Favourite Writings: Jalaluddin Al-Rumi

“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.” 

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”

“These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.”

“You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.”

“The moon stays bright when it doesn’t avoid the night.”

“What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle.”

“Don’t turn away. Keep your gaze on the bandaged place. That’s where the light enters you.”

“If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?”

“Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.”

“Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious.”

“Stop behaving small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.”

“Become the sky. Take an axe to the prison wall. Escape.”

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

“Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.”

“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”

“There is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled. There is a void in your soul, ready to be filled. You feel it, don’t you?”

“Only with the heart can you touch the sky.”

“This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First, to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without your feet.”

“You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?”

“Be like the sun for grace and mercy. Be like the night to cover others’ faults. Be like running water for generosity. Be like death for rage and anger. Be like the Earth for modesty. Appear as you are. Be as you appear.”

“Ignore those that make you fearful and sad, that degrade you back towards disease and death.”

“Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames”

“Be empty of worrying. Think of who created thought! Why do you stay in prison when the door is wide open?”

“Put your thoughts to sleep, do not let them cast a shadow over the moon of your heart. Let go of thinking.”

“This being human is a guest house. Every morning is a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor…Welcome and entertain them all. 

Treat each guest honorably. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.”

“In Silence there is eloquence. Stop weaving and see how the pattern improves.”

“Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation.”

“All day I think about it, then at night I say it. Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that, and I intend to end up there.”

“We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust.”

“I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens. I’ve been knocking from the inside.”

“You wander from room to room hunting for the diamond necklace that is already around your neck!”

“Why are you so enchanted by this world, when a mine of gold lies within you?”

“There is a fountain inside you. Don’t walk around with an empty bucket.”

“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.”

“That which is false troubles the heart, but truth brings joyous tranquility.”

“What you seek is seeking you.”

“Do you know what you are? You are a manuscript of a divine letter. You are a mirror reflecting a noble face. This universe is not outside you. Look inside yourself; everything that you want, you are already that.”

"Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion."

"Whatever lifts the corners of your mouth, trust that."

"Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself."

"Be like a tree and let the dead leaves drop."

"I have been a seeker and I still am, but I stopped asking the books and the stars. I started listening to the teaching of my Soul."

"In the blackest of your moments, wait with no fear."

"These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them."

"Close your eyes, fall in love, stay there."

Jalaluddin al-Rumi

See also, Jalaluddin Al-Rumi