When you whirl, your eye sees the room whirling, too.
If you sail in a ship over the sea,
it seems the seashore is running past.
If your heart is oppressed with struggle,
the whole atmosphere of the world feels tight;
but if you are happy as your friends would wish,
this world seems to be a garden of roses.

Rumi
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
“Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance”
Threshold Books, 1996

Poem by Rumi translated by Nader Khalili. Read it here >>

Poetic version by Jonathan Star and Shahram Shiva
“A Garden Beyond Paradise - The Mystical Poetry of Rumi” Bantam Books, 1992

Poem here >>

Pakistan celeberates Allama Iqbal’s death anniversary on April 21 with the usual lip-service. The key messages of Iqbal seem to have been lost in the maze of officialdom.

Full entry here >>

Rumi again, translated by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi. Read poem here >>

What can I write more about these lyrical lines and a thought process immersed in love.

Version by Coleman Barks
“Like This”
Maypop, 1990

Full entry here >>

Full entry here >>

Watch this video by a Pakistani folk artist!

Poem by Rumi click here >> 

Version by Coleman Barks
“Say I am You”
Maypop, 1994

Kashful Mahjub is one of the early treatises on Sufism and has shown light to many Sufis world-wide. Full entry here >>

The more awake one is to the material world,
the more one is asleep to spirit.
When our soul is asleep to God,
other wakefulness closes the door of Divine grace.

Rumi

Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski

Amardeep has posted the following Sufi parable related by Idries Shah with a request to respond to his humorous interpretation. Full entry here >>

From Rumi: Hidden Music, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001

Translated by Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi

Yesterday, devotees were lighting lamps at the shrine of Mian Mir in Lahore to commemorate the saint’s 383rd Urs (death anniversary). Full article here >>

For Indians unfamiliar with Urdu or Persian literature Bedil presents a bit of a paradox: he was born in Patna (died in Delhi) but he is among the world’s greatest Persian poets, and the most loved poet of Afghanistan and Tajikistan—but unknown in India.

Full entry here >>

One of my favourite verses of the Quran is Surah Al Azhab which makes it  clear that spiritual blessings are intended for both righteous men and women who are equal in the eyes of God.

Full entry here >>

Translation by Nader Khalili
“Rumi, Fountain of Fire”
Cal-Earth Press, 1994