Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, more commonly known as Rumi, was a 13th-century Persian poet, Hanafi faqih, Islamic scholar, Maturidi theologian, and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan in Greater Iran. His influence transcends national borders and ethnic divisions: Iranians, Tajiks, Turks, Greeks, Pashtuns, other Central Asian Muslims, and the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent have greatly appreciated his spiritual legacy for the past seven centuries. His poems have been widely translated into many of the world\'s languages and transposed into various formats. Rumi has been described as the "most popular poet" and the "best selling poet" in the United States.
Rumi\'s works are written mostly in Persian, but occasionally he also used Turkish, Arabic, and Greek in his verse. His Masnavi (Mathnawi), composed in Konya, is considered one of the greatest poems of the Persian language. His works are widely read today in their original language across Greater Iran and the Persian-speaking world. Translations of his works are very popular, most notably in Turkey, Azerbaijan, the United States, and South Asia. His poetry has influenced not only Persian literature, but also the literary traditions of the Ottoman Turkish, Chagatai, and the Pashto, Bengali, and Urdu languages.
On Love
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absent-minded. Someone sober will worry about things going badly. Let the lover be.
This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.
Love is the bridge between you and everything.
On the Soul
You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.
I have been a seeker and I still am, but I stopped asking the books and the stars. I started listening to the teaching of my Soul.
The soul has been given its own ears to hear things the mind does not understand.
On Transformation
Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.
The wound is the place where the Light enters you.
As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.
On Unity
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there.
Why are you so enchanted by this world, when a mine of gold lies within you?
We are all connected; to each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe atomically.
On Silence & Surrender
Be empty of worrying. Think of who created thought!
There is a voice that doesn’t use words. Listen.
Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment. Cleverness is mere opinion. Bewilderment is intuition.
On the Beloved
The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along.
If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?
What you seek is seeking you.
On Pain & Healing
Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life's search for love and wisdom.
Don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.
Legacy of Light
Rumi\'s influence has only grown over the centuries. His message of love, which encourages a direct, personal experience of the divine, resonates with seekers from all backgrounds. His poetry is not merely beautiful verse; it is a spiritual teaching, a map of the inner world, and a call to awaken the heart. In a world often divided by doctrine and dogma, Rumi\'s voice reminds us of a universal truth: that love is the ultimate reality, the very fabric of existence. His words are a timeless invitation to journey inward, to dissolve the barriers of the self, and to merge with the boundless ocean of the Beloved.
