My Critics

                                                 154.

   He says, "The son of so-and-so has become a follower of a man from Tabriz! Does the earth of Khorason follow the earth of Tabriz? "

   He claims to be a Sufi and pure. He doesn't have the intelligence to see that earth is of no account. If a man from Instanbul should have that, then it would be incumbent on the Meccan to follow him.

   Love of the homeland is part of faith. How could the Prophet have meant Mecca? Mecca belongs to this world, but faith is not of the world. That which is part of faith is not a part of the world, it comes from that world.

   Islam began as a stranger. Since it is a stranger and comes from another world, , how could he mean Mecca? When they say, " Probably he meant Mecca" ---probably he meant something else, and he certainly meant something else. That "homeland" is the presence of God, which is bel.oved and sought by the believer. (736-37)

                                                  155.

   It was his own asininity that made him say that people from Tabriz are jackasses. What has he seen? When he hasn't seen anything and knows nothing, why does he speak these words? There were people of whom I am the least. They threw my ocean out just like flotsam that falls to the shore of the sea. I'm like this --- what were they like! (641)

                                                  156.

   Crowing belongs to the rooster, and morning to God. I mean, this is exactly what He said to Moses when he asked, " O Lord, what use is that? Pharaoh will not accept."

   He said, " Do not put down what is yours. Tell him!"

   God has servants whose speech they themselves hear and understand. (215)

                                                  157.

    They said, "Mawlana is detached from this world, but Mawlana Shams ad-Din is not detached from the world."

   Mawlana said that this is because you do not love Mawlana Shams ad-Din Tabrizi. If you loved him, he would not appear to you as wanting anything, nor would he appear as disliked.

   Your love for a thing makes you blind and deaf, that is, toward the defects of the loved thing. When someone begins to see defects, you know that love for it has decreased. Don't you see how a mother loves her child? If he dirties himself, with all her gentleness and beauty she does not hold herself back. She says, "Good for you!"

   These words are susceptible to weakness. Mawlana Shams ad-Din Tabrizi says that Mawlana has given his answer. Now, listen to me: Someone binds up a lame donkey, feeds it fodder night and day, and the donkey defecates on him. This is one thing. Another is that someone is sitting on an Arabian Stallion, and that stallion brings him out from a hundred thousand dangers and blights and highwaymen and delivers him. Even though he has confirmation from the other side, the Real has thereby proven the mount for him.

   I want nothing at all----only the need of the needy. Alms are only for the poor.[9:60]. Only need ---- not just its form, but its form along with meaning.

   For one thing, need is that you not become sour-faced and contracted before the shaykh. O master sourpuss! Do you want to rebuke me? Are you fighting with me?

   He said, "No."

   Now, a person is sour with someone who has caused him trouble, and with others he's laughing and happy. He sees this one, he turns sour; he sees that one, he smiles. If none of that torment remains for him, he becomes totally happy. If he is still troubled, that is a war that he has with himself. He looks at himself and becomes sour. He looks toward his friend, and he smiles.

   Knowing this is perfection. And not knowing this is the perfection of perfection.

   I want to call someone for the sake of his meaning, and I want his meaning for the sake of the call. (100-1)

                                                      158.

   When I'm joyful, if the whole world were to be full of grief, it would have no effect on me. And when I feel grief, I don't allow anyone else's grief to influence me. (303)

                                                      159.

   O ass, O ass! O dog, Odog! O corpse! you can't give any news of my outwardness. How can you give news of my inwardness? O ass, O ass! No, no --- whatever belief makes you warm, keep it. And whatever belief makes you cold, stay away from it.

   The Man is the one who is happy in unhappiness and joyful in grief. He knows that the object of his desire is wrapped up in being deprived of his desire. In deprivation is the hope of having it, and  in having it is the worry that deprivation will arrive.

   On the day that was the turn of my fever, I was joyful that health would arrive the next day. And on the day that was the turn of health, I was grieving that fever would come tomorrow.

   When you say, "If I had not eaten that yesterday, I would not have this suffering today," you put yourself into it. The Man is he who puts all into himself. That's his perfection. Then he becomes great. (640-1)

                                                       160.

   At first, God's Messenger firmly avoided people because of his extreme intimacy with God. He shied away from good and bad, lest acceptance by the people should become a veil for an instant or an hour. At the end, when he reached perfection, he had passed beyond being affected by the acceptance of the eighteen thousand worlds, or anyone's rejection. He used to say, "Sell me to the people" : "O companions, sell me to the people, for I myself won't come to sell, and how can I suffer loss?"

   Since Muhammad said this, look how God says "Sell Me" a hundred times: Make Me beloved in the hearts of my servants. Remind them of My bounties and My blessings, for hearts are disposed to love those who act well toward them and hate those who act badly. The Soul that commands to evil says, "He's selling himself to you."

   This is why many of the great ones became weak because of me: "He's bound himself to silver." I have not bound myself to money [pul], I have bound myself to making the donkey pass over the bridge [pul]. They are the great ones, the shaykhs. What can I do for them? I want you because you're like this. I want someone needy, I want someone hungry, I want someone thirsty! Out of its own gentleness and generosity, sparkling water seeks a thirsty man. *

   The Soul has the nature of a woman. Or rather, woman herself has the nature of the Soul. Consult with them, then oppose them. O Messenger of God, you commanded that we consult, especially in a business whose profit and loss is general. Now, if we do not find a man with whom to consult and there are women, what should we do? He says, "Consult with them, but whatever they say, do the opposite." (287)

                                                      161.

   A woman will never be a shaykh.

   He said, "Yes, that would be cold."

   He said, "I don't understand. Does "cold" mean that she could do the work, but it would be better for a man to do it? Or that she couldn't do it at all, whether hot or cold? If Fatima or A'isha had acted as shaykhs, I would have lost my belief in the Messenger. But they didn't. If God opens the door for a woman, she'll remain silent and concealed as she was. A woman should stay with her work and her spindle." (755-6)

                                                       162.

   It's best that a woman sit behind the spindle in the corner of the house, busy in the service of the one who takes care of her. (668)

                                                       163.

   In the same way, someone asked my friend about me: "Is he a jurist or a fakir?"

   He said, "Both jurist and fakir."

   He said, "Then how come he only talks about jurisprudence?"

   He answered, "Because his poverty is not of the superficial kind that he could properly speak about it with this group. It would be a pity to speak of it with these people. He brings out words by way of knowledge, and he speaks the secrets by way of knowledge and in the curtain of knowledge, so that his own words may not be spoken."

   As for "worldly," Mawlana knows that in this city there is an important man who wishes to see me. Even today, if I were to command him, before this evening as much gold would reach me from him as belongs to the richest of you seated in this assembly. I don't crave knowledge, I don't crave gnosis, I don't crave the worldly. Whatever I make obligatory for you is in your own best interest. If someone speaks the words of the dervishes to you, listen while believing. Don't listen any other way. When you have listened, do not become deniers. And if you do become deniers, this silly formality of asking for forgiveness will be worthless. They defile themselves a thousand times, and then they put forth their stomachs: "Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves [7:23]--- we have purified our breast." No, that wants a protector and a helper. (326-27)

                                                       164.

   I don't want anything from anyone for worldly reasons, only because of following --- the Prophet used to accept gifts.

   If you have a hundred thousand dirhems and dinars --- a citadel full of gold --- and you bestow it on me, and if I look on your forehead and don't see there a light and in your breast a need, that gold would be the same for me as a hill of dung.

   For me Mawlana would be enough --- if I had any wants. Remember this, for you are reading your own pages. Read also something of the companion's page. That will be useful for you. All this suffering is because you're reading your own page and not reading anything of the companion's page. Imagination rises from knowledge and gnosis, but after that imagination there's another knowledge and gnosis, and that knowledge and gnosis has another imagination. This becomes long.

   There's another, shorter road, which has none of that, but that road also has been given a bad name. It should have another name. It has put down a good rule: One day you burn, one day you don't. That is the good rule for him that has never wanted worldly things. His mind has never inclined towards the worldly and he's paid no attention. But now, because of me, he's had a hundred regrets --- "Would that I were thousands so I could sacrifice myself! Alas!"

   In the same way, if someone were to fill the storehouses and rooms with millet, and one grain of millet fell out, why wouldn't his heart let it go?

   It's been said a hundred times, "Alas, if only the Amir were alive, if only he still had life, so he might bestow something great, like a village!" For he would have wished that I request something from him. (731-2)

                                                         165.

   All of you are sinners. You said that Mawlana is detached from this world, but Mawlana Shams sd-Din Tabrizi is busy gathering things. Bravo this taking to task! And bravo this deprivation! 

   If this person doesn't absolve you, then I'll ask from God, " Did he say it or not?"

   He'll say, "Do you absolve him, or should I take care of him?"

   I'll say, " What do ant? My want is included in Yours."

   He'll say, "From My side, it's a hundred times more so!"

   In short, the discussion will be long. If there is pardon this time, and if it happens again, they will never benefit from it again, and at the resurrection they won't see me, especially in paradise. Were it not for those few dirhems, I would leave this place naked and barefoot. Then what would your state be? There would never be any hope for my return. (79-80)

                                                          166.

   One dirhem in the hand of a truthful and sincere man is better than a hundred dirhems that you give to them, for that one dirhem will do good. Lend to God [73:20]. It is concerning these that he said that He has a hand: "Alms fall into the hand of the All-Merciful before falling into the hand of the poor man."

   And one dirhem in the hand of him whose face is turned in service toward that man is better in the same way, because he also will spend it in this good. Good is the servant of God, good is God , and God is good. (200)

                                                          167.

   When someone calls me bad names, that makes me happy, but I am troubled when someone praises me. Praise should be such that afterwards no denial comes. Otherwise, that praise is hypocrisy. Someone who is a hypocrite is worse than an unbeliever --- Surely the hypocrite will be in the lowest reach of the Fire. [4:145]. (319)

 

 

From the book, Me and Rumi ©2004 William C. Chittick