Sufi Circle 4 December 2007

Knowledge is conventional and acquired (not real), when its owner laments because the hearer is averse to hearing it.

Since it is learned as a bait for popularity, not for the sake of spiritual enlightenment, the seeker of religious knowledge is just as bad as the seeker of vile worldly knowledge;

For he is seeking knowledge on account of the vulgar and the noble, not in order that he may win release from this world.

Mathnawi Book 2 vv. 2429-2431

Dialectic knowledge, which is soulless, is in love with (eager for) the countenance of customers;

But though it is robust at the time of disputation, it is dead and gone when it has no customer.

My purchaser is God: He is drawing me aloft, for God hath purchased.

My bloodwit (the reward of my self-sacrifice) is the beauty of the Glorious One: I enjoy my bloodwit as lawful earnings.

Abandon these insolvent customers: what purchase can be made by a handful of worthless clay?

Mathnawi Book 2 vv. 2436-2440

Sufi Circle 20 November 2007

Many a wonder is made manifest in sleep: in sleep the heart becomes a window.

One that is awake and dreams fair dreams, he is the knower of God: smear your eyes with his dust.

Mathnawi Book 2 vv. 2235-6

Conventional knowledge is the bane of our souls: it is a borrowed thing, but we rest at ease in the belief that it is ours.

Mathnawi Book 2 vv. 2327

Sufi Circle 6 November 2007

God has said, "Whithersoever you go in your travels, you must first seek after a holy man".

Go in quest of a treasure, for wordly profit and loss come second: regard them as the branch, not as the root.

Whoever sows is in quest of wheat; the chaff comes to him indeed, but only secondarily.

If you sow chaff, no wheat will come up: seek a (realised) man, seek a man, a man!When it is the season of pilgrimage, go in quest of the Ka'ba; when you have gone with that purpose, Mecca also will be seen.In the Mir'aj (Ascension of the Prophet) the quest was for vision of the Beloved; 'twas but secondarily that the empyrean and the angels were also shown.

Mathnawi Book 2 vv. 2221-6

Sufi Circle 30 October 2007

The gist of the matter is this: be the friend of the whole community

of Sufis: like the idol-maker, carve a friend out of the stone,

Because the throng and multitude of a caravan will break the

backs and spears of the highwaymen.

Inasmuch as you have not the heart's two eyes, O contumacious man,

so that you cannot distinguish firewood from aloes-wood,

You may despair of finding the true friend of God; but since there

exists a treasure in the world, do not grieve: deem no ruined place

empty of treasure.

Betake yourself to every dervish at random, and when you find

the mark of the true saint, frequent him assiduously.

As the inward-seeing eye was not granted to you, think always

that the treasure may be in everybody.

Mathnawi Book 2 vv. 2150-5

Sufi Circle 3 April 2007

If you flee in hope of some relief, on that side also a calamity comes to meet you.

No corner is without wild beasts; there is no rest but in the place where you are alone with God.

Mathnawi Book 2 v. 590-1

Whoever makes you cold (damps your spiritual ardour) know that he (Satan) is in him: the Devil has become hidden beneath his skin.

When he finds no (bodily) form, he comes into (your) fancy, in order that that fancy may lead you into woe:

Now the fancy of recreation, now of shop; now the fancy of knowledge, and now of house and home.

Beware! say at once “God help me!”* again and again, not with tongue alone but from your very soul.

Mathnawi Book 2 v. 639-642 

* Say many times over “La hawla wa la quwwata illa billahil aliyyil azeem” There is no power or force but in God, the Most High, the Most Great.

Sufi Circle 27 March 2007

Seek not you from your Jesus the life of the body, ask not from your Moses the wish of a Pharaoh.

Burden not your heart with thoughts of livelihood; livelihood will not fail: be constant in attendance at the Divine Court.

This body is a tent for the spirit, or like an ark for Noah.

When the Turcoman is there, he will find a tent, especially when he is one held in honour at the Court of God.

Mathnawi Book 2 v. 453-6 

The professional mourner utters burning words of grief, but where is the glow of heart (heartfelt sorrow) and the rent skirt?

Between the true knower and the blind imitator there are great differences, for the former is like David, while the other is but an echo.

The source of the former’s words is a glow of feeling, whereas the imitator is one who learns old things by rote.

Beware! be not duped by those sorrowful words: the ox bears the load, but it is the cart that moans (creaks).

Mathnawi Book 2 v. 492-5

Sufi Circle 20 March 2007

He in whose face the Beloved smiles sweetly, what harm can befall him from the sour looks of other people?

He on whose eye the Beloved bestows a kiss, how should he grieve at Heaven and its anger?

On a moonlight night what cares the moon in the mansion of Simak for dogs and their barking?

The dog is performing his task; the moon is smoothly fulfilling her task by means of her bright countenance.

Every one is executing his little business: water does not lose purity because of a bit of weed.

The weeds float contemptibly on the surface of the water: the pure water flows on undisturbed.

Mathnawi Book 2 v. 414-419

Sufi Circle 6 March 2007

O brother, you are the same as that thought of yours; as for the rest of you, you are only skin and bone.

If your thought is a rose, you are a rose-garden; if it is a thorn, you are fuel for the bath-stove.

If you are rose-water, you are sprinkled on head and breast; and if you are stinking like urine, you are cast out.

Mathnawi Book 2 v. 277-9 

How should a man who inherits know the value of wealth?

A Rustam suffered agonies in acquiring it, whereas Zal got it cost-free.

“When I cause anyone to weep, My mercy is aroused: that wailer drinks of My bounty.

If I do not wish to give, then indeed I do not show him the desired gift, but when I have contracted his heart with grief, I expand it with joy.

My mercy is dependent on that goodly weeping: when he weeps, waves rise from the Sea of My mercy.”

Mathnawi Book 2 v. 331-4

Sufi Circle 27 February 2007

Do not make your home in other men’s land: do your own work, don’t do the work of a stranger.

Who is the stranger? Your earthen body, for the sake of which is all your sorrow.

So long as you are giving your body rich and sweet food, you will not see fatness in your spiritual essence.

If the body be set in the midst of musk, yet on the day of death its stench will become manifest.

Do not put musk on your body, rub it on your heart. What is musk? The holy name of the Glorious (God).

The hypocrite puts musk on his body and puts his spirit at the bottom of the ash-pit.

On his tongue the name of God, and in his soul stenches arising from his unbelieving thought.

In relation to him praise of God is like the herbage of the ash-pit: it is roses and lilies growing upon a dunghill.

Mathnawi Book 2 v. 263-270

Sufi Circle 20 February 2007

Many are the prayers which are loss and destruction, and from kindness the Holy God is not hearing them.

Mathnawi Book 2 v. 140 

O my comrade on the way, dismiss thy weariness for a moment, that I may describe a single mole (grain) of that Beauty.

The beauty of His state cannot be set forth: what are both the worlds (temporal and spiritual)? The reflection of His mole.

When I breathe a word concerning His beauteous mole, my speech would fain burst my body.

Like an ant, I am so happy in this granary that I am dragging a burden too great for me. 

Mathnawi Book 2 vv. 190-3

Sufi Circle 13 February 2007

If you are blind, 'tis no crime in the blind; but if not, go persevere in purifying yourself, for patience is the key to success.

The medicine of patience will burn the veils over your eye and will also effect the opening of your breast (to Divine knowledge).

When the mirror of your heart becomes clear and pure, you will behold images which are outside the world of water and earth.

You will behold both the image and the image-Maker, both the carpet of (spiritual) empire and the carpet-Spreader.

Mathnawi Book 2 vv.70-3 

So long as a single hair of you is before your eye, in your fantasy (illusion) a pearl will be as jasper.

You will know jasper from pearls only at the time when you paas away from (abandon) your fantasy entirely.

Mathnawi Book 2 vv.109-110

Sufi Circle 6 February 2007

Therefore God Most High makes a small portion of that infinite Wisdom to be as a toggle in his servant's nose and leads him towards a particular act; for if He gave him no information about the benefits (of that act), he will not move to act at all, inasmuch as the motive of human actions arises from advantages to ourselves or others, for the sake of which we act accordingly; while on the other hand if He should pour down on him the whole wisdom of that act, he will also be unable to move; just as a camel will not go forward unless there be a toggle in his nose, and if the toggle be too big he will likewise lie down and refuse to go on. 'And there is nothing but We have the storehouses thereof, and We do not send it down but in a certain measure.' 

Mathnawi Book 2, from the Introduction

When because of loneliness you fall into despair, you become bright as a sun if you go under the shadow (protection) of the friend.

Go, seek at once the friend of God: when you have done so, God is your friend.

Mathnawi Book 2 vv. 22-3 

Sufic Circle 2006

What is agony of spirit? To advance towards death and not grasp the Water of Life.

People fix both their eyes on earth and death: they have a hundred doubts concerning the Water of Life.

Strive that the hundred doubts may decrease: go towards God in the night of this world, for if you sleep, your night will end.

In the dark night seek that shining Day: follow the Spiritual path that consumes the night.

Hazreti Mevlana: Mathnawi Book 1 vv 3686-90

What is the remedy for the fire of desire? The light of the Faith: your light (of Islam) is the means of extinguishing the fire of the unbelievers.

What kills this fire? The Light of God. Make the light of Abraham your teacher,

That this body of yours, which resembles fire-wood, may be delivered from the fire of the Nimrod-like nafs.

Fiery lust is not lessened by indulging it: it is lessened, inevitably, by leaving it ungratified.

Hazreti Mevlana: Mathnawi Book 1 vv 3700-3

Therefore half an atom of regard to one’s duty in absence is better than a hundred-thousandfold observance thereof in presence.

Obedience to God and faith are praiseworthy now; after death, when all is plainly shown, they will be spurned.

Hazreti Mevlana: Mathnawi Book 1 vv 3639-40

If the throne of the heart has become restored to soundness and purged of sensuality, thereon the Merciful God is seated on His Throne.

After this, God controls the heart without intermediary, since the heart has attained to this relation with Him.

Hazreti Mevlana: Mathnawi Book 1 vv 3665-6

Choose a Pir (Spiritual Guide), for without a Pir this journey

is exceedingly full of woe and affright and danger.

Without an escort you are bewildered even on a road you

have travelled many times before:

Do not, then, travel alone on a Way that you have not seen at all,

do not turn your head away from the Guide.

Hazreti Mevlana: Mathnawi Book 1 vv 2942-5

When the Pir has accepted you, take heed, surrender yourself

(to him): go, like Moses, under the authority of Khidr.

Bear patiently whatever is done by a Khidr who is without

hypocrisy, in order that Khidr may not say, “Begone, this is our parting”.

Hazreti Mevlana: Mathnawi Book 1 vv 2969-70

When you have chosen your Pir, be not faint-hearted, be not

weak as water and crumbly as earth.

If you are enraged by every blow, then how will you become

a clear mirror without being polished?

Hazreti Mevlana: Mathnawi Book 1 vv 2979-80

Do not burn a blanket on account of a flea, and do not let

the day go to waste on account of every gnat's headache.

You are an idol-worshiper when you remain in bondage

to forms: leave the form and look at the reality.

Hazreti Mevlana: Mathnawi Book 1 vv 2892-3

This story has been told confusedly, like the doings

of lovers, without foot or head.

It has no head because it existed before eternity; it has

no foot: it has always been akin to everlastingness.

Nay, it is like water: every drop thereof is both beginning

and end, and at the same time without both.

This is not a story, mark you! God forbid! This is the ready

money (here and now) of my state and yours.  Consider it well,

Because the Sufi is grand and glorious (in his spiritual vision):

whatever is past does not enter his mind.

Hazreti Mevlana: Mathnawi Book 1 vv 2897-2901

Rumi says: “After us (when we pass away) the Mesnevi takes on shaykhdom, guides the seekers of Truth, leads them to high levels and to the attainment of their Ultimate Goal.”

Quoted by Sheikh Shefik Can from Sipehsalar

The authentic human, then, is one who is never free from striving, who turns restlessly and endlessly about the light of the Majesty of God.

Hazreti Mevlana

As the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) has said:

“Good fortune is a wild beast, so tie it up with gratitude”.

Quoted by Hadrat Sheikh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani

Great patience is necessary for those who suffer; but no-one is patient. When the quest is diverted from the inner to the outer, even if it should extend over the whole universe, in the end it will be unsatisfying. He who is not engaged in the quest of the inner life is no more than an animal - what shall I say? He does not even exist, he is a non-entity, a form without a soul.

Hadrat Fariduddin Attar

The Prophet s.a.w.s. said to Ibn Abbas, “Be mindful of God, and God will protect you. Be mindful of God, and you will find him in front of you. If you ask, ask of God. If you seek help, seek help from God. Know that if the whole nation were to gather together to benefit you with anything, it would benefit you only with something that God had already prescribed for you. And if the whole nation were to gather together to harm you, it would harm you only with something that God had already prescribed for you. The pens have been lifted and the ink has dried.”

Hadith Quoted by Hamza Yusuf in “Purification of the Heart”

Do not sell vinegar (be sour), and you will see thousands of

souls plunged, through contentment, in an ocean of honey.

Hazreti Mevlana: Mathnawi Book 1 vv 2375

The Prophet said that woman prevails over the wise

and intelligent,

While, on the other hand, ignorant men prevail over woman,

for in them the fierceness of the animal is imprisoned.

They lack tenderness, kindness, and affection, because

animality predominates over their human nature.

Love and tenderness are human qualities, anger and lust

are animal qualities.

Woman is a ray of God, she is not that earthly beloved:

she is creative, you might say she is not created.

Hazreti Mevlana: Mathnawi Book 1 vv 2433-7

All these griefs that are within our breasts arise from the

vapour and dust of our existence and wind (vain desire).

Hazreti Mevlana: Mathnawi Book 1 vv 2296

Do not look on (spiritual) poverty with contempt,

Because dervishes are beyond property and wealth: they

possess an abundant portion from the Almighty.

Hazreti Mevlana: Mathnawi Book 1 vv 2352-3

God forbid! I desire nothing from created beings: through contentment there is a whole world within my heart.

Hazreti Mevlana: Mathnawi Book 1 vv 2362

It beseems the generous man thus to give money, but verily

the generosity of the lover is the surrender of his life.

If you give bread for God’s sake, you will be given bread in

return; if you give your life for God’s sake, you will be given life.

Hazreti Mevlana: Mathnawi Book 1 vv 2235-6

When anyone sows, his barn becomes empty of seed, but

there is goodliness in his cornfield;

And, if he leaves the seed in the barn and saves it up,

weevils and mice and calamities devour it.

This world is negation of reality: seek reality in

affirmation of God. Your body is void of reality: seek

in your essence.

Bring the briny bitter animal soul to the sword: buy the

heavenly soul that is like a great sweet river.

Hazreti Mevlana: Mathnawi Book 1 vv 2239-2242

‘Mustafa said, ‘Happy is he that has seen my face.’ When a lamp has derived its light from a fire, everyone that sees the lamp certainly sees the fire. If transmission of the light occurs in this way till a hundred lamps are lit, the sight of the last lamp becomes a meeting with the original light.’

Hazreti Mevlana: Mathnawi Book 1 vv 1946-50

'There is a polish for everything that takes away rust; and the polish of the heart is dhikr, the invocation of God.'

The Holy Prophet Muhammad

'Keep track of your hours, because they are going, never to return. Pity the one who is heedless. Connect your daily practices of dhikr one to another like links in a chain.'

Hadrat Sheikh Jamaluddin al-Ghumuqi al-Husayni

'Didn't the Prophet say that praying and prostrating to God

Are knocking at God's door with the door knocker of being?

Go on and on knocking with this knocker, my friend;

Joy will unveil itself to you and fling open the door.'

Hazreti Mevlana

'One day Israfil will make a shrill sound and will give life

to him that has been rotten for a hundred years.

The prophets also have spiritual notes within, whence there

comes life beyond price to them that seek God.

The sensual ear does not hear those notes, for the sensual ear is

defiled by iniquities.'

Hazreti Mevlana: Mathnawi Book 1 vv 1918-20