Discourses of Rumi

396 V DISCOURSES OF RUMIsixth finger is an addition, still it is a diminution.Ahad (“One”) is perfection, and Ahmad is not yetin the state of perfection. When that “M” isremoved it becomes complete perfection. In otherwords, God comprehends all—whatever you addto God is a diminution. The number one is containedin all numbers, and without it no numbercould exist.Sayed Burhan al-Din was teaching, when a foolinterrupted him to say, “We need some wordswithout comparisons or likenesses.” The Sayedanswered, “Whoever has no likeness, come andlisten to words without likeness!”After all, you are a likeness of yourself. You arenot this body. The existence here is but a shadowof you. If someone dies, people say, “So-and-sohas departed.” If they were only that body, thenwhere have they gone? So, your outer form is ananalogy of your internal being, and from yourexternal form others can judge your inner reality.Everything is visible because of density. Thus, thebreath in hot weather cannot be seen, but when itis cold it becomes visible due to density.