"Your depression is connected to your insolence and refusal to praise." — Rumi
Nothing exists that does not proclaim His praise.
There is one praise for the rope-maker, another for the carpenter who makes the tent-poles, another for the maker of the tent-pins, another for the weaver who weaves the cloth for the tent, another for the saints for whom the tent is made.
— Rumi
This is like what Shams said, “The other world is like a sea, and this world is foam from that sea. God desired to keep this foam in order. Therefore, He set certain people with their backs to the sea so this foam would not fall into ruin.”
If the weavers gave up weaving and sought to be viziers, the whole world would be naked and bare. So, they were given a joy for their craft. They are content with weaving. Therefore people were created to keep the world of foam in order,
God bestows contentment and happiness on everyone in the work that is theirs, so that even if their life should last a hundred thousand years they would still find love for their work. Everyday the love for their craft becomes greater, and subtle skills are born to them, which bring them infinite joy and pleasure.
— Rumi [Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī)
“This world is the dream of a sleeper,” and its meaning is seen quite differently in the other world. There it is truly judged by the Divine Interpreter, for to Him all things are revealed.
Like a gardener who enters an orchard and looks at the trees, without even looking at the fruit on the branches, they can judge this tree to be a date, that one a fig, that a pomegranate, a pear, or an apple.
The true people of God know the science of trees, therefore they need not wait for the resurrection to see the interpretation of life.
Such a person sees beforehand what will be, just as the gardener knows what fruit each branch will surely yield.
— Rumi / Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī
God’s treasuries are many, and God’s sciences are many.
His pens are many, and that each one is loftier than the next.
God revealed this present world so that you could accept the other stages that lie ahead. He did not reveal it so that you would say, “This is all there is.” The masters of crafts demonstrate their abilities and arts so their apprentices will find faith in them, and will believe in the other arts they have not yet demonstrated.
— Rumi / Jalāluddīn Muhammad Rūmī
Few care about the other world at all.
They have fixed their hearts upon this world entirely.
Some seek these teachings to eat the bread of God, some only to inspect the bread.
Still this is a good thing. God has sealed the eyes of some people so they can cultivate this present world. If no one were blind to the other world, this world would be empty. It is this blindness that gives rise to culture and progress.
So the cause and reason for civilization is blindness, and the cause of devastation is sight.
Those who run for the sake of the other World, they are truly seated. If they are seated for the sake of the present world, they are running.
— Rumi / Jalāluddīn Muhammad Rūmī
Sheik Tirmidhi once said, “Saiyid Burhan alDin expounds truths so well because he has studied the books, secret writings and treatises of the masters.”
A Sufi answered, “But you study them as well. Why don’t you speak like he does?”
Tirmidhi replied, “Well, Burhan al-Din has also made great spiritual efforts and accomplishments.”
The Sufi said, “Why didn’t you say that in the first place? You only know how to repeat what you have read; that is the difference. But we are now speaking of something greater than books—you too can speak of that!”
— Rumi / Jalāluddīn Muhammad Rūmī
Within people there is a longing and a desire such that, even if a hundred thousand worlds were theirs to own, still they would find no rest or comfort. They try every trade and craft, studying astronomy, medicine and every other subject, but they reach no completion, for they have not found their true desire.
All these pleasures and pursuits are like a ladder. The rungs of a ladder are not a place to make one’s home; they are for passing by. Fortunate are those who learn this. The long road becomes short for them, and they do not waste their lives upon the steps.
— Rumi / Jalāluddīn Muhammad Rūmī