THIS WAY OF POVERTY is a way in which you attain
all your hopes. Whatever you may have longed for will
certainly come to you on this way, whether it be the
conquest of armies, victory over enemies, capturing
property and subjugating people, or superiority over one's
peers, or elqeuence in speaking and writing, or anything
else. When you have choosen the way of poverty, all these
this things will come to you. Unlike other ways, no one who
took this way has ever complained. Out of a hundred thousand
who took contrary ways and struggled along, maybe one
did reach his goal. And even that one was not completely
satisfied, because every way has it's own twists and turns
along the path to the goal, and the goal can only be attained
by means of those twists and turns. That way is long, full of
pitfalls and obstacles that arise because of those twists, which
may end up blocking one's arrival.
However, when you enter the world of poverty and practice it,
God bestows kingdoms and worlds upon you that you could
never have imagined. You become embarrassed by what you
had longed for before. "Oh", you cry, "how could I have
sought such a mean thing when such a wonderous thing
existed?"
Here, however, God Most High says, "Although now you no
longer desire such a thing, and are now disdainful of it, yet
it did once cross your mind. Yet you turned away from it
for Our sake. Our generosity is infinite, so of course, I will
make that, also, easily attainable for you."
[Fihi Ma Fihi: Discourse 39 - Rumi ]
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