"That person one night was crying ‘O Allah!’ That his mouth might be sweetened thereby, And Satan said to him ‘Be quiet, O austere one! How long wilt thou babble O man of many words? No answer comes to thee from nigh the throne, How long wilt thou cry “Allah!” with harsh face?’ That person was sad at heart and hung his head And then beheld Khizr present before him in a vision Who said to him ‘Ah! thou hast ceased to call upon God, Wherefore repentest thou of calling upon Him?’ The man said ‘The answer “Here am I” came not, Wherefore I fear that I am repulsed from the door.’ Khizr replied to him ‘God has given me this command Go to him and say “O much tried one! That calling ‘Allah’ of thine was my ‘Here am I;’ And that pain and longing and ardour of thine was my messenger; Thy struggles and strivings for assistance Were My attractions and originated thy prayer. Thy fear and thy love are the covert of My mercy, Each ‘O Lord!’ of thine contains many ‘Here am I’s’.’"

"One I seek, one I know, one I see, one I call. He is the first, He is the last, He is the outward, He is the inward."

"One said ‘The world would be a pleasant place, If death never set foot within it’; Another answered ‘If there were no death, The complicated world would not be worth a jot. It would be a crop raised in the desert Left neglected and never threshed out.’"

"One impulse from God is better than a hundred efforts."

"Society with saints no doubt’s of great avail To piety it leads; ‘God’s fear shall never fail.’ Thou wast a very rock, a worthless pebble-stone, By saints’ communion fined, a pearl of price thou’st shone."

"Seek sweet syrup in the garden of love, For nature is a seller of vinegar and a crusher of unripened grapes."

"From thy good thoughts are born the boys of Paradise and the houris, From thy evil thoughts is born the great demon (Iblis), See how the secret thought of the geometrician has become a castle or a palace, See how the hidden Providence without beginning has become this mighty universe."

"Apparently thou art the ruler of thy wife like water over fire, In reality thou art ruled by and suppliant to her."

"Serpents’ poison is life to serpents, In relation to mankind it is death."

"From the moment you came into the world of being A ladder was placed before you that you might escape, First you were mineral, later you turned to plant, Then you became animal: how should this be a secret to you? Afterwards you were made man, with knowledge, reason, faith, Behold the body which is a portion of the dust-pit, how perfect it has grown! When you have travelled on from man, you will doubtless become an angel, After that you are done with this earth; your station is in heaven."

"Thou mouldest of foul and fair the form of a man That he may flee two leagues from the odour of foulness; Thou mak’st him a morsel of dust that he may become pure herbage, He is free from filth when Thou hast breathed into him a soul."

"I will not shun thy blow, for very crude Is the heart that ne’er burned in the fire of thine affliction, To thy praise and praisers there is no end, What atom but is reeling with thy praise?"

"Let not a weakling like you censure me; What seems night to you is broad day to me, What seems a prison to you is a garden to me, Busiest occupation is rest to me, Your feet are in the mire, to me mire is rose, What to you is funeral wailing is marriage drum to me."

"Opposite shows up opposite as a Frank a negro."

"Welcome soul-producing sun! when a single ray of thine hath appeared, Thousands of human souls shoot forth from black (barren) clay."

"My heart is weary of these weak-spirited companions, I desire the Lion of God (Ali) and Rustam son of Zal, Filings of beauty are in the possession of every one that exists, I desire that quarry and that mine of exquisite loveliness."

"I still am dark compared to the sun Though I am light compared to the dark souls of men, Therefore is my light weak that you may bear it, For you are not strong enough to bear the dazzling sun, I have, as it were, mixed honey with vinegar, To succour the sweetness of your hearts."

"The strength of strongest man can merely split a stone, The power that informs man’s soul can cleave the moon."

"Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving — it doesn't matter, Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vow a hundred times, Come, come again, come."

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."

"Whenever we manage to love without expectations, calculations, negotiations, we are indeed in heaven."

"We carry inside us the wonders we seek outside us."

"I once saw in an office a plaque that suggested that before we open our mouths to speak, we should make our words pass through three gates: Is it true, is it kind, and is it necessary?"

"Strange as it may seem to our Western egoism, the prospect of sharing in the general, impersonal immortality of the human soul kindles in the Sufi an enthusiasm as deep and triumphant as that of the most ardent believer in a personal life continuing beyond the grave. Jalaluddin, after describing the evolution of man in the material world and anticipating his further growth in the spiritual universe, utters a heartfelt prayer — for what? — for self-annihilation in the ocean of the Godhead."

"The idea that eroticism and spirituality should be separated is a travesty of both...Or read the great Persian poet Rumi...All mystical poetry is erotic, uses erotic language, because it desires fusion with God...all lovers see the beloved’s face and body as divine."

"Reynold A. Nicholson, Selected Poems from the Divani Shamsi Tabriz (Cambridge UP, 1898)"

"William Falconer, in The Asiatic Journal (1840) p. 32, (1841) p. 238, (1842) p. 102 · Fraser's Magazine (April 1855) pp. 374–5"

"Edward Henry Whinfield, Masnavi I Ma'navi: The Spiritual Couplets of Maulána Jalálu-'d-Dín Muhammad Rúmí (1898)"

"Reynold A. Nicholson, The Mystics of Islam (1914)"

"Reynold A. Nicholson, Rumi: Poet And Mystic (George Allen and Unwin, 1950)"

"William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi (1983)"

"Camille and Kabir Helminski, Rumi Daylight: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance (1990)"

"Camille and Kabir Helminski, Jewels of Remembrance: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance (1996)"

"Coleman Barks, The Essential Rumi (HarperCollins, 1995)"

"James Fadiman and Robert Frager, Essential Sufism (HarperSanFrancisco, 1997)"

"Fatemeh Keshavarz, Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi (1998)"

"Shahram Shiva, Hush, Don't Say Anything to God: Passionate Poems of Rumi (Jain Publishing, 1999)"

"Andrew Harvey, Teachings of Rumi (Shambhala, 1999)"

"John Baldock, The Essence of Rumi (London: Arcturus, 2005)"

"Ibrahim Gamard and Rawan Farhadi, The Quatrains of Rumi (2008)"

"Enter the hearts of my servants To gain the paradise of beholding me, O fearer of God."

"The fault is in the one who blames. Spirit sees nothing to criticize."

"This discipline and rough treatment are a furnace to extract the silver from the dross. This testing purifies the gold by boiling the scum away."

"Fortunate is he who does not carry envy as a companion."

"The idol of your self is the mother of all idols. To regard the self as easy to subdue is a mistake."

"If you wish mercy, show mercy to the weak."

"If you dig a pit for others to fall into, you will fall into it yourself."

"Many of the faults you see in others, dear reader, are your own nature reflected in them."

"The lion who breaks the enemy's ranks is a minor hero compared to the lion who overcomes himself."

"Whoever gives reverence receives reverence."