“Hypocrites give attention to

form, the right and wrong ways of professing belief. Grow instead in universal light.

When that revealed itself out of nonexistence, God gave it a robe and a thousand different names,

the least of those sweet-breathing names being the one who is not in need of anyone.

When that comes, daylight looks dark, and when your foolishness, which doesn’t recognize

such beauty, becomes visible to you, night dark will seem glowing beside it. Let your eyes

get used to light. Don’t miss your own splendour!”

—Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207–1273), from the Masnavi, Book IV. The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Ecstatic Poems, translated by Coleman Barks, 2001.