Be thankful....by Kwaja Abdullah Ansari

Sometimes He gives while depriving you and
sometimes He deprives you in giving 

When He loosens your tongue with a request 
then know that He wants to give you something.

Whoever is not thankful of graces
runs the risk of losing them

And whoever is thankful fetters them
with their own cords.

~ Kwaja Abdullah Ansari
From Ibn 'Ata' Illah the Book of Wisdom & Kwaja Abdullah Ansari Intimate Conversations,
Translated by Victor Danner andWheeler M. Thackston

O Friend of Heart......by Rumi

O Friend of Heart !
What a pity, you left us with sorrows and longing, and went away.

I know you didn't want to leave us. 
You complained and lamented. But this was not good. 
You obeyed the unchangeable judgment and walked away and left.

You ran in all directions.
You sought remedies (to change the situation and) to stay with us, you made up excuses.
But you couldn't find a remedy
and you went without having a remedy.

What happened to your lap full of roses,
to the luminous face like the moon?
How did it happen that you went under the soil lowly and in shame?

How did you leave the assemblies of friends
and the ranks of friends that were with you all the time
and go under the ground among ants and snakes?

What happened to those meaningful words and beautiful speeches? What happened to the. mind that was familiar with divine secrets?

What happened to those hands that were holding our hands?
What happened to those feet that walked
to the gardens of Meram, to the rose gardens?

You were graceful and gracious;
you knew how to win peo­ple's hearts and how to love people.
Now you went to the soil
which doesn't like people and swallows them.

What happened?
What kind of an idea came to your mind
so that you would take a curved and difficult road?

When you set off on that road crying,
the heavens, too, started shedding tears
and the moon scratched its face,

My heart has been filled with pain. What do I know?
What should I ask? You tell me, did you go awake?

Now that you left us,
did you choose the company of lovers of God and saints?
Or have you been deprived of love? Or did you go in denial?

What happened to those sweet answers
you gave to the questions you were asked?
Now you stopped talking and gave up on speaking.

What kind of a fire is this? What kind of a longing is this?
Like a guest, you never let anybody know and went away

Where did you go?
Even the dust of your way cannot be found.
The road that you took this time is indeed a road full of blood.

~ Rumi

The Lame Goat....by Rumi

You've seen a herd of goats
going down to the water.

The lame and dreamy goat
brings up the rear.

There are worried faces about that one,
but now they're laughing.

because look, as they return,
that goat is leading!

There are many different kinds of knowing.
The lame goat's kind is a branch
that traces back to the roots of presence.

Learn from the lame goat,
and lead the herd home.

~ Molana Jalaluddin Rumi
(THE LAME GOAT )
The Essential Rumi by Coleman Barks

Whisper, "I love you! I love you!" To the whole mad world.....by Hafiz

Go for a walk, if it is not too dark.
Get some fresh air, try to smile.
Say something kind
To a safe-looking stranger, if one happens by.

Always exercise your heart's knowing.

You might as well attempt something real
Along this path:

Take your spouse or lover into your arms
The way you did when you first met.
Let tenderness pour from your eyes
The way the Sun gazes warmly on the earth.

Play a game with some children.
Extend yourself to a friend.
Sing a few ribald songs to your pets and plants -
Why not let them get drunk and wild!

Let's toast
Every rung we've climbed on Evolution's ladder.
Whisper, "I love you! I love you!"
To the whole mad world.

Let's stop reading about God -
We will never understand Him.

Jump to your feet, wave your fists,
Threaten and warn the whole Universe

That your heart can no longer live
Without real love!

~ Hafiz
From I Heard God Laughing -
Renderings of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky

DEVOID of self.....by Rumi

DEVOID of self I traveled to a place
There in the absence of I , joy filled my Heart .

Without I , His obscured face ,like the Moon 
came forth and kissed my cheek.

In longing for my love , I perished
and from that longing , birth was given to me.

I am eternally drunk , without wine
My joy is endless , without I.

Do not remember me, ever
for I am memory itself , without I.

I am ecstatic without myself , so I say
" O me , may you always be without I."

All the doors were shut to me , and
all opened when He let me in , without I.

Me , I am the one ,free of good and evil
free from obedience and corruption ,without I.

~ JALAL AD - DIN RUMI
(DEVOID OF SELF )
DIVAN -I SHAMS - I TABRIZ

I open and fill with love, and what is not love evaporates. ~ Rumi

One morning 
I went to a place beyond dawn

A place 
where sweetness flows and is never less

I have been shown
a beauty beyond imagining….

We are made of the sky’s cloth
and every thing is soul and flowering !

I open and fill with love,
and what is not love evaporates.

~ Rumi

O You .....by Rumi

O You 
who have transmuted one clod of earth into gold, 
and another into the Father of mankind, 

Your generous work is 
the transmutation of essences; 

my work is
mostly forgetfulness and mistakes.

Transmute my mistakes and forgetfulness
into knowledge:

With my imperfect nature,
turn me into patience and forbearance.

~ Rumi
Mathnawi V: 780-782
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
Art by Robert Suits Jr