From Rumi’s Fihi Ma Fihi: Discourses 59, 60 and 64, Part 2 of 2

“The Prophet [Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him,] says that Abu Bakr was superior to the other Companions, not due to his prayer and fasting, but because that special favor— the love of God—was with him. On the resurrection day, a person’s prayers will be placed in the balance along with their fasting and generosity, but once love is brought forth it cannot be contained by any balance. Therefore, love is the root. When you find love in your heart, then encourage it to grow. When you see the original investment within yourself, namely the desire for God, increase it through searching. ‘In movement is blessing.’ If you do not build on it, even the original desire will leave you.”

“How is it that when you were suffering you saw and found, but now you cannot see? Therefore, suffering is made to prevail over you to the end, so that you will remember God. The sinner is forgetful in times of ease and does not recollect God. In hell the sinner remembers night and day.

God created the world, Heaven and Earth, Moon, Sun and stars, good and evil, to remember Him, serve Him and proclaim His praise. Since the unbelievers do not remember unless they are suffering, and since their purpose in being created was to recollect God, they are sent suffering to remember Him. Believers, however, do not forget that suffering— they see suffering as always present. […]”

“Everything experienced is the science of Soul, everything based upon knowledge is the science of bodies. You could also say that the only truth is seeing and vision—all else is the science of fantasy. For example, an architect thinks through and imagines the building of a school. No matter how correct and accurate the architect’s thoughts, still it is fantasy. It becomes reality only after builders actually raise and construct the school.”

“They say there are seven hundred veils of darkness and seven hundred veils of light. Well, all the worlds of fantasy are veils of darkness, and all the worlds of realities are veils of light. But between those veils of darkness, there is no knowledge that can grasp their extreme subtlety, and despite the vast and enormous variation between the worlds of realities, those differences can never be comprehended by the mind.”