Rumi ... The Ruby ...

At breakfast tea a beloved asked her lover,
"Who do you love more, yourself or me ???"

"From my head to my foot I have become you ...
Nothing remains of me but my name ...
You have your wish ... 
Only you exist ...
I've disappeared like a drop of vinegar in the ocean of honey"

A stone has become a ruby ...
Is filled with the qualities of the sun ...
And if it loves the sun, it loves itself ...
There is no difference between these two loves ...
Before the stone becomes the ruby, it is its own enemy ... 
Not one but two exist ...
The stone is dark and blind to daylight ...
If it says "I," it is all darkness ...

A pharaoh claims divinity and is brought down ...
Hallaj says the same and is saved ...

One I is cursed, another I is blessed ...
One I is a stone, another a crystal ...
One an enemy of the light, the other a reflector of it ...

In its inmost consciousness, not through a doctrine
It is one with the light ...

Work on your stony qualities
And become resplendent like the ruby ...
Practice self-denial and accept difficulty ...
Always see infinite life in letting the self die ...
Your stoniness will decrease, your ruby nature will grow ...
The signs of self-existence will leave your body ...
And ecstasy will take you over ...

Become all hearing like an ear and gain a ruby earring ...
Dig a well in the earth of this body 
Or even before the well is dug
Let Allah draw the water up ...

Be always at work scraping the dirt from the well ...
To everyone who suffers
Perseverance brings good fortune ...

The Prophet has said that each prostration of prayer
Is a knock on heaven's door ...

When anyone continues to knock
Felicity shows its smiling face ...