Bahauddin-Father of Rumi

Why Sufis Wear Graveclothes  (1:293-294)

As constellations bless the nightsky (25:61), we live in a house whose interior illuminates, with outside a dark roof.  This bright within pitchblack is the truth and why Sufis wear graveclothes outermost, so they won't seem self-absorbed.  We're dead, they call out to the street.  We have no part in anything happening here, yet every grief is ours.   ***

Doubting  (1:131)

Their knowing fails in the unseen.  They doubt and stay blind to that reality (27:66).  You can explain this world to a man who has been stone-blind from birth, but he will remain confused.  His ignorance has no power to conceive the beautiful face of this world.  The beauty simply remains what it is, in its glory.  So when you are told about spirit, the hereafter, and you stay unsure, your doubting does not change, nor do the qualities or the fact of spirit and soul.

I was talking about the beautiful young women and the paradisal gardens with a wise man, my elder.  He said, if you are preoccupied with these things now, you will continue to be in the unseen.    Move instead toward the divine mystery, and only that.  I replied that I see the paradise rivers through God, so they are always changing and giving various pleasures.

With you wherever you are (57:4).  Ask for what you want.  Then dissolve like honey in milk.  The doors will open, and you will see that you are already living inside the presence.