Sayings of Jalal al-Din Rumi: Sufi quotations
Contents
Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273), of Konya, is the author of the Mathnawi and the inspirer of the Mevlevi order. Transformed by his encounter with Shams of Tabriz, he is the most widely read poet of divine love in the world.
Jalal al-Din Rumi
All the atoms in the air and the desert, know it well, are like madmen. Every atom, happy or wretched, is enamoured of the sun beyond all qualification.
Jalal al-Din Rumi: it is you who are that idol
O people of purity who wander in this world, why be so led astray for a single idol? The One who seeks you in this world, seek Him in yourselves: it is you who are that idol.
Jalal al-Din Rumi: see who it is that seeks you
O my soul! Do you know who your Beloved is? O my heart! Do you know who your guest is? O my body, which in any case seeks a road! It is He who draws you: see who it is that seeks you.
Jalal al-Din Rumi: He grants him the happiness of giving thanks
When God most high desires to send down His grace, His favour, His liberality, His felicity in a lasting manner upon a servant among His servants, He grants him the happiness of giving thanks. If a hundred causes of bitterness befall him and a single one of sweetness, he celebrates that single sweetness a hundred times, in a hundred places, while never once repeating the hundred causes of bitterness, except the bitterness born of separation from the companions of faith.
Jalal al-Din Rumi: whatever you seek, that is what you are
If you are in search of the soul’s dwelling, you are a soul. If you are in quest of a piece of bread, you are bread. If you can grasp the secret of this subtlety, you will understand: whatever you seek, that is what you are.
Jalal al-Din Rumi: like the brush in the painter’s hand
We are not the lords of the land, we are the common folk. We do not hold the seats of honour in the houses. No, no, we are like the brush in the painter’s hand, or rather we do not even know the place where we are.
Jalal al-Din Rumi: going towards the One who gives
Night comes, everyone goes to sleep; like fish, they all go into the water. When day rises, some go towards the means, the others towards the One who gives.
Jalal al-Din Rumi: the torment of the saw
If the tree could move over the ground or fly through the air, it would not suffer the torment of the saw or the fear of the blade.
Jalal al-Din Rumi: You possess the sun
Yesterday my Beloved came, by grace. I said to the night: “Do not reveal my secrets!” The night answered: “Look before you and behind you. You possess the sun; how could I bring forth the dawn?”
Jalal al-Din Rumi: fasting, a day of abundance
Fasting is the touchstone of the rich and the poor. Do not ask “how”, for this is a place without a how. It is a day born outside the firmament. Rejoice, for the day of abundance has come.
Jalal al-Din Rumi: the habit of the wise is wonder
The habit and the work of the wise and the seeing is wonder. For the blind there is thought and reflection. A hundred marvellous trees of the Unseen rain flowers down upon you. Why strike the branches of resignation with the axe?
Jalal al-Din Rumi: it gives back to the dust this body…
At the moment of death, when the soul leaves the body, it leaves it like an old garment. It gives back to the dust this body which was dust, and fashions a body made of its own ancient light.
Jalal al-Din Rumi: your breaths full of faithfulness
If your hand is weary, stamp with your foot. If your foot is tired, sing a melody. If you have none of all that, make use of your reason. At every instant, in short, let each of your breaths be full of faithfulness.
Jalal al-Din Rumi: to experience your own emotion
It is not me you love, but your own experience. You turn towards me to experience your own emotion.
Jalal al-Din Rumi: you are in the image of your thought
O brother, your being is in the image of your thought; for the rest you are but bones and sinews. If your thought is a flower, you are like a flower-bed in bloom; but if it is made of thorns, you are nothing but brambles to be burned.
Jalal al-Din Rumi: what prayer would it be if my heart stays in the bazaar?
What prayer would it be if, standing near You in the mosque, my heart stayed in the bazaar? To pray truly is to resemble the angels. But I am still the prey of beasts and demons. Of this hypocritical prayer I feel shame, and I dare not lift my eyes towards You.
Jalal al-Din Rumi
The birth of the child rends the mother’s womb. The birth of man rends the universe.
Jalal al-Din Rumi
O my heart, how long will you be beguiled by this one or that one in this prison? For an instant, come out of your dark well, to see the world.
Jalal al-Din Rumi
In this house there are thousands of dead, and you say: here is “my” house. A handful of dust says: “I was hair.” Another: “I was bones.” A handful says: “I was old.” Another: “I was young.” A handful of dust will tell you: “Stop there. I was someone who was himself the son of someone.” You are dumbfounded, and suddenly Love arrives and says to you: “Come near; I am the eternally Living.”
Jalal al-Din Rumi
The Sufi’s book is not made of ink and letters; it is nothing other than a heart white as snow.
Jalal al-Din Rumi
All the atoms that people the air and the desert, know well that they are enamoured like us, and that every atom, happy or unhappy, is dazed by the sun of the universal soul.
Jalal al-Din Rumi
He who looks outside and inside, in the world of madness, looks in a thousand ways. Look at the eyes, how they look: who is it that looks from inside my eyes?
Jalal al-Din Rumi: that boundless ocean
Say until nightfall: our day has no night; in our religion of love there is no religion but love. Love is that boundless and shoreless ocean; many drown in it without complaint and without groaning.
Jalal al-Din Rumi: so that solitude may come at last
God said: “O you who amuse yourself with everyone, separate yourself from the world, for you are made for Us. Accustom yourself to Us, so that at last solitude may come to you in the night.”
Jalal al-Din Rumi: I give you the whole garden
This morning in the garden I picked roses, and I feared being seen by the gardener. I heard him say to me gently: “What are a few flowers? I give you the whole garden.” A love came that eclipsed all loves. I burned away, and my ashes became life. Again, my ashes, through desire for your burning, came back and put on a thousand new faces.
Jalal al-Din Rumi: he who entrusts himself to God
He who entrusts himself to God, God suffices him.
Jalal al-Din Rumi: be good to all creatures
If someone speaks well of another, that good and those praises come back to him. In reality he speaks them for himself. Someone planted a rose garden and flowers around his house; at every moment his gaze rests on the roses and the flowers: he is in Paradise. We learn to love the one of whom we speak well, and we learn to detest the one of whom we speak ill. At his remembrance we imagine only scorpions, serpents, thorns and brambles. Be good to all creatures, for the love of God, or for the tranquillity of your own soul, so that your eyes may always see the Friend. Hatred must not enter your heart.
Jalal al-Din Rumi: the essential thing is love
“Abu Bakr did not have pre-eminence because of the abundance of his prayers, his fasts or his alms, but because of what was in his heart” (hadith). The Prophet (pbuh) said that Abu Bakr’s pre-eminence was not due to many prayers and fasts, but to that favour he had received, which was his love for God. On the Day of Resurrection, when the prayers are brought, they will be placed in the balance, along with the fasts and the alms. But when love and certainty are brought, they will not be contained in the balance. So the essential thing is love.
Jalal al-Din Rumi: seeing only one’s own image
If, thirsty, you drink water from a cup, it is God you contemplate within the water. He who is not in love sees in the water only his own image.