Discourses of Rumi

FIHI MA FIHI V 27seeds and bears fruit, it accepts and reveals a hundredthousand marvels too numerous to tell. Themountains give forth mines of gold and silver. Allthese things the heavens, the earth and the mountainsdo, yet they do not perform that one thing;that particular task is performed by us.“We offered the Trust to the heavens,The earth and the mountains,They refused to carry it and were afraid of it,But humans carried it.Surely they are foolish and sinful.”So, people are given a task, and when they performit all their sinfulness and foolishness is dissolved.You say, “Look at all the work I do accomplish,even if I do not perform that task.” Youweren’t created for those other tasks! It is just asif you were given a sword of priceless Indian steel,such as can only be found in the treasuries ofkings, and you were to treat it as a butcher’s knifefor cutting up putrid meat, saying, “I am not lettingthis sword stand idle, I am using it in so manyuseful ways.” Or it is like taking a solid gold bowlto cook turnips in, when a single grain of thatgold could buy a hundred pots. Or it is as if you