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D I S C O U R S E S OF RUMI (OR FIHI MA FIHI) BASED ON THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION BY A. J. ARBERRY J Reprinted with permission of the copyright holder OMPHALOSKEPSIS Ames, Iowa iii Omphaloskepsis acknowledges the kind per- mission granted by Little Known Publications (LKPublictn@aol.com) for use of their original ASCII text for composition of this PDF version of Discourses of Rumi. This text is not in the public domain. Please note: this PDF version is copyright © 2000 Omphaloskepsis. Commercial reproduc- tion or distribution of this file is strictly prohibit- ed. For additional information, please contact us at info@omphaloskepsis.bizland.com. Reprinted below is the documentation provid- ed by Little Known Publications for use of their original ASCII keystrokes: All of the writings on the web pages of Little Known Publications are free for your perusal. There are no charges or fees of any kind. You are also free to copy any of the writings for your own personal use, or for use in any way that does not generate a profit. We only ask, when you wish to preface iv copy, post or retransmit any of these writings, that you recognize the copyrights for these publi- cations belong to the author and that you include the statement: Reprinted with permission of the copyright holder. The poetry of Jalal al-Din Rumi has recently become popular and well known, thanks to new translations by Coleman Barks, Robert Bly and others. Anyone who is looking to experience Rumi’s incandescent love need go no further than his volumes of verse, but if you want to see the subtleties of his wisdom and find insights into the real meaning of his poetry, then Rumi’s Discourses hold the key. Until this publication, as far as the publishers know, all previous translations of Rumi’s Discourses into English have been made by schol- ars, written from the world of academia. While their books were published with care to preserve the accuracy of Rumi’s literary meaning, this pub- lication available here strives to restore the subtle impacts of Rumi’s words that carry his real mes- sage. v Rumi is not just telling stories that teach, or relating his philosophical and religious under- standing, as the previous translations have focused on, but his words have been crafted to transmit something of great substance. As the Sufis have often said, this matter cannot be stud- ied from the outside, it can only be discovered from within. No doubt such statements will raise disagreements, but we need only refer to Rumi’s own discourses to see his own opinions on this very subject. Over and over Rumi criticizes those who study at length the outward sense of things, but miss the inner Truth. It is likely that the Discourses of Rumi will only appeal to those who are willing to make some effort to study his words. But if the reader is willing to read carefully, he or she should be able to find a greater glimpse of Rumi’s relationship with life and his spiritually intoxicating intimacy with the Path of Love. Comments, suggestions and questions are wel- come. Contact us at: LKPublictn@aol.com vi Recognized as perhaps the greatest mystical poet of Islam, Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273) communicated something through his writing that has attracted spiritual seekers from almost every religion in the world, for hundreds of years. Even in his day, Rumi was sought out by mer- chants and kings, devout worshippers and rebel- lious seekers, famous scholars and common peas- ants, men and women. At his funeral, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Arabs, Persians, Turks and Romans honored him. Listen to his call for seek- ers of 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, yet again, come, come. introduction vii Rumi’s love and honor for all religious tradi- tions was not always popular in his day, and often provoked criticism from the more dogmatic. A story is told that one such public challenge came from a Muslim dignitary, Qonavi, who confront- ed Rumi before an audience. “You claim to be at one with 72 religious sects,” said Qonavi, “but the Jews cannot agree with the Christians, and the Christians cannot agree with Muslims. If they cannot agree with each other, how could you agree with them all?” To this Rumi answered, “Yes, you are right, I agree with you too.” Although kings were his followers, Rumi’s crit- ics could never understand why Rumi’s greatest love and dedication went to what they called, “the tailors, the cloth-sellers, and the petty shop- keepers - uncouth and uncultured ruffians.” Yet even amongst these, his dearest companions, Rumi allowed no vanity. The story is told that one day, while Rumi was in deep contemplation, sur- rounded by his disciples, a drunkard walked in shouting and stumbling. The man staggered toward Rumi, and then fell on him. To Rumi’s fol- lowers such a disgrace of their teacher was intol- viii erable, and they rose as one to rush the ignorant fool. Rumi stopped them with his raised hand, saying, “I thought this intruder was the one who was intoxicated, but now I see it is not he, but my own students who are drunk!” There are thousands who believe that Rumi’s presence (baraka) still exists today, and still teaches. If this is true, it is certainly largely due to the remarkable vitality that can be found in his writings and poetry, and a relevancy they contain that reaches to our inner core. Rumi’s poetry has captured the hearts of spiritual seekers around the world because of its depth and beauty. His verses sketch out the whole panorama of life, from human sorrow and devotion, to the universal breadth of God’s hidden plan. His poetry seems fathomless and endless. Rumi has also left to us another manuscript that is not so well known - the collection of dis- courses given at the gatherings with his students. It Is What It Is (Fihi ma Fihi) is a record of these spiritual discussions that often followed music and dance, the reciting of sacred poems and phrases, and the now famous Whirling Dervish ix exercise that Rumi originated to enliven and bring spiritual opening to the rather somber people of Konya, Turkey, in his day. This present book is edited and rewritten from A. J. Arberry’s original English translation, pub- lished in 1961 as Discourses of Rumi. Arberry himself admitted that his scholastic, literal, work “is not an easy book to read…and the original is by no means easy always to understand.” According to more recent studies of the original manuscript (Chittick and Shah, for example,) Arberry’s translation also has some technical errors, and better understandings of Rumi’s subtle spiritual teachings have come to light. I hope this edition will help illuminate and clarify such pas- sages, and to build on Professor Arberry’s contri- bution. If you were to compare the original manu- script of Rumi’s discourses with this present book, the first change you might notice would be the dropping of phrases like, “may Allah bless him and give him peace,” after every reference to a saint or prophet, which was the proper and respectful way of speaking in Rumi’s day, and x still is today in some parts of the world. Also, Rumi makes numerable references to the Koran and quotes from it frequently. Since Rumi’s lis- teners knew the Koran well, such quotes were familiar and personal brush strokes. However, to many readers of this book this will not be so. Therefore, I have removed a few quotes that could prove confusing to those who do not know the Koran, or might disturb the direction of Rumi’s message. Rumi’s reference to God is always deeply per- sonal. Whether he uses the masculine term “Allah,” or refers to God as “The Beloved,” it is nearness and closeness to God that Rumi is expressing. Unfortunately, the English language has no personal, neutral pronoun for God. To always use “He” in referring to God, to mankind, or to any general person, was common practice when Arberry released his edition, but seems too masculine today. In Rumi’s Persian language, “God” has no gender, and Rumi’s symbolic por- trayal of God uses images of the Lover, and the Ocean, as often as the King. Therefore, I have used “It” to refer to God in places, to help rise xi above gender, but have also used “He” and “Beloved” to give the personal closeness of Rumi’s message. The flow, rhythm and impact of Rumi’s images are what I have tried to preserve, over everything else. These inner subtleties are, paradoxically, more important than the apparent point he is making. For example, in discourse Twenty-Six Rumi says, “Beware! Do not say, ‘I have under- stood.’ The more you understand and grasp these words, the farther you will be from understanding them. Their meaning comes in not understand- ing.” Such insights can not be explained, we must catch them inwardly, with only the subtle clues that Rumi leaves to guide us. Follow Rumi closely in this way, and you will see a string that holds one pearl to the next on this necklace. Each story, each image, is a new moment in Rumi’s discourse, yet rarely is it bro- ken from the last moment. Step by step, Rumi is dancing. We must be limber and flexible to follow without losing that thread. Yet, hidden in the rhythm and pattern of Rumi’s dance is his true intention. xii Even today, Rumi challenges many of our basic cultural assumptions, and often in ways we may not notice if we aren’t careful. It is easy to make the mistake of rejecting an idea on the grounds that it is out of date, or that it sounds merely like a traditional, orthodox opinion. I would caution about ever jumping to this conclusion with Rumi, since you will more likely find that he has caught you making the very same error. For example, in discourse Twelve, Rumi asks the question, “If a saint, who carries God’s secret jewel [spiritual grace], strikes someone and breaks their nose and jaw, who is the wronged party?” Rumi claims it is the saint who has been wronged. “Since the saint is consumed in God, their actions are God’s actions. God is not called a wrongdoer.” At first glance, this smacks of religious zealotry. The same sort that brought about the killings and murders of the Inquisition. No dif- ferent than any other self-justified excuse. Anyone can blame God for their own choices, we say. But read Rumi’s words closely; he is not talking about justifying violence. He is asking xiii what makes an act right or wrong, good or bad. He is asking us to look beneath our cultural ideas of right and wrong to see the true cause: God’s will. But the problem doesn’t stop here, since we have not yet caught Rumi’s vision. Our culture rejects ideas of Absolute Right or Wrong. We have learned that each person must decide for themselves what is true, and no outside authority has the right to force their perspective. And so, after centuries of petty religious battles and church-state slaughters, we have solved the prob- lem socially by placing relative truth above Absolute Truth. In other words, we still don’t believe the saint has the right to strike out. Rumi knows all this, and is way ahead. He goes on to say, “A westerner lives in the West. An oriental comes to visit. The westerner is a stranger to the oriental, but who is the real stranger? Is not the oriental a stranger to all the West?” In other words, sure the idea of a Holy War, or a true saint using violence sounds strange and wrong to us, but does that mean it is wrong? Who is the real stranger to Truth? xiv Rumi continues, “This whole world is but a house, no more. Whether we go from this room to that room, or from this corner to that corner, still are we not in the same house? But the saints who possess God’s jewel have left this house, they have gone beyond. Mohammed said, ‘Islam began a stranger and will return a stranger as it began.’ In this way, Rumi’s words come right through time and ask us today, “Can you accept that a true Lover of God could carry God’s authority? Can you see, because of what they carry, they will always be a stranger to this world?” So who is out of date? Certainly anyone bound by the culture of their time, anyone who is not moved by some- thing greater. If you see what is happening here, you will see that Rumi is using our own unexamined aversions and dislikes to teach us. Some of Rumi’s most profound poetry is ignored because of such thorns, prompting him to say, in discourse Thirty- Five: “How wonderfully gracious God is! It sets a seal on those who listen and do not understand, argue and yet learn nothing. God is gracious. Its wrath is gracious, and even Its lock is gracious. xv But Its lock is nothing next to Its unlocking, for the grace of that is indescribable. If I shatter into pieces, it is through the infinite grace of God’s unlocking.” This raises an interesting observation. Rumi was never general in his discussions, he always spoke to specific situations. He addressed the par- ticular beliefs and conflicts of those around him, and he was a witness and spokesman for The Way as it was manifesting in his day. And still his words can teach us now. If a traveler tripped over a rock in their path 700 years ago, and from this event altered the course of their life, we might conclude the rock was only incidental. But if that same rock trips thousands, through the centuries, each walking away with a different message and a different les- son, then can we call this incidental? When fool- ish people trip, they get up and walk away as if nothing happened. They learn nothing. A wise person will find a greater meaning for their fall. But a rock that trips travelers in every age, each time imparting a different meaning, that is not just a rock. That is God. xvi Many of the terms Rumi uses have a very dif- ferent meaning in their Islamic context than they do in their Christian sense. For example, the word “faith” amongst many Sufis is much closer to what we might call “knowingness.” This is not the same as “belief,” which refers to how a per- son chooses to see things. The Quakers had a term known as “convincement” that expresses some of this, but still betrays too much of man’s choice in the matter. As Rumi uses the word “faith,” he is talking more about the effect of hav- ing experienced something that changes how we see life, than he is talking about having been sold on some doctrine. Likewise, when Rumi refers to Islam, he is talking about The Way. He is not talking about the preconceived notions that people have about Islam today, or even in his day, but the spiritual path itself and the religious tradition. It is not always easy to understand this as Rumi meant it, just as Rumi’s use of Mohammed as the Prophet and Voice of God is easily interpreted as tradi- tional belief, which is only the outward cloak of what Rumi is really saying. It is just this sort of xvii blindness that Rumi is speaking to when he says, in discourse Seventy: “Wherever men or women put a big lock, that is a sign of something precious and valuable. Just like the snake that guards a treasure, do not regard what repels you, but look instead at the preciousness of the treasure.” The title of Rumi’s discourses, Fihi ma Fihi, was translated by Arberry to In It What Is In It, but I believe It Is What It Is comes closer to Rumi’s intent. In any case, this title is filled with multiple meanings, just as all of Rumi’s works are. This may be a foreign idea, that someone could be communicating many things, at many levels, at the same time, but let us look closely at this title for a moment. First, it is making a very specific, physical ref- erence. “It,” meaning this manuscript, is the same as what is in “It,” meaning Rumi’s most famous work, his six volume poem, the Masnavi. In other words, the Fihi ma Fihi provides explanations and keys to unlock the meaning of the Masnavi. The two works were written parallel to each other, and contain many references and stories that are continued from one to the other. This being true, xviii it is quite surprising that Rumi’s discourses have not gained more attention. But this is only one of the title’s meanings, and by no means the most important. At another level, It Is What It Is asks us not to put into this manuscript more or less than what it is. It is not clothed in the high cloth of religious sanctity, nor does it speak as some authority. Rumi wants us simply to see it for what it is. He wants us to be emotionally honest and not to get carried away with the form. In other words, don’t become attached to the beauty of this vase, it is merely a holder of The Rose. At the same time, “It” refers to God. Therefore God is what God is. This is the same as the Muslim saying, “There is no God but God.” In other words, Rumi asks, “What more is there to say?” All the words here, all the stories and expla- nations are saying nothing more than this. There is no more to reality than reality. God is. Reality is. It is what it is. Explanations cannot explain it. Words cannot reveal it. And so, “It,” meaning the manuscript, is what “It,” meaning God or reality, is. Therefore, the xix Fihi ma Fihi is cut from the same cloth as reality, it is the same substance as God. If you can see these many meanings, all swim- ming like fish in the ocean that is the title, then you will know how to read Rumi. May it also help you catch real fish as well. - Doug Marman E-Mail questions and comments to: Little Known Publications at LKPublictn@aol.com Introduction Copyright 1999 by Doug Marman Composition Copyright 2000 by Omphaloskepsis All Rights Reserved Rumi stated: Mohammed, 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 discourse 1 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 func- tion is giving to all, universally, converting stones into rubies and carnelians, changing mountains into mines of copper, gold, silver and iron, mak- 4 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 5 ing 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 com- ment 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 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, 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 look- ing 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, 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 drag- ging 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 com- mands 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 6 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 7 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 con- quered by me. “But even in your present state, still I say to you: If you recognize my power, and accept your- selves 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 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. “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, “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 specif- ically to your mother?” asked Mohammed. “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 8 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 9 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. “This time I have heard the snap- ping 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 Amir for this rea- son: In the beginning you came forward as a champion of Muslimdom. “I ransom myself,” you said. “I sacrifice my own desires, considera- tions 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 dan- gerous 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 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.” 10 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 11 My purpose in speaking this way to the Amir 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, 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 judgement. So do not put your trust in every idea and every notion, but only in God and Its wisdom. 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 reali- ty. 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 some- one 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 discourse 2 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 real- ity 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 hun- dred 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: 13 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 scat- tered 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 quick- silver 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 noth- ing, 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 14 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 15 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 peo- ple who lack discrimination, then our own dis- criminative faculty becomes weak, and that true friend may pass us by unrecognized. Discrimination is a quality that is always hid- den in a person. Don’t you see that an insane per- son possesses hands and feet but lacks discrimi- nation? 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 physi- cal 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 win- dows 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 fad- ing respect for the true source. When you culti- vate 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 16 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 17 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 satis- fied 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 peo- ple 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 beau- ty 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 astro- labe, 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 valu- able. Just as this copper astrolabe reflects the move- ments 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 astro- labe 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 oth- ers. 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. 18 ||| The Amir 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 provid- ing 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 discourse 3 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 20 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 21 beginning and ending is a body. All words and sounds have a beginning and an end, and there- fore are form and body. But the inner soul of prayer is unconditioned and infinite, and has nei- ther beginning nor end. Now, Mohammed, who invented the Muslim prayer, said, “I have a time with God not con- tained 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 person- al 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 sure- ly turned their back on Mecca. For God’s light is the soul of the Mecca-ward direction. Mohammed 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 help- less, only sometimes remembering, sometimes for- 22 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 23 getting. When you remember, then the heart of that moment becomes visible, and the way opens up before you. Indeed, what is our condition, see- ing 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 propin- quity 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 favorite and highly confidential servant. Whenever that ser- vant set out for the royal palace, people who had a request to make presented him with their histo- ries 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 splendor of the king’s beau- ty, and would fall down dumfounded. 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 con- trary, 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 24 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 25 in need—out of a hundred requests and a hundred needs, only one might be fulfilled. Someone said: “There is something I have forgot- ten.” Rumi replied: There is one thing in this world that must never be forgotten. If you were to for- get all else, but did not forget that, then you would have no reason to worry. But if you per- formed and remembered everything else, yet for- got 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 ger- minate and spring into life. The earth receives the discourse 4 FIHI MA FIHI V 27 seeds and bears fruit, it accepts and reveals a hun- dred thousand marvels too numerous to tell. The mountains give forth mines of gold and silver. All these things the heavens, the earth and the moun- tains 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 per- form it all their sinfulness and foolishness is dis- solved. You say, “Look at all the work I do accom- plish, 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 let- ting 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, philoso- phy, logic, astronomy, medicine and the rest.” 28 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 29 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 astron- omy, 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 direc- tion. 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 contin- ued 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. 30 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 31 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 sci- ences of astrology, geomancy, and the interpreta- tion 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 any- thing 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 appear- ances. So it is with the knowledge of scholars; 32 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 33 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 pur- pose. 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 schol- ars, 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. The Amir, 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 wor- thy of such an honor. By rights I should be stand- ing night and day in the ranks and company of your servants and attendants. I’m not even wor- thy of that. How gracious this is!” Rumi said: It is all because of your lofty spiri- tual aspirations. The higher and greater your rank and the more you become occupied with impor- tant, exalted worldly affairs, the more you con- sider yourself to have fallen short of your spiritu- al 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 sub- discourse 5 FIHI MA FIHI V 35 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 nec- essary 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 trans- ferred 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 sub- jects because they look forward to receiving other gifts from him, and hang hopefully upon future 36 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 37 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 what- soever 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 nei- ther 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. 38 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI 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 com- posed 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 astonish- ment he looked amazed. Similarly, he responded to every passage expressing submission. The courtiers were astounded. discourse 6 “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 hid- den 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 opportuni- ty. The king was out hunting, and the slave per- ceived 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 40 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 41 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 van- ishes. 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 condi- tions 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 pur- pose.” Rumi replied: When this thought enters a per- son’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 con- tinues 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. 42 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 43 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 whatso- ever. Evil qualities are just like scabs and abscess- es; 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 sis- ter, 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 44 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 45 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 famil- iarity 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 accom- plished. [The friend in this story is Rumi himself. Shams was chased away by jealous followers of Rumi, but Rumi sent for Shams and Shams even- tually returned. It is said that those jealous fol- lowers, 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 46 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 47 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 high- er 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 any- thing 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 cun- ning. Though to outward appearance it is cun- ning, yet it is known to be the very acme of car- ing and generosity, restoring the dead to life, con- verting 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 plen- ty 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 illu- sion 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 hard- ened with ice and frost. 48 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 49 “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. The son of the Amir entered.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 disap- pear.” 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 possi- ble 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 discourse 7 FIHI MA FIHI V 51 upwards, while the mouse drags it down. A hun- dred 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 birdhood, and all become one. For the goal is neither going up or down. When the goal shows itself clearly, it will be nei- ther 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 acquir- ing 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 can- not 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. Ali [cousin and son-in- law of Mohammed] said, “Even if the veil was removed, my faith would not increase.” That is to say, “Even when the body is gone and the resur- rection 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 52 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 53 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 Mohammed, saying, “Why does the Koran come down upon you word by word? Why not chapter by chap- ter?” Mohammed 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, under- stand 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, sci- ences and wisdom. It is true of everything. 54 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 55 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 yel- low 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, forbear- ance 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 separa- tion 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 per- fect 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. 56 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 57 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 flour- ish 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? Someone asked: “What is greater than prayer?” Rumi said: One answer is that the soul of prayer is greater than prayer, as I have already explained. A second answer is that faith is greater. Prayer is a series of daily actions, while faith is continuous. Prayer can be dropped for a valid rea- son, or can be postponed, but it is impossible to drop or postpone faith for any excuse. And where prayer without faith gains nothing, as in the case of hypocrites, faith without prayer is valuable. Another point: while the prayer of every religion is each quite different, still, faith does not change from religion to religion. The states that it pro- duces, its place in life, and its effects are the same everywhere. There are other advantages to faith, but their discovery depends upon the inward awareness of the listener. Each listener is like flour in the hands of a dough-maker. Words are like water sprinkled on the flour according to the moisture needed. But unless the water soaks in, it cannot make dough. discourse 8 FIHI MA FIHI V 59 A poet said: My eye is fixed upon another, what shall I do? Look to yourself, for that eye’s light is you. “My eye is fixed upon another.” That means you are seeking something apart from yourself, like the dryness of the flour that longs for water from the dough-maker’s hand. “What can I do?” Know that you seek only yourself, that longing is for you. The light you seek is your own light reflected, but you will not escape this blinding glare of the outward lights until your own Inner Light becomes a hundred thousand times greater. There was once a skinny person, feeble as a sparrow, and exceedingly ugly. He was so ugly that even other ugly people looked on him with contempt and gave thanks to God, though before seeing him they used to complain of their own ugliness. Yet, for all that, he was very rude in his way of speaking and bragged enormously. He was in the court of the king, and his behavior pained the vizier, but the vizier swallowed it down. Then one day the vizier lost his temper. “People of the court,” he shouted. “I picked this creature out of the gutter and nourished him. By eating my bread and sitting at my table, by enjoying my charity and my wealth, and that of my ancestors, he became somebody. Now he has reached the point of saying such things to me!” “People of the court,” cried the man, springing up in the vizier’s face, “and nobles and pillars of the state! What he says is quite true. I was nour- ished by his wealth and charity and that of his ancestors until I grew up, contemptible and crude as you see me. If I had been nourished by some- one else’s bread and wealth, surely my appear- ance, my manners and my worth would have been better than this. He picked me out of the gutter; but all I can say is; Oh, I wish that I were dust. If someone else had picked me out of the gutter, I would not have been such a laughing stock.” The disciple, who is fed at the table of a lover of God, has a clean and true spirit. But those who are nourished by the hands of an imposter and a braggart, learning the science from them, become just like their teacher, contemptible and feeble, weak and unable to make up their minds about anything. Within our being all sciences were originally joined as one, so that our spirit displayed all hid- 60 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 61 den things, like clear water shows everything within it—pebbles, broken shards and the like— and reflects the sky above from its surface like a mirror. This is Soul’s true nature, without treat- ment or training. But once Soul has mingled with the earth and its earthly elements, this clarity leaves it and is forgotten. So God sends forth the prophets and saints, like a great translucent ocean that accepts all waters, and yet no matter how dark or dirty are the rivers that pour into it, that ocean remains pure. Then Soul remembers. When it sees its reflection in that unsullied water, it knows for sure that in the beginning it too was pure, and these shadows and colors are mere acci- dents. The prophets and the saints, therefore, remind us of our original state; they do not implant any- thing new. Now, every water, no matter how dark, that recognizes that great water, saying, “I come from this and I belong to this,” is truly a part of that ocean. But the dark elements that do not recognize that ocean and believe they are kin to another kind, they make their home with the colors and shadows of the earth. It was for this reason that the Prophet said, “Now there comes to you a Messenger from amongst yourselves.” In other words, the great ocean is that same substance as your own water, it is all from one self and one source. But for those elements that do not feel the attraction of famil- iarity, this failure does not come from the water itself, but from the pollution in that water. This pollution is mixed in so closely that the water does not know whether its own shying away from the ocean comes from itself, or from the essence of that pollution. And so, evil men do not know whether their attraction toward evil springs from their own nature, or from some dark element mingled in. Every line of poetry the saints and prophets bring forth, every tradition, every verse they write, is like a witness bearing testimony. They bear witness to every situation according to the nature of the situation. In the same way we have two witnesses at the inheritance of a house, two witnesses at the sale of a shop, two witnesses at a marriage. So too, the saints bear witness. The inner form of their testimony is always the same; 62 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 63 it is the outer meaning that differs. I pray that God may cause these words to bear witness to God and you alike. Someone said: “A man came who wanted to see you. He kept saying, ‘I wish I could have seen the Master.” Rumi said: He does not see the Master at this moment because in truth the desire that filled him, namely to see the Master, was a veil hiding the Master. So it is with all desires and affections, all loves and fondnesses that people have for every variety of thing—father, mother, heaven, earth, gardens, palaces, knowledge, things to eat and drink. The lover of God realizes all these desires are truly the desire for God, and they are all veils covering humanity’s eyes. When we pass into the next world and behold Reality without these veils, then we realize all those were veils and cov- erings, and that our true quest in reality is for one thing. All difficulties are then resolved, we hear in our hearts the answer to all questions, and every- thing is seen clearly face to face. It is not God’s way to answer every problem separately, but with one answer all questions are discourse 9 FIHI MA FIHI V 65 satisfied. All at once the total struggle is resolved. In the same way, in winter everyone puts on warm clothes and a leather jacket, and then creeps for shelter from the cold. So too all plants, trees, and shrubs, bitten by the cold, remain without leaves and fruit, storing and hiding their goods and nourishment inwardly so that the grasp of winter will not reach them. When spring, in a single epiphany, answers their requests, then all their various problems, whether human, animal or plant, are resolved, and those secondary symp- toms disappear. Then all put forth their heads, and realize the cause of their misery. God has created these veils for a good purpose. For if God’s beauty were displayed without a veil, we would not have the power to endure it. Through the intermediary of these veils we derive life and enjoyment. Look at the sun. Through its light we can dis- tinguish good from bad, and find warmth. Trees and orchards become fruitful from its heat, and their fruits—unripe, sour and bitter, become mature and sweet. Through its influence, mines of gold and silver, rubies and carnelians are pro- duced. But if the sun were to come nearer it would bring no benefit whatsoever. On the con- trary, the whole world and every creature would be burned up and destroyed. When God reveals Itself through a veil to the mountain, those slopes become fully arrayed in trees and flowers and verdure. However, when God brings revelation without a veil, It destroys the mountain and breaks it into atoms. Someone asked: “Well, isn’t this the same sun in the winter?” Rumi answered: Our purpose here was to draw a comparison. It is not a matter of atoms, or Adam. Similarity is one thing, comparison is another. Although our mind cannot comprehend that reality, yet how can mind abandon the effort? If our reason gave up the struggle, it would no longer be reason. Reason is that thing that per- petually, night and day, is restless while thinking and struggling, striving to comprehend, even though God is unknowable and incomprehensi- ble. Reason is like a moth, and the Beloved is like a candle. Whenever the moth dashes itself against the candle, it is consumed and destroyed, but the 66 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 67 moth is this way by nature. No matter how much that consuming flame and agony may hurt, the moth cannot fly from the candle. If there were another creature like the moth that could not fly away from the light of the candle, and dashed itself against that light, that would not be a mere comparison, that would be a moth itself. But if the moth dashed itself against the light of the can- dle and the moth were not consumed, that indeed could not be a candle. Therefore, the human being who can do with- out God, lacking even the desire, that is no human being at all. But if they are able to com- prehend God, that indeed could not be God. So, the true lover is never free from striving, they revolve restlessly and ceaselessly around the light of God. And God consumes them, making them nothing, destroying the veil of their reason. The Amir said to Rumi: “Before you arrived just now, your eldest son, Baha al-Din, excused him- self to me, saying, ‘My father said that he doesn’t want to put you to any trouble when you come to visit him. He says, “I am subject to various states of consciousness. In one state I speak, and in another I do not. In one state I attend to the affairs of others, and in another state I withdraw and go into retreat, while in yet another state I am utterly absorbed and beyond this world. I do not wish the Amir to come when I’m in a state of being that is disagreeable, when I am unable to counsel and converse with him. Therefore, it is better that when I am free and able to attend to my friends and do them some good, that I should go out and visit them.”’” The Amir went on: “I answered Baha al-Din, saying, ‘I do not come here so that our Master should attend to me and converse with me. My purpose in coming is to have the honor of being discourse 10 FIHI MA FIHI V 69 amongst the company of his servants.’ For exam- ple, just now you were preoccupied and did not show yourself until you had kept me waiting for a long time. This was so I would realize how difficult and disagreeable it is if I keep others waiting when they come to my door and I do not readily admit them. You have made me taste the bitterness of that and have given me a lesson so that I will not act like that with others.” Rumi answered: That’s not true. On the con- trary, my keeping you waiting is an expression of utmost loving-kindness. Just as God declares, “O my child, I would answer your smallest petition and slightest complaint without delay, if it weren’t that the voice of your complaint is so sweet to my ears. My answer lingers unspoken in hopes that you might complain again and again, for the sound of your voice is so sweet to me.” For example, two beggars come to the door of a certain person. One is highly loved and sought after, while the other is disliked. The owner of the house says to a slave, “Give that hated one a piece of bread quickly and without delay, so he will leave right away.” To the other beloved beggar the owner makes promises, saying, “The bread is not yet baked. Wait patiently until the bread is properly cooked and baked.” My greater desire is to see my friends, to gaze my fill upon them and they on me. For when friends see deeply into one another here, below, and they are raised into the other world after become very familiar here, they quickly recognize one another there. Knowing how closely they were together in the world of mortality, their reuniting brings great joy. For all too quickly we lose our friends. Do you not see how in this mortal world you become the friend and darling of some person, and they become the very Joseph of beauty in your eyes. Then, on account of a single shameful act they vanish from your sight, and you lose them com- pletely? That Joseph-like form is changed into a wolf. This very same one you once saw as Joseph you now see as a wolf. Yet, their actual form has not changed, but is still the same as it always was. By that one accidental act you lost them. Tomorrow, when this present essence is changed 70 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 71 into another essence, since you never really knew that person deeply, and never penetrated thor- oughly into their essence, how are you going to recognize them? The lesson to be learned from this is that we must see one another very well indeed. We must pass beyond the good and bad qualities that are present temporarily in everyone, and must enter into the other’s very essence. We must see with exceptional clarity that these qualities people observe in one another are not their original qual- ities. The story is told of a man, who said, “I know that fellow very well. I will give his distinguishing mark.” His friends said, “Please do.” The man answered, “He was a muleteer of mine. He had two black cows.” People talk in this same way. “I consider So-and-so my friend. I know them.” Yet every distinguishing mark they give is just like the two black cows. Those are not distinguishing marks. Those marks are of no use whatever. So, we must pass beyond the good and evil in others and enter into their essence to see what they really are. That is truly seeing and knowing. It astonishes me how some people say, “How do saints and lovers of God find love in the eter- nal world beyond form, space and time? How can they gain strength and help? How are they affect- ed by things without body or shape?” Is not all life, night and day, engaged with these very things? One person loves another person and derives help through that love. They find care and grace, kindness and knowledge, happiness and sorrow. All these belong to that formless world. Moment by moment they receive benefits from these abstractions and are affected by them. However, this doesn’t surprise the doubters. Yet they are amazed that saints can find love in the invisible worlds, and derive help without form. Once there was a philosopher who denied this reality. One day he became so sick he could not leave his bed, and his illness dragged on a long time. A certain theologian went to visit him. “What are you seeking?” the theologian asked. “Health,” said the philosopher. “Tell me how this health is shaped, so that I may find it for you.” 72 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 73 “It has no shape,” said the philosopher. “It is indescribable.” “If it is indescribable, then how can you look for it?” the theologian demanded. “All I know,” answered the philosopher, “is that when health arrives I grow in strength. I become plump, fresh and alive.” “From illness we learn of health,” said the the- ologian. “From what is describable we learn of what is indescribable. Now abandon your doubt- ing ways and I will return you to your vital self.” Though spiritual truth is inscrutable, still we all benefit from it through the embodiment of form. Just as you see the changes brought by the stars, moon and sun turning in the sky, the rain from clouds in due season, summer and winter, and all the transformations of time. You see all these things happen, and know that it is right and in accordance with wisdom. But how does that distant cloud know it is necessary to rain at its appointed time? Or how does this earth, when it receives a seed, know to return it tenfold? Well, Someone does this. Behold that Someone through the embodiment of this world, and find nourish- ment. Just as you use the body of another person to contact their essence, use the embodiment of this world to touch That reality. When the Prophet was transported out of him- self and spoke, he used to say, “God says.” Now, from the standpoint of embodiment, it was his tongue that spoke; but he wasn’t there at all. That speaker was greater than he was. Mohammed, knowing himself to be ignorant and without knowledge of such words, when he heard the wis- dom coming through his own lips, he realized that he was no longer what he had been. Something greater moved him. He reported stories about past people and prophets who lived thousands of years before, and he told what would come to pass even to the end of the world. His being was but a thing of years. A mortal being surely can’t describe such things. How can a creature born in time give information about the eternal? And so it became known that it was not he who was speak- ing. God was speaking. God is wholly free of form and words. Its speech is beyond letters and voice. Yet, It delivers Its message by any letters and voice and tongue It desires. 74 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 75 People have carved the figures of men, women and birds of stone along the banks of pools on the highways and in the caravansaries, and through the mouths of those statues water pours into the pool. Anyone with any sense knows that this water does not begin in the mouth of a stone bird, it comes from some other source. If you want to get to know people, engage them in speech. By their words you will know them. If they are imposters, even if someone told them that people can be recognized by their words and they watch their words carefully to avoid being caught, still, in the end you will come to understand who they are. This is illustrated by the story of the child and her mother. A child in the desert said to her moth- er, “On dark nights a horrible demon appears to me, and I am terribly afraid.” “Don’t be afraid,” said her mother. “The next time you see that form, attack it bravely. Then you see clearly that it is nothing but a fantasy.” “But mother,” said the child, “what if the hor- rible demon’s mother has given him similar advice? What shall I do if she has taught him, say- ing, ‘Don’t give in, so she will think you are real and powerful. And don’t say a word, so that you won’t be exposed?’ How shall I recognize him then?” “Keep silent, yield to his form as it is, and wait with patience,” her mother answered. “Sooner or later some word will leap from his mouth. Or if it does not, from your own heart some words will spring forth unconsciously, or into your mind some thoughts or ideas will spring up, so that out of those thoughts you will know him for what he is. For this is how he has affected you. This is a reflection of his true self and his real feelings that have sprung up inside of you.” Sheikh Sar-razi was seated one day amongst his disciples. One of the disciples had a longing for some roasted sheep’s head. The Sheikh called to his servant, saying, “Bring him some roasted sheep’s head.” “How did you know that he wanted roasted sheep’s head?” the disciples asked. “Because it is now thirty years since such desires have filled me,” the Sheikh answered. “I have cleansed and purified myself of all desires and have become clear as a polished mirror. When 76 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 77 the thought of roasted sheep’s head entered my mind, whetted my appetite and became a desire, I knew it belonged to our friend. For a mirror shows no image of itself. Any image it reflects is the image of another.” A worthy man once shut himself in a cave for forty days discipline, seeking spiritual enlighten- ment. A voice came to him, saying, “Such a lofty goal will never be attained by forty days disci- pline. Abandon your cave so the love of a great saint may reach you and your goal can be real- ized.” “Where shall I find that great one?” the man asked. “In the congregational mosque,” came the answer. “In such a throng of people, how shall I recog- nize which one he is?” he inquired. “Go,” said the voice, “he will recognize you and will gaze upon you. The sign that his love has fallen upon you will be when the pitcher drops from your hand and you become unconscious. Then you will know that his gaze has reached you.” The man acted accordingly. He filled a pitcher with water and went around the congregation in the mosque like a water-carrier. He was wander- ing between the ranks of the worshippers when suddenly he was seized with ecstasy. He uttered a loud cry, and the pitcher fell from his hand. He remained in a corner of the mosque unconscious. All the people left. When he came to his senses he saw that he was alone. He could not see the spir- itual king who had gazed upon him, but he had gained his goal. There are certain lovers of God, who, because of their great majesty and jealousy for God, do not show themselves openly, but they cause disci- ples to attain important goals and bestow gifts upon them. Such mighty spiritual saints are rare and precious. Someone said: “Do the great ones come before you?” Rumi answered: There is no “before” left to me. It has been a long time since I have had any “before.” If they come, they come before an image they believe to be me. Some people said to Jesus, “We will come to your house.” Jesus 78 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI FIHI MA FIHI V 79 replied, “Where is my house in this world, and how could I have a house?” It is related that Jesus was wandering in the desert when a great rainstorm broke. He went to take shelter in the den of a jackal, in the corner of its cave, until the rain ceased. A revelation came to him, saying, “Get out of the jackal’s den, for the jackal’s little ones cannot rest on account of you.” He cried aloud, “Lord, the jackal’s pups have a shelter, but the son of Mary has no place to call home.” Although the jackal’s whelp has a cave to live in, still it has no Beloved to drive it out of its home. But you do have such a One driving you out. If you have no home, what does that matter? The loving-kindness of such a Driver, and the grace from such a robe of honor that singles you out to be driven forth, is worth far more, exceed- ing a hundred thousand heavens and worlds here and beyond. After the Amir left, Rumi said: The fact that the Amir came and I didn’t show my face at once should not worry him. His purpose in coming was either to pay honor to me or to himself. If it was to pay honor to me, then the longer he sat and waited, the greater the honor he gained. If, on the other hand, his object was to honor himself and to seek a reward, then since he waited and endured the pain of waiting his reward will be all the greater. In either case his object in coming was realized many times over, so he should feel thank- ful and fortunate. 80 V DISCOURSES OF RUMI Rumi said: The saying, “Hearts bear witness to one another,” refers to a hidden reality. If all real- ity were openly revealed, what need would there be for words? Similarly, when the heart bears wit- ness, what need is there for the testimony of the tongue? The Amir said: “Certainly the heart bears wit- ness. But the heart plays one part by itself, the ear another, the eye another, the tongue another. There is need for each one, so that the whole can be realized.” Rumi said: If the heart is totally absorbed, then all the other senses are obliterated in it, and there is no need for the tongue. Take the case of Laila: She was not a spiritual being, but of flesh, fash- ioned of water and clay. Yet passion for her pro- duced such absorption, and so utterly seized and overwhelmed Majnun, that he had no need to see Laila with his eyes, no need to hear her voice. He discourse 11