(I prepared this as a part of an assignment for a course.)
The Sufi tradition claims its origin with the Prophet’s son-in-law Ali abn Abi Talib. It has incorporated the teachings of several spiritual traditions around the world like Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Hinduism. Jalaluddin Rumi is one of the foremost saints of the Sufi tradition. Though culturally based on the Semitic tradition, his writings go beyond their limits. For example, though at some places, Rumi talks about the Day of Judgement (1.IX), he also talks about reincarnation in several other places (3.XVII, 5.III). Though at some places he talks about redemption only for believers in the Revelation of Mohammad (2.I), he also talks about acceptance of all religious traditions (2.VII, 2.XVII, 3.V). This is true of many Sufi saints, who stand for true spirituality beyond the confines of any one religion or culture.
God
God is the soul of this world, which is His body (1.VII) God is the power behind the natural elements like air, earth, water and fire (1.IV). The senses can perceive only opposites. As God does not have any opposite, He remains hidden (1.V). God is the Ocean of thought from which sound and speech arise (1.V). God is the Light that illumines the senses from within (2.V).
Man
Man is a servant of God. God has given talents to man indicating his duties like how a Master gives a spade in the hands of a slave (1.V). God is the Agency who gives the result of man’s actions. Man eats bread and God transmutes it into life-giving spirit (1.VI). When man came into existence, he was only as fire or air or earth. From an inorganic state, he evolved progressively to vegetative and animal states. Then he has risen to human state. Next he will become an angel. With every death there is only an improvement (3.XVII, 5.III). Death is the opening to the next stage of life, like flowers to fruits, grape to wine (1.IX).
Way to God
When the senses of men are directed outwards towards the objects of the world, it leads to degradation of man. The senses draw the mind downwards while the inner Light draws it upwards (2.V). Greed towards money, food and other enjoyment will result in great loss (2.I). Attachment to the body and its pleasures prevent man from accessing the elixir of Life (2.V). Abstinence from sense pleasure is vital to spiritual health like abstaining from a scratching a scab (1.IX). We should forbear all the troubles in life with love for God (2.VI). We need to seek God alone and not the favour of men (6.VIII). There cannot be two residents in the heart. We need to keep God and God only (1.XI). We should remove ourselves from bad company like weeds on the wall of a temple (4.II). We should seek the company of saintly people who are living temples of God (2.XIII).
Various Religions
God has created various people with their own religions and customs. People should follow their own religion. A heart burning with love for God is what is important, not the thoughts and expressions (2.VII). Different people call God by different names like a Persian, an Arab, a Turk and a Greek refer by the words angur, inab, uzum and astaphil the same fruit which is grapes. People fight because of ignorance (2.XVII).
Some Selections
Renunciation:
Arise, O son! burst thy bonds and be free!
How long wilt thou be captive to silver and gold?
Though thou pour the ocean into thy pitcher,
It can hold no more than one day’s store.
The pitcher of the desire of the covetous never fills,
The oyster-shell fills not with pearls till it is content;
Only he whose garment is rent by the violence of love
Is wholly pure from covetousness and sin.
(1.I)
Against Lust:
A thirsty man discovered a tank of water, but could not drink of it because it was surrounded by a high wall. He took some of the bricks off the top of the wall and cast them over it into the water. The water cried out, “What advantage do you gain by doing this?” He made answer, “The first advantage is this, that I hear your voice; and the second, that the more bricks I pull off the wall, the nearer I approach to you.” The moral is, that so long as the wall of the body intervenes, we cannot reach the water of life. The abasement of the body brings men nearer to union with the Deity. Destroy, therefore, the fleshly lusts which war against the soul.
(2.V)
Self-effort and Fatalism:
When a master places a spade in the hand of a slave,
The slave knows his meaning without being told.
Like this spade, our hands are our Master’s hints to us;
Yea, if ye consider, they are His directions to us.
When ye have taken to heart His hints,
Ye will shape your life in reliance on their direction;
Wherefore these hints disclose His intent,
Take the burden from you, and appoint your work.
He that bears it makes it bearable by you,
He that is able makes it within your ability.
Accept His command, and you will be able to execute it;
Seek union with Him, and you will find yourselves united.
Exertion is giving thanks for God’s blessings;
Think ye that your fatalism gives such thanks?
Giving thanks for blessings increases blessings,
But fatalism snatches those blessings from your hands.
(1.V)
Exclusive Devotion:
Till man destroys “self” he is no true friend of God.
Once a man came and knocked at the door of his friend.
His friend said, “who art thou. O faithful one?”
He said, “‘Tis I.” He answered, “There is no admittance.
There is no room for the ‘raw’ at my well-cooked feast.
Naught but fire of separation and absence
Can cook the raw one and free him from hypocrisy!
Since thy ‘self’ has not yet left thee,
Thou must be burned in fiery flames.”
The poor man went away, and for one whole year
Journeyed burning with grief for his friend’s absence.
His heart burned till it was cooked; then he went again
And drew near to the house of his friend.
He knocked at the door in fear and trepidation
Lest some careless word might fall from his lips.
His friend shouted, “Who is that at the door?”
He answered, “‘Tis Thou who art at the door. O Beloved!”
The friend said, “Since ’tis I, let me come in,
There is not room for two ‘I’s’ in one house.”
(1.XI)
Seek God Alone:
When he recovered himself he said, “O God,
I have sinned in looking for aid to a creature!
Although the Prefect showed great liberality,
It was in no wise equal to Thy bounty.
He gave me a cap, but Thou my head full of sense;
He gave me a garment, but Thou my tall form.
He gave me gold, but Thou my hand which counts it;
He gave me a horse, but Thou my reason to guide it;
He gave me a lamp, but Thou my lucid eyes;
He gave me sweetmeats, but Thou my appetite for them;
He gave me a pension, but Thou my life and being;
His gift was gold, but Thine true blessings;
He gave me a house, but Thou heaven and earth;
In Thy house he and a hundred like him are nourished.
(6.VIII)
Greatness of Saints:
Fools laud and magnify the mosque,
While they strive to oppress holy men of heart.
But the former is mere form, the latter spirit and truth.
The only true mosque is that in the hearts of saints.
The mosque that is built in the hearts of the saints
Is the place of worship of all, for God dwells there.
So long as the hearts of the saints are not afflicted,
God never destroys the nation.
(2.XIII)
Reincarnation:
I died as inanimate matter and arose a plant,
I died as a plant and rose again an animal.
I died as an animal and arose a man.
Why then should I fear to become less by dying?
I shall die once again as a man
To rise an angel perfect from head to foot!
Again when I suffer dissolution as an angel,
I shall become what passes the conception of man!
Let me then become non-existent, for non-existence
Sings to me in organ tones, ‘To him shall we return.’
(3.XVII)
On the day that you entered upon existence,
You were first fire, or earth, or air.
If you had continued in that, your original state,
How could you have arrived at this dignity of humanity?
But through change your first existence remained not
In lien thereof God gave you a better existence
In like manner He will give you thousands of existences,
One after another, the succeeding ones better than the former.
Regard your original state, not the mean states,
For these mean states remove you from your origin.
As these mean states increase, union recedes;
As they decrease, the unction of union increases.
From knowing means and causes holy bewilderment fails;
Yea, the bewilderment that leads you to God’s presence.
You have obtained these existences after annihilations;
Wherefore, then, do you shrink from annihilation?
What harm have these annihilations done you
That you cling so to present existence, O simpleton?
Since the latter of your states were better than the former,
Seek annihilation and adore change of state.
You have already seen hundreds of resurrections
Occur every moment from your origin till now;
One from the inorganic state to the vegetive state,
From the vegetive state to the animal state of trial;
Thence again to rationality and good discernment;
Again you will rise from this world of sense and form.
Ah! O crow, give up this life and live anew!
In view of God’s changes cast away your life!
Choose the new, give up the old,
For each single present year is better than three past.
(5.III)
God is One:
This is the tree of knowledge, O knowing one;
Very high, very fine, very expansive,
The very water of life from the circumfluent ocean.
Thou hast run after form, O ill-informed one,
Wherefore thou lackest the fruit of the tree of substance.
Sometimes it is named tree, sometimes sun,
Sometimes lake, and sometimes cloud.
‘Tis one, though it has thousands of manifestations;
Its least manifestation is eternal life!
Though ’tis one, it has a thousand manifestations,
The names that fit that one are countless.
That one is to thy personality a father,
In regard to another person He may be a son.
In relation to another He may be wrath and vengeance,
In relation to another, mercy and goodness.
He has thousands of names, yet is One,
Answering to all of His descriptions, yet indescribable.
Every one who seeks names, if he is a man of credulity,
Like thee, remains hopeless and frustrated of his aim.
Why cleavest thou to this mere name of tree,
So that thou art utterly balked and disappointed?
Pass over names and look to qualities,
So that qualities may lead thee to essence!
The differences of sects arise from His names;
When they pierce to His essence they find His peace!”
Four persons, a Persian, an Arab, a Turk, and a Greek, were traveling together, and received a present of a dirhem. The Persian said he would buy “angur” with it, the Arab said he would buy “inab,” while the Turk and the Greek were for buying “uzum” and “astaphil” (staphyle), respectively. Now all these words mean one and the same thing, viz. “grapes;” but, owing to their ignorance of each other’s languages, they fancied they each wanted to buy something different, and accordingly a violent quarrel arose between them. At last a wise man who knew all their languages came up and explained to them that they were all wishing for one and the same thing.
(2.XVII)
All Religions are Acceptable:
To each person have I allotted peculiar forms,
To each have I given particular usages.
What is praiseworthy in thee is blameable in him,
What is poison for thee is honey for him.
What is good in him is bad in thee,
What is fair in him is repulsive in thee.
I am exempt from all purity and impurity,
I need not the laziness or alacrity of my people.
I created not men to gain a profit from them,
But to shower my beneficence upon them.
In the men of Hind the usages of Hind are praiseworthy,
In the men of Sind those of Sind.
I am not purified by their praises,
‘Tis they who become pure and shining thereby.
I regard not the outside and the words,
I regard the inside and the state of heart.
I look at the heart if it be humble,
Though the words may be the reverse of humble.
Because the heart is substance, and words accidents,
Accidents are only a means, substance is the final cause.
How long wilt thou dwell on words and superficialities?
A burning heart is what I want; consort with burning!
Kindle in thy heart the flame of love,
And burn up utterly thoughts and fine expressions.
(2.VII)
Respect to Women:
The Prophet said that women hold dominion
Over sages and over men of heart,
But that fools, again, hold the upper hand over women,
Because fools are violent and exceedingly froward.
They have no tenderness or gentleness or amity,
Because the animal nature sways their temperament.
Love and tenderness are qualities of humanity,
Passion and lust are qualities of animality.
Woman is a ray of God, not a mere mistress,
The Creator’s self, as it were, not a mere creature!
(1.IX)
References are from: The Masnavi, by Rumi, tr. by E.H. Whinfield, [1898], available at https://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/masnavi/index.htm, accessed on 31-Oct-2020
The references given are Book number and Story number.