the four elements

The four elements are four sturdy pillars,
through which the roof of the heavens is kept in place.

Mathnawi / Chittick

source: this world is all war

The heart's mirror has no limits

The saints have polished their breasts until cleansed of greed, cupidity, avarice, and hatred.
Without doubt the pure mirror is the heart acting as a receptacle for infinite pictures.
The Moses-like saint possesses within his breast, in his heart's mirror, the infinite, formless Form of the Unseen.
What does it matter if that Form is not contained by the heavens, the divine Throne, the Footstool, or the Fish supporting the earth?
These things are all delimited and defined, but the heart's mirror has no limits - Know that!
Here the intellect must remain silent, or else lead us astray.
For the heart is with Him - indeed, the heart is He.

-- Mathnawi I, 3484-89
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
State University of New York Press, Albany, 1983

with thanks to Sunlight
...

coming near to God

Via sunlight:

The Level of Words

God has said, "The images that come
with human language
do not correspond to me,
but those who love words
must use them to come near."

Just remember,
it's like saying of the King,
"He is not a weaver."

Is that praise?

Whatever such a statement is,
words are on that level of God-knowledge.

-- Mathnawi II: 1716-1719
Poetic version by Coleman Barks
"Rumi: One-Handed Basket Weaving"
Maypop, 1991

old woman soul

I don't usually bother too much with poems from Sunlight other than the quatrains. However, this one appealed so much that I had to make an exception.

Soul And The Old Woman

What is the soul? Consciousness. The more awareness, the
deeper the soul, and when

such essence overflows, you feel a sacredness around. It's
so simple to tell one who

puts on a robe and pretends to be a dervish from the real
thing. We know the taste

of pure water. Words can sound like a poem but not have
any juice, no flavor to

relish. How long do you look at pictures on a bathhouse
wall? Soul is what draws

you away from those pictures to talk with the old woman
who sits outside by the door

in the sun. She's half blind, but she has what soul loves
to flow into. She's kind; she weeps.

She makes quick personal decisions, and laughs so easily.

-- Mathnawi: VI: 148-50
Version by Coleman Barks
"The Soul of Rumi"
HarperSanFrancisco, 2001

invitation to Islam?

From sunlight, a passage from the Masnavi that seems to invite the reader to Islam:

All selfish pleasures are false:
surrounding that flash of lightning is a wall of darkness.
The lightning gleams but a moment,
then surrounded by darkness, you'll find the way long.
By that light you can neither read a letter
nor ride to your destination.
But, because of your enchantment with the lightning,
the beams of sunrise withdraw from you.
Mile after mile through the night
the lightning's deception leads you,
without a guide, in a dark wilderness.

One moment you fall against a mountain, the next into a river;
now you wander in this direction, now in that.
O seeker of worldly position, you'll never find the guide;
and if you find him, you'll turn your face from him,
saying, "I've already traveled sixty miles on this road,
and now this guide tells me I've lost my way.
If I pay attention to his strange advice,
I'd have to begin my journey all over again under his orders.
I've devoted my life to this journey:
I'll pursue it come what may. Go away, O master!"

"Yes, you have journeyed far,
but only in opinion insubstantial as lightning:
come, make even a tenth of that journey
for the sake of the glorious sun of Divine inspiration.
You have read the verse, Opinion cannot serve instead of truth,
and yet by a lightning flash like that
you've been blinded to a rising sun.
Listen, climb into our boat, O wretched one,
or at least tie that boat of yours to this boat."

Mathnawi VI: 4094-4106
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski

A possible verse from the Koran as referred to in "You have read the verse" at the 5th line from the end:

6:116 Pickthall
If thou obeyedst most of those on earth they would mislead thee far from Allah's way. They follow naught but an opinion, and they do but guess.