Who knows what they really laughed at , I gave that as an example of our misperception of the whole message of Rumi. If someone doesn't care about what he is trying to say, than it's no different than going to Disneyland, it just makes the day.

If we look at his work poem by poem than everybody can claim different interpretations but there is no need to do that, that's what contemporary translators are already doing. We should look at the whole message to see how justified we are. And the whole message stresses on one thing– obey, submit, become subservient– become a voluntary sufferer. There is not one quatrain that says something opposite. It doesn't say please yourself by reading my poems. It says don't be pleased at all because you can not achieve that by yourself only God can give that to you if you suffer and submit.

Well, writing this down here is easy, but doing it needs guts and there is a lot to do and what I see in my community is no one is even aware of this. Like everything else we calibrated Rumi's work into our inverse culture for the love of comfort and lost the main message.
Just wanted to point that out.

When we are dead,
seek not our tomb in the earth,
but find it in the hearts of men.

— Epitaph on Rumi’s tomb at Konya, Turkey



"Wash your face
and purify yourself so that
you may see me!
Otherwise stay far away,
for I am my own witness!"
(D 1705)



"Now, you should know that Muhammad is the leader and guide.
As long as you don't come by Muhammad first, you won't reach us."


"Jesus is the comrade of Moses,
and Jonas is the comrade of Joseph,
but Muhammad sits alone, meaning, "I am distinct (from other Prophets).
Love is the ocean of deep spiritual meaning, and everyone in the ocean is like a fish.
And Muhammad is the pearl in the ocean. Look! I keep revealing this."


"Be among the community of believers who are blessed by Divine Mercy.
Don't abandon the way of conduct of Muhammad, but be commanded by it."


"Our friend is youthful good fortune, and our work is giving up the soul.
And Muhammad, the Pride of the World, is our caravan leader."


"The Light of Muhammad has become a thousand different branches (of knowledge),
and thousand, so that both this world and the next have been seized from end to end.
If Muhammad rips the veil open from a single branch, thousands of monks and priests
will tear the string of false belief from around their waists."


"This is the understanding of the verse
"We will set a seal on their mouths."
And this understanding is important
for the wayfarer on the spiritual path.
So that by his following the path of the Seal of the prophets,
the heavy restraints might perhaps be raised from his lips.
Any seals which the Prophets of the past left in place
have been taken off by the religion of Muhammad.
The unopened locks had also remained in place
and were opened by the power of the verse
"Truly, We have opened for you."
Muhammad is the intercessor for this world and the next world
~in this world for religion, and there for the Gardens of Paradise.
In this world, he says the prayer "May You show them the way!"
And in that world he says, "May you show them the moon!"
It was his custom in public appearance and in secret to pray,
"Guide my people, for they do not know (the right way)."
The gates of this world and the next are opened by means of his interceding prayer.
And his prayer is answered in both worlds.
It is this reason that he has been the Seal of the Prophets,
that, in regards to his great generosity, there never was anyone like him and there never will be.
Since in the case of a master who wins superiority in a skilled craft, don't you tell him,
"This skilled craft is sealed on account of you"?
O Muhammad, in regard to opening seals, you are the seal.
And in the world of the givers of the spirit, you are famous for generosity.
The intended meaning here is that the spiritual hints and indications given
by Muhammad are entirely openings within openings, within openings.
May a hundered thousand praises be upon his soul and the arrival and epochs of his sons.
Those good-fortuned sons of his succesors are born from the root of his soul and heart.
If they are from Baghdad and Herat or from Rayy,
they are his descendants without any need of bodily mixture of "water and clay".
Wherever the grafted branch grows, it is the same rose bush,
wherever the jar of wine ferments, it is the same batch of wine.
Even if the sun raises its head from the West,
it is the same identical sun, not something else.
O Pride of the prophets, O Treasure House of the Saints,
and O Palace of Special Choosing!
You are our Chief and other things as well."



"Whatever by divine destiny becomes lost to you,
know for sure it has saved you from difficulty.

Someone once asked, “What is Sufism?”
The Shaykh replied, “To feel joy in the heart at the coming of sorrow.”

Regard His chastisement as the eagle which carried off the Prophet’s boot,
that she might save his foot from the serpent’s bite.

O happy is the understanding that is not dusty and dim.
God has said, Grieve not for that which escapes you,

If the wolf comes and destroys your sheep,
for that God-sent affliction keeps away greater afflictions,
and that loss prevents much greater losses."



"Thy deeds (alone) are faithful: make of them thy refuge, for
they will come with thee into the depths of the tomb.

Therefor the Prophet said "For the purpsoe of (traversing)
this Way, there is no comrade more faithful than works.

If they be good they will be thy friends forever, and if they
be evil they will be (as) a snake in thy tomb."

How, O Father, can one do this work and earning in the Way
of righteousness without a master?

...Therefor strip the raiment of pride from thy body: in
learning, put on the garment of humility."
(M V 1050)


"The Law is like a lamp: It shows the Way.
Without a lamp, you will not be able to go forward.
When you enter the path, your going is the Way.
And when you reach
the goal, that is the Truth.

The Law may be compared to learning the theory of medicine.
The Way involves avoiding certain foods
and consuming certain rememdies on the basis of this theory.
Then the Truth is to find everlasting health
and to have no more need of theory and practice.

When man dies to the life of this world, the
Law and the Way will be cut off from him,
and only the Truth will remain...
The Law is knowledge, the Way is
works and the Truth is
attainement to God"
(M introd.)


"Think it not strange if the spirit veils the Beloved:
Engage in ascetic discipline and leave aside the
tumultuous ego!"
(D 2639)


"Purify yourself from the attributes of the self, so
that you may see your own pure essence!"
(D 12880)


"Know that the words of the Qur'an have an exterior (sense),
and under the exterior (sense) and interior (sense),
exceedingly overpowering:
And beneath that inward (sense)
a third interior (sense),
werein all intellect becomes lost.
The fourth interior (sense) of the Qur'an
none hath percieved at all, except God
the Peerless and Incomparable.
The exterior (sense) of the Qur'an is like a man's person,
for his features are visible, while his spirit is hidden.
A man's paternal and maternal uncles (may see him) for a hundered years,
and his (inward) state not see (so much as) the tip of a hair. "
(M IV 4245)


"The Qur'an is like a bride.
Although you pull
the veil away from her face,
she does not show herself to you.
When you investigate the Qur'an,
but recieve no joy or mystical unveling,
it is because your pulling at the veil
has caused you to be rejected.
The Qur'an has decieved you
and shown itself as ugly. It says,
"I am not a beautiful bride."
It is able to show itself
in any form it desires.
But if you stop pulling at its veil
and seek its good pleasure;
if you water its field, serve it from afar
and strive in that which pleases it,
then it will show you its face
without any need for you to draw aside its veil."
(F 229/236-237)

This may sound a bit evasive, and is not meant to be. One answer is in the broader context within which they placed the perspective in question, short highlights of Rumi's life. A good mystic isn't in the business of telling people when and where they are right and wrong. It's not about knowledge in your head. The beloved, the ineffable, the unspoken is best left uncorrected in those who do not "know" because mere words cannot convey it as if it were a set of directions to a physical destination. I suspect (but don't know) that most good Sufis would take a similar approach to such a question.

"I hope that our debate will remain within the boundaries of love,compassion and tolerance (in otherwords a reflection of Rumi himself)"

yes please :)

This makes me sad, but surely God had put a reason in this for those who seeks the path of truth.

Some might say" That's ok, we still love Rumi and his work, it's gives us the love, the compassion and the tolerance" and the reason why a few taps at this issue is because of the similar love and compassion for him, for people who likes his works and and the meaning of those words. From the perspective of ordinary people(including me), the Sufi path is brutal. It's unbearable and full of torment, but the extraction is peerless, timeless and adoring. In that case playing with the outcome of a lifelong effort is unfair and heartbreaking.

What happens if you try to change something perfect? You make it worse. I hope Barks' books work as an appetizer in this case and prepare us for the main course.