The Book of Rumi, page 10
Valuable Advice
During the prophet's lifetime, people would travel from faraway lands to pay him their respects in person, often enduring much hardship on their journey. Generally, people came with their problems, and they always left with valuable advice that turned their lives around for the better.
One day, the prophet was busy with his usual daily tasks when one of his old followers, who had not seen him for a while, approached him. At first, the follower was reluctant to discuss his predicament with the great man, as he was embarrassed to confess to his shortcomings. After beating around the bush for a while, he finally presented his dilemma.
“I desperately need to hear your insight, my honorable friend,” he said, swallowing his pride uneasily. “I'm supposed to be a businessman, but every time I make a purchase, I lose money! It matters not if I'm buying or selling; it's as if I become enchanted and lose my grip and can't see right from wrong when the time comes to settle the business! My trading partners all get the better of me, and I'm always left short. What can I do to stop this vicious cycle?”
The prophet didn't waste precious time and immediately advised his friend: “When you see that you're being taken advantage of and are unable to make the proper decision, be patient and wait. In fact, try to wait for at least three whole days, for patience is one of God's most precious qualities, while rushing headlong into decisions is specific to the devil!” He then continued: “When you throw a slice of bread in front of a hungry dog, does he eat it right away? Of course not! He first smells it to make sure it's safe, and then he eats it. The dog uses his power of smell to make wise decisions as they pertain to him, while men and women must use their minds and their wisdom!”
The prophet looked deep into his companion's eyes and knew at once that his advice had left its mark on the man's consciousness. He was reassured in his heart that his words would soon turn the man's fortunes.
Escaping the Fool
A young man was walking to work when someone unexpectedly whizzed by him with such great speed that he felt a rush of air brushing against his face. He turned around and saw Jesus of Nazareth running like the wind, prompting him to wonder whether a hungry lion was in hot pursuit. The man noticed that in fact no one was chasing Jesus, and he felt obliged to inform him. After a long sprint, when he had almost caught up with Jesus, he called out breathlessly: “Stop. Stop please! You're flying as fast as an eagle! But no one's following you!”
Jesus was in such a rush that he didn't hear a word. The man, though, did not give up and continued to chase him, screaming as loud as his lungs permitted: “For God's sake stop for a moment and tell me who you're fleeing! No enemy or wild beast is after you, so why this flight?”
“Don't stall me, I'm in a hurry to save myself!” confessed Jesus as they both continued to run side by side.
“Aren't you Jesus of Nazareth, who cures the blind and the deaf?” asked the man, looking perplexed.
“I am,” asserted Jesus.
“Aren't you the prophet who sees the unseen, who breathes life into the dead?”
“Indeed, I am capable of all that.”
“Isn't it you who can turn a lump of clay into a living bird?”
Again, Jesus admitted that he could indeed bring life to the lifeless.
“With your unrivaled gifts from the spirit world,” continued the breathless man, “who would choose not to serve you?”
“As God is my witness, I whispered the sacred word entrusted to me by God to a blind man and a deaf man, and both were miraculously healed. I shouted the word at the mountain, and it shattered into millions of tiny little pebbles. I breathed the word onto a corpse, and he was given back life! But a thousand times I've wished it on the fool, and it's never had the slightest effect! That's who I'm fleeing to save my life!”
The Drummer Thief
It was pitch dark in the middle of the night, when silence normally rules, except tonight the unrelenting tap-tap-tap of a hammer and chisel made sleep a distant and unachievable dream. A fearless thief, who had managed to dodge the authorities, was patiently digging a crawl space under a garden wall, trying to get access to the house within. The house's owner, who had been ill for some time, lay sleepless on his bed tossing and turning in pain. The constant tapping guaranteed that he would find no rest.
Frustrated and misty in the head because of his fever, the owner forced himself to creep out of bed with great difficulty. He was intent on finding out the source of the uninterrupted and annoying noise. He opened the window and leaned out to see if he could spot anything suspicious in the dark.
“Who's there in the dead of the night?” he screamed, indeed expecting a response.
The tapping stopped momentarily but resumed at a greater speed in no time. The owner, much to his dismay, couldn't figure out where the noise came from or what its source could be! Once again, he shouted into the darkness: “Who's there? What're you doing making such a racket? Digging a well?”
“No, my friend,” replied the sinister thief disdainfully, “I'm playing the drum for your pleasure!”
“But that's not the sound of a drum I hear!” replied the owner, confounded.
“You will tomorrow, when you hear the screaming and shouting of your household and that of your neighbors!” said the thief cunningly, implying that fools truly deserve what comes to them.
Dogs' Shelter in Winter
In wintertime, stray dogs find little food in fields, as the landscape is frozen. Every year, the dogs gather and tell each other that if they survive the freeze, next summer they must build themselves a shelter, because their undernourished bodies could never tolerate another harsh winter.
When summer arrives, the stray dogs begin to put on weight as food becomes ample in the meadows and they can eat to their hearts' delight. As they gain weight and become more robust, they convince themselves that no shelter would be large enough to contain their enormous, well-fed bodies.
In their hearts, they know better, and they try to stay focused on the hardship they endured in past winters and the certainty that it will recur the following year. But the dogs have become fat and lazy, able to convince themselves that no home will be capacious enough to shelter them from the cold. Thus, the vicious cycle is repeated.
Lover of Prayer
Songor was a Moslem slave who belonged to a wealthy master who happened to be a nonbeliever. The slave was a conscientious worker who was never at fault in performing his duties. He was always up at dawn and always the last to go to sleep, making sure that everything in his master's house was in perfect order.
One morning, the master woke up earlier than usual and decided to go to the public bathhouse before the crowds appeared. He went to Songor's room and, seeing that he was already awake, ordered him to collect the necessary items for bathing: a bowl to pour water over his body, a towel for drying, and a special mud block to scrub and wash his hair.
Having collected all they needed, the master and slave left for the bathhouse together. On the way, they came across a small mosque, and, as it was the morning prayer time, it was full of devoted Moslems. Songor, who was extremely fond of such devotions and prayed every chance he found, begged his master to allow him to enter the mosque and perform the morning prayers with his fellow Moslems.
“Master, I never get a chance to perform my morning prayers in the mosque; will you please allow me to do so now? I promise it won't take long. You can rest on this stool here until I'm finished.”
The master was amenable to this delay but told him to be quick. Songor hurried inside the mosque and stood shoulder to shoulder with his brethren, performing his prayer. After it was over, the imam and all the men left the mosque one by one; soon the mosque was empty, except for Songor. The master waited patiently until the sun had risen and it was time for breakfast, but Songor was nowhere to be seen. Losing patience, he went to the entrance of the mosque and called for his slave.
“They're not letting me come out,” replied Songor. “I know you're waiting outside, but please wait a bit longer, and I'll be with you in no time.”
“But Songor, there's no one left inside the mosque! Who's not letting you out?”
“It's the one and only Allah! The same one who has bound your feet outside and won't let you come into the mosque, is holding me inside and not letting me go!”
Patience
The legendary physician Loghman had been in the service of the great king David for many years. During one particularly busy period when he was quite occupied with his numerous patients, he had been unable to pay his regular visits to the popular king of the Jews. After several weeks, when Loghman finally found himself free of patients, he decided to pay a call on his beloved master.
Duly he arrived at the palace and was told that David was busy at work in a nearby barn. As Loghman approached the ramshackle barn, he found David hard at work, with sparks flying in the air all around him. Immersed in the task at hand, David did not immediately notice Loghman enter the barn and continued toiling away. A heap of small metal rods lay before him, which he skillfully heated and looped into circles and then linked together, creating a smooth garment of chain mail. He continued in this fashion for some time, repeating the procedure patiently.
Until that day, Loghman had never witnessed the craft of manufacturing armor, and he was baffled. He was dying to ask David what he was making; however, he stopped himself and thought it best to wait and not interrupt the master craftsman. He knew that, invariably, patience directs people much more quickly to their desired objective, and he trusted his intuition. “When one doesn't persist in sating one's curiosity, one often gets what one wants that much quicker,” he thought to himself.
Thus, Loghman remained silent and continued to patiently observe David. Once the king was finished with his work, he pulled the armor over his head and shoulders and turned to face Loghman: “This is the best outfit to wear at war! I guarantee that it will protect a man against the deadliest blows,” declared David, noticing the surprise in Loghman's face.
Loghman was thrilled that he had kept his silence despite his curiosity and had not interrupted the master at work.
Balal's Passing
Everyone knew Balal and what a great man he had turned out to be, albeit only a slave. He had lived an honest life and had served his wonderful master with great love and respect. Balal had aged prematurely, but he didn't mind. As he lay on his deathbed, his wife could see that she was losing him fast.
“My precious love, you're leaving me!” she sobbed. “Misfortune is knocking at our door; we're doomed!”
“No, no my dearest!” uttered Balal weakly but compassionately. “It's time to rejoice and be merry! Until now, this life's been laden with sorrow and mourning. Let me tell you that death is in fact life itself!”
When Balal spoke of death, his face lit up like fresh tulips and narcissus, his eyes beaming with delight. One could not detect any sign of illness or the imminent death that awaited him, but these blessings were hidden from his wife, and she continued crying her heart out miserably.
“The time of separation is upon us!” she lamented.
“No, my love, the time for reunion has arrived!”
“You shall leave your family behind tonight and enter a strange and foreign abode.”
“Tonight, I shall leave this alien place at last and step into my cherished eternal home!” uttered Balal as his whole being prepared for his final journey.
“Will I ever see you again after tonight?” whimpered his wife.
“I shall be among the great men of God! If you can keep your heart clear and aim for spirit, giving up your attachment to this lowly world, one day we shall meet again.”
Balal spoke his final words with great love and warmth in his heart and closed his eyes for the last time.
Which City Is Best?
Two lovers had found a quiet corner in the rose garden early in the morning before the crowds appeared.
“My darling, you've traveled the world over and seen many beautiful cities and other incredible sites,” murmured the young girl to her loved one, hoping to challenge him. “Tell me honestly, which is your favorite city?”
“There could only be one place in the world, my love, and that's right here! My garden of joy is to be by your side, even if we were in the middle of the driest desert! If I ever found myself at the bottom of a dark well but my love was next to me, I'd be in paradise! So the simple answer to your question is: the best city in the world is where one's love is! And for me, it's right here next to you.”
The embrace that followed his confession was the sweetest either had ever tasted.
Guest Killer Mosque
Outside the town of Rey in Persia, there stood a mosque that had earned a shocking reputation. The town's inhabitants called it the Guest Killer Mosque, and for good reason! Strangers, however, did not know this deadly secret, and every time one arrived in Rey and took refuge in the mosque for the night, he was killed and his body recovered the next morning. People from Rey never entered the mosque at night, convinced that the place was haunted and that djinns lived in its dark, empty corners.
One day a man arrived who was well aware of the mosque's reputation but nevertheless wished to check the validity of the locals' superstition, as well as test his own courage. “I will not value my own body beyond its worth, for it's the spirit that's priceless beyond all,” he argued to himself. “One's body will inevitably perish, but spirit is everlasting.”
When the townsfolk found out about the stranger's intention, they unanimously tried to dissuade him. But, despite their best efforts, they failed.
“Dear concerned friends,” argued the stranger, “I'm tired of this life and have no regrets. I yearn for a challenge; I don't mind the physical damage. To leave this world would be sweet for me, just like a bird who's been freed from his cage.”
People tried to change his mind, reminding him of the tortuous pain that might be awaiting him in the mosque. They reasoned that to embark on a heroic course may at first seem like a simple choice, yet once fully engaged, the difficulties of the path will become all too clear; they told him that he'd be sorry. However, he turned a deaf ear to them. They pleaded with him to give up his crazy idea and not to tarnish the reputation of their town and its citizens any further with yet another murder. But he had no ears to heed their appeals.
“I'm not like a skittish housecat who buckles under at the first signs of fear! I've given up on my life. I'm afraid of nothing, and if I lose my life tonight, so be it; I've achieved my purpose,” insisted the brave heart.
The townsfolk slowly began to disperse, realizing that their words were having no effect. Reluctantly, they prepared themselves to confront the man's cold corpse the next day, and they each went their own way. Meanwhile, the man walked into the mosque, holding his head high against what might come. His head, however, had nevertheless been cluttered with the townspeople's warnings, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't fall asleep. So, he sat in a corner, his back propped up against a pillar, and watched the darkness.
Midnight was upon him, and he had not yet heard or seen any monster or devil; he began to think that all he'd been told about the mosque had been lies or the product of the townsfolk's overspirited imaginations. Right at that very moment, he was jerked into reality by a piercing holler directed at him, declaring that in a blink of an eye his entire being would be overtaken. Any sane person would faint or collapse or even lurch into cardiac arrest, but not the fearless stranger, who had already bade farewell to his life on earth.
“This is nothing! It's the hollow sound of a drum declaring the arrival of Eid!” he shouted out confidently. “To the faithless, it may sound like the trumpet of death, but for those of us who believe in God, it's the sound of celebration! Why should I fear the drum of Eid? I shall enter the ring and either give up my life or leave victorious.”
He got up from his corner and stood in the middle of the mosque, crying out: “Here I am! Can you see me? I've nothing to lose, I've given up everything. If you're brave enough, show your face and let's have it all out!”
With those words, the mosque's spell was broken; instantly, the ceiling cracked open and a stream of gold coins cascaded onto the mosaic floor. The man was stunned as he watched the unimaginable treasure pile up before him. After a few minutes, when he regained his composure, he ran about in search of empty sacks, which he found in one of the side rooms, and began to fill them up with the coins. It took him the rest of the night, but he managed to collect every single coin he could locate.
Unlike the cowards who had lost their lives in the Guest Killer Mosque, and much to the regret of the unbelieving townsfolk who had no trust in their hearts, the stranger became supremely rich, spending his wealth generously until his last living days.
Camel and Drummer Boy
In the Persian countryside, farmers used to teach their sons how to play the drums to scare away birds and other small animals that might otherwise threaten their crops. Young boys spent entire days and nights in the fields and played their drums to their hearts' delight. One of the drummer boys had been learning the skill since he was so small he could barely hold the instrument in his hands. He loved the sound as well as the motion of his fingers as he caressed the drum's skin. He also took delight in frightening the birds, especially when they all took flight simultaneously.
Sultan Mahmood, the ruler of the land, was quite fond of waging wars. He arrived with his massive army and set up camp close to the boy's family farm. Alongside the usual war-making equipment, the soldiers also brought a camel who carried their enormous war drum. The army's drummer thumped on the noisy instrument during times of war, day in and day out, without a break. Consequently, the camel was almost completely deaf and could hear nothing other than the sound of the great war drum. As the sultan's vast army spread its camp across the land, the camel happily strolled farther and farther away from his keeper, grazing on the fresh green grasses that he rarely had a chance to enjoy.
