Discourses of Rumi

298 V DISCOURSES OF RUMIand the saints are likened to the glass of thatlamp. God’s Light is not contained by any beingor space, so how can it be contained in a glasslamp? How can the compass of His Light be containedin a heart? Yet seeking, you find it in theheart. Not like some box where that Light resides,but from the heart you find that Light radiating.Like you find your image in a mirror, yet yourimage is not in the mirror itself. Still, when youlook in the mirror you see yourself.By means of comparison all subtleties becomeintelligible, and once it is intelligible the sensescan grasp it. Thus, they say that in the otherworld books will fly, some into the right hand andsome into the left. There are also angels, theThrone, Heaven and Hell, the Balance, theReckoning, and the Book: none of this is clearuntil an analogy is given. There is no likeness toany of these things in this world, yet throughcomparison they can be known.For example, by night all people sleep, cobblerand king alike, judge and tailor. Once asleep, theirthoughts take wing, and no thought remains toone of them. Then, at dawn, it is as though the