Discourses of Rumi

Rumi continues, “This whole world is but ahouse, no more. Whether we go from this room tothat room, or from this corner to that corner, stillare we not in the same house? But the saints whopossess God’s jewel have left this house, they havegone beyond. Mohammed said, ‘Islam began astranger and will return a stranger as it began.’In this way, Rumi’s words come right throughtime and ask us today, “Can you accept that atrue Lover of God could carry God’s authority?Can you see, because of what they carry, they willalways be a stranger to this world?” So who is outof date? Certainly anyone bound by the culture oftheir time, anyone who is not moved by somethinggreater.If you see what is happening here, you will seethat Rumi is using our own unexamined aversionsand dislikes to teach us. Some of Rumi’s mostprofound poetry is ignored because of suchthorns, prompting him to say, in discourse Thirty-Five: “How wonderfully gracious God is! It sets aseal on those who listen and do not understand,argue and yet learn nothing. God is gracious. Itswrath is gracious, and even Its lock is gracious.xiv