The True Sufi
The True Sufi - meaning Summary
Purity Defines the Sufi
Rumi defines true Sufism as an inward purity rather than outward signs or ascetic costume. The Sufi perceives the essential, finding ease within hardship and joy amid suffering. He is untroubled by external guardians or social censors, moving fearlessly into the beloved’s presence. The poem contrasts hypocritical appearance with spiritual insight and suggests that inner truth, not reputation or ritual, grants access to divine beauty.
Read Complete AnalysesWhat makes the Sufi? Purity of heart; Not the patched mantle and the lust perverse Of those vile earth-bound men who steal his name. He in all dregs discerns the essence pure: In hardship ease, in tribulation joy. The phantom sentries, who with batons drawn Guard Beauty’s place-gate and curtained bower, Give way before him, unafraid he passes, And showing the King’s arrow, enters in.
‘Persian Poems’, an Anthology of verse translations edited by A.J.Arberry, Everyman’s Library, 1972
Feel free to be first to leave comment.