The Intellectual
The Intellectual The intellectual is always showing off; the lover is always getting lost. The intellectual runs away, afraid of drowning; the whole business…
Ever drunk with love
Poetic version by Jonathan Star and Shahram Shiva “A Garden Beyond Paradise – The Mystical Poetry of Rumi” Bantam Books, 1992 Poem here >>…
Choosing sweetness or vinegar
Poem by Rumi translated by Nader Khalili. don’t need a companion who is nasty sad and sour the one who is like a grave…
“The sea is seeking you” (Rumi)
Silence is the sea, and speech is like the river. The sea is seeking you: don’t seek the river. Don’t turn your head away…
Open the Door
Rumi again, translated by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi. Read poem here >>…
Only You
“Only You” poem by Rumi, translated by Nader Khalili Only you i choose among the entire world Is it fair of you letting me…
“Give yourself a kiss” – Rumi
What can I write more about these lyrical lines and a thought process immersed in love. Version by Coleman Barks “Like This” Maypop, 1990…
The Source of Joy – Rumi
Poem by Rumi No one knows what makes the soul wake up so happy! Maybe a dawn breeze has blown the veil from the…
Once you conquer your selfish self – Rumi
Once you conquer your selfish self – Rumi don’t be bitter my friend you’ll regret it soon hold to your togetherness or surely you’ll scatter…
Sufi Zikr – inspiration for a painting
This is a painting that I revisited and converted its earlier abstract form into a calligraphic experiment. Now the challenge was that in addition…
On Rumi, Iqbal and ‘Dynamic Sufism’
Pakistan celeberates Allama Iqbal’s death anniversary on April 21 with the usual lip-service. The key messages of Iqbal seem to have been lost in…
In silence
There is a channel between voice and presence, a way where information flows. In disciplined silence the channel opens. With wandering talk, it closes.…
Let go of all distractions
My heart, sit only with those who know and understand you. Sit only under a tree, that is full of blossoms. In the bazaar…
Immersed in His glow – Rumi
where have you gone the settler of my soul did you fly away or hide in your home as soon as you saw the…
O how the Beloved fits inside my heart
O how the Beloved fits inside my heart; Like a thousand souls in one body, A thousand harvests in one sheaf of wheat, A…
Turned by the Waves of Love
Know that the wheeling heavens are turned by waves of Love: were it not for Love, the world would be frozen, stiff. How would…
Unending thirst – Rumi
I don’t get tired of You. Don’t grow weary of being compassionate toward me! All this thirst-equipment must surely be tired of me, the…
Seek the Fountain Within Yourself
There are two kinds of intelligence. One is that acquired by a child at school from books and teachers, new ideas and memorization. Your…
All Colors Become One
The baptism of God is the dyeing vat of Hu, God’s absoluteness, in which all colors become one. When the contemplative falls into that…
He set the world aflame – Rumi
He set the world aflame, And laid me on the same; A hundred tongues of fire Lapped round my pyre. And when the blazing…