Discourses of Rumi

FIHI MA FIHI V 131If you hear words coming through a wall, youknow that wall isn’t speaking and that voicebelongs to someone else. The saints are like this.They have died before death, and have becomelike doors and walls. Not even a hair’s tip of separateexistence remains in them. In the hands ofReality, they are shields—but the shield doesn’tmove under its own power. Thus the saints say, “Iam the Truth,” meaning, “I am nothing at all, Imove by the Hand of God.” Look upon suchshields as God. Do not take up violence againstGod. Striking blows against such shields are justlike declaring war against God, Itself.Every saint is God’s proof. The rank and stationof men and women is determined by howthey treat the saint. If they are hostile to the saint,they are acting hostile against God. If theybefriend the saint, they have made friendship withGod.“Whoever has seen them has seen Me.Whoever finds them has found Me.”God’s saints are familiar with the secrets of Hisrefuge. They have become intimate with theDivine Mysteries that “none but the purified shall