Discourses of Rumi

FIHI MA FIHI V 31Burhan al-Din was once greeted by someone,who said, “I have heard praises of you sung byfriends.” Burhan al-Din answered, “Wait until Imeet your friends to see whether they know mewell enough to praise me. If they know me onlyby word of mouth, then they do not truly knowme. For words do not endure. Syllables andsounds do not endure. This body, these lips andthis mouth will not endure. All these things aremere accidents of the moment. But if they knowme by my works, and they know my essential self,then I know they are able to praise me, and thatpraise will go where it belongs.”This is like the story they tell of a certain king.This king entrusted his son to a team of learnedscholars. In due course, they taught him the sciencesof astrology, geomancy, and the interpretationof signs, until he became a complete master,despite his utter stupidity and dullness of wit.One day the king took a ring in his fist and puthis son to the test.“Come, tell me what I am holding in my fist.”“What you are holding is round, yellow,inscribed and hollow,” the prince answered.