Being humble

Your defects are the ways that glory gets manifested. Whoever sees clearly what's diseased in himself begins to gallop on the way. There's nothing worse than thinking you are well enough. More than anything, self-complacency blocks the workmanship. Put your vileness up to a mirror and weep. Get that self-satisfaction flowing out of you!
(The Essential Rumi, pp. 141-142)

Your loving doesn't know its majesty, until it knows its helplessness.
(The Essential Rumi, pp. 143)

Humble living does not diminish. It fills. Going back to a simpler self gives wisdom.
(The Essential Rumi, p. 146)

So long as you have an iota of self-love left within you, no beloved would pay any attention to you. Neither would you be worthy of union or would any beloved grant you admittance. One must become totally indifferent to the self and inimical to the world in order for the beloved to show his face.
(Signs of the Unseen: The Discourses of Jalaluddin Rumi, p. 120)

God's Mercy is water -- it moves only towards low ground. I will become dust and Mercy's object in order to reach the All-Merciful.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 209)

What is pride? Heedlessness of the marrow... Not having lifted their eyes to the kernel of the kernel, they imagine the skin to be the kernel. The leader in this way was Iblis, for he fell prey to the snare of position.

Pride always seeks position and property... For these two nurses increase skin. They stuff it with fat and flesh and pride and arrogance.
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 90, somewhat rearranged)

To deem oneself exalted is to claim copartnership with God. As long as you have not died and become living through Him, you are a rebel seeking a realm for your copartnership. When you have become living through Him, you are indeed He. That is utter Oneness, how could that be copartnership?
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, pp. 183-184)

When Hallaj's love for God reached its utmost limit, he became his own enemy and naughted himself. He said, "I am God," that is, "I have been annihilated; God remains, nothing else." This is extreme humility and the utmost limit of servanthood. It means, "He alone is." To make a false claim and to be proud is to say. "Thou art God and I am the servant." For in this way you are affirming your own existence, and duality is the necessary result... Hence God said, "I am God." Other than He, nothing else existed. Hallaj had been annihilated, so those were the words of God.

Pharoah said, "I am God," and became despicable. Hallaj said "I am God," and was saved. That "I" brought with it God's curse, but this "I" brought His Mercy, oh friend! To say "I" at the wrong time is a curse, but to say it at the right time is a mercy. Without doubt Hallaj's "I" was a mercy, but that of Pharoah became a curse. Note this!
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, pp. 191-193)

©1999 by Deb Platt