Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207 – 1273)
Persian philosopher, theologian, poet, teacher, and founder of the Mevlevi order of Sufism; also known as Mevlana, Jalaluddin Rumi, or simply Rumi.
Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absent-minded.
Someone sober will worry about events going badly.
Let the lover be.
When in Love,
body, mind, heart and soul don't even exist.
You were born with wings. Why prefer to crawl through life?
Didn't I tell you
not to be satisfied with the veil of this world?
I am the master illusionist,
it is me, who is the welcoming banner at the gate of your contentment.
"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.
Do not grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.
Fortunate is he who does not carry envy as a companion.
The place that Solomon made to worship in,
called the Far Mosque, is not built of earth
and water and stone, but of intention and wisdom
and mystical conversation and compassionate action.
If you are wholly perplexed and in straits,
have patience, for patience is the key to joy.
Silence
is an ocean. Speech is a river.
God's joy moved from unmarked box to unmarked box,
from cell to cell.
Come, seek, for search is the foundation of fortune:
every success depends upon focusing the heart.
Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.
If you are irritated by every rub,
how will your mirror be polished?
Learn from Ali how to fight
without your ego participating.
God's lion did nothing
that didn't originate
from his deep center.
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.
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.
The branch might seem like the fruit's origin:
In fact, the branch exist because of the fruit.
Many of the faults you see in others, dear reader,
are your own nature reflected in them.
To Love is to reach God.
Never will a Lover's chest
feel any sorrow.
Never will a Lover's robe
be touched by mortals.
Never will a Lover's body
be found buried in the earth.
To Love is to reach God.