Rumi: Fragments, Ecstasies

The fragments collected here include the essence of Rumi's teaching, distilled from over 60,000 verses composed by the 13th century Sufi master. Jelaluddin Rumi may be the greatest poet the world has known, and is the most widely-read poet today - seven centuries after his death! The secret of this mystery lies within these pages. The poems of the Sufis of Persia and elsewhere, such as Hafiz and Jami, Rumi and Farid-ud-Din Attar, are not only philosophical statements, but they are written from beginning to end in admiration of beauty. And if one were to dive deep into their every verse, one would find that each one is equal to a hundred books full of philosophy. Why? Because their souls have been moved to dance at the sight of beauty. What they have expressed in their words is living, burning full of beauty. It penetrates the one who can feel it, who can admire it. Jelaluddin Rumi gave a new life and a new form to the mystic current, and it is from his time that the Sufi mystic culture spread throughout the world. He is the first mystic who came forward in the world and said that the essence of spirituality is the quality of heart. No mystic will ever say it as Rumi has: "Whether you love man or whether you love God, at the end of your destiny you will be brought before the King of love." The difference between Jelaluddin Rumi's work and the work of the great Hafiz of Persia is that Hafiz has pictured the outer life, whereas Rumi has pictured the inner life. And if I were to compare the three greatest poets of Persia, I would call Sa'di the body of the poet, Hafiz the heart of the poet, and Rumi the soul of the poet.