Ahmed Samir

“Last year I admired wines.
This year I am wandering inside the red world.
Last year I gazed at the fire.
This year I am burnt kabob.

Thirst drove me down to the water,
where I drank the moon's reflection.
Now I am a lion staring up
totally lost in love with the thing itself.

Do not ask questions about longing.
Look in my face.

Soul-drunk, body-ruined, these two
sit helpless in a wrecked wagon.
Neither knows how to fix it.
And my heart, I would say it is more
like a donkey sunk in a mudhole,
strugglings and miring deeper.

But listen to me. For one moment
quit being sad. Hear blessings
dropping their blossoms
around you. God.”
― Rumi

“From the viewpoint of reality, all the senses see one thing, but from the standpoint of outward form they are each different from the other. When one sense is moved to absorption, all the senses become absorbed in it.

Absorption is such that whoever enters it is no longer there. They make no more efforts, they cease to act and move. They are immersed in the water. No action is their action; it is the action of the water. But if they flail about in the water with their hands and feet, they are not truly submerged. If they utter a cry, “I am drowning,” this too is not absorption.”
― Rumi, It Is What It Is: The Personal Discourses of Rumi

“Cautious people say, "I'll

do nothing until I can be sure." Merchants know better.
If you do nothing, you lose.

Don't be one of those merchants who won't risk the ocean!
This is much more important

than losing or making money. This is your connection to God!
You must set fire to have

light. Trust means you're ready to risk what you currently have. Think of your fear and

hope about your livelihood. They make you go to work
diligently every day. Now

consider what the prophets have done. Abraham wore fire for an anklet. Moses spoke

to the sea. David molded iron. Solomon rode the wind.
Work in the invisible world

at least as hard as you do in the visible. Be companions
with the prophets even though

no one here will know that you are, not even the helpers of the qutb, the abdals. You

can't imagine what profit will come! When one of those
generous ones invites you

into his fire, go quickly! Don't say, "But will it burn me? Will it hurt?”
― Rumi, The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Ecstatic Poems – Coleman Barks's Sublime Renderings of the 13th-Century Sufi Mystic's Insights into Divine Love and the Human Heart

“When you look for God,
God is in the look of your eyes
In the thought of looking, nearer to you than your self,
or things that have happened to you

There’s no need to go outside.
Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself.

A white flower grows in the quietness.
Let your tongue become that flower.”
― Rumi