Discourses of Rumi

discourse 23Rumi said: I would like to go to Tuqat, for thatregion is warm. Although Antalya is warm, onlya few people there understand our language.However, I was speaking there one day when aparty of unbelievers was present. In the middle ofmy talk they began to weep with emotion andshow signs of ecstasy.Someone asked: “What can they understand?What do they know? Only one Muslim in a thousandunderstands this kind of talk. What could anunbeliever understand that would cause them toweep?”Rumi answered: It isn’t necessary for them tounderstand the inner meaning of what we say.The vessel of this meaning is the words themselves,and this they do recognize. After all, everyoneknows of the Oneness of God, Creator andProvider, the source of all life, where all thingsreturn. When anyone hears these words, whichare a description and expression of God, a uni-