Discourses of Rumi

364 V DISCOURSES OF RUMIbe in them, they would by necessity be ungodlyand shed blood, this being the heritage of beinghuman.There is still another answer. Some people saythat angels, being pure reason and goodness, haveno choice in anything they say or do. Like in adream, if you have no choice of what you say ordo, how can you be criticized when you utterunbelief in your sleep, or declare God is One, orif you commit adultery? Angels are like this intheir waking state. People are the reverse ofthat—they have freewill, are lustful and passionate,desire all things for themselves, and are readyto shed blood to gain what they want. These arethe attributes of animals. Thus the state of theangels is the opposite of people.It is perfectly fine to say that the angels spokein this fashion, even though there was neitherspeech nor tongue, because if they were endowedwith words and gave an account of themselves,this is how they would speak. In this same waythe poet writes, “The pool said, I am full.” Poolsof course do not really speak, but the poet meansthat if the pool had a tongue, this is what it wouldhave said.