Quotes from a Sufi Poet

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The following are some quotes of the famous Sufi poet, Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (q.s.).  Among his writings is the famed Matsnawi. 

“A person cannot live in ‘if.’” 

“Be concerned with what you truly value; let the thief steal something else.” 

“Conventional opinion hampers our souls.” 

“You already possess the powerful mixture that will make you well — use it.” 

“Appear as you are; be as you appear.” 

“Each person has been made for some specific work, and the longing for that work has been put into every heart.” 

“Ah!  Joyous is the soul that saw its own faults.” 

“The satiated man and the hungry man do not see the same thing when they look at a loaf of bread.” 

“People do not observe themselves, and thus they blame one another.” 

Your mission is not to look for love, but simply to search and locate the barriers within you that have formed against it.” 

“We waste our energy designing and carrying out plans to become what we already are.” 

“The act of trying to find the way home is what convinces us we are lost.  We are not lost; we are not alone; and we have never even left home.” 

“O tongue; you are an infinite fortune.  O tongue; you are also an infinite ailment.” 

“Treasures and armies do not make a king.  A true king is a king within himself.” 

“Become your own fortune, seek the bounty within yourself.” 

“All darkness is followed by sunshine.” 

“Outside of the concepts of misdeed and good deed, there is a field.  I will meet you there.” 

“If you — a wandering Sufi — are looking for the Supreme Treasure, do not look outside.  Look within, and seek that.” 

“Although we appear to be asleep, there exists a wakefulness in us that guides the dream, and that will also eventually frighten us back to the truth of who we are.” 

“Everything you observe has its roots in the unseen world.  The forms may change, but the essence stays the same.  Every awesome sight will disappear, and every sweet word will fade away; but do not be dejected — for their source is eternal, growing, branching out, and giving new life and new joy.  Why do you weep?  The source is in you, and this whole world is springing up from it.”