I have nothing to do with the common people of this world --- I haven't come for them. I've put my finger on the pulse of those who guide the world to the Real.

                            

   The goal of the existence in this world is for two friends to meet and look upon each other for the sake of God, far from caprice. The goal is not bread, not the baker, nor the butcher-shop and the butcher. It's just like this hour, when I'm at ease in the service of Mawlana (Rumi).

                            

   The forms are diverse, but the meanings are one. I remember Mawlana sixteen years ago. He was saying that the creatures are like numerous grapes. They have number in respect of form. If you squeeze them in a pot, will any number be left? If anyone can put these words into practice, his work will be complete.

                            

   I speak beautifully, I speak happily. On the inside I'm bright and luminous. I was water bubbling in itself, twisting in itself and beginning to stink. Then Mawlana's existence struck against me, and the water began to flow. Now it goes forth happily, fresh and splendid.

                             

   Joining with you is extremely exalted --- too bad life does not suffice. I should have a world full of gold to give away for the sake of joining with you.

   I have a living God --- what would i do with a dead God? Meaning is God --- this is the same meaning that i said.

   God's covenant does not become corrupted --- unless someone becomes corrupted or is corrupt.

                             

   It's the sun that brightens the whole world. It sees the brightness --- "It's falling down from my mouth. Light's coming out of my talk. It's shining underneath black words."

   The sun has turned its back to them and turned its face to heaven, but the earth's brightness comes from it.

   The sun's face is turned towards Mawlana, because Mawlana's face is turned towards the sun.

                                                  

   With that great, everlasting, neverending Pearl, I warmed up and became impetuous. I became hot. The Pearl responded with clemency and softness: "I'll do whatever you like."

   When i was able to do so, i said, "I must have that well known pearl. I want You to accept it and not throw it away."

   It became hot and impestuous, I responded with clemency and softness.

   If It receives my softness, It will bring forth clemency. Then i will bring forth clemency for Its softness. I said, "All right, I've given up. I don't want anything. The judgment is Yours."

   And It began: "What do you really want?"

   I said, "You know."

   It said, "No you say it."

   I said, "Right there --- that's the reason. If You make peace, I'll make peace."

   It said, "No, be exact, say what it is."

   I said, "I mean, action is stronger than words. I spoke, and You forbade it."

   It said, " For Me, your words are than your action. Say it."

   I said, "No, it's what You know. Until it's done, there's no use. It's given over to You. It's Yours."

                                                 

   I used to plead with the Real Presence: "Allow me to mix with and become the companion of Your saints." In a dream it was said to me, "I will make you the companion of one saint."

   I said to myself, "Where is that saint?"

   The next thing it was said to me, "He's in Anatolia." When I finally saw him after a long time, it was said to me, "It's still not time." Affairs are in pawn to their times.

                                                 

   There are people who observe rhyming prose and end their sentences with rhymes. There are people who speak poetry. There are people who speak only prose. Each of them is a part. The Speech of God is the whole. Grab on to the whole, so that all the parts may be yours, in addition to everything else. Don't grab on to the part, lest you lose the whole.

   A tree appears in someone's house and grows up. He must embrace the whole of the tree if all the branches are to be his along with the trunk. However, if you grab on to one branch and be held back from it, and that you will also be held back from yourself.

                                                  

   Should I be hypocritical, or talk without hypocrisy?

   Mawlana is moonlight. Eyes do not reach the sunlight of my existence, but they do reach the moon. Because of the extreme radiance and brightness of the sun, eyes do not have the capacity for it. Even that moon will not reach the sun, unless perhaps the sun reaches the moon. The eyes do not perceive Him, but He perceives the eyes.

                                                  

   If you accept these words --- just as, on that day, you felt sympathy -- much good fortune will come to you. This is because when you show reverence, and when you listen by way of need, the gathering will go well. The dervish will think that it was a good gathering. Whenever he remembers the gathering, his heart will incline and won't flee. The inclination of the heart will give him ease.

   Your goal in asking and talking is to be accepted by their hearts --- it is for you to become sweet in their hearts. When the work turns out the other way and it results in your disturbing their hearts, the suffering will come back to you. The heart won't allow it.

                                                  

   The Muhamemmedan is broken in heart. The early ones were broken in body, and after that they would arrive at the heart.

   There are people who recite the Footstool Verse* over the ill, and there are people who are the Footstool Verse.*

   when I'm inviting people, there are both severity and gentleness, but when I'm alone, it's all gentleness.

   I don't want to explain it to you. I'll just speak in symbols, that's enough. It would in fact be discourtesy to offer explanations to you --- but you've given me this audacity.

   The springhead is one, but it branched off into two branches. Sometimes all the water is in one branch, sometimes in the other.

   Sometimes this branch empties that branch, pulling all the water into itself, and sometimes that one empties this. Anyone who passes beyond the two branches will reach the headwater. He will plunge in and be immersed, free of branches.

   It's the same with trees. If you grab a branch, it will break and you will fall down. If you grab the tree, all the branches will belong to you.

   In the Beloved's lane there's a kind of hashish. People eat it and lose their intellects. Then they can't find the Beloved's house and they fail to reach the Beloved.

                                                   

   Iblis (Satan) has spent a great deal of effort and wrestled a lot with you. After this it looks like he will have difficulty whispering his doubt's into you. He'll have to undergo a lot of sufferring and striving if he's going to throw you trouble.

 

                                                         ------

   *Footstool Verse I.e. Koran 2:255: " God, there is no god but He, the Living, the Ever-Standing.... His Footstool encompasses the heavens and the earth."

   There are people who are the Footstool Verse. Presumably Shams means there are saints who embody the Koran through their very existence. Something similar is often understood from the Koranic verse, "They are degrees with God."(3:163)

   It's the same with trees. Compare 2.216