Who is Rumi?
Jalalaluddin Muhammad Rumi Balkhi, commonly known as Rumi, was a 13th Century mystic born in the Balkh province of Afghanistan. A lawyer by profession, Rumi was a mystic at heart. As a child, he traveled with his family from Balkh, migrating from country to country in turmoil due to the Mongol invasion.
Greatly influenced by Sufi philosophy, Rumi’s writing illustrates deep knowledge of the Islamic teachings and traditions. Rumi is attributed to founding the Mevlevi Order which is a group of whirling Sufi practitioners in Turkey.
Although Rumi belongs from Persia, his works appeal and allure to people from all over the world. Here are some of his famous quotes and sayings on Love, Life and Wisdom
Rumi Sayings about Love
“If your guidance is your ego, don’t rely on luck for help. you sleep during the day and the nights are short. By the time you wake up your life may be over.”
“Hangovers come with love, yet love’s the cure for hangovers.
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
“The way you make love is the way God will be with you.”
“Close both eyes…to see with the other eye.”
“Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy,
absentminded. Someone sober
will worry about things going badly.
Let the lover be.”
“Every object, every being, is a jar full of delight.”
“The agony of lovers
burns with the fire of passion.
Lovers leave traces of where they’ve been.
The wailing of broken heart is the doorway to God.”
“Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.”
“Friends are enemies sometimes, and enemies friends.”
“My friend, the sufi is the friend of the present moment. To say tomorrow is not our way.”
“I was a tiny bug. Now a mountain. I was left behind. Now honored at the head. You healed my wounded hunger and anger, and made me a poet who sings about joy.”
“Let the beauty we love be what we do.”
“Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absent-minded. Someone sober will worry about events going badly. Let the lover be.”
“Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.”
“Most people guard against going into the fire, and so end up in it.”
“Nightingales are put in cages because their songs give pleasure. Whoever heard of keeping a crow?”
“No longer a stranger, you listen all day to these crazy love-words. Like a bee you fill hundreds of homes with honey, though yours is a long flight from here.”
Rumi on Wisdom
“Only from the heart Can you touch the sky.”
“Patience is the key to joy.”
“That which is false troubles the heart, but truth brings joyous tranquility.”
“People of the world don’t look at themselves, and so they blame one another.”
“The intelligent want self-control; children want candy.”
“The middle path is the way to wisdom.”
“We rarely hear the inward music, but we’re all dancing to it nevertheless.”
“Thirst drove me down to the water where I drank the moon’s reflection.”
“No mirror ever became iron again; No bread ever became wheat; No ripened grape ever became sour fruit. Mature yourself and be secure from a change for the worse. Become the light.”
“To praise is to praise how one surrenders to the emptiness.”
“We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust.”
“The only lasting beauty is the beauty of the heart.”
“You think the shadow is the substance.”
“Since in order to speak, one must first listen, learn to speak by listening.”
Rumi’s quotes about Life
“Appear as you are,
Be as you appear.”
“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”
“I’ll meet you there.”
“I come to you, aching for you. You say, ‘You’re drunk. Go away.’ I say ‘No. I’m not drunk. Please open the door.’ You say, ‘You are, you are.. Go away’.”
“You already have the precious mixture that will make you well. Use it.”
“This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whomever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.”
“Conventional opinion is the ruin of our souls.”
“Whatever possessions and objects of its desires the lower self may obtain, it hangs on to them, refusing to let them go out of greed for more, or out of fear of poverty and need.”
“What was said to the rose that made it open was said to me here in my chest.”
“Load the ship and set out. No one knows for certain whether the vessel will sink or reach the harbor. Cautious people say, “I’ll do nothing until I can be sure”. Merchants know better. If you do nothing, you lose. Don’t be one of those merchants who wont risk the ocean.”
“In this world of trickery emptiness is what your heart wants.”
“In silence there is eloquence. Stop weaving and watch how the pattern improves.”
“You wander from room to room
Hunting for the diamond necklace
That is already around your neck!”
“Travelers, it is late.
Life’s sun is going to set.
During these brief days that you have strength,
be quick and spare no effort of your wings.”
“You suppose you are the trouble
But you are the cure
You suppose that you are the lock on the door
But you are the key that opens it
It’s too bad that you want to be someone else
You don’t see your own face, your own beauty
Yet, no face is more beautiful than yours.”
“When you come looking for sugar,
your bag will be examined
to see how much it can hold;
it will be filled accordingly.”
“Outside ideas of right doing and wrong doing there is a field.”
