Discourses of Rumi

FIHI MA FIHI V 215A bowl of poison was brought as a present toUmar. “Of what use is this?” he asked.They said, “When it is not publicly advisableto kill someone openly, you can give them a littleof this. Then they will die secretly. If it is anenemy who cannot be slain with the sword, witha little of this they can be killed clandestinely.”“You have brought me a very good thing,” hesaid. “Give it to me to drink, for within me is amighty enemy whom the sword cannot reach. Ihave no greater enemy in the world than he.”“There is no need to drink it all up in onegulp,” they told him. “Just one sip is enough. Thisbowl is sufficient for a hundred thousand people.”“My enemy, too, is not one person,” saidUmar. “He is a thousand strong, and has overthrowna hundred thousand.”He then seized the cup and drank it all in onedraught. At once the assembled multitude allbecame believers, crying, “Your religion is true!”“You have all become believers,” said Umar,“and yet this infidel within me has not yet becomea believer.”