(no subject)
From my The Essential RUMI book:
There's a strong connection between Jesus and Rumi. I'm told a Christian church in Shiraz (Iran) has a qiatrain from Rumi carved in stone over its door:
Where Jesus lives, the great-hearted gather.
We are a door that's never locked.
If you are suffering any kind of pain,
stay near this door. Open it.
A sweet inclusiveness and healing mercy are felt around both. The Friendship of Rumi and Shams has no parallel in the great aloneness of Jesus' life, but the relationship with children and with society's outcasts is very similar. Rumi showed deep consideration for the least-recognized members of his thirteenth-century Muslim small town. He would always stop to bow to children and old women, to bless and be blessed by them. One day an Armenian butcher, a Christian, was passing. Rumi stopped in the road and bowed seven times to him. Another day he came upon children playing a game. He acknowledged each as he would have an adult. And there was one little boy far away running across a field. 'Wait, I'm coming!' Rumi stayed till the boy had come close, bowed, and been bowed to.
I called through your door,
'The mystics are gathering
in the street. Come out!'
"Leave me alone.
I'm sick."
"I don't care if you're dead!"
Jesus is here, and he wants
to resurrect somebody!"
--
Christ is the population of the world,
and every object as well. There is no room
for hypocrisy. Why use bitter soup for healing
when sweet water is everywhere?
(Translations and text by Coleman Barks with John Moyne)
There's a strong connection between Jesus and Rumi. I'm told a Christian church in Shiraz (Iran) has a qiatrain from Rumi carved in stone over its door:
Where Jesus lives, the great-hearted gather.
We are a door that's never locked.
If you are suffering any kind of pain,
stay near this door. Open it.
A sweet inclusiveness and healing mercy are felt around both. The Friendship of Rumi and Shams has no parallel in the great aloneness of Jesus' life, but the relationship with children and with society's outcasts is very similar. Rumi showed deep consideration for the least-recognized members of his thirteenth-century Muslim small town. He would always stop to bow to children and old women, to bless and be blessed by them. One day an Armenian butcher, a Christian, was passing. Rumi stopped in the road and bowed seven times to him. Another day he came upon children playing a game. He acknowledged each as he would have an adult. And there was one little boy far away running across a field. 'Wait, I'm coming!' Rumi stayed till the boy had come close, bowed, and been bowed to.
I called through your door,
'The mystics are gathering
in the street. Come out!'
"Leave me alone.
I'm sick."
"I don't care if you're dead!"
Jesus is here, and he wants
to resurrect somebody!"
--
Christ is the population of the world,
and every object as well. There is no room
for hypocrisy. Why use bitter soup for healing
when sweet water is everywhere?
(Translations and text by Coleman Barks with John Moyne)