Maulana Rumi says, 'I have broken all my bonds with the alien, and now I am with my Beloved at all times and in all places.'
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Sufi
Rumi
Sufi1207 – 1273Wakhsh, Balkh (modern-day Afghanistan/Tajikistan)1,388 quotes· 4 sources
Jalal ad-Din Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet and Sufi mystic whose ecstatic verses on divine love have made him one of the most widely read poets in the world. His Masnavi — a six-volume spiritual epic in verse — is considered one of the greatest masterpieces of mystical literature ever written.
Born in 1207 in the Khorasan region of the Persian empire, Rumi was a respected Islamic scholar and theologian settled in Konya (modern Turkey) when his encounter with the wandering dervish Shams of Tabriz completely transformed him. The radical intimacy and intensity of that friendship — and Shams's eventual disappearance — became the fuel for an outpouring of some 40,000 verses of rapturous poetry expressing the soul's grief at separation from the Beloved and its ecstatic return to union. His Masnavi (Spiritual Couplets) is a vast and multifaceted poem that weaves together Quranic interpretation, parables, comic tales, philosophy, and mystical instruction. He also founded the Mevlevi Sufi order, whose practice of sama (sacred listening and the whirling ceremony) became one of the most recognized forms of embodied spiritual practice. Today Rumi is routinely the best-selling poet in the United States, and his message — that love is the universal law underlying all existence — continues to speak across every cultural boundary.
Wisdom
A true lover understands the Unknown, and those who are not in love are deaf and dumb and die in that state.
God is the eternal, and everything else is transient.
Nothing exists that is not from God and part of Him. He encompasses both being and non-being. When He wills, He casts His reflection upon the void, and that reflection becomes the universe.
There is no distinction of quality in God; in His divine majesty, I, you, we, and he have the same meaning, for in unity there is no division.
Every person who has transcended the body and is completely detached from themselves hears a voice in their heart saying, 'I am God.'
Behold, the world is like the shadow of a cloud and a dream of the night.
Now, while the rose is with us, sing its praise. Now, while we are here to listen, minstrel, play the lute! For the message of all your songs is that the present is too short, and the unknown future is already upon us.
Since you can never leave the palace of yourself, how can you hope to reach the village of truth?
The heart and soul are fixed on the desire of the Beloved. This is what we know, for if not, the heart and soul are nothing.
Do not throw yourself at the foot of its sacred trees, hoping for their shade. Do you not see, oh cypress, that even these are nothing to you?
Don't trust the words of your enemy in a battle. Will the light of a synagogue's lamp ignite your monastic torches?
Consider each hour as a definite gain.
Praise God, who does not try his servant in vain. Neither this world nor the next will make me afraid.
Love resides everywhere, and its home is in every place of worship.
Oh friend, untie the knot of your heart's worry, despite the warning that the heavens reveal
She didn't know what even the lowest servant of love can say: it's sweet to serve
Are you crying? Let hope return and don't cry anymore!
God counts our tears and knows our suffering. Don't cry! He has heard your painful crying.
You know that the wealth of this world is not lasting, so let the passion of life consume the fleeting gains that the earth produces.