by Rumi and Gazali
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‘YOUR TASK IS NOT TO SEEK FOR LOVE…’
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.
(Rumi)
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‘O SEEKER OF DIVINE MYSTERIES…’
O seeker of the divine mysteries, know that the gate of knowledge of God will open to you, if you know your own soul, and understand the truth about your own spirit.
(Gazali)
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‘LOVERS DON’T MEET SOMEWHERE…’
The minute I heard my first love story,
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.
They’re in each other all along.
(Rumi)
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‘OTHER ANIMALS ALSO UNDERSTAND THESE THINGS…’
You know that if you are hungry, your stomach craves food, if you are cold, you desire clothing, but other animals also understand these things. However, knowledge of the soul which leads to the knowledge of God, is not of this kind.
(Gazali)
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‘DO NOT GRIEVE…’
Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes around in another form.
(Rumi)
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‘THE KNOWLEDGE YOU NEED IS…’
The knowledge you need is to know what you are; how you were created; where you came from; why you are here; where you are going; in what your happiness consists, and what you must do to secure it; in what your misery consists, and what you must do to avoid it.
(Gazali)
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‘STOP ACTING SO SMALL….’
Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.
(Rumi)
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‘YOUR TRUE HAPPINESS’
Your internal qualities are distributed into animal, ferocious, demoniacal and angelic qualities. You need to know what qualities predominate in your character, and in the predominance of which your true happiness consists.
(Gazali)
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‘MY SOUL IS FROM ELSEWHERE…’
“My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that, and I intend to end up there.”
(Rumi)
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‘IF YOU HAVE ANGELIC QUALITIES…’
If you have angelic qualities, whose nature it is to worship God in sincerity and continually to await the vision of His beauty, then like them you should without cease strive that you may become worthy of the vision of the Lord.
(Gazali)
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‘SELL YOUR CLEVERNESS…’
Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.”
(Rumi)
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‘WAIT FOR THE OPENING OF THE DOOR OF SPIRITUAL UNION…’
O student of mysteries! Man was created to stand at the door of service in frailty and weakness. Wait for the opening of the door of spiritual union, and for the vision of beauty, as God declares in his holy word: ‘I have not created the species of jinn and men except to venerate and worship me.’
(Gazali)
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‘IGNORE THOSE THAT MAKE YOU FEARFUL AND SAD…’
Ignore those that make you fearful and sad, that degrade you back towards disease and death.”
(Rumi)
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‘THE SPIRIT SEEKS THE KNOWLEDGE AND LOVE OF GOD…’
These qualities, whether animal, angelic or demoniacal have been bestowed upon man, that by their means the body might be adapted to be a vehicle for the spirit, and that the spirit, by means of the body which is its vehicle, while herein this temporary home of earth, might seek after the knowledge and love of God, as the huntsman would seek to make the phoenix and the griffin his prey.
(Gazali)
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‘IN YOUR LIGHT I LEARN HOW TO LOVE….’
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.”
(Rumi)
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‘THE SPIRIT WILL LEAVE THIS LAND FOR THE LAND OF SPIRITUAL FRIENDSHIP…’
When the spirit leaves this strange land for the region of spiritual friendship, it shall be worthy to partake of the mystery contained in the invitation, ‘enter in peace, O believers!’ and which is in the homage, ‘Peace is the word they shall hear from the merciful Lord.’
(Gazali)
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‘WHERE THERE IS RUIN…’
Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure.
(Rumi)
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‘THE HEART DOES NOT BELONG TO THIS WORLD…’
The heart, which is emphatically called spirit, does not belong to this world, and although it has come to this world, it has only come to leave it. It is the sovereign of the body, which is its vehicle, and all the external and internal organs of the body are its subjects. Its special attribute is to know God and to enjoy the vision of the beauty of the Lord God.
(Gazali)
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‘BE GRATEFUL FOR WHOEVER COMES…’
Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
(Rumi)
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‘THERE IS NO MORE PRECIOUS JEWEL…’
Beloved, strive to obtain this knowledge, for there is no more precious jewel. In its origin the spirit comes from God, and again returns to him. It has come hither but for a time for interaction and action.
(Gazali)
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‘WHEN THE SOUL LIES DOWN IN THAT GRASS…’
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.
(Rumi)
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‘SEEKING FOR THE BEAUTY OF THE DIVINITY…’
O seeker of the way, to obtain eternal happiness in the future abodes, the heart must enthrone itself like a sovereign in its capital, the body, must stand at the door of service and direct its prayers to the gate of eternal truth, seeking for the beauty of the divinity.
(Gazali)
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‘THE WOUND IS THE PLACE WHERE LIGHT ENTERS YOU…’
The wound is the place where the Light enters you.
(Rumi)
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‘MAN WAS NOT CREATED FOR THESE THINGS…’
O beloved! If man had been created only to eat and drink, it would follow that animals are of greater worth and excellence than man; for they can eat and drink more than man can, and they have useful services such as carrying burdens, tilling the ground, and giving meat, butter and milk for food. If also man had been created to fight, kill and dominate, it would follow that beasts of prey are nobler than him, for they are mightier in their ferocity and their power of subjugating other animals. There are, moreover, many animals of manifest utility, as the dog to watch and hunt, and the skins of some of them for clothing. It follows, therefore, that man was not created for these things, but rather to serve God and to grow in the knowledge of him.
(Gazali)
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‘KNOCK AND HE’LL OPEN THE DOOR…’
Knock, And He’ll open the door
Vanish, And He’ll make you shine like the sun
Fall, And He’ll raise you to the heavens
Become nothing, And He’ll turn you into everything.
(Rumi)
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‘MIND AND REASON WERE BESTOWED UPON MAN…’
Mind and reason were bestowed upon man, that when he looks upon the world and sees in every object illustrations of various forms of perfection, and much to excite his wonder, he might turn his attention from the work of the artist, to the artist himself; from the thing formed to him that formed it; that he might comprehend his own excessive frailty and weakness, and the perfection of the wisdom and power, of all the attributes of the eternal Creator, and that, without ceasing, he might humbly supplicate acceptance in his frailty and weakness on the one hand, and on the other might seek to draw near to the King of kings, and finally obtain rest in the home of the faithful, where the angels are in the presence of God.
(Gazali)
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