'less of yourself, more al-Rumi - "open yourself"'

So you're not saying much these days, and don't have any thoughts on Hollywood, haven't posted any of the political articles you've read, and don't write much about an intense burning growing in your chest - there are secrets that can only be told from ear to ear, and there are times when only poets can tell what one feels in one's breast. While the world is sustained by 'ahli-dunya', may Allah liberate us from all constriction and oppression caused by our love for it; love them, but don't be them - 'be in the world, not of it' as the ahli-turuq of earlier prophets used to say. may kindred hearts find comfort in these words, and know their meaning - and may Allah bring us to fulfillment of our Love as He Wills.

salaam, brother Dawud.

more from the Master who left Khorasan to open the West:
"When you do things from your soul,
you feel a river moving in you,
a joy.

When actions come from another section,
the feeling disappears.

Don't let others lead you.
They may be blind,
or worse, vultures.
Reach for the rope
of God.
And what is that?

Putting aside self-will.

Because of willfulness
people sit in jail.
From willfulness,
the trapped birds' wings are tied.
From willfulness,
the fish sizzles in the skillet.

The anger of police is willfulness.
You've seen
a magistrate inflict visible punishment.
Now see the invisible.

If you could leave selfishness,
you would see
how your soul has been tortured.

We are born and live inside black water in a well.
How could we know what an open field of sunlight is?

Don't insist on going where you think you want to go.
Ask the way to the Spring.

Your living pieces will form a harmony.

There is a moving palace
that floats through the air,
with balconies and clear water
running in every part of it,
infinity everywhere,
yet contained under a single tent."[2]

[2]Dar del-e har ommati kaz Haqq mazeh-st
ruy o âvâz-e payambar mo`jezeh-st
Chon payambar az berun bângi zanad
jân-e ommat dar darun sajdeh konad
Zânkeh jens-e bâng-e u andar jahân
az kasi na-shenideh bâshad gush-e jân
n gharib az zawq-e âvâz-e gharib
az zabân-e Haqq shonud "inni qarib"

-- Mathnawi II: 3598-3601
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Daylight"
Threshold Books, 1994
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahya Monastra