Imam Al Ghazzali: Known Yourself

There is nothing closer to you than yourself; if you don't
know yourself, how will you know others?

You might say,
"I know myself," but you are mistaken!… The only thing
you know about yourself is your physical appearance.

The only thing you know about your bātin (unconscious)
is that when you are hungry you eat, when you are angry
you fight, and when you are consumed with passion you
make love. All animals are equal with you in this regard.

You have to seek the truth within yourself…. What are
you? Where have you come from and where are you
going? What is your role in the world? Why have you
been created? Where does your happiness lie?

If you would like to know yourself, you should know that you
are created by two things. One is your body and your
outward appearance (zāhir) which you can see with
your eyes. The other is your unconscious forces (bātin).

This is the part you cannot see but you can know it with
your insight. The truth of your existence is in your bātin.
Everything else is a servant to your bātin.

AL-GHAZZĀLĪ

RUMI: seek God in self-abasement and self-extinction

Seek God in self-abasement and self-extinction,
for nothing but forms is produced by thinking.
And if you derive no comfort except from form,
then the form that comes to birth within you involuntarily is best.
Suppose it is the form of a city to which you are going:
you are drawn there by a formless feeling of pleasure, O dependent one;
therefore, you are really going to that which has no location,
for pleasure is something different from time and place.
Suppose it is the form of a friend to whom you would go:
you are going for the sake of enjoying his company;
therefore, in reality you go to the formless world,
though you are unaware of that being the object of your journey.
In truth, then, God is worshiped by all,
since all wayfaring
is for the sake of the pleasure of which He is the source.

Mathnawi VI, Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi, may Allah sanctify his soul & bless his secret
Version by C. & K. Helminski, 'Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance'
Threshold Books, 1996

RUMI: he establishes certainty

How long will you say, "I will conquer the whole world
and fill it with myself"?
Even if snow covered the world completely,
the sun could melt it with a glance.
A single spark of God's mercy
can turn poison into springwater.
Where there is doubt,
He establishes certainty.

Mathnawi I, Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi, may Allah sanctify his soul & bless his secret
Version by C. & K. Helminski, ': Daylight', Threshold Books

RUMI: as soon as you see the dawn

Think neither of being accepted nor of being turned away,
but always consider the Divine command and prohibition.
Then suddenly the bird of Divine attraction
will fly toward you from its nest:
as soon as you see the dawn, put out the candle.
When the eyes have become piercing,
it's the dawn's light that illuminates them:
in the shell the illumined eye beholds the kernel.
In each speck it beholds the everlasting Sun;
in the drop it beholds the entire Sea.

Maulana Jallaluddin Rumi, may Allah sanctify his soul & bless his secret Mathnawi VI, Version by C. & K. Helminski
Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance', Threshold Books

RUMI: let the beauty we love

Let the beauty we love
be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways
to kneel in prayers.

Maulana Jallaluddin Rumi, may Allah santify his soul & bless his secret

RUMI: conquer your selfish self

don't be bitter my friend
you'll regret it soon
hold to your togetherness
or surely you'll scatter

don't walk away gloomy
from this garden
you'll end up like an owl
dwelling in old ruins

face the war and
be a warrior like a lion
or you'll end up like a pet
tucked away in a barn

once you conquer
your selfish self
all your darkness
will change to light

Ghazal/Ode 3299, Maulana Jallaluddin Rumi, may Allah sanctify his soul & bless his secret
"Rumi, Fountain of Fire"