From Sufism's Sacred Fihi ma Fihi: Discourse of Rumi : 23

Mawlānā Jalāl-ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhi Rūmī, known simply as Mawlana in Persian and around the world as rumi, was a poetic genius, a theologian and an enlightened person, who graced our planet. Eight centuries after his life on Earth, the deep and diverse influence of his legacy still remains and continues to awaken the hearts of many beyond all cultures and boundaries. Today, we invite you to listen to an excerpt of Rumi’s teachings from the Fihi Ma Fihi, Discourse 23.

“The ways may vary, but the goal is one. Don’t you see that there are many roads to the Kaaba (ancient holy shrine in Mecca)? For some the road is from Rum, for some from Syria, others come from Persia or China or by sea from India and Yemen. So if you consider the roads, they are beyond counting, with infinite differences. But when you consider the goal they are all in accord with one desire.”

“When believers and infidels sit together and say nothing, they are one and the same. There is no conflict of belief; the heart is a free world. Beliefs are subtle things and cannot be judged. People can judge by outward expression only, God is the fashioner of our secret hearts. When God uncovers your own beliefs to you, not a hundred thousand efforts can hide them again. As for the saying that God needs no instrument, do you not see how He reveals those ideas and beliefs in you without any instruments, without any pen, without any pigment?”

“Now the literalists take the Holy Mosque to be the Kaaba in Mecca. However, lovers and the elect of God take the Holy Mosque to mean union with God.”

“Being beyond all, greater than all, nobler and subtler than all, can God be desired for something less? ‘So, He is the goal.’ Within God is the completion of all things, beyond Him there is no transcending. The human mind churns with doubts and difficulties. The mind can never be rid of these except when it is truly in love – then all its doubts and difficulties vanish.”