Discourses of Rumi

104 V DISCOURSES OF RUMIever comes into me. If God wills, It makes thesefew words profitable so they will grow withinyour heart, bringing great rewards. If God willsnot, if even a hundred thousand words are spoken,they will not lodge in the heart but will passby and be forgotten. If a spark of fire lands upona burnt rag and God wills, that one spark willtake and engulf the rag. If God wills not, a hundredsparks will fall on that tinder and leave nomark.These words are God’s army. By God’s authoritythey open and seize fortresses. If God commandsthousands of horsemen to go and showtheir faces at such and such a fortress but not tocapture it, so it will be. If It commands a singlehorseman to seize that fortress, that same singlehorseman will open the fortress gates and captureit.God sent a gnat against Nimrod and itdestroyed him. “Equal in the eyes of the Gnosticare a penny and a dollar, a lion and a cat.” If Godbestows Its blessing, one penny does the work ofa thousand dollars and more. If God withholds Itsblessing from a thousand dollars, they cannot dothe work of one penny. So too, if God commis-