Discourses of RUMI, Translated by A.J.ARBERRY

[Signalian]

DISCOURSE 1​

Rumi stated: Mohammed (SAW), the great Prophet, once said, “The worst of scholars are those who visit princes, and the best of princes are those who visit scholars. Wise is the prince who stands at the door of the poor, and wretched are the poor who stand at the door of the prince.”

Now, taking the outward sense of these words, people think that scholars should never visit princes or they will become the worst of scholars. That is not the true meaning. Rather, the worst of scholars are those who depend upon princes, and who revolve their life and purpose around the attention and favor of princes. Such scholars take up learning in hopes that princes will give them presents, hold them in esteem, and promote them to office.

Therefore, such scholars improve themselves and pursue knowledge on account of princes. They become scholars from their fear of princes. They subject themselves to the princes’ control. They conform themselves to the plans that princes map out for them. So, whether they visit a prince, or a prince visits them, still in every case they’re the visitors, and it is the prince who is visited.

However, when scholars do not study to please princes, but instead pursue learning from first to last for the sake of truth—when their actions and words spring from the truth they have learned and put to use because this is their nature and they cannot live otherwise—just as fish can only thrive in water—such scholars subject themselves to the control and direction of God. They become blessed with the guidance of the prophets.Everyone living in their time is touched by them and derives inspiration from their example, whether they are aware of the fact or not. Should such scholars visit a prince, they are still the ones visited and the prince is the visitor, because in every case it is the prince who takes from these scholars and receives help from them.

Such scholars are independent of the prince. They are like the light-giving sun, whose whole function is giving to all, universally, converting stones into rubies and carnelians, changing mountains into mines of copper, gold, silver and iron, making the earth fresh and green, bringing fruit to the trees, and warmth to the breeze. Their trade is giving, they do not receive.

The Arabs have expressed this in a proverb: “We have learned in order to give, we have not learned in order to take.” And so in all ways they are the visited, and the prince is the visitor.


The thought comes to me at this point to comment on a verse of the Koran, although it is not related to the present discourse. However, this idea comes to me now, and I want to express it so that it can go on record.

"O Prophet, say to the prisoners in your hands. If God knows of any good in your hearts, He will give you more than He has taken, And He will forgive you.Surely God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate."

This verse was revealed when Mohammed (SAW) had defeated the unbelievers, slaying, plundering and taking prisoners, whom he tied hand and foot. Amongst the prisoners was his uncle, ‘Abbas. The chained people wept and wailed all night in their helpless humiliation. They had given up all hope of their lives, expecting the sword and slaughter.

Mohammed (SAW), seeing this, laughed.

“Look!” the prisoners exclaimed. “He shows the traits of a person after all. This claim that he is superhuman is not true. There he stands looking at us prisoners in these chains, enjoying it. Just like everyone ruled by their passions—when they gain victory over their enemies and see their opponents vanquished to their will, they rejoice and feel happiness.”

“Not so,” answered Mohammed (SAW), seeing what was in their hearts. “Never would I laugh at the sight of enemies conquered by my hand, or the sight of your suffering. But I do rejoice, in fact I laugh, because with inner vision I see myself dragging and drawing people by collars and chains, out of the black smoke of Hell into Paradise, while they complain and cry, ‘Why are you pulling us from this pit of self-destruction into that garden of security?’ So, laughter overcomes me.
“But since you have not yet been granted the vision to see what I am saying, listen. God commands me to say this to you: First you gathered your forces and mustered your might, trusting completely in your own virtue and valor. You said to yourselves, ‘We will conquer the Muslims and vanquish them.’ But you did not see that One Power more powerful than yourselves. You did not know the One Force above your force. And so all that you planned turned out the opposite. Even now in your fear, you still hold onto your beliefs
and do not see the One Reality over you. Rather than facing that Power, you see my power, because it is easier for you to see yourselves conquered by me.
“But even in your present state, still I say to you: If you recognise my power, and accept yourselves vanquished to my will in all circumstances, I can still deliver you from this grief. He, who is able to bring forth a black bull from a white bull, can also produce a white bull from a black bull. Turn away from your former ways, and likewise I will return to you all the property that has been taken from you, in fact many times as much. Even more, I will absolve you of all blame, and grant you prosperity in this world and the world to come.”

“I have repented,” said ‘Abbas. “I have turned from my former ways.”

Mohammed (SAW) said, “God demands a token of this claim you make, for easy it is to boast of love, but other is the proof thereof.”
“In God’s name, what token do you demand?” asked ‘Abbas.
“Give all the properties that remain to you for the army of Islam, so the army of Islam may be strengthened,” said Mohammed (SAW). “That is, of course, if you have truly become a Muslim and desire the good of Islam and Muslimdom.”
“Prophet of God, what remains to me?” said ‘Abbas. “They have taken everything, leaving me not so much as an old reed-mat.”
“You see,” said Mohammed (SAW), “you have not yet given up your old ways. You have not yet seen the light of truth. Should I tell you how much property you still have? Where you have hidden it? To whom you have entrusted it? Where you concealed and buried it?”
“God forbid!” exclaimed ‘Abbas.
“Did you not entrust so much property specifically to your mother?” asked Mohammed (SAW). “Did you not bury your gold under such and such a wall? Did you not tell your mother in detail, ‘If I return, give this back to me. But if I do not return safely, then spend so much upon such and such an object, and give so much to So-and-So, and so much is to be for yourself’?”

When ‘Abbas heard these words he raised his hand in complete acceptance. “Prophet of God,”
he said, “truly, I have always thought you carried the fortune of the old kings, such as Haman, Shaddad, Nimrod and the rest. But now that you have spoken I know this favor is divine, from the world beyond, from the throne of God.”
“Now you have spoken truly,” said Mohammed (SAW). “This time I have heard the snapping of the girdle of doubt, that you had within you. I have an ear hidden within my inmost Soul, and with that hidden ear I can hear the snapping of doubt within anyone. Now it is true for a fact that you believe.”

I have told this story to the Emir for this reason:
In the beginning you came forward as a champion of Muslimdom.
“I ransom myself,” you said. “I sacrifice my own desires, considerations and judgement so that Islam will remain secure and strong.” But because you put your trust in your own plans, loosing sight of God, and forgetting that all things proceed from God, all your intentions have turned out the opposite. Having struck a bargain with the Tartars, you are unintentionally giving them assistance to destroy the Syrians and the Egyptians, which in the end may bring ruin to the realm of Islam. So God has turned this plan you made for the survival of Islam, into its own destruction. Turn your face to God, for things are in a dangerous condition. Yet, even in your present state, my friend, do not give up hope, but look to God and give yourself up to Its will. You thought your own strength of spirit proceeded from yourself, just as ‘Abbas and the prisoners did, thus you have fallen into weakness. But do not give up hope, because He, who can produce weakness from strength, can bring forth an even greater strength from this weakness. Just as Mohammed (SAW) rejoiced during the prisoners’ grief, so too I find joy in your present embarrassment, because from this weakness and suffering can come something greater than has been lost. Therefore, do not give up hope, for
“Of God’s comfort no one despairs, Except the unbelievers.”

My purpose in speaking this way to the Emir was so that he could see the matter correctly, and accept the will of God humbly. He has fallen out of an exceedingly high state into a low state, yet in this way he may grow. Life can show the most wonderful things, but behind all of them lies a trap should we forget the source of this wonder. God has devised this plan so that we will learn not to claim, out of arrogance and vanity, these ideas and plans as our own.
If everything were in truth as it appears to be, Mohammed (SAW), endowed as he was with a vision so penetrating, so illuminated, would never have cried,

“Lord, show me things as they are. You show a thing as fair, and in reality it is ugly. You show a thing as ugly, and in truth it is beautiful. Show us everything just as it is, So that we will not fall into the snare.”

Now, your judgement, however good and luminous it may be, is certainly not better than the Prophet’s (SAW) judgement. So do not put your trust in every idea and every notion, but only in God and His wisdom.

 

[Signalian]

DISCOURSE 2​

Someone said: “Our Master does not utter a word.”

Rumi answered:
Well, it was the thought of me that brought you to my presence. This thought of me did not speak with you saying, “How are things with you?” The thought without words drew you here. If the reality of me draws you without words and transports you to another place, what is so wonderful with words? Words are the shadow of reality, a mere branch of reality.
Since the shadow draws, how much more the reality! Words are a pretext.

It is the inner bond that draws one person to another, not words. If someone should see a hundred thousand miracles and divine blessings, still, without an inner connection to that saint or prophet who was the source of those miracles, all these phenomena would come to nothing. It is this inward element that draws and moves us. If there were no element of amber in straw, the straw would never be attracted to the amber [Rumi is referring to static electricity here].
They would not cling to each other, even if you rubbed the amber with fur. This exchange between them is hidden, not a visible thing. It is the thought that brings us. The thought of a garden brings us to the garden. The thought of a shop brings us to the shop. However, within these thoughts is a secret deception. Have you never gone to a certain place thinking it would be good, only to find disappointment? These thoughts then are like a shroud, and within that shroud someone is hidden. The day reality draws you and the shroud of thought disappears, there will be no disappointment.

Then you will see reality as it is, and nothing more.
“Upon that day when the secrets are tried.”

So, what reason is there for me to speak? In reality that which draws is a single thing, but it appears to be many. We are possessed by a hundred different desires. “I want vermicelli,” we say.
“I want ravioli. I want halvah. I want fritters. I want fruit. I want dates.” We name these one by one, but the root of the matter is a single thing:
the root is hunger. Don’t you see how, once we have our fill of but one thing, we say, “Nothing else is necessary?” Therefore, it was not ten or a hundred things, but one thing that drew us.
“And their number We have appointed only as a trial.”
The many things of this world are a trial appointed by God, for they hide the single reality.

There is a saying that the saint is one, humankind is a hundred, meaning the saint’s whole attention remains upon the one truth, while people are scattered over a hundred appearances. But which hundred? Which fifty? Which sixty? Lost in this world of mirrored reflections, they are a faceless people without hands and feet, without mind and Soul, quivering like a magic talisman, like quicksilver or mercury. They do not know who they are. Call them sixty or a hundred or a thousand, and the saint is one, but is not this view a trial itself? For the truth is that the hundreds are nothing, while the saint is a thousand, and a hundred thousand, and thousands of thousands.

A king once gave a single soldier the rations for a hundred men. The army protested, but the king said nothing. When the day of battle arrived, all the men fled the field, except that one soldier who fought alone.
“There you are,” the king said. “It was for this I fed one man as a hundred.”

It behooves us to strip away all our prejudices and seek out a friend of God. However, when we’ve spent our whole life in the company of people who lack discrimination, then our own discriminative faculty becomes weak, and that true
friend may pass us by unrecognized. Discrimination is a quality that is always hidden in a person. Don’t you see that an insane person possesses hands and feet but lacks discrimination?

Discrimination is a subtle essence within you. Yet, day and night you have been occupied with nurturing the physical form that does not know right from wrong. Why have you devoted all your energies to looking after the physical,
entirely neglecting that subtle essence? The physical exists through that essence, but that essence in no way depends on the physical.

The light that shines through the windows of the eyes and ears—if those windows did not exist, the light would not stop. It would find other windows to shine through. If you bring a lamp before the sun, do you say, “I see the sun by means of this lamp”? God forbid! If you did not bring the lamp, the sun would still shine. What need is there for a lamp?

This is the danger in associating with kings. It is not that you may lose your life—we must lose our life in the end anyway, whether today or tomorrow does not matter. The danger arises from the fact that when kings enter upon the
scene, and the spell of their influence gains strength, becoming like a great lamp, the person who keeps company with them, claims their friendship, and accepts money from them will inevitably speak in accordance with their desires.
That person will listen to the kings’ mundane views with the utmost attention, and will not be able to deny them.

That is where the danger lies, it leads to a fading respect for the true source. When you cultivate the interest of kings, that other interest which is fundamental to the spiritual life becomes a stranger to you. The more you proceed down the
path of kings, the more that direction where the Beloved dwells becomes lost. The more you make your peace with worldly people, the more the Beloved turns away from you. Going in their direction renders you subject to their rule. Once you have turned down their path, in the end God gives them power over you.

It is a pity to reach the ocean, and to be satisfied with a little pitcherful from the sea. After all, there are pearls in the sea, and from the sea come a myriad of precious things. What is the value in just taking water? What pride can intelligent people have in that? This world is a mere foam fleck of the True Sea. That Ocean is the science of the
saints, and within that Water is the Pearl Itself. This world is but foam full of floating jetsam.
Yet, through the turning of the waves, and the rhythmic surging of the sea in constant motion, this foam takes on a certain beauty. But this beauty is a borrowed thing coming from elsewhere. It is a false coin that sparkles to the eye.

People are the astrolabe of God, but it requires an astronomer to use the astrolabe. If a vegetable seller or a greengrocer should find the astrolabe, what good would it do them? From that astrolabe, what could they know of the movements of the circling stars and the positions of the planets, their influences and so forth? But in the hands of
the astronomer, the astrolabe becomes truly valuable. Just as this copper astrolabe reflects the movements
of the heavens like a mirror, so the human being is the astrolabe of God.

“We have honored the children of Adam.”

Those who have been moved by God to see the one reality and learn Its ways through the astrolabe of their own being, behold moment by moment, flash by flash, the testament of God.

Indeed, it is an infinite beauty that never leaves their mirror. God has servants who cloak themselves in a wisdom, knowingness and grace invisible to others. Out of their excessive jealousy and love for God these servants cloak themselves, just like Mutanabbi says of beautiful women:

"Figured silks they wore, not to beautify
But to guard their beauty from lustful eyes."

 

[Signalian]

DISCOURSE 3​

The Emir said: “Night and day my heart and Soul are intent upon serving God, but because of my responsibilities with Mongol affairs I have no time for such service.”

Rumi answered:
Those works too are work done for God, since they are the means of providing peace and security for your country. You sacrifice yourself, your possessions, your time, so the hearts of a few will be lifted to peacefully obeying God’s will. So this too is a good work. God has inclined you towards such good work, and your great love for what you do is proof of God’s blessing. However, if your love of work were to weaken, this would be a sign of grace denied, for God leads only those who are worthy into those right attitudes that will earn spiritual rewards.

Take the case of a hot bath. Its heat comes from the fuel that is burned, such as dry hay, firewood, dung and the like. In the same way, God uses what to outward appearance looks evil and nasty, yet in reality is the means to cleanliness and purity. Like the bath, the man or woman fired by the efforts of work becomes purified and a benefit to all people.

(At this point some friends arrived. Rumi excused himself and said)
If I do not attend to you, and do not welcome you or ask after you, this is really a mark of respect. Respect is what is
appropriate for the occasion. When someone is at prayer, they should not stop to greet their father and brother. Disregard of friends while being engaged in prayer is the highest regard, and the greatest courtesy, since that person does not break away from absorption with God on account of dear ones. This saves those loved ones from being
subject to Divine reproach. Therefore, true respect is not a social pleasantry, but is concern for the spiritual honor of others.


Someone asked: “Is there any way nearer to God than prayer?”
Rumi answered:
Yes, but it is also prayer. It is prayer without the outward form. This outer form of prayer is the body of prayer, since it has a beginning and ending. Everything that has a beginning and ending is a body. All words and sounds have a beginning and an end, and therefore are form and body. But the inner soul of prayer is unconditioned and infinite, and has neither beginning nor end.

Now, Mohammed SAW, who invented the Muslim prayer, said, “I have a time with God not contained by any prophet, nor limited by any angel next to God.” Hence we realize that the soul of prayer is not the outer form alone. Rather it is a complete absorption, a state without room for these outward forms. Gabriel himself, who is pure reality, cannot be found therein.

It is related that one day friends found my father in a state of complete absorption. The hour of prayer arrived, and these friends called out to my father, “It is time for prayer.” My father did not heed their words, so they arose and occupied themselves with the prayer. However, two friends stayed with my father and did not stand up to pray.

Now, one of those who were praying was named Khvajagi. It was shown to him clearly, in his inward heart, that all those who were at prayer were standing behind the Prophet with their backs turned to Mecca, while the two who
were with my father were facing Mecca. Since my father had passed away from any sense of personal identity, his self no longer remaining, having been consumed in the Light of God, he had become the Light of God.

Whoever turns their back on the Light of God, and faces the wall of their prayer-niche, has surely turned their back on Mecca. For God’s light is the soul of the Mecca-ward direction. Mohammed SAW once rebuked a friend, saying, “I
called you. Why didn’t you come?” The friend replied, “I was occupied with prayer.” The Prophet said, “Well, wasn’t I calling you for God?” The friend answered, “I am helpless.”

It is good to feel helpless every moment, seeing yourself helpless in success, just as in failure. For above your capacity there is a greater Capacity, and your will is subject to that greater Will in every case. You are not divided into two halves, now capable, now helpless. You are always helpless, only sometimes remembering, sometimes for-getting. When you remember, then the heart of that moment becomes visible, and the way opens up before you. Indeed, what is our condition, seeing that lions, tigers and crocodiles are all helpless and tremble before God? Even the heavens and earth are helpless and subject to His decree.

God is a mighty emperor. Its Light is not like the light of the moon or sun where some form abides in its place. When God’s Light shines forth unveiled, neither heaven nor earth remain. Neither sun nor moon. Nothing remains but that
great Reality.

A certain king said to a dervish, “In the moment when you find revelation and propinquity in the Court of God, remember me.” The dervish replied, “When I come into that Presence, and the Light of that Sun shines upon me, I will no more remember myself. How then can I remember you?”

Even still, make a request of such a dervish, who is utterly absorbed, and even without them mentioning you or your needs in God’s presence still the request is fulfilled. There was once a king who had a favourite and highly confidential servant. Whenever that servant set out for the royal palace, people who had a request to make presented him with their histories and their letters, begging him to submit them to the king. He would place the documents in his
wallet. On coming into the king’s presence, he could not endure the splendour of the king’s beauty, and would fall down dumbfounded. The king would then, in a loving manner, put his hand into his wallet, saying, “What does this servant of mine have here, who is utterly absorbed in my beauty?”

In this way he found the letters and would endorse the petitions of every man and woman, and then return the documents into the wallet. So he would attend to the needs of every one of them, without that servant ever submitting them, so that not a single one was rejected. On the contrary, their demands were granted many times over, and they attained far more than they had asked for. But in the case of other servants who retained consciousness, and were able to present and indicate to the king the histories of the people in need—out of a hundred requests and a hundred
needs, only one might be fulfilled.

 

[Signalian]

DISCOURSE 4​

Someone said: “There is something I have forgotten.”

Rumi replied:
There is one thing in this world that must never be forgotten. If you were to forget all else, but did not forget that, then you would have no reason to worry. But if you performed and remembered everything else, yet forgot that one thing, then you would have done nothing whatsoever.

It is just as if a king sent you to the country to carry out a specific task. If you go and accomplish a hundred other tasks, but do not perform that particular task, then it is as though you performed nothing at all. So, everyone comes into this world for a particular task, and that is their purpose. If they do not perform it, then they will have done nothing.
All things are assigned a task. The heavens send rain and light for the herbs of the field to germinate and spring into life. The earth receives the seeds and bears fruit, it accepts and reveals a hundred thousand marvels too numerous to tell. The mountains give forth mines of gold and silver. All these things the heavens, the earth and the mountains
do, yet they do not perform that one thing; that particular task is performed by us.

“We offered the Trust to the heavens, The earth and the mountains, They refused to carry it and were afraid of it, But humans carried it. Surely they are foolish and sinful.”

So, people are given a task, and when they perform it all their sinfulness and foolishness is dissolved.
You say, “Look at all the work I do accomplish, even if I do not perform that task.” You weren’t created for those other tasks! It is just as if you were given a sword of priceless Indian steel, such as can only be found in the treasuries of kings, and you were to treat it as a butcher’s knife for cutting up putrid meat, saying, “I am not letting this sword stand idle, I am using it in so many useful ways.” Or it is like taking a solid gold bowl to cook turnips in, when a single grain of that gold could buy a hundred pots. Or it is as if you took a Damascene dagger of the finest temper to hang a broken gourd from, saying, “I am making good use of it. I am hanging a gourd on it. I am not letting this dagger go to waste.” How foolish that would be! The gourd can hang perfectly well from a wooden or iron nail whose value is a mere
farthing, so why use a dagger valued at a hundred pounds?

A poet once said:
You are more precious than heaven and earth.
What more can I say?
You do not know your own worth.

God says, “I will buy you...your moments, your breaths, your possessions, your lives. Spend them on Me. Turn them over to Me, and their price is divine freedom, grace and wisdom. This is your worth in My eyes.” But if we keep our life
for ourself, then we lose what treasures we have been granted. Like the person who hammered the dagger, worth a hundred pounds into the wall to hang a gourd upon, their great fortune was reduced to a nail.
Still you offer another excuse, saying, “But I apply myself to lofty tasks. I study law, philosophy, logic, astronomy, medicine and the rest.”

Well, for whose sake but your own do you study these? If it is law, it is so nobody can steal a loaf from you, strip you of your clothes, or kill you— in short, it is for your own security. If it is astronomy, the phases of the spheres and their influence upon the earth, whether they are light or heavy, portending tranquility or danger, all these things are concerned with your own situation, serving your own ends. If it is medicine, it is related to your own health and also serves you. When you consider this matter well, the root of all your studies is yourself. All these lofty tasks are but branches of you. If these subjects are filled with so many marvels and worlds of knowledge without end, consider what worlds you pass through who are the root! If your branches have their laws, their medicines, their histories, think of what transpires within you who are the source; what spiritual laws and medicines affect your inward future and fate,
what histories portray your struggles of the heart!

For Soul there is other food besides this food of sleeping and eating, but you have forgotten that other food. Night and day you nourish only your body. Now, this body is like a horse, and this lower world is its stable. The food the horse eats is not the food of the rider. You are the rider and have your own sleeping and eating, your own enjoyment. But since the animal has the upper hand, you lag behind in the horse’s stable. You cannot be found among the ranks of kings and princes in the eternal world. Your heart is there, but since your body has the upper hand, you are subject to its rule and remain its prisoner. When Majnun, as the story goes, was making for his beloved Laila’s home, as long as he was fully conscious he drove his camel in that direction. But when for a moment he became absorbed in the thought of Laila and forgot his camel, the camel turned in its tracks toward the village where its foal was kept. On coming to his senses, Majnun found that he had gone back a distance of two day’s journey. For three months he continued this way, coming no closer to his goal. Finally he jumped off the camel, saying, “This camel is the ruin of me!” and continued on foot, singing:

My camel’s desire is now behind,
My own desire is before.
Our purposes were crossed,
We can agree no more.

Burhan al-Din was once greeted by someone, who said, “I have heard praises of you sung by friends.”
Burhan al-Din answered, “Wait until I meet your friends to see whether they know me well enough to praise me. If they know me only by word of mouth, then they do not truly know me. For words do not endure. Syllables and sounds do not endure. This body, these lips and this mouth will not endure. All these things are mere accidents of the moment. But if they know me by my works, and they know my essential self, then I know they are able to praise me, and that praise will go where it belongs.”

This is like the story they tell of a certain king. This king entrusted his son to a team of learned scholars. In due course, they taught him the sciences of astrology, geomancy, and the interpretation of signs, until he became a complete master, despite his utter stupidity and dullness of wit. One day the king took a ring in his fist and put his son to the test.
“Come, tell me what I am holding in my fist.”
“What you are holding is round, yellow, inscribed and hollow,” the prince answered.
“You have given all the signs correctly,” the king said. “Now say what it is.”
“It must be a sieve.” the prince replied.
“What?” cried the king. “You know all the minute details, which would baffle the minds of anyone. How is it that out of all your powerful learning and knowledge, the small point has escaped you that a sieve will not fit in a fist?”

In this same way, the great scholars of the age split hairs on details of all matters. They know perfectly and completely those sciences that do not concern Soul. But as for what is truly of importance and touches us more closely than anything else, namely our own Self, this your great scholars do not know. They make statements about everything, saying,
“This is true and that is not true. This is right and that is wrong.” Yet, they do not know their own Self, whether it is true or false, pure or impure.

Now being hollow and yellow, inscribed and circular, these features are accidental; cast the ring into the fire and none of them will remain. It becomes its essential self, purified of all appearances. So it is with the knowledge of scholars;
what they know has no connection with the essential reality that alone exists when all these “signs” are gone. They speak wisely, expound at great length, and finally pronounce that what the king has in his hand is a sieve. They have no knowledge about the root of the matter: life’s purpose.

I am a bird. I am a nightingale. If they say to me, “Make some other kind of sound,” I cannot. My tongue is what it is. I cannot speak otherwise. However, those who learn the song of birds are not birds themselves—on the contrary, they are the enemies of birds and their captors. They sing and whistle so others will take them for birds.
Ask them to produce a different sound and they can do so, because that sound is merely assumed by them. It is not truly their own. Like the scholars, they are able to sing other songs because they have learned to rob those songs, and to show off a different tune stolen from every breast.

 

[Signalian]

DISCOURSE 5​

The Emir, surprised by an unexpected visit from Rumi, said:
“Master, how gracious of you to honor me in this way. I never expected this. It never even entered my mind that I could be worthy of such an honor. By rights I should be standing night and day in the ranks and company of your servants and attendants. I’m not even worthy of that. How gracious this is!”

Rumi said:
It is all because of your lofty spiritual aspirations. The higher and greater your rank and the more you become occupied with important, exalted worldly affairs, the more you consider yourself to have fallen short of your spiritual purpose. You are not satisfied with what you have achieved, thinking that you have too many obligations. Since none of these attainments can blind you from that divine attainment, my heart is moved to serving you. And yet for all that, still, I wanted to pay you formal honor as well.

Form too possesses great importance. No, much more than importance—it is of true subdiscourse stance. Just as the body will fail if it lacks a heart, so too it fails without a skin. If you plant a seed with no husk, it cannot grow, but if you bury it in the earth with its shell, then it germinates and becomes a great tree. So, form is a great and necessary principle, and without it our task fails and our purpose is not attained. Yes, this principle is reality in the eyes of those who know reality and have become reality!

A dervish once entered the presence of a king.
The king addressed him, “Oh, ascetic.”
“You are the ascetic,” the dervish answered.
“How can I be an ascetic,” the king demanded, “since the whole world belongs to me?”
“Ah, you see things the opposite of what they are,” replied the dervish. “This world and the next and all that there is to possess, these all belong to me. I have seized the whole world. It is you who have become satisfied with a mouthful
and a rag.”

Wherever you turn, there is the Face of God. This Face runs and extends infinitely and forever. True spiritual lovers have sacrificed themselves for the sake of that Face, desiring nothing in return. The rest of the human race are like cattle. Yet, even though they are cattle, still they deserve favor. They may live in the stable, yet they are accepted by the Lord of the stable. If He so desires, He transfers them from this stable into His private pen. So, in the beginning God brought men and women into existence, and then transferred them from the pen of spiritual existence into the world inanimate. Then from the pen of the world inanimate into the vegetable world. Then from vegetable into animal. From animal to human, human to angel, and so on forever. He manifested all these forms so that you would know His pens are many, and that each one is loftier than the next.

God revealed this present world so that you could accept the other stages that lie ahead. He did not reveal it so that you would say, “This is all there is.” The masters of crafts demonstrate their abilities and arts so their apprentices will find faith in them, and will believe in the other arts they have not yet demonstrated. A king bestows robes of honor and lavishes kindness on his subjects because they look forward to receiving other gifts from him, and hang hopefully upon future purses of gold. He does not grant these things for them to say,
“This is all there is. The king will not give out any other blessings,”
and so make do with that amount. If the king knows any subjects are going to say that, and take such gifts for granted, he will never bestow any blessings whatsoever upon them.

The ascetic is one who sees the hereafter, while the worldling sees only the stable. But the chosen ones of God, who have true knowledge, see neither the hereafter nor the stable. Their eyes are fixed on the first principle, the source of all things. When the chosen one sows wheat they know that wheat will grow, because they see the end from the beginning. So it is with barley and rice and all things—seeing the beginning, their eyes are not fixed on the end. They know the conclusion from the start. Such men and women are rare.It is pain that guides us in every enterprise.

Until there is an ache within, a passion and a yearning for that thing arising within us, we will never strive to attain it. Without pain it remains beyond our reach, whether it is success in this world or salvation in the next, whether we aim at becoming a merchant or a king, a scientist or an astronomer. It was not until the pains of birth manifested in Mary that she made for the tree.
Those pangs drove her to the tree, and the tree that was withered became fruitful. We are like that story of Mary in the Koran. Every one of us has a Jesus within, but until the pangs manifest, our Jesus is not born. If the pangs never come, then our child rejoins its origin by the same secret path through which it came, leaving us empty, without the birth of our true self.

Your inward soul is hungry.
Your outward flesh is over fed.
The devil has gorged to sickness.
The king begs even for bread.
The cure is found while Jesus is here on earth!
But once he returns to heaven,
all hope will have fled.

 

[Kambojaric]

Thanks for sharing this !

 

[Signalian]

DISCOURSE 6​

Rumi said: These words are for the sake of those who need words to understand. But as for those who understand without words, what use have they for speech? The heavens and earth are words to them, sent forth themselves from the Word of God. Whoever hears a whisper, what need have they for shouting and screaming?

An Arabic speaking poet once came into the presence of a king. Now the king was a Turk, and did not even know Persian. The poet had composed in his honor some brilliant verses in Arabic, and had brought these with him. When the king had taken his seat on the throne and the courtiers were all present and duly stationed, commanders and ministers each in their place, the poet rose to his feet and began to recite his poem. At every passage deserving applause the king nodded his head, while at every passage provoking astonishment he looked amazed. Similarly, he responded to every passage expressing submission. The courtiers were astounded.

“Our king did not know a word of Arabic,”

they murmured amongst themselves. “How is it that he nodded his head so correctly? He must have known Arabic all these years and kept it hidden from us. If we have ever uttered incivilities in Arabic, then woe is us!”

Now the king had a favorite slave. So the courtiers assembled together and gave the slave a horse, a mule, and a sum of money, and they promised to give him this much again.
“Just find out whether or not the king knows Arabic,”
they said to him.
“If he does not, how was it that he nodded just at the right places? Was it a miracle? Was it divine inspiration?”

Finally one day the slave found his opportunity.
The king was out hunting, and the slave perceived that he was in a good mood, since the hunt had gone well. So he asked the king point blank. The king burst out laughing.

“By God, I don’t know Arabic,” he said. “As for nodding and applauding, I knew of course what the poet’s object was in composing that poem, and so I nodded and applauded.”

So it was realized that the root of the matter was the purpose desired; the poem itself was merely the branch of that purpose. If it had not been for that purpose, the poet would never have composed that poem. If our real purpose is kept in view, duality vanishes. Duality shows the branches, but the root is one. It is the same with Sufi sheikhs. Although to
outward appearance they have various styles of teaching and differ widely in their social standing, even in their action and words, yet from the standpoint of their purpose they all have one goal, namely the quest for God.

Take the case of the wind. When it blows through a house it lifts the edges of the carpet, and the rugs flap and move about. It whisks sticks and straws into the air, ruffles the surface of the pool until it looks like a coat of mail, sets trees
and twigs and leaves a-dancing. All those conditions appear distinct and different, yet from the standpoint of the object, the root and reality, they are one thing—the movement of the wind.

Someone said:
“I have neglected that true purpose.”
Rumi replied:
When this thought enters a person’s mind and they criticize themself, saying,
“What am I about, and why do I do these things?”
When this happens, it is a sure proof that God loves them and cares for them.
“Love continues so long as reprimands continue,” said the poet.
We may reprimand our friends, but we never reprimand a stranger. Now there are levels of reprimand. When a person is stung by it and sees the truth in it, that is a sign that God loves them and cares for them. But if the reprimand flies by that person without causing any pain at all, then this is no sign of love. When a carpet is beaten to get rid of the dust,
intelligent people do not call that a reprimand. But if a woman beats her own darling child, then that is called a reprimand and is a proof of her love. Therefore, as long as you find pain and regret within yourself, that is a proof of God’s love and guidance.
If you find fault in your brother or sister, the fault you see in them is within yourself. The true Sufi is like a mirror where you see your own image, for
“The believer is a mirror of their fellow believers.” Get rid of those faults in yourself, because what bothers you in them bothers you in yourself.

An elephant was led to a well to drink. Seeing itself in the water, it shied away. It thought it was shying away from another elephant. It did not realize it was shying away from its own self. All evil qualities—oppression, hatred, envy,
greed, mercilessness, pride—when they are within yourself, they bring no pain. When you see them in another, then you shy away and feel the pain. We feel no disgust at our own scab and abscess. We will dip our infected hand into our food and lick our fingers without turning in the least bit squeamish. But if we see a tiny abscess or half a scratch on another’s hand, we shy away from that person’s food and have no stomach for it whatsoever. Evil qualities are just like scabs and abscesses; when they are within us they cause no pain, but when we see them even to a small degree in
another, then we feel pain and disgust.

Just as you shy away from your brother or sister, so you should excuse them for shying away from you. The pain you feel comes from those faults, and they see the same faults. The seeker of truth is a mirror for their neighbors. But those
who cannot feel the sting of truth are not mirrors to anyone but themselves.
A certain king was sitting, dejected, on the bank of a river. The generals were nervous and afraid of him. His face would not clear up no matter what they tried. Now he had a jester whom he treated as a great favorite. The generals
promised the jester a certain sum of money if he could make the king laugh. So the jester approached the king, but despite all his efforts the king would not so much as look at him. The king kept staring into the river and did not lift his head at all.
“What do you see in the water?” the jester asked the king.
“I see the husband of an unfaithful wife,” the king replied.
“King of the world,” the jester said, “your slave is also not blind.”

So it is in your own case. If you see something in your fellow that pains you, after all they also are not blind. They see exactly what you see. In God’s presence two I’s cannot exist. You cannot know your self and God’s Self; either die before God, or God will die before you so that duality will not remain. But as for God’s dying, that is both impossible and inconceivable, for God is the Living, the Immortal. So gracious is He that if it were at all possible He would die for your sake. Since that is not possible, then you must die so that God can reveal Itself to you, and duality can vanish.

Tie two birds together, and despite their familiarity and the fact that their two wings have been changed to four, they will not fly. That is because duality exists. But let one bird give up its life and the other—even though tied to the first—will fly, because duality has vanished.
Shams-i-Tabriz was a servant of God who had the power to sacrifice himself for the sake of a friend. He prayed to God for that friend, but God did not accept his petition.
“I do not want you to help him,” came a voice. Shams, that son of the Sun [Shams-i-Tabriz means literally Sun of
Tabriz,] persisted and would not cease his requests, saying,
“O God, you have implanted this desire for him, and it will not leave me.”
Finally a voice came saying,
“Do you desire that this should come to pass? Then sacrifice your self, and become nothing. Do not wait, and leave this world behind.”
“Lord,” Shams answered, “I am content.”
So he did; he gambled away his life for the sake of that Friend, and his desire was accomplished.
[The friend in this story is Rumi himself. Shams was chased away by jealous followers of Rumi, but Rumi sent for Shams and Shams eventually returned. It is said that those jealous followers, including one of Rumi’s own sons, later
murdered Shams. Rumi’s search for the missing Shams, only to find the One he sought for within himself, is the source of many of Rumi’s poems.]

If a servant of God can possess such grace as to sacrifice his life, of which one day’s portion is worth the life of all the world from first to last, does not the Source of that grace also possess this love? It would be absurd to think otherwise. But since it is not possible for God to pass away, at least you can.

A fool came and sat in a seat above one of the great saints. What difference does it make to the saints whether such a person is above or below the lamp? If the lamp wants to be on high, it does not desire that for its own sake. Its purpose is for the benefit of others, so they can enjoy their share of the light. Wherever the lamp may be, whether below or above, it is still the lamp of the Eternal Sun. If the saint seeks worldly rank and office, it is for this purpose: They desire to snare those worldlings, who do not have the vision to see their true elevation, with a trap of worldly rank.

Through this they may find their way to the higher worlds, and fall into the trap of divine grace. In this same way, the Prophet, Mohammed did not conquer Mecca and the surrounding lands because he was in need of them. He conquered in order to give life and grant light to all people.

“This is a hand accustomed to give, it is not accustomed to take.”
The saints beguile people in order to bestow gifts on them, not to take anything away. When someone lays a trap and catches little birds to eat and sell, that is called cunning. But if a king lays a trap to capture an untutored and worthless hawk, having no knowledge of its own true nature, to train it to his own forearm so that it may become ennobled, that is not called cunning.
Though to outward appearance it is cunning, yet it is known to be the very acme of caring and generosity, restoring the dead to life, converting the base stone into a ruby, and far more than that. If the hawk knew for what reason the king wanted to capture it, it would not require any bait. It would search for the trap with soul and heart, and would fly to the king’s hand.
People only listen to the outward significance of the saints’ words. They say,
“We’ve heard plenty of this. Our hearts are stuffed full of words of this kind.”
God says, “God forbid that you should be full of them! You are full of your own whisperings and vain conceits. You are full of illusion and greed. Nay, you are full of cursing.”
If only they were empty of such ravings! Then they would be open to receive these words. But they are not open to receive them. God has set a seal upon their ears and eyes and hearts. Their eyes see things the opposite of what they are; they hear wisdom as gibberish and raving. Their hearts have been transformed into a home of self-love and vanity. A winter’s tangle of dark shapes and pride has possessed them. Their hearts are hardened with ice and frost.

“God has set a seal on their hearts
And their hearing,
And on their eyes is a covering.”

How likely is it that such people could be full of these true words? They have never caught so much as a whiff of them. They have never tasted a drop in all their lives—neither they nor those they worship, nor their miserable household. God shows a pitcher to everyone. To some It shows the pitcher full of water, and they drink until they are sated. But to some God shows it empty. What thanks can someone give for an empty pitcher? Only those, whom God shows the pitcher full, find thanks for this gift.

 

[Signalian]

DISCOURSE 7​

The son of the Amir entered. and Rumi said: Your father is always occupied with God. His faith is overwhelming, and reveals itself in his words.
One day your father said, “The people of Rum have urged me to give my daughter in marriage to the Tartars, so that our religion may become one, and this new religion of Muslimdom can disappear.”

I said, “When has religion ever been one? There have always been two or three, and they have always had war and fighting between them. How do you expect to make religion one? It will be one only in the next world, at the resurrection. As for this present world, it isn’t possible here, for here each religion has a different desire and design. Here unity is impossible. It will be possible only at the resurrection, when humanity becomes one and all people fix their eyes on one place, and all have one ear and one tongue.”

Within us are many things. There is mouse in us, and there is bird. The bird carries the cage upwards, while the mouse drags it down. A hundred thousand different wild beasts are together within us, but they are all converging on that moment when the mouse will renounce its mouse-hood and the bird its bird-hood, and all become one. For the goal is neither going up or down. When the goal shows itself clearly, it will be neither above nor below.

A woman lost something. She looks left and right, in front and behind. Once she has found that thing she no longer searches above and below, left and right, in front or behind. All at once she becomes calm and collected. Similarly,
on the resurrection day all people will be of one eye, tongue, ear and understanding.

When ten friends share a garden or a shop in common, they speak as one, they plan as one, and their work is with one thing since their objective is the same. So, on the resurrection day, since the affair of all will be with God, they will all be one. In this world everyone is preoccupied with a separate affair. One is in love with women, one is in love with wealth, another is engaged in acquiring possessions, another in acquiring knowledge. Everyone believes that their cure, their joy, their pleasure and comfort can be found in that one thing. And that is a Divine mercy, because when they search they cannot find, and so they return. After they have waited a while, they say again,
“That joy and pleasure must be looked for. Perhaps I didn’t try hard enough. I will search again.”

Then they look again, but still they cannot find their desire. So they continue, until that time when Truth removes Its veil. Then they know. But God has certain servants who know even before the resurrection.

Hazrat Ali R.A [cousin and son-inlaw of hazrat Mohammed (SAW) ] said,
“Even if the veil was removed, my faith would not increase.”

That is to say,
“Even when the body is gone and the resurrection appears, my certainty can become no greater.”

This is like a group of people at prayer on a dark night; they turn their faces in every direction, being unable to see. When day comes they all turn themselves around, except for that one individual who through the night was facing towards Mecca. Why should that individual turn around? So, those special servants of God keep their faces towards the One even in the night, and have turned their faces away from all else.

Therefore, for them, the resurrection is already manifest and present. There is no end to words, but they are given according to the capacity of the seeker. Wisdom is like the rain. Its supply is unlimited, but it comes down according to what the occasion requires—in winter and spring, in summer and autumn, always in due measure, more or less, but the source of that rain is the oceans itself, which has no limits. Druggists put sugar or drugs in a twist of paper, but sugar is not limited by the amount in the paper. The stocks of sugar and the stocks of drugs are unlimited and unbounded; how can a piece of paper contain them?

Some people uttered taunts at Hazrat Mohammed (SAW), saying,
“Why does the Koran come down upon you word by word? Why not chapter by chapter?”

Hazrat Mohammed (SAW) answered,
“What do these fools say? If it were to come down upon me all at once, I would dissolve and vanish away.”

Those who truly understand a little, understand much; of one thing, many things; of one line, whole volumes. It is like when a group is seated listening to a story, but one woman knows all the circumstances, having been there when it
occurred. From the first hint she understands it all. She turns pale, then crimson, changing from one feeling to another. The others understand only as much as they hear, since they do not know what really happened. But the one who knows understands the whole story from even a few words.

To return: When you come to the druggist, they have sugar in abundance. But they see how much money you brought, and give accordingly. By “money” is meant sincerity and faith. The words are imparted according to one’s sincerity and faith. When you come seeking sugar, they examine your bag to see what its capacity is, then they measure out accordingly, one bushel or two. But if someone brings a string of camels, they call the weighmen to be help. So, someone comes along whom oceans do not satisfy; another finds a few drops enough and any more would be harmful.
This applies not only to the world of ideas, sciences and wisdom. It is true of everything.

Property, wealth, gold, all are unbounded and infinite, but they are imparted according to the capacity of the individual. Who could support an endless supply without being driven mad? Do you not see how Majnun and Farhad, and the other famous lovers, took to the mountain and desert for the love of a woman, when they were filled with a passion beyond their power to control? Do you not see how Pharaoh, when empire and wealth were showered upon him without end, laid claim to being a god?

Yes, indeed these people have faith, but they do not know what that faith is in. In the same way a child has faith it will have bread to eat, but they don’t know where this bread comes from. It is the same with all things that grow. A tree turns yellow and dry of thirst, but it doesn’t know what thirst really is. Our faith is like a flag. First we set the flag fluttering in the air to proclaim our belief, and then send troops to the foot of that flag from every direction to support and defend it. We send reason, understanding, fury and anger, forbearance and liberality, fear and hope, on and on without end. Whoever looks from afar sees only the flag, but those who see from close at hand know the essences and realities that reside within us.

Someone came in and Rumi said:
Where have you been? We have been longing to see you. Why have you stayed away?

The visitor replied, “It was just how things conspired.”

Rumi said: We, for our part, have been praying that this conspiracy of things might come to an end. A conspiracy of things that produces separation is an improper conspiracy. Yes, by God, it too comes from God, and in relation to God is good. It is a true saying, that all things are good and perfect in relation to God, but in relation to us, how can this be true? Fornication and purity, avoiding prayer and praying, unbelief and Islam, idolatry and God’s unity—with God all these are good. But to us, fornication and thieving, unbelief and idolatry are bad, while God’s unity and prayer are
good. Even though in relation to God all are good.

A king has in his realm prisons and gallows, robes of honor and wealth, estates and attendants in waiting, feasting and celebration, drums and flags. In relation to the king all these things are good. Just as robes of honor are the perfect flourish for his kingdom, in the same way gallows and prisons are perfect ornaments. In relation to him all these things are perfect, but in relation to his people how could robes of honor and the gallows be one and the same?