress.’
- p. 186 (Shea)

Those drunk with God though they be thousands, yet are one,
Those drunk with lust, though it be a single one, he is a double.
- p. 187, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

The billow of largesse hath appeared, the thunder of the sea hath arrived,
The morn of blessedness hath dawned. Morn? No, ’tis the light of God.
- p. 188, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Then love the saints; their love plant deeply in thy heart,
The pure of mind alone deserve a pure love’s part,
Court not despair; hope ever springs in human breast,
Seek not the dark; the sun of light shines full confest.
- p. 191 (Redhouse)

The sect of lovers is distinct from all others,
Lovers have a religion and a faith of their own.
- p. 191 (Whinfield)

Every night spirits are released from this cage (the body)
And set free, neither lording it nor lorded over,
At night prisoners are unaware of their prison,
At night kings are unaware of their majesty,
Then there is no thought or care for loss or gain,
No regard to such an one or such an one,
The state of the ‘knower’ is such as this even when awake
God says ‘Thou would’st deem him awake though asleep,’
Sleeping to the affairs of the world day and night
Like a pen in the directing hand of the writer.
- p. 192 (Whinfield)

Has not the copper of your existence been changed, like Moses, to gold by his alchemy?
What matter though you have no gold in a sack, like Qarun?
Within you is an Egypt, and you are its garden of sugar-canes;
What matter though you have no supply of sugar from without?
- p. 193, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

The lover shineth among his fellows as in heaven
The brilliant moon among the host of stars.
- pp. 193–4, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

An ant who saw a pen writing on paper
Delivered himself to another ant in this way:
‘That pen is making very wonderful figures
Like hyacinths and lillies and roses,’
The other said ‘The finger is the real worker,
The pen is only the instrument of its working;’
A third ant said, ‘No! the action proceeds from the arm,
The weak finger writes with the arm’s might;’
So it went on upwards, till at last
A prince of the ants who had some wit
Said, ‘Ye regard only the outward form of this marvel,
It is only from reason and mind that these figures proceed.
- p. 194 (Whinfield)

The ant of lust becomes by habit like a snake,
Slay first of all the snake of your lust,
Else this snake of yours will become a dragon;
But every one regards his own snake as an ant,
Go inquire of your true state from a man of heart.
- pp. 194–5

A pauper may amused be with counterfeited coin,
But take this to the mint; defaced ’twill be in fine;
Then be not thou misled with gilded counterfeit,
Delusion will thee plunge headlong into hell’s pit.
- p. 195 (Redhouse)

The generous die but their kindness remains,
O happy he who drove this chariot (of kindness),
The unjust die and their injustice remains,
Alas for the soul that commits deceit and fraud.
- p. 196

Victory falls to the believers at last,
The hypocrites have death in the next world.
Although both parties are engaged in one game,
Yet, as regards one another, they are inhabitants of Merv and Rai (i.e., far asunder),
Each goes to his own place,
Each fares according to his name.
- p. 199 (Nicholson)

T am a bird of the heavenly garden; I belong not to the earthly sphere,
They have made for two or three days a cage of my body.
- p. 200, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

A bird flies with its wings towards its nest,
The wings of a man are his aspiration and aim.
If a lover be befouled with good and evil
Yet regard not these; regard rather his aspiration,
Though a falcon be all white and unmatched in form,
If he hunts mice, he is contemptible and worthless,
And if an owl fixes his affection on the king,
He is a falcon in reality; regard not his outward form.
- pp. 200–1 (Whinfield)

He is only scented with musk, he is not himself musk,
He smells of musk, but is really naught but dung,
For his dung to become musk, O disciple,
He must graze year after year in the divine pasture.
- p. 201 (Whinfield)

Seek ye a purchaser who will pay you gold,
Where will you find one more liberal than God?
He buys the worthless rubbish which is your wealth,
He pays you the light that illumines your heart,
He accepts these frozen and lifeless bodies of yours
And gives you a kingdom beyond what you dream of,
He takes a few drops of your tears
And gives you the divine fount sweeter than sugar.
- p. 202 (Whinfield)

O Moses! the lovers of fair rites are one class,
They whose hearts and souls burn with love are another,
If they speak amiss, call them not sinners,
If a martyr be stained with blood, wash it not away,
Blood is better than water for martyrs,
This fault is better than a thousand correct forms.
- p. 202 (Whinfield)

Good news! Good news! Lo! the spring is at hand,
If the blossoms did not shine as bright helmets,
How could the fruits display their globes?
When the blossoms are shed, the fruits come to a head,
When the body is destroyed, the soul lifts up its head.
- p. 203 (Whinfield)

The blast of the last trump will be God’s command
To every atom to lift its head from the earth,
The souls also of each will return to their bodies,
Even as sense returns to bodies awaking from sleep,
On that morn each soul will recognise its own body
And return to its own ruin like hidden treasure.
- p. 207 (Whinfield)

Thou takest on thyself the shame of hemp and wine,
In order that thou mayest for one moment escape from thyself.
- p. 210 (E. G. Browne)

None but God hath contemplated the beauty of God.
- p. 212, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

The strange thing is, not that winged fowl
Fall into the deadly snare without seeing it,
But that they see the snare and the limed twig,
And yet fall into it, whether they will or no.
- p. 213 (Whinfield)

Become nought, nought from self-hood, because
There is no crime worse than thy being.
- p. 214, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Mere fancy’s pictures ever objects mar,
Things non-existent often frenzy paints,
We see mankind deluded over feints;
Their peace, their war not seldom for a sham,
Their pride, their shame some sorry epigram.
- p. 214 (Redhouse)

Thou hadst not seen a single blind man seated on the moat-edge,
Had they sought God instead of morsel and pittance.
- p. 215, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Defects are the mirrors of the attributes of beauty
The base is the mirror of the High and Glorious One,
Because one contrary shows forth its contrary
As honey’s sweetness is shown by vinegar’s sourness,
Who recognises and confesses his own defects
Is hastening in the way that leads to perfection.
- p. 216 (Whinfield)

I am the sunlight falling from above,
Yet never severed from the sun I love.
- p. 217

Thy light is at once joined with all things and apart from all.
- p. 217, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

This soul is a measure; how should the measure know
That it is receiving of spirit and conveying to dust?
Its task is to measure in restless love,
Taking from heaven above, scattering o’er earth below.
- p. 218, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Woman is a ray of God, not a mere mistress,
The Creator’s self as it were, not a mere creature!
- p. 219 (Whinfield)

What rays of wisdom poured on water and on land
Ere earth could nourish seed, yield corn to our demand!
The earth, a faithful trustee, gives back what we sow,
No fraud, embezzlement, in its trust do we know.
- p. 219 (Redhouse)

Where should the ignoble lament and pray,
If Thou didst only accept the good, O merciful One?
Go, do not commit sin, for even our good deeds
Appear as sin in the sight of our Beloved.
- p. 220

In outward form thou art the microcosm
But in reality the macrocosm,
Seemingly the bough is the cause of the fruit,
But really the bough exists because of the fruit.
- p. 220 (Whinfield)

The mind’s ear becomes the sensorium of inspiration,
For what is this Divine voice but the inward voice?
The spirit’s eye and ear possess this sense,
The eye and ear of reason and sense lack it.
The word ‘compulsion’ makes me impatient for love’s sake,
’Tis he who loves not, who is fettered by compulsion,
This is close communion with God, not compulsion,
The shining of the sun, and not a dark cloud.
- p. 221 (Whinfield)

As soul became pregnant by the Soul of souls,
So by the former soul did the world become pregnant;
Then the world brought forth another world,
And of this last are brought forth other worlds.
- p. 221 (Whinfield)

In presence of Joseph no coquetries use
But humble thyself; soft entreaties infuse;
From Jesus a breath then may blow upon thee,
Transform thee to what he was, what thou mayest be:
A stone will not blossom because it is spring,
As earth make thyself; flowers around thee may cling.
- p. 222 (Redhouse)

Before they (the prophets) came, we were all alike,
No one knew whether he was right or wrong,
Genuine coin and base coin were current alike,
The world was a night and we travellers in the dark,
Till the sun of the prophets arose and cried
‘Begone, O slumber! welcome, O pure light!’
Now the eye sees how to distinguish colours,
It sees the difference between rubies and pebbles.
- pp. 222–3 (Whinfield)

All elephants, wolves and lions of the forest,
All dragons and snakes and even little ants,
Yea, even air, water, earth and fire,
Draw their sustenance from Him both winter and summer,
Every moment the Heaven cries to Him, saying
‘O Lord, guilt not Thy hold of me for a moment!
The pillar of my being is Thy aid and protection.’
- p. 223 (Whinfield)

When words deceitful are employed as wraps for guile,
They’re bubbles on the water, only last awhile,
Such words are merely shell; the intent their kernel is,
Or coloured portraiture of man; no life is his,
A shell may often cover kernel of foul smell,
A kernel sound can well afford to lose its shell.
- p. 226 (Redhouse)

We are pieces of steel, and Thy love is the magnet,
Thou art the source of all inspiration, in myself I have seen none.
- p. 226, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Take the cotton of evil suggestions from the mind’s ear,
That the heavenly voice from above may enter it,
That you may understand that riddle of His,
That you may be cognisant of that open secret.
- p. 227 (Whinfield)

Love is a perfect muzzle of evil suggestions;
Without love who ever succeeded in stopping them?
Be a lover and seek that fair beauty,
Haunt for that waterfowl in every Stream!
How can you get water from that which cuts it off,
How gain understanding from what destroys understanding,
Apart from principles of reason are other principles
Of light and great price to be gained by love of God,
Besides this reason of yours God has other reasons
Which will procure for you heavenly nourishment.
- p. 228 (Whinfield)

Accept His command and you will be able to execute it,
Seek union with Him and you will find yourselves united,
Exertion is giving thanks for Gad’s blessings,
Think ye that your fatalism gives such thanks?
- p. 228 (Whinfield)

We’ve done with outer warfare, lesser as it is,
And as the Prophet, wage the greater warfare, his;
We put our trust in God, from Him we ask for aid,
With His assistance faith can move a mountain staid.
- pp. 229–30 (Redhouse)

Of rhymes do I dream? ’Tis my love orders me
Of love still to dream; swain devoted to be,
‘Thyself make thou happy. Rhymes leave now alone
The rhyme I seek thou art. I love thee my own.
What’s rhyme that thou turnest thy thoughts thitherward,
Mere bramble on wall, hedging round our vineyard,
I care not for words, for asseverations,
My time if I pass in these sweet delusions.’
- p. 230 (Redhouse)

The base coin says to me with pride every moment,
‘O pure gold, how am I inferior to you?’
The gold replies, ‘Even so, O comrade;
But the touchstone is at hand; be ready to meet it!’
- p. 231 (Whinfield)

The moon has revealed her face, and opened her radiant wings,
Borrow a soul and eyes from some one, if you have them not.
- p. 231, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

God drops into the heart a single pearl-drop
Which is not bestowed on oceans or skies.
- p. 232 (Whinfield)

The warden of a castle on the marches laid,
Far from his sovereign, distant from much-needed aid,
Defends his post with valour from beleaguering foe,
Disdains to be bought over, scorns the tempter’s foe,
His station’s on a frontier, no eye sees him act
To duty true, he honestly fulfils his pact.
Then in his monarch’s presence honours due he gains,
Above the brave men fighting in the royal trains,
Man’s faith and piety on earth are prized of God,
But after death professed, less value have than clod.
- pp. 234–5 (Redhouse)

The day of judgment is the day of the great review,
Whoso is fair and enlightened longs for that review;
Whoso like a Hindoo is black with sin,
The day of review will sound the knell of his disgrace,
If his thorn puts not forth a single rose-bud
The spring in disclosing him is his foe.
- p. 236 (Whinfield)

Argue not from the condition of common men,
Stumble not at severity and mercy;
For mercy and severity, joy and sorrow are transient
And transient things die; God is heir of all.
- p. 237 (Whinfield)

Place a padlock on your throat and hide the key.
- p. 237

The nearness of the voice proves to such an one
That the voice proceeds from a friend who is near,
The sweetness of the kinsman’s voice too, O beloved,
Proves the veracity of that kinsman,
To the wise whose hearts are enlightened
The mere sound of that voice proves its truth.
- p. 239 (Whinfield)

In this prison the food of true faith is scarce,
And by the tricks of this dog what there is, is lost,
In spite of prayers and fasts and endless pains
Our food is altogether devoured by him,
Let us seek refuge with Allah from Satan,
Alas! we are perishing from his insolence.
- p. 240 (Whinfield)

Ah, how many diverse roads are pointed out
And each followed by some sect for dear life,
If the right road were easily obtainable
Every Jew and Gueber would have hit on it.
- p. 241 (Whinfield)

Pity keep for Jesus, pity not the ass (i.e., the body),
Let not fleshly impulse intellect surpass;
If an ass could somewhat catch of Jesus’ mind,
Ranked among the sages he his place would find,
Though because of Jesus you may walk in woe,
Still from Him comes healing; never let Him go.
- pp. 241–2

Love carried off as plunder the chattels which we possessed,
We are independent of profit and loss and market.
- p. 242, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

God created pain and grief for this purpose,
To wit, to manifest happiness by its opposites.
Hidden things are manifested by their opposites,
But as God has no opposite, He remains hidden,
God’s light has no opposite in the range of creation
Whereby it may be manifested to view,
Perforce ‘Our eyes see Him not, though He sees us,’
Behold this in the case of Moses and Mount Sinai.
- p. 242 (Whinfield)

Night and day comes a winged arrow from the hidden bow,
Yield up your sweet life; what can you do? you have no shield.
- p. 243, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

If the sleeping spirit knew itself to be asleep,
Whatever it might see, it would feel neither joy nor sorrow.
- p. 244, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Mysteries are not communicable save to those who know,
Mystery in the ear of infidels is no mystery.
- p. 244 (Whinfield)

The thread and the needle are related to one another; but a camel is not fitted to pass through the eye of a needle; how should the body of a camel become slender except by abstinence and exertion?
- pp. 245–6

When the spirit lovingly embraces Thee,
In Thy presence all images become spirit.
- p. 247, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

'Twere better that the spirit which wears not true love as a garment
Had not been; its being is but shame.
- p. 248, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Spirit is very subtle and love is very jealous,
What room for form, if the felt is hundredfold?
- p. 248, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

With muffled heads you cannot see,
You’ve wrapped your cloaks in folds about your heads and eyes,
Your sense of sight cannot see what before you lies.
The world’s eye man is; all the rest’s mere skin and shell,
A real eye’s he who strives his Friend to see right well.
- p. 249 (Redhouse)

One day I was filled with longing
To behold in human form the splendours of the Friend,
To witness the ocean gathered up into a drop,
The sun compressed into a single atom.
- p. 250 (Whinfield)

When my bier moveth on the day of death,
Think not my heart is in this world,
Do not weep for me, and cry, ‘Woe! Woe!’
Thou wilt fall in the devil’s snare; that is woe.
- p. 251, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

On the resurrection day all secrets will be disclosed,
Yea, every guilty one will be convicted by himself,
Hand and foot will bear testimony openly
Before the Almighty concerning their owner’s sins.
Hand will say, ‘I stole such and such things,’
Lip will say, ‘I asked for such and such things,’
Foot will say, ‘I went after my own desires,’
Arm will say, ‘I embraced the harlot,’
Eye will say, ‘I looked after forbidden things,’
Ear will say, ‘I listened to evil talk.’
Thus the man will be shown to be a liar from head to foot
Since his own members will prove him to be a liar.
- p. 252 (Whinfield)

Day and night you are eagerly asking for news,
Whilst every member of your body is telling you news,
Since each member of your body issued from Not-being,
How much pleasure has it seen and how much pain?
For no member grows and flourishes without pleasure,
And each member is weakened by every pain.
- pp. 252–3 (Whinfield)

Though the mere imitator quotes a hundred proofs,
They are all based on opinion, not on conviction,
He is only scented with musk, he is not himself musk,
He smells of musk but is really naught but dung.
- p. 253 (Whinfield)

O God there are hundreds of snares and baits
And we are even as greedy and foolish birds;
Every moment our feet are caught in a fresh snare,
Yea, each one of us though he be a falcon or Simurgh,
Thou dost release us every moment and straightway
We again fly into the snare, O Almighty one.
- pp. 253–4, Masnavi, Book I (Whinfield)

The million spears of Pharaoh vaunting in his might,
By Moses’ wand were broken in the appointed night:
And many sons of skill, for healing science famed
By Jesu’s curing halt, lame, blind, deaf, mad, were shamed;
How many poets, orators, great men of note,
By word of the Illiterate One were shown to dote.
- p. 254 (Redhouse)

The Word is become foul with mingled earth,
The water is become muddy; close the mouth of the well,
Till God makes it again pure and sweet,
Yea, till He purifies what He has made foul;
Patience will accomplish thy desire, not haste,
Be patient, God knows what is best.
- p. 255 (Whinfield)

I journeyed years and months for love of that moon,
Heedless of the way, absorbed in God,
With bare feet I trod upon thorns and flints,
Seeing I was bewildered, and beside myself and senseless;
What knows the heart of road and stages,
What of distant and near, while it is drunk with love.
- p. 256 (Whinfield)

The head whose reason has fled is a tail.
- p. 257 (Whinfield)

When the day dawns from heaven, night flees away
What then can its darkness know of the nature of light?
The gnat scuds away before the blast of the winds,
What then knows the gnat of the savour of the winds?
When the Eternal appears, the transitory is annulled,
What then knows the transitory of the Eternal?
- p. 259 (Whinfield)

Though the material sun is unique and single,
We can conceive similar suns like to it,
But the Sun of the soul beyond this firmament,
No like thereof is seen in concrete or abstract.
- p. 260 (Whinfield)

The wine of God’s grace hath no brim,
If it appear to have a brim, ’tis the fault of the cup.
- p. 261, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Giving thanks for blessing increases blessings
But fatalism snatches those blessings from your hands,
Your fatalism is to sleep on the road; sleep not
Till ye behold the gate of the king’s palace.
- p. 262 (Whinfield)

Look to your hearts! I whatever betide, O Moslems,
Am so mingled with Him, that no heart is mingled with me,
I was born of His love at the first, I gave Him my love at the last,
When the fruit springs from the bough, on that bough it hangs.
- p. 263, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Nor gold nor silver seek I but above
All gifts, the heart, and buy it with my love,
Yea! one sad contrite heart which men despise,
More than my throne and fixed decree I prize.
- p. 264, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Falconer)

O base one, behold a hundred thousand souls
Dancing towards the deadly sword of his love,
Behold water in a pitcher; pour it out;
Will that water run away from the stream?
When that water joins the water of the stream
It is lost therein and becomes itself the stream.
- p. 266 (Whinfield)

The Sufi is as it were, the ‘son of the season’
But the pure is exalted above season and state,
Religious raptures depend on feelings and will
But the pure one is regenerated by the breath of Jesus,
You are a lover of your own raptures, not of me,
You turn to me only in hope of experiencing raptures.
- p. 267 (Whinfield)

The life of this world is a truce between opposites.
- p. 269

Form is born of that which is without form,
Wherefore to thee every moment comes death and ‘return,’
Mustafa saith ‘The world endureth only a moment,’
So thought is an arrow shot by God into the air,
How can it stay in the air? It returns to God.
- p. 269 (Whinfield)

I am a painter, a maker of pictures; every moment I shape a beauteous form,
And then in thy presence I melt them all away.
I call up a hundred phantoms and endue them with a spirit
When I behold thy phantom, I cast them in the fire,
Art thou the vintner’s cup-bearer or the enemy of him who is sober,
Or is it thou who mak’st a ruin of every house I build?
In thee the soul is dissolved, with thee it is mingled,
So I will cherish the soul, because it has a perfume of thee.
- p. 270, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

The lamp of the heart that is a timid trader
Acquires neither loss nor gain by its ventures,
Nay it acquires loss, for it is precluded from gain,
’Tis the lamp that takes fire that acquires light.
- p. 272 (Whinfield)

Till the corn be ground with the mill, how can our table be furnished with bread?
- p. 272, Masnavi

Body is not veiled from soul, neither soul from body,
Yet no man hath ever seen a soul.
- p. 273 (Whinfield)

Our breathings are lifted up in fear of God,
Offerings from us to the throne of Eternity,
Then come down to us rewards for our praises
The double thereof yea mercies from the king of glory,
Therefore are we constrained to utter these praises
That slaves may attain the height of God’s gifts,
And so this rising and descent go on evermore,
And cease not for ever and aye.
- pp. 273–4 (Whinfield)

Beats there a heart within that breast of thine,
Then compass rev’rently its sacred shrine;
For the true spiritual K‘aba is the heart
And no proud pile of perishable art,
When God ordained the pilgrim rite, that sign
Was meant to lead thy heart to things divine,
A thousand times he treads that round in vain,
Who e’en one human heart would idly pain.
- p. 274, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Falconer)

Through ignorance, sloth and folly,
Though He stands by us, we are shut off from Him,
The noise of thunder makes the head of the thirsty ache,
When he knows not that it unlocks the blessed showers,
His eyes are fixed on the running stream
Unwitting of the sweetness of the rain from heaven;
He urges the steed of his desire towards the caused,
And perforce remains shut off from the causer.
- p. 276 (Whinfield)

So long as a babe cannot grasp or run,
It takes its father’s back for its carriage,
But when it becomes independent and uses its hands
It falls into grievous troubles and disgrace.
- p. 277 (Whinfield)

Better to arm a drunken negro than
To lavish learning on a wicked man.
- p. 277 (Eastwick)

Place a sword in his hand and remove his impotence
To see if he turns out a warrior or a robber;
Because freewill is that with which ‘We honour Adam,’
Half the swarm become bees, and half wasps.
- p. 277 (Whinfield)

Our life’s our quiver. When our years are vainly spent
In chasing phantoms, grief one day will have its vent.
Let God’s protection mercifully on us rest,
All fancies and all phantoms stand at once confessed,
God’s servants are His shadows here below on earth
To this world dead, but living in a second birth.
- p. 278 (Redhouse)

On the day that you entered upon existence
You were first fire, or earth, or air,
If you had continued in that your original state,
How could you have arrived at this dignity of humanity.
- p. 279 (Whinfield)

If you have not gone to the Kaaba, fortune will draw you thither,
Do not flee, O babbler, for you have no refuge from God.
- p. 279, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Thou hast come to draw men to union with Me,
Not to drive them far away from Me,
So far as possible, engage not in dissevering;
‘The thing most repugnant to Me is divorce.’
- p. 179 (Whinfield)

Thou wert first and last thou shalt be,
Make my last better than my first,
When Thou art hidden, I am of the infidels,
When Thou art manifest, I am of the faithful.
- p. 280, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

You are in the bonds of (absorbed in) the arrangement of beard and turban,
How will you gain him who quaffs the mighty flagon (of love)?
- p. 280, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Thou wert dust and art spirit, thou wert ignorant and art wise,
He who has led thee thus far, will lead thee further also,
How pleasant are the pains He makes thee suffer while He gently draws thee to Himself,
His flames are as water, do not frown upon Him.
- p. 280, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Set thy whole desire on that whereof thou hast no hope,
For thou hast come thus far from original hopelessness.
- p. 281, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

You are as a dry valley and I as the rain,
You are as a ruined city and I as the architect,
Except my service which is joy’s sunrise
Man has never felt and never will feel an impression of joy.
- p. 281, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Thou didst sow the seed of deceit, thou didst indulge in derision,
Thou didst regard God as nothing: see now, O miscreant!
- p. 282, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

O honoured guest in love’s high feast, O bird of the angel sphere,
’Tis cause to weep if thou wilt keep thy habitation here.
A voice at morn to thee is borne—God whispers to the soul,
‘If on the way the dust thou’llt lay, thou soon wilt gain the goal,
That road be thine toward the shrine; and lo! in bush and briar
The many slain by love and pain in flower of young desire,
Who on the track fell wounded back and saw not ere the end
A ray of bliss, a touch, a kiss, a token of the Friend.
- p. 282, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Seek earnestly for deliverance from the uncongenial,
The society of the uncongenial is like the grave.
- p. 284

It is on account of their sweet voices
That choice parrots and nightingales are prisoned in cages;
Ugly owls and crows are never prisoned in cages,
Such a thing was never heard of in history.
- p. 284 (Whinfield)

Thou fanciest thyself near to God,
Saying ‘The maker of the dish is not far from the dish,’
Knowest thou not that the nearness of saints to God
Involves the power to do mighty works and signs?
Iron was as wax in the hands of David,
Wax in thy hands is as iron.
- p. 284 (Whinfield)

Thou art a darling bosom friend, thou art always behind the secret veil,
Why dost thou make thy dwelling-place in this perishable abode,
Regard thine own state, go forth and journey
From the prison of the Formal world to the meadow of Ideas.
- pp. 284–5, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

God has enjoined this servitude upon us,
We say not this merely on our own authority;
We enjoy life on condition of doing His will;
If He bids us, we sow our seed upon the sand.
- pp. 285–6 (Whinfield)

He is like Pharaoh and his body like Moses,
He runs abroad crying ‘Where is my foe?’
While lust is in his house, which is his body,
He bites his finger in spite against strangers.
- p. 286 (Whinfield)

Enter the hearts of my servants
To gain the paradise of beholding me, O fearer of God.
- p. 286 (Whinfield)

Enter houses by the doors
And trace effects to their causes.
- p. 286 (Whinfield)

He is the perfect world, yet He is single,
He holds in hand the writing of the whole of existence,
Wherefore all forms and colours of beauty cry out,
‘Good news! good news! lo! the spring is at hand!’
- p. 287 (Whinfield)

Whoever may put off to sow seed in spring
Ignores the true value of time’s swiftest wing,
Let each one take refuge in mercy of God
Who grace manifold on our souls has bestowed,
Then shalt thou find shelter, when shelter thou needest,
Fire’s, water’s protection thou’lt have as thou heedest.
- p. 287 (Redhouse)

Prize not at all life that has passed without love,
Love is the water of life: receive it in thy heart and soul.
- pp. 288–9, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

The people of love are hidden among the peoples
As a liberal encompassed by the contumely of the base.
- p. 289 (Whinfield)

No mountain-pass as this life’s progress is so steep,
Let envy not increase thy load; thou canst but creep,
The flesh a hot-bed is of envy and of strife
These soil the soil; for envy’s bane of mortal life.
- p. 292 (Redhouse)

Thorn-eating camel truly is this world of ours,
Ahmed then came and mounted; him that camel bears.
O camel, on thy back thou bear’st a vase of rose,
On thee from thence have sprouted rose-buds as God knows,
Thy tastes lead thee to camel-thorn and wastes of sand,
To thee the thorn’s a rose; the wilderness, rich land.
- p. 293 (Redhouse)

Seek the pearl, O brother, in the shell,
And seek for skill among the learned.
- p. 293

Though you have no feet, choose to journey in yourself,
Like the ruby-mine receive a print from the sunbeams,
Make a journey out of self into self, O master,
For by such a journey earth becomes a quarry of gold.
- p. 295, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

If the sun did not fare by foot and wing every night,
How would the world be illuminated at morning tide?
And if the salt water did not go up from the sea to the sky
Whence would the garden be quickened by river and rain?
- p. 301, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

O Ali! out of all forms of religious service
Choose thou the shadow of that dear friend of God!
Do thou seek refuge in the shadow of the wise man
That thou mayest escape thy fierce secret foes,
Of all forms of service this is fittest for thee
Thou shalt surpass all who were before thee.
- p. 304 (Whinfield)

That person one night was crying ‘O Allah!’
That his mouth might be sweetened thereby,
And Satan said to him ‘Be quiet, O austere one!
How long wilt thou babble O man of many words?
No answer comes to thee from nigh the throne,
How long wilt thou cry “Allah!” with harsh face?’
That person was sad at heart and hung his head
And then beheld Khizr present before him in a vision
Who said to him ‘Ah! thou hast ceased to call upon God,
Wherefore repentest thou of calling upon Him?’
The man said ‘The answer “Here am I” came not,
Wherefore I fear that I am repulsed from the door.’
Khizr replied to him ‘God has given me this command
Go to him and say “O much tried one!
That calling ‘Allah’ of thine was my ‘Here am I;’
And that pain and longing and ardour of thine was my messenger;
Thy struggles and strivings for assistance
Were My attractions and originated thy prayer.
Thy fear and thy love are the covert of My mercy,
Each ‘O Lord!’ of thine contains many ‘Here am I’s’.’
- pp. 306–7 (Whinfield)

One I seek, one I know, one I see, one I call.
He is the first, He is the last, He is the outward, He is the inward.
- p. 307 (Whinfield)

One said ‘The world would be a pleasant place,
If death never set foot within it’;
Another answered ‘If there were no death,
The complicated world would not be worth a jot.
It would be a crop raised in the desert
Left neglected and never threshed out.’
- p. 308 (Whinfield)

One impulse from God is better than a hundred efforts.
- p. 310, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Society with saints no doubt’s of great avail
To piety it leads; ‘God’s fear shall never fail.’
Thou wast a very rock, a worthless pebble-stone,
By saints’ communion fined, a pearl of price thou’st shone.
- p. 311 (Redhouse)

Seek sweet syrup in the garden of love,
For nature is a seller of vinegar and a crusher of unripened grapes.
- p. 318, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

From thy good thoughts are born the boys of Paradise and the houris,
From thy evil thoughts is born the great demon (Iblis),
See how the secret thought of the geometrician has become a castle or a palace,
See how the hidden Providence without beginning has become this mighty universe.
- pp. 318–9, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Apparently thou art the ruler of thy wife like water over fire,
In reality thou art ruled by and suppliant to her.
- p. 319 (Whinfield)

Serpents’ poison is life to serpents,
In relation to mankind it is death.
- p. 320 (Whinfield)

From the moment you came into the world of being
A ladder was placed before you that you might escape,
First you were mineral, later you turned to plant,
Then you became animal: how should this be a secret to you?
Afterwards you were made man, with knowledge, reason, faith,
Behold the body which is a portion of the dust-pit, how perfect it has grown!
When you have travelled on from man, you will doubtless become an angel,
After that you are done with this earth; your station is in heaven.
- pp. 320–1, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Thou mouldest of foul and fair the form of a man
That he may flee two leagues from the odour of foulness;
Thou mak’st him a morsel of dust that he may become pure herbage,
He is free from filth when Thou hast breathed into him a soul.
- p. 321, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

I will not shun thy blow, for very crude
Is the heart that ne’er burned in the fire of thine affliction,
To thy praise and praisers there is no end,
What atom but is reeling with thy praise?
- p. 323, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

Let not a weakling like you censure me;
What seems night to you is broad day to me,
What seems a prison to you is a garden to me,
Busiest occupation is rest to me,
Your feet are in the mire, to me mire is rose,
What to you is funeral wailing is marriage drum to me.
- p. 323 (Whinfield)

Opposite shows up opposite as a Frank a negro.
- p. 324 (Whinfield)

Welcome soul-producing sun! when a single ray of thine hath appeared,
Thousands of human souls shoot forth from black (barren) clay.
- p. 324, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

My heart is weary of these weak-spirited companions,
I desire the Lion of God (Ali) and Rustam son of Zal,
Filings of beauty are in the possession of every one that exists,
I desire that quarry and that mine of exquisite loveliness.
- p. 324, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson)

I still am dark compared to the sun
Though I am light compared to the dark souls of men,
Therefore is my light weak that you may bear it,
For you are not strong enough to bear the dazzling sun,
I have, as it were, mixed honey with vinegar,
To succour the sweetness of your hearts.
- p. 329 (Whinfield)

The strength of strongest man can merely split a stone,
The power that informs man’s soul can cleave the moon.
- p. 330 (Redhouse)

Misattributed

Come, come, whoever you are.
Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving — it doesn't matter,
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow a hundred times,
Come, come again, come.
- Sy Safransky (ed.) Sunbeams: A Book of Quotations (1990) p. 67
- Often attributed to Rumi, but apparently by Abu Sa'id Abu'l-Khayr. The original poem in Farsi is: باز آ باز آ هر آنچه هستی باز آ گر کافر و گبر و بت‌پرستی باز آ این درگه ما درگه نومیدی نیست صد بار اگر توبه [3] شکستی باز
  - Variations:
  - Come, come, whoever you are.
    Wanderer, idolator, worshipper of fire, come even though you have broken your vows a thousand times,
    Come, and come yet again. Ours is not a caravan of despair.
    - Amin Malak, Muslim Narratives and the Discourse of English (2004) p. 151
  - Come, come, whoever you are.
    Wanderer, worshipper, lover of living, it doesn't matter
    Ours is not a caravan of despair.
    Come even if you have broken your vow a thousand times,
    Come, yet again, come, come.
    - M. Fatih Citlak and Huseyin Bingul, Rumi and His Sufi Path of Love (2007) p. 81
  - Come, come again, whoever you are, come!
    Heathen, fire worshipper or idolatrous, come!
    Come even if you broke your penitence a hundred times,
    Ours is the portal of hope, come as you are.
    - Martha Kneib, Turkey: A Primary Source Cultural Guide (2004)

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
- Helen Schucman A Course in Miracles (1976) Ch. 16: The Forgiveness of Illusions, p. 338, #6

Whenever we manage to love without expectations, calculations, negotiations, we are indeed in heaven.
- Elif Şafak, The Forty Rules of Love (2010) — The book is about Rumi, but the quote is the author's own words.^{[citation needed]}

We carry inside us the wonders we seek outside us.
- The Tao of Dad: The Wisdom of Fathers Near and Far (2006) p. 62. Compare: Thomas Browne, Religio Medici (1643) pt. 1, sect. 15: "We carry within us the wonders we seek without us: there is all Africa and her prodigies in us."

I once saw in an office a plaque that suggested that before we open our mouths to speak, we should make our words pass through three gates: Is it true, is it kind, and is it necessary?
- Donald Ernest and Vesta West Mansell, Sure As the Dawn (1993) p. 194 — Various sources attribute this saying to Rumi, although never to a specific work or correspondence. It may be a misquote of Sathya Sai.^{[citation needed]}

Quotes about Rumi

Strange as it may seem to our Western egoism, the prospect of sharing in the general, impersonal immortality of the human soul kindles in the Sufi an enthusiasm as deep and triumphant as that of the most ardent believer in a personal life continuing beyond the grave. Jalaluddin, after describing the evolution of man in the material world and anticipating his further growth in the spiritual universe, utters a heartfelt prayer — for what? — for self-annihilation in the ocean of the Godhead.
- Reynold A. Nicholson, The Mystics of Islam (1914) p. 124

The idea that eroticism and spirituality should be separated is a travesty of both...Or read the great Persian poet Rumi...All mystical poetry is erotic, uses erotic language, because it desires fusion with God...all lovers see the beloved’s face and body as divine.
- Alicia Ostriker, Interview with the Dallas Review [4]

Translations

Edward Henry Whinfield, Masnavi I Ma'navi: The Spiritual Couplets of Maulána Jalálu-'d-Dín Muhammad Rúmí (1898)

Reynold A. Nicholson, The Mystics of Islam (1914)

Reynold A. Nicholson, Rumi: Poet And Mystic (George Allen and Unwin, 1950)

William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi (1983)

Camille and Kabir Helminski, Rumi Daylight: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance (1990)

Camille and Kabir Helminski, Jewels of Remembrance: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance (1996)

Coleman Barks, The Essential Rumi (HarperCollins, 1995)

James Fadiman and Robert Frager, Essential Sufism (HarperSanFrancisco, 1997)

Fatemeh Keshavarz, Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi (1998)

Shahram Shiva, Hush, Don't Say Anything to God: Passionate Poems of Rumi (Jain Publishing, 1999)

Andrew Harvey, Teachings of Rumi (Shambhala, 1999)

John Baldock, The Essence of Rumi (London: Arcturus, 2005)

Ibrahim Gamard and Rawan Farhadi, The Quatrains of Rumi (2008)

External links

Wikisource

Wikisource has original works by or about:

Rumi

Wikipedia

Wikipedia has an article about:

Rumi

Commons

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Rumi

The Foundation of Universal Lovers of Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi (EMAV)
Jalaluddin Rumi
The Threshold Society and Mevlevi Order
- Rumi: Daylight Selections from the Mathnawi translated by Camille & Kabir Helminski
The Mevlevi Order of America
Official website of the family of Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi
Translations compared at Blissbat
- Selected poetry at Blissbat
Selected poetry at AllSpirit
Dar-al-Masnavi
Collection of Rumi Quotes - RumiQuotesDb.com
RumiOnFire.com - A Tribute to Rumi
"Persian Poet Top Seller In America"' by Alexandra Marks, The Christian Science Monitor (25 November 1997)
Selected poetry at the Internet Medieval Sourcebook
Selected poetry at PoetSeers
Selection of Rubaiyat Rumi in Persian
Quotes and pictures
"A feather on the breath of God" by Nur Elmessiri in Al-Ahram Weekly Online Issue No. 385 (9 - 15 July 1998)
Quotes in videos with Ottoman Ney Music