Discourses of Rumi

discourse 15Within people there is a longing and a desire suchthat, even if a hundred thousand worlds weretheirs to own, still they would find no rest or comfort.They try every trade and craft, studyingastronomy, medicine and every other subject, butthey reach no completion, for they have not foundtheir true desire. Poets call the Beloved “heart’sease,” because there the heart finds ease. How canwe find peace and rest in anything but theBeloved?All these pleasures and pursuits are like a ladder.The rungs of a ladder are not a place to makeone’s home; they are for passing by. Fortunate arethose who learn this. The long road becomesshort for them, and they do not waste their livesupon the steps.Someone asked: “The Mongols have seizedproperty by force, and from time to time they givethis property back to us. This is a strange situation.Is it lawful to accept this property? What isyour ruling?”