Wisdoms: Mawlana

01

"Helplessness is the most beautiful sign from Allah. It shows that the time for dua (supplication) has come. If tears are streaming from your eyes, if your beautiful face is sorrowful, it means your Lord has missed you and wants to hear your voice."

02

"Do not argue with the ignorant. Either they will drive your temper to the ceiling! Or, alas, your adab (proper conduct) will be wasted."

03

"Do not insist on a hundred; ninety will do. When it comes to being human, deficiency is possible. Never boast about what you possess, never say 'I alone exist,' for even if you are absent, the world will go on."

04

"I am in such a place that neither leaving is possible, nor staying. I am simply in such a place. I am right in the middle of giving up and resisting, in the very center of black and white. On the verge of loss, at the threshold of a new life. If I stay, my soul will ache; if I go, my life!"

05

"Swallow the poison even if it comes from one who loves you; forget the honey even if it comes from one who does not love you!"

06

"O my heart, stand firm; hold your head high. Do not grow weary."

07

"Come, come, whoever you are, come again, Be you a disbeliever, a fire-worshipper, or an idolater, come again. Our lodge is not a lodge of despair. Even if you have broken your tawba (repentance) a hundred times, come again."

08

"Consider every event as good, every night as the Night of Power, every visitor as Khidr."

09

"The door will open, as long as you know how to knock! When, I do not know! It is enough that you know how to stand at that door!"

10

"Do you know what loyalty is? Loyalty is not discarding what you leave behind, not disregarding what you burn as you go. Loyalty is not betraying the nobility of friendship, the promises made after a dua (supplication), or dreams. Loyalty is, in the face of the infinite reward of the hereafter, not taking Hell lightly, not selling sublime beauties for the world."

11

"Let them not think we have collapsed, let them not think we have fallen. We have only shed our leaves for another spring."

12

"If you wish to reach the Truth (al-Ḥaqq), make it your profession to win hearts. Do not seek to be marble in palaces, be earth so that roses may grow in your bosom."

13

"I kept silent, they said 'he is wrathful.' I spoke a little, they said 'he is poisonous.' I was silent, they said 'he is silent out of anger.' I spoke a little, they said 'he is spewing his poison.'"

14

"O Beloved, you are my remedy, you are my cure. You are the light of a heart shattered into a hundred pieces. In my helpless heart, everything but you has vanished. Do not leave me alone! Come!"

15

"Do you know what maʿrifa (gnosis, experiential knowledge of God) is? It is when eyes that look at stones see flowers!"

16

"A wise person does not say everything they think, but thinks about everything they say."

17

"Raise not your voice, but your words! It is rain that makes the leaves grow, not thunder."

18

"Do not be sad! If you can see, if you can touch, if you can breathe, how fortunate you are! Do not tell me about what you do not have. Speak of what you do have, beloved! Will nights always pass in loneliness? Will those who left never return? What you lost—one day, you may find it on a rainy night or a spring morning. Know that there are beauties in this life. Can you imagine a life without comings and goings? Sorrow matures, loss teaches sabr (patient endurance)."

19

"Within the flowing time, I am in a cage. In every kind of deed, I am very slow. While my grave awaits me, I am still eager for worldly things. Awaken me, O Lord! Perhaps I am at my last breath."

20

"The heart is not an inn for passersby, it is a lodge! One cannot barge in and out recklessly; it is a sin!"

21

"There is no mortal love; all loves are for the Eternal One. The only difference is: some see the art, some see the Artist."

22

"A secret known by two is no secret."

23

"Unless the heart burns, the eye does not weep."

24

"Say what you think. Do what you say. Stand behind what you do. But be careful not to be crushed under your own words."

25

"In times of hardship, never lose hope; work, strive. You will see that one day, sunny and joyful days will embrace you. Difficulty is accompanied by ease. Come to your senses. Do not lose hope."

26

"There is a place beyond right and wrong; let us meet there."

27

"You say: I gave you my heart. But what is the heart, O beloved? Would I ever give you my heart! For the heart, when it enters the earth, becomes dust, becomes soil. I give you my ruh (spirit), for my ruh in you becomes eternity!"

28

"Until the decree of spring comes from the Truth (al-Ḥaqq), the earth does not reveal its secret."

29

"If you want a friend, Allah is enough; if you want a beloved, Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is enough; if you want proof, the Qur'an is enough; if you want peace, prayer is enough; if you want wealth, contentment is enough; if you want an enemy, your nafs (lower self) is enough; if you want honor, Islam is enough; if you want advice, death is enough!"

30

"O wise one! Never fall into an intoxication that you will regret once your mind returns!"

31

"Come closer, closer! Even closer! How long this highway robbery? Since you are me and I am you, how long this 'you-ness' and 'me-ness'?"

32

"Instead of seeking excuses to sulk and take offense, seek solutions to love and be loved."

33

"Once you are with Allah, both death and life are sweet."

34

"The character of the noble is openness and warmth. The work of the base is deceit and shamelessness."

35

"O beloved. While we were two enamored grapes on the same cluster, we have become wine in different bottles, ruined in different dreams."

36

"To teach knowledge to one without character is to give a sword to a bandit."

37

"Life is a sleep; one awakens upon death. Be early, awaken before you die."

38

"Whatever is in the jug, that is what seeps out."

39

"Whatever you say is impossible, all of it becomes possible. You say you will not fall, you fall; you say you will not be surprised, you are surprised. You keep saying you are dead, yet you still live."

40

"Do not be sad, my dear soul. The Creator is aware of every wound."

41

"Discipline your heart before disciplining your tongue; for words come from the heart and emerge from the tongue."

42

"Wealth and money are like the cap on the head. The one who takes refuge in the cap is bald. As for the one with curly and beautiful hair, if the cap goes, it is even more pleasing to them."

43

"Intellect and intelligence give you arrogance and pride. Be foolish so that your heart remains true!"

44

"O seeker of truth (ḥaqīqa), the world is like a walnut, hollow and rotten inside. Do not try to test or examine it too much. Watch it from afar."

45

"To understand is to know; to know is to forgive."

46

"Why do we ask the Great Allah for discipline? Because the undisciplined are deprived of Allah's grace. The undisciplined not only harm themselves, but ignite all horizons of shame and virtue."

47

"I wished to be the sun and scatter golden rays over the oceans and deserts. I wished to be the wind that blows at night and mingles with the sighs of the innocent."

48

"Love is like ablution. If you fall into doubt, it is broken."

49

"Everything has been decreed by destiny. Be content with your lot so that you may find peace."

50

"O heart! Walk this path with the caravan! Do not fall alone on this road! For time, pregnant with events, who knows what strife it may give birth to. If you go as I say, you will go without hardship. You will travel under the protection of the Truth (al-Ḥaqq)."

51

"The raven caws in the vineyard like a raven. But does the nightingale ever silence its beautiful voice just because the raven caws?"

52

"O heart! Beware, this is the end times; do not be deceived by appearances by following your nafs (lower self)! There are servants whom even Iblis says 'mā shāʾ Allāh' about. If you are to love, love one who knows what loyalty is, what taqwa (God-consciousness) is! There are ruined servants who hide paradise within themselves."

53

"I am not a Christian nor a Jew, neither a Muslim nor a Hindu, neither Buddhist, Sufi nor Zen. I belong to no religion. I belong to no cultural system. I came from neither East nor West, neither from the sea nor from the land. I am made of neither nature nor the heavens, nor of any elements. I do not exist. I am neither in this world nor in the other world. I did not come from Adam, nor from Eve, nor from any other beginning tale. My place is placeless, my trace is traceless. I am neither body nor ruh (spirit). I belong to the Beloved. I saw the two worlds as one, I called only Him, I knew only Him. In the beginning, at the end, outside, inside, Only He is the one who breathes, And I am the one who breathes in Him."

54

"Sometimes even the angels envy our state, and sometimes even Satan is disgusted by it."

55

"Love such a 'Beloved', my child, that they wait for you like a fasting person waits for iftar with a bowl of water in hand."

56

"Beware of obsessive thoughts. The human heart is like a reed bed and a forest. There are ideas there like lions, and ideas like wild donkeys."

57

"Why do you leave your tongue without dua (supplication)? Are you among those who expect the door to open without knocking?"

58

"Why do they belittle something as small as a fig seed! Is the heart really so much greater than a fig? See what people suffer from what falls into the heart, even if it is as small as a fig seed."

59

"Do not be sad, says Mawlana, and continues: If you have both fear and hope, you will have two wings. One cannot fly with a single wing anyway. The purpose of beating a carpet with a stick is not to beat the carpet, but to remove its dust. When Allah gives you hardship, He removes your dust and dirt. Why do you grieve? Unless a stone passes through stoniness, it cannot become a ring for fingers. A stone that wishes to become a ring must be willing to be crushed and carved!"

60

"My mind asked my heart: 'What is iman (faith)?' My heart leaned to my mind's ear and said: 'Iman is adab (proper conduct).'"

61

"The beauty of a plant comes from the goodness of its seed. The beauty of a human comes from their qalb (heart)."

62

"Open your eyes and look at the Qur'an. All the verses (āyāt) of the Qur'an, the word of Allah, teach adab (proper conduct)."

63

"O human, even if you are as high as Mount Qaf, you are small enough to fit in a shroud. Do not forget, everything has an account; you will be saddened as much as you have saddened others."

64

"What is justice? To give water to the trees. What is oppression? To water the thorns. Justice is to put a blessing in its proper place. It is not to water every seed that absorbs water. What is oppression? To use something out of place, to use it where it does not belong."

65

"If you do not want anyone to do evil to you, do not be one who speaks evil, teaches evil, or thinks evil."

66

"Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself."

67

"Suppose you understood what I wrote. What about what you could not understand? What about what I wrote and erased? What about what I could not write?"

68

"Rather than eating honey with the ignorant, eat dry bread with the scholar."

69

"When snow falls on the mountains you trust, the best solution is to leave the mountain and the snow alone together."

70

"Everyone thinks about the death of their body. No one thinks about the death of their heart. What truly matters is the death of the heart."

71

"This path is yours, and only yours. Others may walk with you, but they cannot walk for you."

72

"Promise to be a flower and scatter smiles around you. There will be someone who, like the earth, will carry you upon their head."