Jalaluddin Rumi Quotes & Sayings

You've seen my descent, now watch my rising. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Look for the answer inside your question. — Jalaluddin Rumi

A Mystic And A Drunk

The Universe turns on an axis.
Let my soul circle around a table
like a beggar, like a planet
rolling in the vast, totally helpless and free.

The knight and the castle move jaggedly
about the chessboard, but they're actually
centered on the king. They circle.

If love is your center, a ring
gets put on your finger.

Something inside the moth
is made of fire.

A mystic touches the annihilating tip
of pure nothing.

A drunkard thinks peeing is absolution.
Lord, take these impurities from me.

The lord replies, First, understand
the nature of impurity. If your key is bent,
the lock will not open.

I fall silent.
King Shams has come.
Always when I close, he opens. — Jalaluddin Rumi

They fell to, on the ground. You've seen a baker
rolling dough. He kneads it gently at first,
then more roughly. He pounds it on the board.
It softly groans under his palms.

Now he spreads
it out and rolls it flat. Then he bunches it,
and rolls it all the way out again,

thin.
Now he adds water and mixes it well.

Now salt,
and a little more salt. Now he shapes itdelicately to its final shape and slides itinto the oven, which is already hot.
You remember breadmaking!

This is how your desire
tangles with a desired one.

And it's not justa metaphor for a man and a woman making love.
Warriors in battle do this too.

A great mutual embrace
is always happening between the eternal
and what dies, between essence and accident. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Death is our wedding with eternity. — Jalaluddin Rumi

When you find Love,
you will find yourself. — Jalaluddin Rumi

.....every form puts a limit on mystery — Jalaluddin Rumi

The seeker of truth is a mirror for their neighbors. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Love is a boundless ocean
in which
heavens are but foam. — Jalaluddin Rumi

I know you're tired but come, this is the way. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment. — Jalaluddin Rumi

AN EMPTY GARLIC

"You miss the garden,
because you want a small fig from a random tree.
You don't meet the beautiful woman. You're joking with an old crone.
It makes me want to cry how she detains you,
stinking mouthed, with a hundred talons,
putting her head over the roof edge to call down,
tasteless fig, fold over fold, empty
as dry-rotten garlic.

She has you tight by the belt,
even though there's no flower and no milk inside her body.

Death will open your eyes
to what her face is: leather spine
of a black lizard. No more advice.

Let yourself be silently drawn
by the stronger pull of what you really love. — Jalaluddin Rumi

I manage fine with no others around;
I cannot manage without you.
My heart bears your brand,
it won't wander away from you.
Reason's eye blurs with your wine
heaven's wheel spins under your thumb Pleasure's nose follows your lead,
I cannot manage without you. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Stay in the spiritual fire. Let it cook you. — Jalaluddin Rumi

I am at rest and remaining. — Jalaluddin Rumi

There is no spitting on the way we're on.
Rain itself turns to spit on those who mock and casually show disrespect to saints. — Jalaluddin Rumi

This moment is all there is. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Light Breeze

As regards feeling pain,
like a hand cut in battle,
consider the body a robe you wear.


When you meet someone you love,
do you kiss their clothes?
Search out who's inside.


Union with God is sweeter
than body comforts.

We have hands and feet
different from these.
Sometimes in dream we see them.
That is not illusion.
It's seeing truly.
You do have a spirit body;

don't dread leaving the physical one. Sometimes someone feels this truth so strongly that he or she can live in mountain solitude totally refreshed.


The worried, heroic doings of men and women seem weary and futile to dervishes enjoying the light breeze of spirit. — Jalaluddin Rumi

I Lost Everything,
I Have Found Myself. — Jalaluddin Rumi

I said: How can such an ocean be contained in a jar? He replied: "How can you even grasp the understanding of the how and the means of this? Who can come to realize the mastery of the work that has no like?!... Inside the limited, He lays the world of infinity. — Jalaluddin Rumi

The fearful ascetic runs on foot, along the surface.
Lovers move like lightning and wind.
No contest. — Jalaluddin Rumi

What becomes of the heart, when the heart's hand grasps the hand of a sweetheart?
What becomes of the dross copper, when it hears the welcoming voice of the philosopher's stone? — Jalaluddin Rumi

When I am with you, everything is prayer. — Jalaluddin Rumi

This poetry. I never know what I'm going to say. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Soul drunk, body ruined, these two sit helpless in a wrecked wagon. Neither knows how to fix it. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Songs are all but a branch of the yearning for union; branch and root are never comparable.

Close your lips, and open the window of the heart; by that way be conversant with the spirits. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Shams, my body is a candle touched with fire. — Jalaluddin Rumi

I hang here like Hallaj, feeling those lips
on me, the honor of being lifted up
on a crucifixion apple tree.

Now the kissing is over.
Fold your love in.
Hide it like pastry filling.

Whisper within with
a shy girl's tenderness — Jalaluddin Rumi

Beyond this world is another world for us. This world and its delights cater to the animal within us. These pleasures all fill our animal nature, while our real self slowly dies. They say, "The human being is a rational animal," yet we consist of two things. Lusts and desires feed our animality in this material world. But as for our true essence, its food is knowledge, wisdom, and the sight of God. The animality within us flees away from God, while our spiritual self flees away from this world. — Jalaluddin Rumi

The way of God's Messenger
is the way of Love.
We are the children of Love.
Love is our Mother. — Jalaluddin Rumi

After days of feasting, fast.
After days of sleeping, stay awake one night.
After these times of bitter storytelling, joking,
and serious considerations, we should give ourselves
two days between layers of baklava in the quiet seclusion
where soul sweetens and thrives more than with language.

I hear nothing in my ear but your voice.
Heart has plundered mind of its eloquence.

Love writes a transparent calligraphy, so on
the empty page my soul can read and recollect.

Which is worth more, a crowd of thousands,
or your own genuine solitude?
Freedom, or power over an entire nation?

A little while alone in your room
will prove more valuable than anything else
that could ever be given you.

Rumi, Two days of silence — Jalaluddin Rumi

In your light I learn how to love. — Jalaluddin Rumi

if your eyes are marred
with petty visions
wash them with tears
your teardrops are healers
as they begin to arrive — Jalaluddin Rumi

No matter how fast you run, your shadow more than keeps up. Sometimes, it's in front! — Jalaluddin Rumi

Without delay, from the middle of his (closed) fist every pebble began to pronounce the (Moslem's) profession of faith. Each said, "There is no god" and (each) said, "except Allah"; (each) threaded the pearl of "Ahmad is the Messenger of Allah. — Jalaluddin Rumi

A lover has four streams inside, of water, wine, honey, and milk. Find those in yourself, and pay no attention what so-and-so says about such-and-such. The rose does not care if someone calls it a thorn, or a jasmine. Ordinary eyes categorize human beings, That one is a Zoroastrian. This one, Muslim. Walk instead with the other vision given you, your first eyes. — Jalaluddin Rumi

If I love myself
I love you.
If I love you
I love myself. — Jalaluddin Rumi

A King Inside Who Listens

There are many people with their eyes open
whose hearts are shut. What do they see?
Matter.

But someone whose love is alert,
even if the eyes go to sleep,
he or she will be waking up thousands of others.

If you are not one of those light-filled lovers,
restrain your desire-body's intensity.
Put limits on how much you eat
and how long you lie down.

But if you are awake here in the chest,
sleep long and soundly.

Your spirit will be out roaming and working,
even on the seventh level.

Muhammad says, I close my eyes and rest in sleep,
but my love never needs rest.

The guard at the gate drowses.
The king stays awake.

You have a king inside who listens
for what delights the soul.

That king's wakefulness
cannot be described in a poem. — Jalaluddin Rumi

I could not have known
what love is if I had never

felt this longing. Anything
done to excess becomes

boring, except this overflow
that moves toward you. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Your fragrance is always with me. — Jalaluddin Rumi

In compassion and grace, be like the sun...
In concealing other's faults, be like the night...
In generosity and helping others, be like a river...
In anger and fury, be like dead...
In modesty and humility, be like the earth...
In tolerance, be like the sea...
Either appear as you are, or be as you appear.. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Those beautiful words we said to one another are hidden in the secret heart of heaven. One day, like the rain, they will pour our love story all over the world. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Free will exists so free will can be given up freely. Such a person feels

no genuine delight if he or she is not drained empty. With all the delicious food and drink

in the world, true pleasure comes only with the extinction of pleasure and its replacement by

soul delight.

Those who have gone through fana into baqa, through annihilation into

that which has always been, become all body and all consciousness. With dissolving

begins some overwhelming joy. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Ali and the woman whose baby crawled out on the roof


A woman comes to Ali. My baby has crawled out on the roof near

the water drain, where I cannot go. He won't listen to me. I talk, but he doesn't understand

language. I make gestures. I show him my breast, but he turns away. What can I do?

Take another baby his age up to the roof. The woman does, and the child sees his friend and

crawls away from the edge. The prophets are human for this reason, that we may see them

and delight in their friendly presence, and crawl away from the downspout. Muhammad calls himself

a man like you. Likeness is a great drawing force. Those of mean dispositions learn hatred

from each other, and they try to draw others in. Anyone whose haystack has burned

does not enjoy seeing someone else's candle lit. — Jalaluddin Rumi

I am yours.
Don't give myself back to me. — Jalaluddin Rumi

light of Spirit God sends it trials of suffering and pain so the gold of the Spirit may manifest. Surrender, — Jalaluddin Rumi

A certain dervish tells a dream in the night-talking.

"I saw the sheikhs who are connected to Khidr. I asked them where I might get some daily food

without being bothered about earning it, so I could continue my devotions uninterrupted.

'Come to the mountains and eat wild fruit. Our benedictions have made its

bitterness sweet. That way your days will be free. 'I did as they said, and from the fruit

came a gift of speech that made my words exciting and spiritually transporting, valuable

to many. "This is dangerous,' I thought. 'Lord of the world, give me another, more

hidden gift.' I escaped. The beautiful speech left, and a joy came that I have

never known. I burst open like a pomegranate. 'If heaven is nothing but this feeling,

I have no further wish. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Shine like the whole universe is yours. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Only Love can explain itself. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Turn back from the outer.
Set your eyes within. — Jalaluddin Rumi

The cure for pain is in the pain. — Jalaluddin Rumi

In The End

In the end, the mountains of imagination were nothing
but a house.
And this grand life of mine was nothing but an excuse.
You've been hearing my story so patiently for a lifetime
Now hear this: it was nothing but a fairy tale. — Jalaluddin Rumi

My wails of sorrow
are tormenting my soul — Jalaluddin Rumi

Protect yourself from your own thoughts. — Jalaluddin Rumi

In comfort and abundance the Friend raised me. With vein and skin He tailored this ragged body. It's just a robe worn by a Sufi, the heart. The whole universe is a khaneqah1 and He is my Shaikh. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Lose yourself,
lose yourself in this love.
When you lose yourself in this love, you will find everything — Jalaluddin Rumi

I could reach great heights with your love,and with longing for you
I will increase a hundredfold.
They ask, why are you circling him?
O ignorance, I am circling myself. — Jalaluddin Rumi

WHO MAKES THESE CHANGES? Who makes these changes? I shoot an arrow right. It lands left. I ride after a deer and find myself chased by a hog. I plot to get what I want and end up in prison. I dig pits to trap others and fall in. I should be suspicious of what I want. DROWNING — Jalaluddin Rumi

THE INTEREST WITHOUT THE CAPITAL

The lover's food is the love of the bread;
no bread need be at hand:
no one who is sincere in his love is a slave to existence.

Lovers have nothing to do with with with existence;
lovers have the interest without the capital.

Without wings they fly around the world;
without hands they carry the polo ball off the field.

That dervish who caught the scent of Reality
used to weave basket even though his hand had been cut off.

Lover have pitched their tents in nonexistence:
they are of one quality and one essence, as nonexistence is. — Jalaluddin Rumi

IGNORANCE

I didn't know love would make me this
crazy, with my eyes
like the river Ceyhun
carrying me in its rapids
out to sea,where every bit
of shattered boat
sinks to the bottom.

An alligator lifts its head and swallows
the ocean, then the ocean
floor becomes
a desert covering
the alligator in
sand drifts.

Changes do
happen. I do not know how,
or what remains of what
has disappeared
into the absolute.

I hear so many stories
and explanations, but I keep quiet,
because I don't know anything,
and because something I swallowed
in the ocean
has made me completely content
with ignorance. — Jalaluddin Rumi

I am ashamed
to call this love human
and afraid of God
to call it divine — Jalaluddin Rumi

Drink all your passion,
and be a disgrace. — Jalaluddin Rumi

you only knew what bliss I found in being nothing you would not advise me how to live. When — Jalaluddin Rumi

Let silence take you to the core of life. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Love

Are you fleeing from Love because of a single humiliation?
What do you know of Love except the name?
Love has a hundred forms of pride and disdain,
and is gained by a hundred means of persuasion.
Since Love is loyal, it purchases one who is loyal:
it has no interest in a disloyal companion.
The human being resembles a tree; its root is a covenant with God:
that root must be cherished with all one's might.
A weak covenant is a rotten root, without grace or fruit.
Though the boughs and leaves of the date palm are green,
greenness brings no benefit if the root is corrupt.
If a branch is without green leaves, yet has a good root,
a hundred leaves will put forth their hands in the end. — Jalaluddin Rumi

I Have Vanished In the early morning, A lover asked her beloved, "Do you love me more than yourself?" "More than myself? For sure I have no self any more - I am you already. The 'I' has gone; the 'you' has come about. Even my identity is gone. The answer is taken for granted. 'You and I' has no meaning. The 'I' has vanished like a drop into an ocean of honey. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Woman is the light of God. — Jalaluddin Rumi

It's rigged - everything, in your favor.
So there is nothing to worry about.

Is there some position you want,
some office, some acclaim, some award, some con, some lover,
maybe two, maybe three, maybe four - all at once,

maybe a relationship
with
God?

I know there is a gold mine in you, when you find it
the wonderment of the earth's gifts
you will lay aside
as naturally as does
a child a
doll.

But, dear, how sweet you look to me kissing the unreal:
comfort, fulfill yourself,
in any way possible - do that until
you ache, until you ache,

then come to me
again. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Very little grows on jagged rock. Be ground. Be crumbled, so wildflowers will come up where you are. — Jalaluddin Rumi

You have read in the text where They love him
blends with He loves them.
Those joining loves
are both qualities of God. Fear is not. — Jalaluddin Rumi

The middle path is the way to wisdom — Jalaluddin Rumi

Either give me more wine or leave me alone. — Jalaluddin Rumi

They followed the middle way of Muhammad, which included marriage, a socially useful livelihood, and a life "in the world but not of it. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Like the shadow
I am
and
I am not — Jalaluddin Rumi

Like a shadow,
I am and I am not. — Jalaluddin Rumi

It would be as if a king sent you to a village on a specific mission. If you went and performed a hundred other tasks, but neglected to accomplish the task for which you were sent, it would be as though you had done nothing. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Do not seek water, get thirst. — Jalaluddin Rumi

The beauty you see me is reflection of you.. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Wherever you stand, be the Soul of that place. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Discrimination is a quality that is always hidden in a person. Don't you see that an insane person possesses hands and feet but lacks discrimination? Discrimination is a subtle essence within you.
Yet, day and night you have been occupied with nurturing the physical form that does not know right from wrong. Why have you devoted all your energies to looking after the physical, entirely neglecting that subtle essence? The physical exists through that essence, but that essence in no way depends on the physical. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Love Dogs

One night a man was crying,
Allah! Allah!
His lips grew sweet with the praising,
until a cynic said,
"So! I have heard you
calling out, but have you ever
gotten any response?"

The man had no answer to that.
He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep.

He dreamed he saw Khidr, the guide of souls,
in a thick, green foliage.
"Why did you stop praising?"
"Because I've never heard anything back."
"This longing
you express is the return message."

The grief you cry out from
draws you toward union.

Your pure sadness
that wants help
is the secret cup.

Listen to the moan of a dog for its master.
That whining is the connection.

There are love dogs
no one knows the names of.

Give your life
to be one of them. — Jalaluddin Rumi

You are not a drop in a ocean,
You are entire ocean in a drop. — Jalaluddin Rumi

When ink joins with a pen, then the blank paper
can say something. Rushes and reeds must be woven
to be useful as a mat. If they weren't interlaced, the wind would blow them away. — Jalaluddin Rumi

I have no peace, in this world or any other. — Jalaluddin Rumi

DOVES People want you to be happy. Don't keep serving them your pain! If you could untie your wings and free your soul of jealousy, you and everyone around you would fly up like doves. WHEN — Jalaluddin Rumi

Where there is a ruin, there is hope for a treasure. — Jalaluddin Rumi

saw my sweetheart wandering about the house; he had taken a rebec and was playing a melody.
With a plectrum like fire he was playing a sweet melody, drunken and dissolute and charming from the Magian wine.
He was invoking the saqi in the air of Iraq2 ; the wine was his object, the saqi was his excuse.
The moonfaced saqi pitcher in his hand, entered from a corner and set it in the middle.
He filled the first cup with that flaming wine; did you ever see water sending out flames?
He set it on his hand for the sake of the lovers, then prostrated and kissed the threshold.
My sweetheart seized it from him and quaffed the wine; flames from that wine went running over his face.
He was beholding his own beauty, and saying to the evil eye, "Never has there been, nor shall there come in this age, another like me. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Be empty
and weep with the fullness of the reed flute.
Be empty
and discover the mysteries of the reed pen. — Jalaluddin Rumi

The moment you accept the troubles you have been given , the door will open — Jalaluddin Rumi

my worst held-back secrets: everything has to do with loving and not loving. This night will pass. Then we have work to do. — Jalaluddin Rumi

I came back to You because I could not find the kind and decent things I found in You anywhere else. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Don't toy with things that block your light. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Tear off the mask. Your face is glorious. — Jalaluddin Rumi

See that caravan of camels
loaded with sugar?--
His eyes contain that much sweetness.
But don't look into His eyes
unless you're ready to lose all sight of your own. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Whatever picture you paint
or poem you write
He is beyond that.
Whatever height you can reach,
He is higher than your 'highest'.

Get rid of your talking and your books -
it is far better
to let Him be your book. — Jalaluddin Rumi

In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art. — Jalaluddin Rumi

If love were only spiritual, the practices of fasting and prayer would not exist. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Of the book of God
Thou art a copying,
A mirror, wherein showed
The beauty of the King.
All God ever wrought
Dwelleth not apart;
All thou hast ever sought,
Find it in thy heart. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Understand the secret unseen ways of heart to heart contact like this:

When two lamps are being lit.

The lamps will remain separate

But their light will become intermixed — Jalaluddin Rumi