Discourses of Rumi

FIHI MA FIHI V 113that One will hear and grant their requests.Privately, secretly, people perform good deeds toward off weakness and restore their strength,trusting that Life will accept their gifts andefforts. When they are restored to health andpeace of mind, then suddenly their faith leaves,and the phantom of anxiety soon returns.“O God,” they cry again, “we were in such aterrible state when, with all sincerity, we calledupon you from our prison corner. For a hundredprayers you granted our requests. Now, freed ofthe prison, we are still as much in need. Bring usout of this world of darkness into that world ofthe prophets, the world of light. Why can freedomnot come without prisons and pain? A thousanddesires fill us, both good and deceitful, and theconflict of these phantoms brings a thousand torturesthat leave us weary. Where is that sure faiththat burns up all phantoms?”God answers, “The seeker of pleasure in you isyour enemy and My enemy.‘Do not take your enemyand My enemy for a friend.’When your pleasure-seeking self is imprisoned,filled with trouble and pain, then your freedom