Poetry of RUMI thread ! ~*

[Jannah]

THE GUEST HOUSE
Rumi


This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.



jannah's translation: in life we all go through so many things, hardships, sorrows, difficulties, but what we don't realize is that these things are sent to test us and are a way to come closer to Allah. those who were most beloved to Allah were tested the most, the prophets and ras (saw). the righteous would feel that they had done something wrong if they didn't go through difficulties, and they would actually be content when they faced them knowing it was taking away their sins and elevating them every moment. and Allah knows best.

[Jannah]

IF YOU STAY AWAKE

if you stay awake
for an entire night
watch out for a treasure
trying to arrive

you can keep warm
by the secret sun of the night
keeping your eyes open
for the softness of dawn

try it for tonight
challenge your sleepy eyes
do not lay your head down
wait for heavenly alms

night is the bringer of gifts
Moses went on a ten year journey
during a single night
invited by a tree
to watch the fire and light

Muhammad too made his passage
during that holy night
when he heard the glorious voice
when he ascended to the sky

day is to make a living
night is only for love
commoners sleep fast
lovers whisper to God all night

all night long
a voice calls upon you
to wake up
in the precious hours

if you miss
your chance now
your soul will lament
when your body is left behind


RUMI

[Aminah]

This is so true!

So many of us do not realize the many blessings that are packed specially in the night.

It is at night when devout muslims forego their sleep to remember Allah.

These are the ones who have proven their faith indeed.

[Jannah]

I missed this thread! Rumi is often very controversial and a lot of his poetry is misunderstood by people who don't understand poetry and also those who are not well versed in certain Islamic concepts and ideas. Anyway take what benefits inshaAllah. Here is some stuff that is interesting to think about. Kinda makes one thirsty huh

[Jannah]

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i was ready to tell
the story of my life
but the ripple of tears
and the agony of my heart
wouldn't let me

i began to stutter
saying a word here and there
and all along i felt
as tender as a crystal
ready to be shattered

in this stormy sea
we call life
all the big ships
come apart
board by board

how can i survive
riding a lonely
little boat
with no oars
and no arms

my boat did finally break
by the waves
and i broke free
as i tied myself
to a single board

though the panic is gone
i am now offended
why should i be so helpless
rising with one wave
and falling with the next

i don't know
if i am
nonexistence
while i exist
but i know for sure
when i am
i am not
but
when i am not
then i am

now how can i be
a skeptic
about the
resurrection and
coming to life again

since in this world
i have many times
like my own imagination
died and
been born again

that is why
after a long agonizing life
as a hunter
i finally let go and got
hunted down and became free

ghazal number 1419, translated by Nader Khalili

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Ali in Battle

learn from Ali how to fight
without your ego participating.

God's Lion did nothing
that didn't originate
from his deep center.

Once in battle he got the best of a certain knight
and quickly drew his sword. The man,
helpless on the ground, spat
in Ali's face. Ali dropped his sword,
relaxed, and helped the man to his feet.

"Why have you spared me?"
How has lightning contracted back
into its cloud? Speak, my prince,
so that my soul can begin to stir
in me like an embryo."

Ali was quiet and then finally answered.
"I am God's Lion, not the lion of passion.
The sun is my lord. I have no longing
except for the One.

When a wind of a personal reaction comes,
I do not go along with it.

There are many winds full of anger,
and lust, and greed. They move the rubbish
around, but the solid mountain of our true nature
stays where it's always been.

There's nothing now
except the divine qualities.
Come through the opening into me.

Your impudence was better than any reverence,
because in this moment I am you and you are me.

I give you this opened heart as God gives gifts:
The poison of your spit has become
the honey of friendship."

-rumi

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you mustn't be afraid of death
you're a deathless soul
you can't be kept in a dark grave
you're filled with God's glow

be happy with your beloved
you can't find any better
the world will shimmer
because of the diamond you hold

when your heart is immersed
in this blissful love
you can easily endure
any bitter face around

in the absence of malice
there is nothing but
happiness and good times
don't dwell in sorrow my friend

Translated by Nader Khalili "Rumi, Fountain of Fire"


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If you don't have sovereignty over your own beard,
How will you exercise sovereignty over good and evil?
Without your wish, your beard grows white:
Be ashamed of your beard, you with your self-serving dreams.
God is the Owner of the Kingdom:
Whoever lays his head before Him
Will receive a hundred kingdoms without the terrestrial world;
But the inward savour of a single prostration before God
Will be sweeter to you than a hundred empires:
Then you will cry humbly, "I want no kingdoms except the kingdom of that prostration."

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Wean Yourself

Little by little, wean yourself.
This is the gist of what I have to say.

From an embryo, whose nourishment
comes in the blood,
move to an infant drinking milk,
to a child on solid food,
to a searcher after wisdom
to a hunter of more invisible game.

Think how it is to have a conversation with an embryo.
You might say, "The world outside is vast and intricate.
There are wheatfields and mountain passes,
and orchards in bloom.

At night there are millions of galaxies,
and in sunlight the beauty of friends
dancing at a wedding."

You ask the embryo why he, or she,
stays cooped up in the dark with eyes closed.

Listen to the answer:

"There is no 'other world.'
I only know what I've experienced.
You must be hallucinating."

-- Mathnawi III, 49-62
Version by Coleman Barks

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You sit like a dunce and think that if {God} wants,
He will give you something. You make no entreaty, while a dog ...
will come to you when it is hungry and wag its tail as if to say
"Give me someting to eat. I have nothing to eat, but you do"...
{A dog does not say}, "If he wants, he will give me something to eat."
No a dog will beg and wag its tail. You too "wag your tail" and beg God,
for before such a donor begging is what is required.
If you are not blessed with good fortune,
seek your fortune from him who is not stingy and who is possessed of wealth.

(Signs of the Unseen: The Discourses of Jalaluddin Rumi, p 179)

[Jannah]

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We are brought thick desserts, and we rarely refuse them.
We worship devoutly when we're with others.
Hours we sit, though we get up quickly
after a few minutes, when we pray alone.
We hurry down the gullet of our wantings.

But these qualities can change,
as minerals in the ground rise inside trees
and become tree, as a plant faces an animal
and enters the animal, so a human
can put down the heavy
body baggage and be light.

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Don't look at your form, however ugly or beautiful.
Look at love and at the aim of your quest...
O you whose lips are parched, keep looking for water.
Those parched lips are proof that eventually you will reach the source.

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Many of the faults you see in others, dear reader,
are your own nature reflected in them. As the Prophet said,
'The faithful are mirrors to one another'.


Cute story:

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A little thief carried off a snake from a snake-catcher. In his folly he accounted it a gain.

The snake-catcher escaped from a snake-bite; the snake miserably killed him who had robbed the other.

The snake-catcher saw him, and then recognized him; he said, "My snake has deprived him of life.

My soul demanded in prayer as to him, that I should find him and take the snake from him.

Thanks to God, that prayer was rejected ;-- I thought (the rejection my) loss (but) it turned out gain."

Many prayers are there which are loss and destruction; but God, the pure, in His kindness hears them not.



Thought this was appropriate for the moonsighting season coming upon us

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Their eyes are the abode of illusion and inexistence,
(and) consequently they see inexistent things as existent.

(But) since my eyes have received the collyrium from the Lord of Majesty,
they are the abode of existence, not the abode of illusion.

So long as a single hair of you remains before your eyes,
in your fancy a Pearl will be as jasper.

Then will you distinguish jasper from the Pearl when you have
passed away entirely from your own fancies.

Listen, O judge of pearls, to a Story, in order that you may
distinguish actual sight from conjecture.

A certain person in the time of 'Umar - May God be pleased with him!
- imagines he sees the new moon.

In the time of 'Umar the month of fast came round
(and) a number of men ran to the top of a hill (with him)

To take an omen from the new moon of the (month of) fast.
Said one of them: "There, 'Umar, is the new moon."

When 'Umar could not see the moon in th esky, he said:
"This moon has arisen out of your imagination;

For in the celestial spheres I am keener-sighted (than you).
Why (then) do I not see the pure crescent?"

He continued: "Moisten your hand, and rub your eyebrows,
and then look up towards the crescent."

When he had moistened his eyebrows, he could not see the moon.
He said: "O King, it is not the moon; it has diasappeared."

He answered: "Yea, the hair of (your) eyebrows had become (as) a bow,
which shot an arrow of surmise at you."

A single hair deflected (from his eyebrow) led him into error,
so that he boastingly claimed to have seen the moon.

Since a deflected hair may veil the sky (from you),
how will it be when all your members have become deflected?

O you who (would) walk straight,
make straight your members by means of the straight;
turn not your face from the threshold (of the righteous).



[Jannah]

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Oh Beloved,
take me.
Liberate my soul.
Fill me with your love and
release me from the two worlds.

If I set my heart on anything but you
let fire burn me from inside.
Oh Beloved,
take away what I want.
Take away what I do.
Take away what I need.
Take away everything
that takes me from you.


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Why Cling

Why cling to one life
till it is soiled and ragged?

The sun dies and dies
squandering a hundred lives
every instant

God has decreed life for you
and He will give
another and another and another

(from The Rumi Collection, translated by Daniel Liebert)

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With what work are you occupied,
and for what purpose are you purchased?
What sort of bird are you,
and with what digestive are you eaten?
Pass up this shop of hagglers
and seek the shop of Abundance where God is the purchaser.*
There Compassion has bought
the shabby goods no one else would look at.
With that Purchaser no base coin is rejected,
for making a profit is not the point.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dar cheh kâri to va bahr-e chet kharand
to cheh morghi va torâ bâ cheh khvorand
Zin dokkân bâ makkâsân bartar â
tâ dokkân-e Fazl k-Allâha-shtarâ*
Kâleh-'i keh hich khalaqesh na-negarid
az khalâqet ân Karim ân-râ kharid
Hich qalbi pish-e U mardud nist
zânkeh qasdesh az kharidan sud nist

-- Mathnawi VI:1264-1267

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Sometimes in order to help He makes us cry.
Happy the eye that sheds tears for His sake.
Fortunate the heart that burns for His sake.
Laughter always follows tears.
Blessed are those who understand.
Life blossoms wherever water flows.
Where tears are shed divine mercy is shown.
["Mathnawi"]

[Jannah]

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One of the traditions of the Prophet
says that on Resurrection Day,
Everybody will be called to rise.

"Children of Adam, lift your heads
up out of the grave!"

Each soul will rejoin its body,
as your consciousness returns to you
at dawn. Daybreak:

the spirit recognizes where it lives
and slips back into the ruin like a jewel
hiding itself in the desert.

The goldsmith's soul knows the goldsmith's body,
and goes there, not to the tailor.

The scholar's soul, back to the scholar.
The dictator's soul, back to him.

Divine knowing makes each spirit
recognize the appropriate body,
as a lamb finds its mother at dawn,
among the others, as your foot
finds its shoe in the dark.

Dawn is a practice-resurrection.
Be with God then,

and you'll know what the real
resurrection will be like.

-rumi

[Jannah]

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When I Die..

when i die
when my coffin
is being taken out
you must never think
i am missing this world

don't shed any tears
don't lament or
feel sorry
i'm not falling
into a monster's abyss

when you see
my corpse is being carried
don't cry for my leaving
i'm not leaving
i'm arriving at eternal love

when you leave me
in the grave
don't say goodbye
remember a grave is
only a curtain
for the paradise behind

you'll only see me
descending into a grave
now watch me rise
how can there be an end
when the sun sets or
the moon goes down

it looks like the end
it seems like a sunset
but in reality it is a dawn
when the grave locks you up
that is when your soul is freed

have you ever seen
a seed fallen to earth
not rise with a new life
why should you doubt the rise
of a seed named human

have you ever seen
a bucket lowered into a well
coming back empty
why lament for a soul
when it can come back
like Joseph from the well

when for the last time
you close your mouth
your words and soul
will belong to the world of
no place no time

ghazal number 911, translated by Nader Khalili

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I wonder at these people who say, "How can the saints and the
lovers love that ineffable world, since it has no place or form and is beyond
description? How can they derive replenishment and aid from it and be
affected by it?" After all, they themselves are occupied with the same thing
night and day. Take this person who loves another person and derives
replenishment from her: After all, this replenishment, kindness, goodness,
knowledge, recollection, thought, joy, heartache -- he derives all these
things, and all dwell in the world of No-place. Moment by moment he receives
replenishment from these meanings and is affected by them, but this does not
cause him any wonder. Yet he wonders how some people are in love with the
world of No-place and draw replenishment from it.

-- Fihi ma fih (The Discourses of Rumi) 38-39/50

[Jannah]

the marriage prayer:

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May these vows and this marriage be blessed.
May it be sweet milk,
this marriage, like wine and halvah.
May this marriage offer fruit and shade
like the date palm.
May this marriage be full of laughter,
our ever day a day in paradise.
May this marriage be a sign of compassion,
a seal of happiness here and hereafter.
May this marriage have a fair face and a good name,
an omen as welcome
as the moon in a clear blue sky.
I am out of words to describe
how spirit mingles in this marriage.

[Jannah]

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A woman came to Ali, "My baby has crawled out
on the roof near the water drain, where I cannot go.
He won't listen to me. I talk to him,
but he doesn't understand language.

I make gestures. I show him my breast,
but he turns away. What can I do?"

"Take another baby his age
up to the roof."

The woman did so, and her child saw his friend
and crawled away from the edge.

The prophets are human for this reason,
that we may see them and delight
in the friendly presence
and crawl away from the downspout.

-rumi

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Everything in the world draws something to itself:
infidelity draws the faithless,
and goodness, the one who is rightly guided.
Both magnet and amber attract:
whether you are iron or straw, you will be drawn.
If you are straw, you will be drawn to the amber;
and if you are iron, you will be pulled to the magnet.
When anyone is not associated with the good,
he inevitably becomes a neighbor to the corrupt.
Mevlana

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all the precious words
you and I have exchanged
have found their way
into the heart of the universe
one day they'll pour on us
like whispering rain
helping us arise
from our roots again

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There is no edge to my vast desert;
There is no peace for my heart and my soul.
The world is taken, from end to end, by image and form;
Which of these images is mine?
If you see a severed head on the way
Rolling in the direction of the battlefied;
Ask him, ask him concerning my secrets
For, from him you hear my hidden mysteries.
What if one ear could be found;
Suited to understand the speech of my birds.
What if one bird could fly,
Who wore my ring of Solomon's secrets [around her neck].
What am I saying? when I know telling this tale
Is beyond my limits and my ability is.
How can I utter one word when each moment
My perplexity is more perplexing.

(Divan 239:1-8)

[Jannah]

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Between God and His servant are just two veils;
all other veils become manifest from these two: health and
wealth. He who is healthy says, "Where is God? I don't know
and I don't see." As soon as he begins to suffer, he says, "Oh
God! Oh God!", and he begins sharing his secrets with Him
and talking to Him. So you see that health was his veil, and
God was hidden under his pain. So long as man has riches, he
gathers together all the means of achieving his desires. Night
and day he busies himself with them. But as soon as he loses
his wealth, his ego weakens and he turns round about God.

-- Discourses of Rumi (Fihi ma fihi) 233/240

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A Star Without a Name

When a baby is taken from the wet nurse,
it easily forgets her

and starts eating solid food.
Seeds feed awhile on ground,
then lift up into the sun.

So you should taste the filtered light
and work your way toward wisdom
with no personal covering.

That's how you came here, like a star
without a name. Move across the night sky
with those anonymous lights.



(Mathnawi III, 1284-1288)

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When i am with you, we stay up all night.
When you're not here, I can't go to sleep.

Praise God for these two insomnias!
And the difference between them

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That which God said to the rose,
and caused it to laugh in full-flown beauty,
He said to my heart,
and made it a hundred times more beautiful.

[Mathnawi III, 4129]

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You think the shadow is the substance:
so to you the <i>substance</i>
has become a cheap toy.
Wait until the day when that substance
freely unfolds its wings.
Then you will see the mountains
become as soft as wool,
and this earth of heat and ice
become as nothing;
you will see neither the sky nor the stars,
nor any existence but God -
the One, the Living, the Loving.

[Mathnawi II, 1042-45]

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One went to the door of the Beloved and
knocked. A voice asked, 'Who is there?'
He answered, 'It is I.'

The voice said, 'There is no room for Me and Thee.'
The door was shut.

After a year of solitude and deprivation he returned and knocked.
A voice from within asked, 'Who is there?'
The man said, 'It is Thee.'
The door was opened for him.

[Jannah]

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ou hope to earn a living as a tailor,
so that all your life you might be supported by that;
but He causes your daily bread
to come to you through the goldsmith's craft--
a means of livelihood you never imagined.
Why, then, were your hopes set on tailoring,
when He didn't intend
to let your daily bread reach you from that?
It was by reason of a marvelous provision
in the knowledge of God--an order
He wrote in the eternal past:
that your thoughts should be bewildered,
so that bewilderment alone might be your business.

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The body is like a letter:
look into it and see whether it's worthy to be read by the King.
Go into a corner, open the letter, and read what is in it,
see whether its words are suitable for royalty.
If it isn't suitable, tear it to pieces,
write another letter, and remedy the fault.
But don't think it's easy to open the letter of the body;
otherwise everyone would readily discover the secret of the heart.
How difficult it is to open that letter!
It's only for the strong, not for those playing games.

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the world is a spell that blinds the eye:
it appears wide when in reality it's narrow.
it's laughter is weeping;
its glory is but shame.

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The servant complains to God of pain:
in a hundred ways he moans.
God says, "But after all, grief and pain
have caused you to act rightly and humbly call on Me;
complain instead of the bounty that befalls you
and takes you far from My door."
In reality every enemy of yours is your remedy:
he is an elixir, a gift, and one that seeks to win your heart;
for you flee from him into solitude
imploring God's help.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bandeh mi nâlad be-Haqq az dard o nish
sad shekâyat mi konad az ranj-e khvish
Haqq hami guyad keh "kher ranj o dard
mar torâ lâbeh konân va râst kard
In geleh zân ne`mati kon ket zanad
az dar-e Mâ dur va matrudet konad"
Dar haqiqat har `adu dâru-ye tost
kimiyâ o nâfe` o delju-ye tost
keh azu andar gorizi dar khalâ
este`ânat juyi az lotf-e Khodâ

-- Mathnawi V: 91-95

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God brought the earth and the heavenly spheres into existence
through the deliberation of six days-
even though He was able through "Be, and it is"
to bring forth a hundred earths and heavens.
Little by little until forty years of age
that Sovereign raises the human being to completion,
although in a single moment He was able
to send fifty flying up from nonexistence.
Jesus by means of one prayer could make the dead spring to life:
is the Creator of Jesus unable
to suddenly bring full-grown human beings
fold by fold into existence?
This deliberation is for the purpose of teaching you
that you must seek God slowly, without any break.
A little stream which moves continually
doesn't become tainted or foul.
From this deliberation are born felicity and joy:
this deliberation is the egg;
good fortune is the bird that comes forth.

[Jannah]

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Never be without rememberance of Him,
for His rememberance
gives strength and wings
to the bird of the Spirit


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O Lord, truly, Your grace is not from our work,
but from Your mysterious giving.
save us from what our own hands might do;
lift the veil, but do not tear it.
save us from the ego; its knife has reached our bones.
who but You will break these chains?
let us turn from ourselves to You
who are nearer to us then ourselves.
even this prayer is Your gift to us.
how else has a rose garden grown from these ashes?

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Think that you're gliding out from the face of a cliff
like an eagle. Think you're walking
like a tiger walks by himself in the forest.
You're most handsome when you're after food.

Spend less time with the nightingales and peacocks.
One is just a voice, the other just a color.

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My heart is so small
it's almost invisible.
How can You place
such big sorrows in it?
"Look," He answered,
"your eyes are even smaller,
yet they behold the world."

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You may be happy enough going along,
but with others you'll get farther, and faster.

Every prophet sought out companions.
A wall standing alone is useless,
but put three or four walls together,
and they'll support a roof and keep
the grain dry and safe.

When ink joins with a pen, then the blank paper
can say something. Rushes and reeds must be woven
to be useful as a mat. If they weren't interlaced,
the wind would blow them away.

Like that, God paired up
creatures, and gave them friendship.


~ excerpts from "On Being Woven" from The Essential Rumi


[Jannah]

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No wonder the spirit doesn't remember its previous
dwelling,
....
This world, like sleep, hides the spirit, like clouds hide
the stars.

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during prayer i am accustomed to turn to God like this
and recall the meaning of Muhammad's words,
"the delight felt in the ritual prayer."
the window of my soul opens,
and from the purity of the unseen world,
the book of God comes to me straight.
the book, the rain of divine grace, and the light
are falling into my house through a window
from my real and original Source.
the house without a window is hell;
to make a window is the essence of true religion.
don't thrust your ax upon every thicket;
come, use your ax to cut open a window.

rumi

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When you're full of food and drink, an ugly metal
statue sits where your spirit should. When you fast,
good habits gather like friends who want to help.

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just as staying home is easy for some,
traveling comes easily to others.
each of us was made for some particular work,
and the desire for that work
has been placed in our hearts.
how should hand and foot
be set in motion without desire?
if you see your desire leading toward Heaven,
unfold your wings to claim it;
but if you see your desire bends to the earth,
keep lamenting.
the wise weep in the beginning;
the foolish beat their heads at the end.
discern the end from the beginning
so that you may not be repenting
when the Day of Reckoning arrives.


[Jannah]

God made the illusion look real and the real an illusion. He concealed the sea and made the foam visible, the wind invisible, and the dust manifest. You see the dust whirling, but how can the dust rise by itself? You see the foam, but not the ocean. Invoke Him with deeds, not words, for deeds are real and will save you in the afterlife.
             -Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[Halima]

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The intelligent person sees with the heart
the result from the beginning;
the one lacking in knowledge
only discovers it at the end.


-Mathnawi [V, 2570]

[Halima]

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In form you are the microcosm;
in reality you are the macrocosm.


-Mathnawi [IV, 521]

[Jannah]

Only You

Only you
I choose among the entire world.
Is it fair of you
letting me be unhappy?

My heart is a pen in your hand.
It is all up to you
to write me happy or sad.

I see only what you reveal
and live as you say.
All my feelings have the color
you desire to paint.

From the beginning to the end,
no one but you.

[Halima]

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When your heart is dark as iron,
steadily polish yourself
that the heart may become a mirror,
a beautiful shine reflecting from within.
Although iron is dark and dismal,
polishing clears the darkness away.

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[Halima]

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Be it the world or the space, He is with you. He chastises to make the impure pure. Neglect devotion and be bound by fetters of pain and doubt. Seek freedom, the remedy of all pain. Seek the roots from which sprout leaves and fruit. Water the roots and grow to perfection. And when the fruit blossoms, give it to your friends.

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[Halima]

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O Love, O pure deep love,
be here, be now.
Be all; worlds dissolve
into your stainless endless radiance,
Frail living leaves burn with you
brighter than cold stars:
Make me your servant,
your breath, your core.

-Rumi

[Halima]

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Silence is the sea, and speech is like the river.
The sea is seeking you: don't seek the river.
Don't turn your head away from the signs offered by the sea.

-Mathnawi [IV, 2062-2063]

[Jannah]

'At land's end,
the footsteps vanish',*
because you don't need feet
anymore, you're cradled
in the very bosom of
heaving waves
a part of shoreless eternity.

You walk on water
in a way !

[Jannah]

Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought !

Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open ?

Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.

Flow down and down in alaways
widening rings of being.

RUMI

[Jannah]

Again I am raging,
I am in such a state by your soul that every
bond you bind, I break, by your soul.
I am like heaven, like the moon,
like a candle
by your glow;
I am all reason,
all love,
all soul, by your soul.
My joy is of your doing,
my hangover of your thorn;
whatever side you turn your face,
I turn mine, by your soul.

I spoke in error;
it is not surprising to speak in error
in this state,
for this moment I cannot tell cup from wine, by your soul.
I am that madman in bonds who binds the "divs";
I, the madman,
am a Solomon with the "divs", by your soul.*
Whatever form other than love raises up its head from my heart,
forthwith I drive it out of the court of my heart,
by your soul.
Come, you who have departed,
for the thing that departs comes back;
neither you are that, by my soul,
nor I am that, by your soul.
Disbeliever, do not conceal disbelief in your soul,
for I will recite the secret of your destiny, by your soul.
Out of love of Sham-e Tabrizi, through wakefulness or nightrising,
like a spinning mote I am distraught, by your soul.

-- Translation by A.J. Arberry` Mystical Poems of Rumi 2
University of Chicago Press, 1991

# * A word-play between madman (dîvâna) and the jinn (dîv-ân). The Arabic word "jinn" was translated into Persian as "dîv," meaning "demon" (and contrasts in meaning with its Sanscrit cognate, "deva," from which the European word "divinity" originates). The Arabic words "crazy" (junûn, majnûn) literally mean "jinn-possessed," were translated into Persian as "dîvâna," literally means "demonic." According to Qur'ân, Solomon was given power over the supernatural beings called jinn (from which comes the word "genie"), who did great projects of labor for him (Qur'ân 34:12, 21:82, 38:36-37).

[Jannah]

Always search for the inward nature
and choose as your companion someone of good character:
Observe how rose oil has drunk the essence of the rose.
The earth of the grave is ennobled by the pure body.
Then say, "First choose the neighbor, then the house."
If you have a heart, go, seek a sweetheart.
The dust of the body is endowed with the character of the soul:
it becomes a salve for the eyes of those who are dear to God.
Many a one who sleeps like dust in the grave
is more useful and open-handed than a hundred
who are still alive.
The shadow of his body has been taken away,
but his dust overshadows hundreds of thousands
with his protection.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dar pay-e khu bâsh va bâ khvosh khu neshin
khu paniri rawghan-e gol-râ be-bin
Khâk az hamsâyegi-ye jesm-e pâk
chon mosharraf âmad o eqbâl nâk
Pas to ham "al-Jâr thumma al-dâr" gu
gar deli dâri be-raw deldâr ju
Khâk-e u ham sirat-e jân mi shavad
sormeh-ye cheshm-e `azizân mi shavad
Ay basâ dar gur khofteh khâk-vâr
beh ze sad ahyâ be-naf` o enteshâr
Sâyeh bardeh u va khâkesh sâyeh mand
sad hazârân zendeh dar sâyeh-'i vayand

-- Mathnawi VI: 3007-3013

[Jannah]

Look into your heart


    His face once caused the moon to split in two.
    She couldn't endure the sight of him.
    Yet how lucky she was,she who humbly received him.
    Look into your heart and see the splitting moon within each breath.
    Having seen that vision,
    how can you still dream?

Jalal ud-din Rumi

[Siham]

Dear soul, Love alone cuts argument short,
for it alone comes to the rescue when you cry for help against disputes.
Eloquence is dumbfounded by Love: it dares not wrangle;
for the love fears that, if he answers back,
the pearl of inner experience might fall out of his mouth.

[Rumi in Mathnawi]

[Siham]

You came and suddenly and stole three things from me:
the patience from my heart,
the colour from my face
and the sleep from my eyes.
Oh, I bless the hand that
no mind can conceive!

(Rumi from: 'Gardens of Beloved' 2003)

[Halima]

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Stop talking!
What a shame you have no familiarity
with inner silence!
Polish your heart for a day or two:
make that mirror your book of contemplation.

-Mathnawi [VI, 1286-1287]

From "Jewels of Remembrance," by Rumi,

[Jannah]

Oh how lonely it is out on God's sea

with no shore in sight!

We, like clouds and ships in the night,

navigate only by the grace of His light.





Time will silence the clamour of pride

that fills the head of every man.

The wolf of nothingness

will tear the flock apart

and the flood of death

will carry everything away.





Ever since you fled from my embrace

no one has seen me without tears.

You are always in my heart and soul;

I hope you, too, will not forget me.





Do not fear, there is always wine

if you are thirsty for love.

Do not fear, there is always water

if your lips are parched.

Do not fear your ruin, inside you

there is a treasure.

Open your eyes, for this world

is only a dream.





Everyone has someone:

a friend, a lover, some skill or work.

But I am alone

with the dream of my Beloved

hidden in the corner of my heart.

[/color]

[Siham]

What can I do, my love? I'm in love with your face.
Your beautiful eyes make me shy, what can I do?
Each and every moment, passion rises, peaks, flows,
And I haven't a clue about what to do, God knows.

[Rumi]

[Siham]

My heart will never seek another heart,
Or smell another flower, knowing you.
Your love has made heart's field a desert waste;
No love other than yours grows in that place.

[Rumi]

[Halima]

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Suddenly the drunken sweetheart appeared out of my door.
She drank a cup of ruby wine and sat by my side.
Seeing and holding the lockets of her hair
My face became all eyes, and my eyes all hands.

-Rumi

[Readagain]

what language rumi wrote in? persian? arabic?   

[Siham]

If love were only spiritual,
the practices of fasting and prayer would not exist.
The gifts of lovers to one another are,
in respect to love, nothing but forms;
yet, they testify
to invisible love.

[Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi, 'Rumi Daylight', Translated by C. Helminski]

[Siham]

My soul is a mirror that reveals secrets,
I may not speak about them but
cannot deny knowing.
I run away from body and soul
where I belong, I swear, I do not know.
Seeker, if you want to know the secret,
first you must die to your self.
You may see me but do not think I am here
I have vanished into my Beloved
graced by the essence of love.
My arched back is the bow and my words,
the unbending arrows aimed at Truth.
My tears are testimony of my devotion to Shams
and from those tears white lilies will grow
that will speak the Truth.

[Translation by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi Rumi: 'Hidden Music' HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, (2001)]

[Siham]

The one you've been seeking outside
I want to leave this town
but you've chained me down
stolen away my heart
leaving yourself behind

Now I've lost my way
my soul restless and head twisted
all because of those secrets
you once whispered

I only must keep
fasting my heart
to set me free
from sleepless nights

Since your only advice
when you saw me in flame
was to keep burning
with you or with your thoughts

Words of wisdom
came to me at last
the beloved you've lost
the one you've been seeking outside
can only be found inside

[Ghazal from the Diwani shams by Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi]

[Jannah]

Never lose hope, my heart,

miracles dwell in the invisible.

If the whole world turns against you

keep your eyes on the Friend.

--Rumi

[Halima]

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If you have no eyes, do not walk blindly;
take a staff in your hand.
If you have no staff of insight,
do not walk without a guide.

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[Siham]

He plays a beautiful tune, I dance to it;
Love plays a new game on me every instant.
He teases me sometimes:'go sit in a corner!'
Just as I sit in the corner, he calls me back.
Today, he is going to fly me like a hawk again;
what does he want to capture by me?

Who does he want me to go after?
I am as generous as thunder, as talkative as the cloud;
Raindrops fall when he embraces me.
My cloud is generous because it partakes of his sea;
I know not on whom he shall make me rain.
When he makes me rain, it is never in vain;
for he lets me, then, live in a hundred plants.

(Divan 208:4-9) Translated by Fatemeh Keshavarz, 'Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi' (University of South Carolina Press, 1998)

[Halima]

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When the ocean of Mercy begins to foam,
even stones drink the water of life.
The face of earth becomes lush green,
the dead wood springs to life,
the lamb and the wolf together play,
the despairing becomes valiant and strong.

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[Jannah]

Oh Beloved, take me. Liberate my soul.
Fill me with your love and release me from the two worlds.
If I set my heart on anything but you let fire burn me from inside.
Oh Beloved, take away what I want.
Take away what I need.
Take away what i do.
Take away everything that takes me away from you.

Rumi~

[Siham]

Love is the flame which, when it blazes,
consumes everything other than the Beloved.
The lover wields the sword of Nothingness
in order to dispatch all but God:
consider what remains after Nothing.
There remains but God: all the rest is gone.
Praise to you, O mighty Love, destroyer of all other "gods."

Rumi in Mathnawi [V, 588-590]

[Siham]

"This love has whispered secrets in your ear that don't make sense to anybody else. You know who you are. You are the shining star"! (Rumi)

[Halima]

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Give your life for that cup of divine wisdom.
How can you succeed without endurance and patience?
To wait for the sake of that cup is no hardship.
Show patience, for patience is the key to joy.

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[Jannah]

Do Not Despair

Say, do not despair because the Beloved drives you away; if
He drives you away today, will He not call you back tomorrow?
If He shuts the door on you, do not go away; be patient
there, for after patience He will seat you in the place of
honour.

And if He bars against you all ways and passages, He will
show you a secret way, which no man knows.
Is it not the case that when the butcher cuts off the head of
a sheep with his knife, he does not abandon what he has slain,
but first slays, and then draws?

When no more breath remains to the sheep, he fills it with
his own breath; you will see whither God's breath will bring
you!

I spoke this as a parable; else, His generosity slays no man,
rather it rescues him from slaying.

He gives all the kingdom of Solomon to a single ant; He
bestows both worlds, and does not startle a single heart.
My heart has travelled round the world and found none
like Him; whom does He resemble? Whom does He resem-
ble?

Ah, silence! For without speech He gives to all of this wine
to taste, He gives to taste, He gives to taste, He gives to taste.

-- Translation by A. J. Arberry
"Mystical Poems of Rumi 1"

[Halima]

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At midnight say, "I am near you: be not afraid of the night,
for I am your protecting friend."
Last night in your dream you saw One with a prayer-rug.
That was I, and what I told you in that dream about the meaning of the prophesy:
make those words of Mine your mind's guide.

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[nuh]

 
نوح

[Siham]

For love of you, my soul soars in the sky

As your kindness plucks music on its strings.

The smallest favor that you grant your slave

Is greater than a thousand years of prayer brings.

-Rumi

[Halima]

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Wisdom is the table, not bread or meat.
Wisdom is the light, food for the soul.
No nutriment can compare to the nourishment of light.
Nothing can nourish the soul but light.
Rid yourself of material needs and be set free.
Taste the original victual, the dainty morsel of light.

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[Siham]

Oh God
Let all lovers be content.
Give them happy endings.
Let thier lives be celebrations.
Let their hearts dance in the fire of your love.

My sweetheart,
You have aroused my passion
Your touch has filled me with desire
I am no longer separate from you
These are precious moments
I beseech you
Don't let me wait...

(Rumi)

[Siham]

'Come with us'  (Ghazal (Ode) 74)

If you never searched for truth
come with us
and you will become a seeker.
If you were never a musician
come with us
and you will find your voice.
You may posses immense wealth
come with us
and you will become love's beggar.
You may think yourself a master
come with us
and love will turn you into a slave.
If you've lost your spirit,
come with us
take off your silk coverings,
put on our rough cloak
and we will bring you back to life.

[Rumi: Hidden Music Translated by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001]

[Siham]

'Seek out the source'

Sunlight fell upon the wall;
the wall received a borrowed splendor.
Why set your heart on a piece of earth,
O simple one? Seek out the source
which shines forever.

[Mathnawi II: 708-709 'Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance']

(Ooh Rumi, I can never get enough!)

[Siham]

In your light I learn how to love.
In your beauty, how to make poems.
You dance inside my chest,
where no one sees you, but sometimes I do,
and that sight becomes this art.

Jalal al-Din Rumi

[Halima]

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The intelligent person sees with the heart
the result from the beginning;
the one lacking in knowledge
only discovers it at the end.


-Mathnawi [V, 2570]

[Siham]

"Kill the cow of your ego as quickly as you can, so your spirit can come to life and attain true knowledge" (Mualana Jalaluddin Rumi)

[Siham]

"Do away with superfluous speech, and sacrifice what you hold dear, that His grace may utter praise of you and the heaven be envious of your exalted estate."(Rumi in "Mathnawi")

[Siham]

The True Sufi

What makes the Sufi? Purity of heart;
Not the patched mantle and the lust perverse
Of those vile earth-bound men who steal his name.
He in all dregs discerns the essence pure:
In hardship ease, in tribulation joy.
The phantom sentries, who with batons drawn
Guard Beauty's place-gate and curtained bower,
Give way before him, unafraid he passes,
And showing the King's arrow, enters in.

(Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi)

[Jannah]

Buoyancy 
by Rumi


Love has taken away my practices
and filled me with poetry.

I tried to keep quietly repeating,
No strength but yours,
but I couldn't.

I had to clap and sing.
I used to be respectable and chaste and stable,
but who can stand in this strong wind
and remember those things?

A mountain keeps an echo deep inside itself.
That's how I hold your voice.

I am scrap wood thrown in your fire,
and quickly reduced to smoke.

I saw you and became empty.
This emptiness, more beautiful than existence,
it obliterates existence, and yet when it comes,
existence thrives and creates more existence!

The sky is blue. The world is a blind man
squatting on the road.

But whoever sees your emptiness
sees beyond blue and beyond the blind man.

A great soul hides like Muhammad, or Jesus,
moving through a crowd in a city
where no one knows him.

To praise is to praise
how one surrenders
to the emptiness.

To praise the sun is to praise your own eyes.
Praise, the ocean. What we say, a little ship.

So the sea-journey goes on, and who knows where!
Just to be held by the ocean is the best luck
we could have. It's a total waking up!

Why should we grieve that we've been sleeping?
It doesn't matter how long we've been unconscious.

We're groggy, but let the guilt go.
Feel the motions of tenderness
around you, the buoyancy.

[Siham]

'The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along.'

'This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.'

'One day You will take my heart completely and make it more fiery than a dragon. Your eyelashes will write on my heart the poem that could never come from the pen of a poet.'

'Now I am sober and there's only the hangover and the memory of love.'

(Rumi)

[Halima]

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I surrender myself to no other god but God.
If He desires my bloodshed,
then so be it! I have no fear.
I may be disgraced in your world;
before God honor will be mine.
A laughing stock in the eyes of the world,
in God's eyes cherished and acclaimed.



-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[Halima]

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Our body is our veil in the world:
we are like a sear hidden beneath a straw.

-Mathnawi [IV, 823]

[Halima]

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The Friend is your refuge and support on the Way.
If you look, you'll see the Friend is the Way.

-"Rumi," Mathnawi [VI, 1592]

[Siham]

There is a loneliness more precious than life.
There is a freedom more precious than the world.
Infinitely more precious than life and the world.
is that moment when one is alone with God.

(Rumi)

[Siham]

During prayer I give myself over to the Lord
and delight myself in zealous worship.
The window of my soul opens wide
and the Book of God comes to view
To fill my house with grace and light.

(Rumi)

[Siham]

"God implants in our spirits desire; and the focus of that divine desire is God"
(Rumi in Masnavi, IV: 2909)

[Jannah]

It's a habit of yours to walk slowly.
You hold a grudge for years.
With such heaviness, how can you be modest?
With such attachments, do you expect to arrive anywhere?

Be wide as the air to learn a secret.
Right now you're equal portions clay
and water, thick mud.

Abraham learned how the sun and moon and stars all set.
He said, "No longer will I try to assign partners to God."

You are so weak. Give up to grace.
The ocean takes care of each wave
till it gets to shore.
You need more help than you know.
You're trying to live your life in open scaffolding.
Say Bismillah, In the Name of God,
as the priest does with a knife when he offers an animal.

Bismillah your old self
to find your real name.

[Halima]

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The wisdom of this world brings doubt.
The wisdom of religion soars above the skies.
Reflection on Truth opens the way to the kingdom.
Treasures and armies do not make a king.
A true king is a king within himself.

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[Halima]

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Since you are not a prophet, follow the way taught by prophets.
Since you are not a king, be a loyal subject to the king.
Since you are not a captain, do not take the helm of the ship.
Since you do not possess every skill, have partners in your business.
Be as pliant as dough in the hands of others, that you may rise well.

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[Jannah]

IF

IF YOU CAN DISENTANGLE
yourself from your selfish self
all heavenly spirits
will stand ready to serve you

if you can finally hunt down
your own beastly self
you have the right
to claim Solomon's kingdom

you are that blessed soul who
belongs to the garden of paradise
is it fair to let yourself
fall apart in a shattered house

you are the bird of happiness
in the magic of existence
what a pity when you let
yourself be chained and caged

but if you can break free
from this dark prison named body
soon you will see
you are the sage and the fountain of life

[Jannah]

This is so beautiful.  Gives me hope in more ways than one...

-------------------------------

My dear friend

My dear friend
never lose hope
when the Beloved
sends you away.

If you're abandoned
if you're left hopeless
tomorrow for sure
you'll be called again.

If the door is shut
right in your face
keep waiting with patience
don't leave right away.

Seeing your patience
your love will soon
summon you with grace
raise you like a champion.

And if all the roads
end up in dead ends
you'll be shown the secret paths
no one will comprehend.

The beloved I know
will give with no qualms
to a puny ant
the kingdom of Solomon.

My heart has journeyed
many times around the world
but has never found
and will never find
such a Beloved again.

ah I better keep silence
I know this endless love
will surely arrive
for you and you and you.

[Halima]

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Indeed hunger is the king of medicines:
listen, take hunger to heart, don't regard it with such contempt.
Everything unsweet is made sweet by hunger:
without hunger even delicacies have no savor.


-Rumi, "Mathnawi" [V, 2832-2833]

[Halima]

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If you wish for light, be ready to receive light.
Nourish your ego and be deprived of light.
If you wish to find a way out of this prison,
do not turn away;
bow down in worship and draw near.

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[Halima]

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The most secure place to hide a treasure of gold
is in some desolate, unoticed place.
Why would anyone hide treasure
in plain sight?
And so it is said,
"Joy is hidden beneath sorrow."

-Rumi, "Mathnawi" [III, 1133-1134]

[Jannah]

Prayer is an Egg:

    On Resurrection Day God will say, "What did you do with
    the strength and energy

    your food gave you on earth? How did you use your eyes?
    What did you make with

    your five senses while they were dimming and playing out?
    I gave you hands and feet

    as tools for preparing the ground for planting. Did you,
    in the health I gave,

    do the plowing?" You will not be able to stand when you
    hear those questions. You

    will bend double, and finally acknowledge the glory. God
    will say, "Lift

    your head and answer the questions." Your head will rise
    a little, then slump

    again. "Look at me! Tell what you've done." You try,
    but you fall back flat

    as a snake. "I want every detail. Say!" Eventually you
    will be able to get to

    a sitting position. "Be plain and clear. I have given you
    such gifts. What did

    you do with them?" You turn to the right looking to the
    prophets for help, as

    though to say, I am stuck in the mud of my life, Help me
    out of this! They

    will answer, those kings, "The time for helping is past.
    The plow stands there in

    the field. You should have used it." Then you turn to
    the left, where your family

    is, and they will say, "Don't look at us! This conversation
    is between you and your

    creator." Then you pray the prayer that is the essence
    of every ritual: God,

    I have no hope. I am torn to shreds. You are my first and
    last and only refuge.

    Don't do daily prayers like a bird pecking, moving its head
    Up and down. Prayer is an egg.

    Hatch out the total helpless inside.

[Excerpted from The Soul of Rumi, Tr. Coleman Barks]

[Halima]

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His burdens have made him double over,
his moans before you are loud and clear.
"Show me a prayer, a benediction," he cries,
"that I may be delivered from these hidden chains."

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[Siham]

The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said, that God has said, "I cannot be contained in hallowed places. Heaven and earth cannot hold Me. But I am contained by true hearts. If you seek Me, search in those hearts."

(Rumi's 'Mathnawi')

[Halima]

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During sleep the spirit is set free.
Behold how it rejoices in the place [of freedom].
The wicked is delivered from his wickedness;
the prisoner escapes the sorrow of his confinement.
The world appears wide, but in truth is very narrow.
Its laughter lamentation, its glory shame.

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[Siham]

Oh Beloved,
take me.
Liberate my soul.
Fill me with your love and
release me from the two worlds.
If I set my heart on anything but you
let fire burn me from inside.

Oh Beloved,
take away what I want.
Take away what I do.
Take away what I need.
Take away everything
that takes me from you.

(Rumi)

[Halima]

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To learn the secret of the Unseen
is only fitting for that one
who can seal her lips and keep silent.

-Mathnawi [III, 3387]

[Halima]

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The pleasures of this world are delightful
from a distance before the actual test.
From a distance they appear to be refreshing water,
but when you approach them, you find they are a mirage.
The world's bait is visible, but the trap is hidden:
at first sight, the world's favors seem sweet.

-Mathnawi [VI, 316-317; 321]

[Siham]

"The heart is comforted by true words, just as a thirsty man is comforted by water."

-- Mawlana Jalal al-Rumi (Mathnawī VI, 4276)

[Siham]

Looking at my life, I see that only Love has been my souls companion. From deep inside my soul cries out: Do not wait, surrender for the sake of Love.

-- Mawlana Jalal al-Rumi 

[Siham]

The house of my heart is empty, devoid of desire,
like paradise.
Within it is no work but the love of God, no
inhabitant but the image of union with Him.
I have swept the house clear of good and bad -
my house is full of love for the One.

[Mathnawi, V: 2802-04 Translation by
William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983]

[Halima]

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Never, O wolf, play at being a fox,
performing service in order to gain power;
rush into the fire like a moth:
don't hoard service, play for love!


-Mathnawi [V, 472-473]

[Halima]

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Sever the chains of the ego.
Set yourself free and witness
the bright essence of your inner being.
Discover within your heart the wisdom of
a prophet without books, without teachers, and without prudence.

-Rumi, "The Life and Thought of Rumi"

[Siham]

Be with those who help your being.
Don't sit with indifferent people, whose breath
comes cold out of their mouths.
Not these visible forms, your work is deeper.

A chunk of dirt thrown in the air breaks to pieces.
If you don't try to fly,
and so break yourself apart,
you will be broken open by death,
when it's too late for all you could become.

Leaves get yellow.
The tree puts out fresh roots
and makes them green.
Why are you so content with a love that turns you yellow?

[Jalal al-Din Rumi]

[Siham]

O heart let go of your soul
Until you see the soul maker
Leave behind this deceptive faker
So you reach your real goal.

Unless you pass through here
You will never reach the beyond
Free yourself from worldly bond
Doubtless clear, to you appear.

If it is a sign that you seek
In this path, my dear friend
Yourself you must transcend
And signs to you will speak.

[Halima]

The speaker of the word
and the hearer of the word
and the words themselves—
all three become spirit in the end.

-Mathnawi [VI, 72]

[Siham]

"Think about the day you are breathing your last breath, and your wife's mind is on another husband."

- Rumi

[Siham]

"Do not ask me about this world
and the next world, both are lost
in the world of love that I am in."

(Rumi, Shams Book, Gazal 1759)

[Siham]

Lover whispers to my ear,
"Better to be a prey than a hunter.
Make yourself My fool.
Stop trying to be the sun and become a speck!
Dwell at My door and be homeless.
Don't pretend to be a candle, be a moth,
so you may taste the savor of Life
and know the power hidden in serving."

[The Rumi Collection, edited and translated by Kabir Helminski]

[Siham]

You are happy, happy, but I am a thousand times happier!
Whom have I encountered in my dream last night? I know not.
I am so happy, I cannot be contained in the world;
But like a spirit, I am hidden from the eyes of the world.
If the foot of the trees were not tied to earth, they would be pursuing me;
For I have blossomed so much, I am the envy of the gardens.

Divan 1740:1-3 Translated by Fatemeh Keshavarz, "Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi" (University of South Carolina Press, 1998)

[Halima]

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Bitter is made sweet through love;
copper becomes gold through love.
Through love dregs become clear;
love heals all pain.
Through love the king becomes slave;
love brings the dead to life.

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[Halima]

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In the sight of Love, fear isn't even as great as a single hair:
in the law of Love, everything is offered as a sacrifice.


-Mathnawi [V, 2184]

[Siham]

Whoever travels without a guide
needs two hundred years
for a two-day journey.

(Rumi)

[Siham]

"Come, come again, whoever you are, come!
Heathen, fire worshipper or idolatrous, come!
Come even if you broke your penitence a hundred times,
Ours is the portal of hope, come as you are."

(Rumi)

[Siham]

Came spring, and the garden made me blossom
And bloomed itself, displayed at my demand.
When it handed me luck's cup and poured it deep,
I laid my head down, drunk, and fell asleep.

(Rumi)

[Siham]

Your love has made me drunk, my hands are trembling.
I am intoxicated. I don't know what I'm doing.

(Rumi)

[Halima]

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The one who is ruled by mind,
without sleeping, puts her senses to sleep,
so that unseen things may emerge from the world of the soul.
Even in her waking state, she dreams dreams,
and opens thereby the gates of Heaven.

-Mathnawi [III, 1833-1834]

[Halima]

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That which God said to the rose,
and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty,
He said to my heart,
and made it a hundred times more beautiful.


-Mathnawi [III, 4129]

[Jannah]

sigh... some random rumi for the soul.......

God made the illusion look real
and the real an illusion.

He concealed the sea
and made the foam visible,
the wind invisible,
and the dust manifest

You see the dust whirling,
but how can the dust rise by itself?
you see the foam,
but not the ocean.

Invoke Him with deeds, not words;
for deeds are real
and will save you in the infinite-life.

[Halima]

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Sometimes in order to help He makes us cry.
Happy the eye that sheds tears for His sake.
Fortunate the heart that burns for His sake.
Laughter always follows tears.
Blessed are those who understand.
Life blossoms wherever water flows.
Where tears are shed divine mercy is shown.

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[Halima]

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His burdens have made him double over,
his moans before you are loud and clear.
"Show me a prayer, a benediction," he cries,
"that I may be delivered from these hidden chains."

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[Siham]

Delusion is a divine curse
that makes someone envious, conceited, malicious,
so that he doesn't know the evil he does
will strike him back.
If he could see his nothingness
and his deadly, festering wound,
pain would arise from looking within,
and that pain would save him.

[Rumi: Daylight]

[Halima]

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Rejoice in sorrow; it will unite you with God.
Bow down and reach the highest peak.
Turn inward, toward the heart,
and delight in the green shade of trees
and many gushing springs.

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[Jannah]

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When you become hopeless
because of isolation,

if you go beneath
the shadow of a spiritual friend

you will become a shining star.

Rumi.

[Siham]

Joy Beneath Sorrow
The most secure place to hide a treasure of gold
is in some desolate, unoticed place.
Why would anyone hide treasure
in plain sight?
And so it is said,
"Joy is hidden beneath sorrow."

(Maulan Jalaluddin Rumi in Mathnawi - III, 1133-34)

[Halima]

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There is no dervish in the world;
and if there be a dervish, that dervish is really non-existent.
In essence he exists,
but his attributes are non-existent within God's.


-Mathnawi [III, 3669-3670]

[Siham]

What Reached the Sky's Zenith?

Day and night he danced in ecstasy,
revolving on the earth like the heavens.
His ecstatic cries reached the zenith of the skies
and were heard by all and sundry.

(The Life and Thoughts of Rumi)

[Siham]

"Brother stand the pain
Escape the poison of your impulses.
The sky will bow to your beauty, if you do.
Learn to light the candle. Rise with the sun.
Turn away from the cave of your sleeping.
That way a thorn expands to a rose.
A particular glows with the universal."

(Rumi*)

[Siham]

If in the darkness of ignorance,
you don't recognize a person's true nature,
look to see whom he has chosen for his leader.

(Rum in "Mathnawi" [IV, 1640] )

[Siham]

We honored man by the gift of free will.
Half of him is honeybee, the other half snake.
True believers are stores of honey.
Stores of poison are those who do not believe.

(Rumi in Mathnawi)

[Siham]

"If you wish for light, be ready to receive light.

Nourish your ego and be deprived of light.

If you wish to find a way out of this prison,

do not turn away; bow down in worship and draw near."

(Rumi in Mathnawi)

[Jannah]

Prayer is an Egg:

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    On Resurrection Day God will say, "What did you do with
    the strength and energy

    your food gave you on earth? How did you use your eyes?
    What did you make with

    your five senses while they were dimming and playing out?
    I gave you hands and feet

    as tools for preparing the ground for planting. Did you,
    in the health I gave,

    do the plowing?" You will not be able to stand when you
    hear those questions. You

    will bend double, and finally acknowledge the glory. God
    will say, "Lift

    your head and answer the questions." Your head will rise
    a little, then slump

    again. "Look at me! Tell what you've done." You try,
    but you fall back flat

    as a snake. "I want every detail. Say!" Eventually you
    will be able to get to

    a sitting position. "Be plain and clear. I have given you
    such gifts. What did

    you do with them?" You turn to the right looking to the
    prophets for help, as

    though to say, I am stuck in the mud of my life, Help me
    out of this! They

    will answer, those kings, "The time for helping is past.
    The plow stands there in

    the field. You should have used it." Then you turn to
    the left, where your family

    is, and they will say, "Don't look at us! This conversation
    is between you and your

    creator." Then you pray the prayer that is the essence
    of every ritual: God,

    I have no hope. I am torn to shreds. You are my first and
    last and only refuge.

    Don't do daily prayers like a bird pecking, moving its head
    Up and down. Prayer is an egg.

    Hatch out the total helpless inside.

[Excerpted from The Soul of Rumi, Tr. Coleman Barks]

[Halima]

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Melancholy may enter your soul, and ambush your happiness; but it will prepare you for true joy. Melancholy drives out all other emotions and feelings, so the source of all goodness may occupy the whole house. It shakes the yellow leaves from the tree, allowing fresh leaves to grow. It pulls up old bodily pleasures by the roots, allowing divine spiritual pleasures to be planted. Melancholy takes many things from the soul, in order to bring better things in return.

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[Halima]

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Everyone can see the effects of God's mercy. But who, except God himself, understands the essence of his mercy? Most people cannot understand the essence of any of God's attibutes; they only know his attributes through their effects--and also through analogy. Only mystics have eyes to see the essence of God's attributes.

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[Jannah]

In a speech, Maulana Hakeem Akhtar, who is a Shaykh belonging to Maulana Thanvi's chain, describes a story in the mathnawi of Maulana Rumi.


He tells us about a caterpillar who is told by the other caterpillars about the delicious fruit of the grape vine. He sets off to find these grapes and climbs onto the vine and on the way he sees lush green leaves. Seeing their dazzle, he starts thinking that these are the fabled grapes and settles on one to eat. Beguiled, he decides these are the grapes and sits there all his life, munching away on the leaf believing it to be his aim. The observers, however, know what a fool he had been in getting attracted by the green colour of the inferior leaf and forgetting about the real prize - the delicious grapes.


One look at our own lives reveals us to be like that caterpillar, getting caught up in the glitter of this world, and totally forgetting to journey on towards the fruit of Allah's pleasure.

[Halima]

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Vain, boastful talk repels acts of kindness
and tears the branch of mercy from the trunk of the tree.
Speak honestly or else be silent,
and then behold grace and delight in it.


-Rumi, "Mathnawi" [III, 751-752]

[Jannah]

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    Come, Come again!
    Whatever you are...
    Whether you are disbeliever,
    idolater or fireworshipper.
    You have broken your vows
    of repentance a hundred times
    this is not the gate of despair,
    this is the gate of hope.
    Come, come again...

    - Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi

[Halima]

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Happy the man who freed himself from his "self" and united himself with the Infinite. When you sought refuge in the Qur'an of God, you mingled yourself with the essence of the prophets. The Qur'an is a narrative of the states of the prophets who glory in the blessed ocean of His majesty.

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

[Jannah]

When you find yourself with the Beloved,
embracing for
one breath,
In that moment you will find your true destiny.
Alas, don't spoil this precious moment
Moments like this are very, very rare.

Rumi

[Jannah]

There is a candle in the heart of man, waiting to be kindled.
In separation from the Friend, there is a cut
waiting to be
stitched.

O, you who are ignorant of endurance and the
burning
fire of love----
Love comes of its own free will, it can't be
learned
in any school.

Rumi