Theologians mumble, rumble-dumple, necessity and free will,
while lover and beloved pull themselves into each other.
(The Essential Rumi, p. 180)
His mental questionings form the barrier. His physical eyesight
bandages his knowing. Self-consciousness plugs his ears.
(The Essential Rumi, p. 256)
That intellectual warp and woof keeps you wrapped in blindness.
(The Essential Rumi, p. 66)
The external forms of all created people and things are like goblets, while such things as knowledge, art, and learning are decoration on the goblet. Don't you see that when the goblet is shattered none of these "decorations" remain? The important thing therefore is the wine, which takes its shape from the goblet. Whoever sees and drinks the wine knows that good works are permanent [Koran 18:46]
(Signs of the Unseen: The Discourses of Jalaluddin Rumi, p. 75)
Someone was saying: "I have studied so many branches of knowledge and mastered so many concepts; yet I still do not know which concept in man will abide forever. I have not discovered it yet."
If it could be known by means of words, there would be no need for the annihilation of individual existence or for so much suffering. You must strive to rid yourself of your own individuation before you can know that thing which will remain.
(Signs of the Unseen: The Discourses of Jalaluddin Rumi, p. 203)
The great scholars of the age split hairs in all the sciences. They have gained total knowledge and complete mastery of things that have nothing to do with them. But that which is important and closer to him than anything else, namely his own self, this your great scholar does not know.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 148)
"I know everything permitted and not permitted by the Divine Law." How is it you do not know if you yourself are permitted... You know the value of every merchandise, but you do not know your own value -- that is stupidity... The spirit of all the sciences is only this: to know who you will be on the Day of Resurrection.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 128)
Since cleverness is your pride and fills you with wind, become a simpleton so that your heart may remain healthy. Not a simpleton warped by buffoonery, but one distraught and bewildered in God.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 224)
Intellect is good and desirable to the extent it brings you to the King's door. Once you have reached His door, then divorce the intellect! From this time on, the intellect will be to your loss and a brigand. When you reach Him, entrust yourself to Him! You have no business with the how and the wherefore. Know that the intellect's cleverness all belongs to the vestibule. Even if it possesses the knowledge of Plato, it is still outside of the palace.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 222)
No creature is without connection to Him, but that connection is ineffable... For within the spirit is no separation or joining, but thought cannot conceive of other than these two... How should the intellect find its way to that connection? For it is in bondage to separation and joining.
Hence Muhammad counseled us, "Do not investigate God's Essence!" That which can be conceived concerning His Essence -- that in reality is not with a view toward His Essence.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 44)
You seek knowledge from books. What a shame! ...
You are an ocean of knowledge hidden in a dew drop...
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 64)
I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens. I've been knocking from the inside!
(The Essential Rumi, p. 281)
Mysteries are not to be solved.
(The Essential Rumi, p. 107)
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