the greatest love

When mankind gathers on that final day

And faces pale from fear of reckoning,

I'll hold your love in the palm of my hand,

And I will say, 'By this I'm saved or damned.'

#774: From Rumi's Kolliyaat-e Shams-e Tabrizi

Search words: gather

As I read Rumi's words here, I can only feel like screaming: surely saved! However, there must also have been something highly controversial, something that made it even possible that he might be damned. Whatever it is, it is Rumi's secret. We can guess this or that, but we can never really know. Perhaps that is his greatest gift as a poet and mystic, leaving enough to our imaginations so we can find the same love he did.

Rumi had a great love of his life, a central value. It was his gift, his mission, his divine task to fulfill. What is mine? I don't know what it is exactly but, like everyone else, it is my job to discover it. I only know for sure that "hypocrisy" is the enemy and that truth in relationship is central. That's all I know. It seems to be very similar to what Rumi held in the palm of his hand.