Discourses of Rumi

discourse 8Someone asked: “What is greater than prayer?”Rumi said: One answer is that the soul ofprayer is greater than prayer, as I have alreadyexplained. A second answer is that faith is greater.Prayer is a series of daily actions, while faith iscontinuous. Prayer can be dropped for a valid reason,or can be postponed, but it is impossible todrop or postpone faith for any excuse. And whereprayer without faith gains nothing, as in the caseof hypocrites, faith without prayer is valuable.Another point: while the prayer of every religionis each quite different, still, faith does not changefrom religion to religion. The states that it produces,its place in life, and its effects are the sameeverywhere.There are other advantages to faith, but theirdiscovery depends upon the inward awareness ofthe listener. Each listener is like flour in the handsof a dough-maker. Words are like water sprinkledon the flour according to the moisture needed. Butunless the water soaks in, it cannot make dough.