Discourses of Rumi

discourse 17The Amir of Rum said: “The unbelievers used toworship and bow down to idols. Now we aredoing the selfsame thing. We go and bow downand wait upon the Mongols, and yet we considerourselves Muslims. We have many other idols inour heart too, such as greed, passion, temper,envy, and we are obedient to all of them. So weact in the very same way as the unbelievers, bothoutwardly and inwardly, and we consider ourselvesMuslims!”Rumi answered: But here is something different;it enters your thoughts that this conduct isevil and utterly detestable. The eye of your hearthas seen something incomparably greater thatshows up this behavior as vile and hideous.Brackish water shows its brackishness to one whohas tasted sweet water, and things are made clearby their opposites.So God has implanted in Soul the light of faithto see these things as hideous. Confronted by