Discourses of Rumi

FIHI MA FIHI V 301ation, happiness and expansion. They call contractionand sorrow “autumn.” What real resemblanceis there between happiness and spring, sorrowand autumn? Yet without this comparisonthe intellect cannot conceive and grasp the meaning.So the Koran declares:“Not equal are the blind and those with sight,The shadows and the light,The shade and the torrid heat.”Here, faith is compared to light and unbelief toshadows, but faith could be related to a delightfulshade and unbelief to a burning, merciless sunboiling the brain. What resemblance is therebetween the bright subtlety of faith and the lightof this world, or between the sordid gloom ofunbelief and the darkness we know at night?Do you see this man who has fallen asleepwhile we were talking? That slumber is not a signof heedlessness, but safety and security. Like acaravan travelling along a difficult and dangerousroad on a dark night, they drive on in fear, lestharm should befall them. But as soon as the voiceof a dog, or cock, reaches their ears and they finda village, they are carefree. They stretch out their