All Quotes

"Come, seek, for search is the foundation of fortune: Every success depends upon focusing the heart."

"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."

"Many have been led astray by the Qur'an: by clinging to that rope many have fallen into the well. There is no fault in the rope, O perverse man, for it was you who had no desire to reach the top."

"Some Hindoos were exhibiting an elephant in a dark room, and many people collected to see it. But as the place was too dark to permit them to see the elephant, they all felt it with their hands, to gain an idea of what it was like. One felt its trunk, and declared that the beast resembled a water-pipe; another felt its ear, and said it must be a large fan; another its leg, and thought it must be a pillar; another felt its back, and declared the beast must be like a great throne. According to the part which each felt, he gave a different description of the animal. One, as it were, called it "Dal," and another "Alif.""

"The eye of outward sense is as the palm of a hand, The whole of the object is not grasped in the palm. The sea itself is one thing, the foam another; Neglect the foam, and regard the sea with your eyes."

"When you see anyone complaining of such and such a person's ill-nature and bad temper, know that the complainant is bad-tempered, forasmuch as he speaks ill of that bad-tempered person, because he alone is good-tempered who is quietly forbearing towards the bad-tempered and ill-natured."

"Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon how much he has polished it. Whoever has polished it more sees more — more unseen forms become manifest to him."

"Love is the ark appointed for the righteous, Which annuls the danger and provides a way of escape. Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment. Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment intuition."

"Reason is like an officer when the King appears; The officer then loses his power and hides himself. Reason is the shadow cast by God; God is the sun."

"How can these works and this earning in the way of righteousness be accomplished without a master, O father? Can you practice the meanest profession in the world without a master's guidance?"

"Are you fleeing from Love because of a single humiliation? What do you know of Love except the name? Love has a hundred forms of pride and disdain, and is gained by a hundred means of persuasion. Since Love is loyal, it purchases one who is loyal: it has no interest in a disloyal companion. The human being resembles a tree; its root is a covenant with God: that root must be cherished with all one's might."

"If in thirst you drink water from a cup, you see God in it. Those who are not in love with God will see only their own faces in it."

"The lower self does not want anyone to receive anything from anybody else, and if it is aware of something receiving a special boon, it seeks to destroy it."

"Whatever possessions and objects of its desires the lower self may obtain, it hangs on to them, refusing to let them go out of greed for more, or out of fear of poverty and need."

"I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was Man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar With angels blest; but even from angelhood I must pass on: all except God doth perish. When I have sacrificed my angel-soul, I shall become what no mind e'er conceived. Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence Proclaims in organ tones, 'To Him we shall return.'"

"This is what is signified by the words Anā l-Ḥaqq, "I am God." People imagine that it is a presumptuous claim, whereas it is really a presumptuous claim to say Ana 'l-'abd, "I am the slave of God"; and Anā l-Ḥaqq, "I am God" is an expression of great humility. The man who says Ana 'l-'abd, "I am the servant of God" affirms two existences, his own and God's, but he that says Anā l-Ḥaqq, "I am God" has made himself non-existent and has given himself up and says "I am God", that is, "I am naught, He is all; there is no being but God's." This is the extreme of humility and self-abasement."

"The branch might seem like the fruit's origin: In fact, the branch exists because of the fruit."

""There's no courage", The Prophet said, "before the war has begun." Drunkards vaunt their bravery when you speak of war. But in the blaze of battle they scatter like mice. I'm astonished by the man who wants purity And yet trembles when the harshness of polishing begin... When a man beats a carpet again and again It's not the carpet he's attacking, but the dirt in it."

"Love is the path and road of our Prophet We were born from Love and Love was our mother. O you who are our mother, you are hidden within veils, Concealed from our disbelieving natures"

"The fire of Love cooks me Every night it drags me to the Tavern. It seats me with the People of the Tavern So that no one except the People of the Tavern will know me."

"By eating meagerly, you become clever and aware. And by eating gluttonously, you become foolish and idle. Your being full of misery is entirely from your gluttony. You will become less miserable if you become a sparse eater."

"If you dwell with unaware people, you will be cold, But if you dwell with aware ones, you will be a true man Go, and build your hermit cell inside a furnace, like gold If you go out of the furnace, you will be frozen solid"

"Dwell in the place where your companions are spiritual heroes, So that they may wash the foul soot from your [heart] Don't think about their faults, for they Will know about it before you think."

"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."

"Study me as much as you like, you will not know me, for I differ in a hundred ways from what you see me to be. Put yourself behind my eyes and see me as I see myself, for I have chosen to dwell in a place you cannot see."

"We have a way from this visible world to the Unseen, for we are the companions of religion's messenger. We have a way from the house to the garden, we are the neighbor of the cypress and jasmine. Every day we come to the garden and see a hundred blossoms. In order to scatter them among the lovers, we will our robes to overflowing... Behold our words! They are the fragrance of those roses--we are the rosebush of certainty's rosegarden."

"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."

"Our caravan leader is the pride of the world, Mustafa [Muhammad]."

"Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart."

"The men of God are like fishes in the ocean; they pop up into view on the surface here and there and everywhere, as they please."

"Let the beauty of what you love be what you do."

"I want a heart which is split, part by part, because of the pain of separation from God, so that I might explain my longing and complaint to it."

"The Sufi is hanging on to Muhammad, like Abu Bakr."

"I am the servant of the Qur'an as long as I have life. I am the dust on the path of [Muhammad], the Chosen one. If anyone quotes anything except this from my sayings, I am quit of him and outraged by these words"

"You were born with wings. Why prefer to crawl through life?"

"I have endowed everyone with a temperament of his own, given everyone an idiom of his own; so that what is praise for him is blame for thee, what is honey for him is poison for thee, what is light for him is fire for thee, what is rose for him is thorn for thee, what is good for him is evil for thee, what is beautiful for him is ugly for thee. In the people of Hindustan the idiom of Hindustan is praiseworthy; in the people of Sind, the idiom of Sind is praiseworthy. I do not see the outward and the speech; I see the inward and the state [of feeling]. For the heart is the substance and speech an accident. So, the accident is subservient, the substance is the [real] object. The religion of love stands apart from all religions. For lovers the [only] religion and creed is God."

"Wherever you stand, be the soul of that place."

"Seek truth from thought, not in mouldy books. Look in the sky to find the moon, not in the pool."

"Ah, me! so poor, can I declare that friend, who never had another friend his like,—none, therefore, who could know his soul?"

"Supreme Being soars above thought and imagination. We are lost when we would comprehend or even suspect that which he is. How vain, then, to seek words worthy of that Being! Let it suffice us to adore in reverent silence!"

"Thou, nearer to me than I to myself."

"O heart! weak follower of the weak, That thou shouldst traverse land and sea, In this far place that God to seek Who long ago had come to thee!"

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

"The prophets hear in their mind voices that others never perceive, as the voices of the Peris, which, although they sound out clearly, are never apprehended by our ears."

"This universe is a drop from the ocean of his beauty, unable from its fulness to find place in the parent bosom."

""Tell me, gentle traveller, thou Who hast wandered far and wide, Seen the sweetest roses blow And the brightest rivers glide,— Say, of all thine eyes have seen, Which the fairest land has been.""Lady, shall I tell thee where Nature seems most blest and fair, Far above all climes beside?— ’Tis where those we love abide; And that little spot is best Which the loved one’s foot hath pressed."Though it be a fairy space, Wide and spreading is the place; Though ’twere but a barren mound, ’Twould become enchanted ground. With thee, yon sandy waste would seem The margin of Al Cawthar's stream; And thou canst make a dungeon’s gloom A bower where new-born roses bloom."

"When rises the sun and chases the night, What need have we then of the lamp for a light? When the friend all beloved appears to the eye, What want dost thou feel that the post bring him nigh? But when the rose-time is past, and the rose-bloom gone by, Then gladly the eye seeks the water of roses to spy. Is the Master within to thy soul not revealed? Well then may’st thou turn to the Volume of message unsealed."

"As water from the glasses is all poured into one vessel, so all the praises are mingled together. Since He that is celebrated is wholly one, all religions form but one religion."

"The compass only serves to direct the prayers of those who are outside of the Caaba, whilst within it no one knows the use of it."

"I was, ere a name had been named upon earth, Ere one trace yet existed of aught that has birth; When the locks of the Loved One streamed forth for a sign, And being was none save the Presence Divine. Ere the veil of the flesh for Messiah was wrought, To the godhead I bowed in prostration of thought. I measured intently, I pondered with heed (But, ah, fruitless my labor!) the cross and its creed. To the pagod I rushed and the magian's shrine, But my eye caught no glimpse of a glory divine. The reins of research to the Caaba I bent, Whither, hopefully thronging, the old and young went. Candahár and Herát searched I wistfully through, Nor above nor beneath came the Loved One to view. I toiled to the summit, wild, pathless, and lone, Of the globe-girding Kâf, but the phœnix had flown. The seventh earth I traversed, the seventh heaven explored, But in neither discerned I the court of the Lord. I questioned the pen and the tablet of fate, But they whispered not where He pavilions his state. My vision I strained, but my God-scanning eye No trace that to godhead belongs could descry. But when I my glance turned within my own breast, Lo, the vainly sought Loved One, the godhead confessed! In the whirl of its transport my spirit was tossed, Till each atom of separate being I lost; And the bright sun of Tauriz, a madder than me, Or a wilder, hath never yet seen, nor shall see."