Discourses of Rumi

discourse 29A Christian by the name of al-Jarrah said: “Anumber of Sheik Sadr al-Din’s companions drankwith me, and they said, “Jesus is God, as youclaim. We confess that to be truth, but we concealand deny it to preserve the honor of our community.”Rumi said: God forbid! These are the words ofthose drunken with the wine of Satan, the misguider.How could it be that Jesus, with such afrail body, who was forced to flee from the plottingJews, place after place, who stood less thantwo cubits tall, should be the preserver of theseven heavens—each with a thickness of five hundredyears, and from each heaven to the next adistance of five hundred years, and every earthfive hundred years, and from each earth to thenext five hundred years? And under this Throne,the sea of spirit whose depth is even greater, evenmany times the like of it? How could your reasonaccept that the ruler of all these is the feeblest of