Discourses of Rumi

FIHI MA FIHI V 265This is like the water that flows in Turuttowards the city. There, at its fountainhead, seehow pure and fine it is! But once it enters the city,and passes through the gardens, quarters andhouses of the inhabitants, so many people washtheir hands, faces, feet and others parts in it, andtheir clothes and carpets, and the urine of all thepeople and the dung of horses and mules ispoured into it. Look at this water when it passesout the other side of the city! It is still the samewater, able to turn dust into clay, quench thethirsty, make the field green, yet discriminationcan see the water is polluted and has lost its originalclarity.Water that never grows stale—that is what weneed. Water that can cleanse the impurities of theworld, and yet they leave no trace in it. It retainsits limpid and clear state, and is never tainted.This is the Water of Truth.So, faith is discrimination, distinguishing truthfrom falsehood and the true coin from the fake.These words are valuable to everyone possessingthat critical perception, but are wasted on those