Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207 – 1273) was a Persian poet, Islamic scholar, and Sufi mystic. His influence transcends national borders and ethnic divisions, and his poems have been widely translated into many of the world’s languages. At age twenty-five, Rumi began service as a Molvi (Islamic teacher) and later became a Jurist, but his life completely changed following a trip to Damascus. Here he met a teacher under whose instruction he chose the way of the mystic, becoming an ascetic, devoted to the unorthodox spiritual path. Rumi believed passionately in the use of music, poetry and dance as a path for reaching God. His best-known work, the Masnavi (Spiritual Couplets), is a six-volume poem that holds a distinguished place within the rich tradition of Persian Sufi literature, and has been commonly called “the Quran in Persian.”
Quotations by Jalal al-Din Rumi…
The wine of divine Grace is limitless.
All limits come only from the limitation of the cup.
Moonlight floods the whole sky from horizon to horizon,
How much it can fill your room depends on its windows.
Grant a great dignity, my friend, to the cup of your life;
Love has designed it to hold His eternal wine.
It’s your road and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.
You’ve been walking the ocean’s edge,
holding up your robes to keep them dry.
You must dive naked under, and deeper under,
a thousand times deeper!
Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open?
As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.
Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When it’s easier to do evil, but you choose to do good, you are a true hero.
Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment. Cleverness is mere opinion. Bewilderment is intuition.
Who stands already on heaven’s topmost dome needs not to search for ladders.
This place is a dream. Only a sleeper considers it real. Then death comes like dawn, and you wake up laughing at what you thought was your grief.