People claim that there exists in the human soul a kind of depravity you do not find in animals or wild beasts. Since men do not practice surrender and obedience to God they become inferior to the animals. God has said in the Qur’an of people like these: “They are real wild animals, and even more lost.â€Â
Bad character and depravity in man are a veil that hides his deep essence; these dark dispositions see to it that his essence is veiled, and this veil cannot be dissolved except through immense efforts. These efforts are of every kind. The greatest is to mingle with friends who have turned their face towards God and have turned away from this world. There is no combat harder for a human being than to associate himself with holy and pious people: seeing them annihilates and dissolves the carnal soul. They say, “When a serpent hasn’t seen a man for forty years, it becomes a dragon; it becomes this because it hasn’t met or seen that being that could be the cause of the dissolution of its perversity or of its evil character.
Wherever a strong lock is used, there is something extremely precious hidden. The thicker the veil, the more valuable the jewel. A hoard of treasure is guarded by a large snake; don’t dwell on the hideousness of the snake, contemplate the dazzling and priceless things you’ll discover in the treasure.
Just wait for what’ll happen when I vanish!
Those whose love warmed you will dig your tomb
And make you a food for ants and reptiles.
Those who often came to you aflame with desire
Will stop up their noses at your stink.
Rumi used to say again and again: “In the name of God, see to it that you pray constantly, so that your worldly means and heirs and friends become numerous; when the Resurrection comes, you will console your friends through these prayers. It is certain that, through the blessing that is attached to prayer, anyone who asks and begs will be granted their desires both on the Path and in the world.â€Â
It is also reported that when Rumi saw someone occupied assiduously in the accomplishment of the rites of canonical prayer, he would cry out: “Well done, servant full of seal, humble and modest slave! That man is brave that cannot be shaken from the service of his master, and who practices his devotions for as long as he has the strength.
Only that being whose robe’s torn by great passion
Is purified of greed and all its harm!
Blessing on you, Love, who bring us your gifts.
Who is the doctor for all our evils,
The cure for our pride and vanity, our Plato and Galen!
Through Love, our earthly body has flown to heaven,
The mountain began to dance and became agile.
Love inspired Mount Sinai, O lover! So Sinai
Grew drunk and Moses fell down, stricken with glory.
I also, like a pipe, can say anything at all
When I’m joined, in harmony, with my Friend:
Separate from the one who speaks, I grow silent, even if I know a hundred songs,
When the rose has gone and the garden faded,
You won’t hear any more of the nightingale’s story,
The Beloved is all that lives, the lover a dead thing.
King, saint, thief, madman –
Love has grabbed everyone by the neck
And drags Lis to God by secret ways….
How could I ever have guessed
That God, too, desired us?
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