"Children running" interpretation of Rumi

I used to be shy,
and You made me sing.

I used to refuse to eat,
now, I call for more wine.

I used to sit in somber dignity,
on my mat and pray.

Now, children run around
and make funny faces at me.

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Rumi was a Muslim spiritual leader and this poem may raise some eyebrows;
alcohol is forbidden and prayer is utmost respected,
yet Rumi as a Sufi mystic is trying to make another point from a simple decadence.

His understanding of God's omnipresence transcends convention.
He understands and sees God everywhere, in love, in happiness and especially in children faces.
He does not limit God to self-restraint, fasting and the prayers.

"A Candle About To Burn Out" interpretation of Rumi

When candle becomes one with the flame,

at that very moment before its own annihilation

it casts no shadow.

It becomes nothing,
but a tongue of light.

Look at this stub
as is about to finish
as someone who is finally safe
from all virtues and vices of life
-- the pride and the shame
which were born of these.


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Rumi, the 12th century Sufi mystic is showing us the main concept of
oneness with God in Islam (tawhid) -- when the person finds herself at
total peace and love, where there is no pride and shame, where there
is no duality or confusion.

God in revelation to Moses by Rumi

"Did you come as a Prophet to unite, or to sever?

I have given each being
a separate and unique way
of seeing and knowing
and saying that knowledge.

What seems wrong to you
is right for him.
What is poison to one
is honey to someone else.

[...]

I am apart from all that.
Ways of worshipping
are not to be ranked as better
or worse than one another.

Hindus do Hindu things.
The Dravidian Muslims in India do what they do.
It's praise, and it's all right.

It's not me that's glorified in acts of worship.
It's the worshipers!
I don't hear the words they say.
I look inside at the humility."

- God in revelation to Moses (by Rumi)