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.
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?
Disputational knowing wants customers.
It has no soul.
Love rests on no foundation.
It is an endless ocean,
with no beginning or end.
Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.
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.
Anyone in whom the troublemaking self has died,
sun and cloud obey.
If you wish to shine like day,
burn up the night of self-existence.
Dissolve in the Being who is everything.
Whenever we manage to love without expectations, calculations, negotiations, we are indeed in heaven.
Out beyond the world of ideas of wrong doing and right doing, there is a field. I will meet you there.
Out beyond ideas of right and wrong doing, there is a field. I will meet you there.
Didn't I tell you?
They will accuse you of all the wrongdoings,
they will call you ugly names,
they will make you forget
it is me, who is the source of your happiness.
I always thought that
I was me — but no,
I was you
and never knew it.
I can't stop pointing
to the beauty.