Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Persian mystic, a Muslim dervish and a Sufi poet is a well-known name in all cultures. Born in 1207 almost 807 years ago, this Sufi master has made an impression on every heart with his ecstatic poems and Rumi quotes. He has a huge following in the United States of America and all over the world. His poems have sold millions of copies and he is considered the most popular poet in the US.
Rumi’s wisdom has breached all the national, international and ethnic borders. Almost every person must have read Rumi quotes on life at some stage in their lives. His poetry has inspired and influenced millions of people and artists. His words have the power to penetrate the hearts and they have kept many people sane through the miseries of life.
Who was Rumi?
Rumi was a scholar and a religion teacher who met a wandering dervish named Shams Tabrizi when he was 37 years old. Shams and Rumi became such close friends that this bond changed Rumi’s life forever. Shams became everything for Rumi, a spiritual mentor and a very dear friend. However, Shams disappeared mysteriously after three years of friendship with Rumi.
It is said that Rumi’s son might have murdered Shams out of jealousy. This incident broke Rumi and he was completely devastated. But Rumi used the pain of this loss as inspiration and started writing poems. The poetic verses written by Rumi are based on mystical experiences. They reflect the beauty of nature, describe an idea or feeling and address everything that makes you human.
Rumi Quotes on Love
Here, I will compile some of the great Rumi quotes on love that will exhibit the spirituality and intensity of his poems. Also, they will give you a new and positive perspective on life.
- “When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”
- “Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.”
- “We carry inside us the wonders we seek outside us.”
- “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
- “Only from the heart can you touch the sky.”
- “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”
- “Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love.”
- “Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.”
- “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
- “What you seek is seeking you.”
- “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
- “You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?”
- “Your heart knows the way. Run in that direction.”
- “Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.”
- “Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free.”
- “Love is the bridge between you and everything.”
- “Everything that is made beautiful and fair and lovely is made for the eye of one who sees.”
- “If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?”
- “Why should I be unhappy? Every parcel of my being is in full bloom.”
- “What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle.”
- “Keep silent, because the world of silence is a vast fullness.”
- “Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”
- “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean, in a drop.”
- “Ignore those that make you fearful and sad, that degrade you back towards disease and death.”
- “Knock, And He’ll open the door Vanish, And He’ll make you shine like the sun Fall, And He’ll raise you to the heavens Become nothing, And He’ll turn you into everything”
- “Words are a pretext. It is the inner bond that draws one person to another, not words.”
- “Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you.”
- “Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation.”
- “I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think.”
- “Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames.”
- “My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that, and I intend to end up there.”
- “Silence is the language of god, All else is poor translation.”
- “I know you’re tired but come, this is the way.”
- “Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.”
- “These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.”
- “Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself. Cleverness is mere opinion. Bewilderment brings intuitive knowledge.”
- “This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.”
- “Ignore those that make you fearful and sad, that degrade you back towards disease and death.”
- “And so it is, that both the devil and the angelic spirits present us with objects of desire to awaken our power of choice.”
- “In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art.”
- “Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love.”
- “Whenever they rebuild an old building, they must first of all destroy the old one.”
- “Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah…it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.”
- “As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.”
- “Reason is powerless in the expression of love.”
- “There is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled. There is a void in your soul, ready to be filled. You feel it, don’t you?”
- “Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of that which you truly love.”
- “You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.”
- “Would you become a pilgrim on the road of love? The first condition is that you make yourself humble as dust and ashes.”
- “Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absentminded. Someone sober will worry about things going badly. Let the lover be.”
- “Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.”
- “Your heart is the size of an ocean. Go find yourself in its hidden depths.”
- “Travel brings power and love back into your life.”
- “Take someone who doesn’t keep score, who’s not looking to be richer, or afraid of losing, who has not the slightest interest even in his own personality: he’s free.”
- “Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”
- “When the world pushes you to your knees, you’re in the perfect position to pray.”
- “Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.”
- “I am not this hair, I am not this skin, I am the soul that lives within.”
- “Be like a tree and let the dead leaves drop.”
- “Why do you stay in prison, when the door is so wide open?”
- “Be full of sorrow, that you may become hill of joy; weep, that you may break into laughter.”
- “I have been a seeker and I still am, but I stopped asking the books and the stars. I started listening to the teaching of my Soul.”
- “A thousand half-loves must be forsaken to take one whole heart home.”
- “The Prophets accept all agony and trust it. For the water has never feared the fire.”
- “Be empty of worrying. Think of who created thought.”
- “We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust.”
- “The very center of your heart is where life begins – the most beautiful place on earth.”
- “Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.”
- “Seek the wisdom that will untie your knot. Seek the path that demands your whole being.”
- “Two there are who are never satisfied — the lover of the world and the lover of knowledge.”
Mentioned above are some of the beautiful Rumi quotes that I love. I have compiled them for you so that you can also get the required inspiration in your life. Do give them a read if you want to view life with a new perspective.