Discourses of Rumi

FIHI MA FIHI V 383under His control. Therefore God is not outsidethe heavens and the universe, neither is He whollyin them. In other words, these things do notcomprehend God, and yet God comprehends all.Someone said: “Before earth, heaven and theThrone existed, where did God exist?” One ofRumi’s students answered, “This question isinvalid from the start, for God is One who has noplace.”Rumi said: You ask, “Where was God beforeall this” Have you discovered the place of allthese things in you, that you are searching for Hisplace? Since your moods and thoughts have noplace, how can a place for God be conceivable?Surely, the Creator of thought is subtler thanthought. For instance, those who build a houseare subtler than that house, because they are ableto make and plan a hundred other buildings, eachdifferent from the last. Therefore they are subtlerand more majestic than any fabric, but this subtletycan only be seen when they build a houseand their work enters the visible world.Your breath is visible in winter, but in summeris invisible. This doesn’t mean that your breath iscut off in summer, but in summer your breath is