Rumi Quotes on Love
Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi was a thirteenth-century Persian poet, jurist, and Sufi mystic, born in what is now Afghanistan and settling at Konya in Anatolia. This page collects quotes attributed to Rumi on the topic of love, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
-
Attributed to Rumi:
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.”
-
Attributed to Rumi:
“What you seek is seeking you.”
-
Attributed to Rumi:
“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
-
“Anyone in whom the troublemaking self has died, sun and cloud obey. As his heart is afire with knowledge and love, the sun cannot burn him.”
Masnavi | I, 3004-5 (tr. Helminski, 1990) -
“For love of our Almighty God, the Lord of all, Who would not die; a stock, a block, we needs must call.”
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations(1911) | p. 26 (Redhouse) -
“Alas for this life so light, beware of this slumber so heavy, O soul seek the Beloved, O friend seek the Friend O watchman be wakeful; it behoves not a watchman to sleep.”
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations(1911) | p. 88, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson) -
“Every moment the voice of Love is coming from left and right We are bound for heaven; who has a mind to sight-seeing?”
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations(1911) | p. 118, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson) -
“'Twere better that the spirit which wears not true love as a garment Had not been; its being is but shame.”
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations(1911) | p. 248, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson) -
“Prize not at all life that has passed without love, Love is the water of life: receive it in thy heart and soul.”
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations(1911) | pp. 288–9, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson) -
“If in thirst you drink water from a cup, you see God in it. Those who are not in love with God will see only their own faces in it.”
Masnavi | VI, 3640 (ed. Fadiman and Frager, 1997) -
“The fire of Love cooks me Every night it drags me to the Tavern. It seats me with the People of the Tavern So that no one except the People of the Tavern will know me.”
Masnavi | "The States of the Lover" (tr. Gamard and Farhadi) -
“'Tis slave-caressing thy love has practised, Else, where is the heart worthy of that love? Every heart that has slept one night in thine air Is like radiant day; thereby the air is illuminated.”
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations(1911) | p. 42, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson) -
“O indestructible Love! O divine minstrel Thou art both stay and refuge; a name equal to thee I have not found.”
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations(1911) | p. 78, Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz (Nicholson) -
“If you desire that God may be pleasing to you, Then look at Him with the eyes of those that love Him. Look not at that Beauty with your own eyes, Look at that Object of desire with His votaries’ eyes.”
A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations(1911) | p. 99 (Whinfield)