“One certainty is better than a hundred doubts.”

Original: یک یقین بهتر از صد گمان است. — A compressed preference for arrived knowledge over hopeful speculation. · Fihi Ma Fihi (Persian)

• Certainty
• Doubt
• Faith

“We have been praying that this conspiracy of things might come to an end. A conspiracy that produces separation is an improper conspiracy.”

Original: ما دعا می‌کردیم که این اتفاق چیزها به پایان رسد. اتفاقی که جدایی آرد اتفاق نیکو نیست. — A wry greeting to a long-absent visitor, turning chance into a moral question about distance. · Fihi Ma Fihi, Discourse 7 (Persian)

• Chance
• Friendship
• Separation

“If all reality were openly revealed, what need would there be for words? When the heart bears witness, the tongue’s testimony is superfluous.”

Original: اگر همه حقیقت آشکار بودی سخن را چه حاجت بودی؟ چون دل گواهی دهد گواهی زبان چه باید؟ — Speech is treated as a crutch for what the heart already knows. · Fihi Ma Fihi (Persian)

• Heart
• Truth
• Words

“Wise is the prince who stands at the door of the poor; wretched are the poor who stand at the door of the prince.”

Original: نیکو امیری است آن که بر در درویش ایستد و بد درویشی است آن که بر در امیر ایستد. — Need is judged by which threshold a person chooses to wait at. · Fihi Ma Fihi, Discourse 1 (Persian)

• Dignity
• Poverty
• Pride

“The worst of scholars are those who visit princes, and the best of princes are those who visit scholars.”

Original: شر علما آنانند که به زیارت امرا روند و خیر امرا آنان که به زیارت علما روند. — The opening discourse sets spiritual authority against the gravity of courts. · Fihi Ma Fihi, Discourse 1, citing a prophetic saying (Persian)

• Authority
• Learning
• Power

“When has religion ever been one? Here each faith has a different desire. Unity belongs to the resurrection, when all eyes fix on one place.”

Original: کی دین یکی بوده است؟ اینجا هر دینی را خواهشی دیگر است. یکی شدن در قیامت ممکن است که همه چشم بر یک جا نهند. — Rumi refuses a political shortcut to oneness while keeping a last horizon of shared gaze. · Fihi Ma Fihi, Discourse 7 (Persian)

• Difference
• Religion
• Unity

“Within us there is a mouse and there is a bird. The bird lifts the cage; the mouse drags it down.”

Original: در ما موش است و مرغ. مرغ قفس را بالا می‌برد و موش فرود می‌کشد. — The inner life is pictured as a single cage pulled by contrary creatures until both natures are given up. · Fihi Ma Fihi, Discourse 7 (Persian)

• Conflict
• Self
• Unity

“There is no “before” left to me. It has been a long time since I have had any before. If they come, they come before an image they believe to be me.”

Original: مرا پیشی نمانده است. دیر است که مرا پیش نیست. اگر می‌آیند پیش صورتی می‌آیند که آن را من می‌پندارند. — Rank and precedence dissolve once the self is no longer stationed as an object of approach. · Fihi Ma Fihi (Persian)

• Humility
• Presence
• Self

“I am a cobbler: leather is plentiful, but I cut and stitch according to the size of the foot.”

Original: من کفشگرم: چرم بسیار است، اما بر اندازه پا می‌برم و می‌دوزم. — Teaching, for Rumi, is fitted to the listener rather than poured out at full measure. · Fihi Ma Fihi, Discourse 25 (Persian)

• Measure
• Teaching
• Words

“He is beloved and humble, like a branch loaded with fruit: the fruit weighs it down. A branch with no fruit lifts its head high.”

Original: او محبوب و متواضع است چون شاخی که بار میوه دارد؛ میوه او را فرو می‌کشد. شاخ بی‌میوه سر برمی‌آورد. — Humility is treated as the natural posture of abundance, not of lack. · Fihi Ma Fihi, Discourse 25 (Persian)

• Abundance
• Character
• Humility

“Those who say “I am the servant of God” still affirm two beings: themselves and God. Those who say “I am God” have become nothing and thrown themselves to the wind.”

Original: آن که گوید من بنده خدایم دو وجود اثبات کرده است: خود و خدا. آن که گوید انا الحق نیست شده است و خود را به باد داده. — Servanthood can still be a form of dualism; annihilation is presented as the deeper courtesy. · Fihi Ma Fihi, Discourse 11 (Persian)

• Dualism
• God
• Humility

“Some think “I am God” is a great pretension. It is in fact a great humility: it means I am not; God is all.”

Original: این که می‌گویند انا الحق گمان می‌کنند دعوی بزرگ است، و حال آن که نهایت تواضع است: یعنی من نیستم، همه اوست. — Rumi recasts Hallaj’s utterance as self-erasure rather than self-exaltation. · Fihi Ma Fihi, Discourse 11 (Persian)

• God
• Humility
• Self

“These words are for those who need words in order to understand. For those who understand without words, what use is speech?”

Original: این سخن برای آن کس است که سخن می‌باید تا بفهمد. اما آن را که بی‌سخن فهم می‌کند سخن چه فایده دارد؟ — A teacher’s defence of both talking and not talking, according to the hearer’s need. · Fihi Ma Fihi, Discourse 6 (Persian)

• Teaching
• Understanding
• Words

“It was the thought of me that brought you here. That thought did not speak a word, yet without words it drew you.”

Original: خیال من تو را به حضور من آورد. این خیال با تو سخن نگفت که حال تو چون است؛ خیال بی‌سخن تو را اینجا کشید. — Rumi answers the charge of silence by arguing that presence already speaks before speech begins. · Fihi Ma Fihi, Discourse 2 (Persian)

• Presence
• Silence
• Speech

“A human being has come into this world for a particular work. That is the purpose. If it is not performed, nothing has been done.”

Original: پس آدمی در این عالم برای کاری آمده است و مقصود آن است، چون آن نمی‌گزارد پس هیچ نکرده باشد. — The remark turns vocation into a spiritual test rather than a career inventory. · Fihi Ma Fihi, Discourse 4 (Persian)

• Purpose
• Vocation
• Work

“There is one thing in this world that must never be forgotten. If you forget everything else and remember that, you need not worry; if you remember everything else and forget that, you have done nothing at all.”

Original: در عالم یک چیز است که آن فراموش کردنی نیست. اگر جمله چیزها را فراموش کنی و آن را فراموش نکنی باک نیست و اگر جمله را به جای آری و یاد داری و آن را فراموش کنی هیچ نکرده باشی. — Rumi frames human life as a single entrusted task, beside which every other achievement is empty. · Fihi Ma Fihi, Discourse 4 (Persian)

• Duty
• Life
• Purpose