![]() ![]() ![]() ‘Joyful the moment when we sat in the bower, Thou and I Show mercy, and God will have mercy upon you. And in this short prayer, the poet makes a simple but effective argument: be good to God, and God will be good to you. It should come as no surprise that such a religious poet as Rumi wrote prayers, too. ‘May God have mercy on those who lead the wayĪnd those who come behind and those who fulfill their vows …’ The poet then goes on to list all of the things which God does for the individual – including giving us all a ‘kingdom’ beyond our wildest dreams. Here’s one of Rumi’s best-known religious poems, which begins with an arresting rhetorical question: where will you find someone more liberal than God? Yes: even words can fail, and there’s a time to talk (and to write poems) and a time to succumb to ardent romantic and even sensual desire.Īnd gives you the Divine Fount sweeter than sugar …’ In this short lyric, Rumi privileges the burning passion of intense desire over the value of thought or words. Love is here figured as a way to come to God, but although Rumi is thinking of religious devotion, his reference to ‘love’ here appears to encompass other kinds of devotion, too: romantic love can also be a way to reach God, a form of worship. These two things are not mutually exclusive in his work, as this popular poem demonstrates. Much of Rumi’s poetry is about love and about God. ![]()
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