Rumi on evolution
I am grateful to Isa Daudpota for providing this translation by Jalaluddin Rumi’s verses that elaborate on the theory of evolution: I have experienced…
What is this?
One day Rumi was sitting in his personal library with a group of his students gathered around him for his lecture. Suddenly, Shems entered…
The Perils of Reporting in Pakistan
The toll of Taliban attacks is measured in more than bodies. By MARY LOUISE KELLY Stay in the news business long enough, and you…
Without clouds shedding tears
Without the eyes – two clouds – the lightning of the heart: The fire of God’s threat, how could it be allayed? How would…
Rumi on Chinese Art and Greek Art
The Prophet said, “There are some who see Me by the same Light in which I am seeing them. Our natures are ONE. Without…
Rumi’s ants
From Rumi’s Mathnawi – Part VI: 2955-2962 The spirit is like an ant, and the body like a grain of wheat which the ant…
The sign of intimate friendship
Rumi on the beauty of spiritually intimate associations.. It is a sign of intimate friendship when speech flows freely from the heart; without intimacy,…
Rumi – You and I, in the Palace
Happy is the moment, when we sit together, With two forms, two faces, yet one soul, you and I. The flowers will bloom forever,…
Story-Water
I am posting two versions of Rumi’s captioned poem from the Mathnavi A story is like the water you heat for your bath. It…
What do you think will happen? Eid Mubarak
Eid Mubarak to all the readers. Here is a poem by Rumi if you can’t go to sleep my dear soul for tonight what…
the two insomnias
“When I am with you, we stay up all night. When you’re not here, I can’t go to sleep. Praise God for those two…
As soon as you clear your hearing
The voice of a saviour will shortly be heard as soon as you clear your hearing don’t drink now this polluted water the elixir…
One live flame
“if your beloved has the life of a fire step in now and burn along in a night full of suffering and darkness be…
Addicted to subtle discussions
We’re quite addicted to subtle discussions; we’re very fond of solving problems. So that we may tie knots and then undo them, we constantly…
All I have to offer…
Rest your cheek, for a moment, on this drunken cheek. Let me forget the war and cruelty inside myself. I hold these silver coins…
Each Note
Advice doesn’t help lovers! They’re not the kind of mountain stream you can build a dam across. An intellectual doesn’t know what the drunk…
“What do you really possess?”
What do you really possess, and what have you gained? What pearls have you brought up from the depth of the sea? On the…
Any Chance Meeting
In every gathering, in any chance meeting on the street, there is a shine, an elegance rising up. Today, I recognized that that jewel-like…
When the heart becomes whole
When the heart becomes whole, it will know the flavors of falsehood and truth. When Adam’s greed for the forbidden fruit increased, it robbed…
For I do not recognise myself
ATP recently published a piece of mine on Rumi and Bulleh Shah. I have quoted a translation of Rumi’s verse (rendered by Reynold A.…