Divine Majesty...

When you look carefully, this world is all war:
Mote fights with mote, like belief with unbelief. . . .
But in the light of the spiritual eye, our war
and our peace are not from ourselves: They are "between His
two fingers."

The war of nature, the war of acts, the war of
words--in the midst of the individual parts a frightful war.
The world subsists through this war: Look at
the four elements and resolve this difficulty.
The four elements are four sturdy pillars,
through which the roof of the heavens is kept in place.
But each pillar destroys the other: Water's pillar
destroys that of fire.

So creation is built upon opposites: Inevitably
we are warring over profit and loss. . . .
But that world is naught but everlasting and
flourishing, since it is not compounded of opposites.
Each opposite inflicts reciprocal annihilation
upon its opposite; when opposition disappears, subsistence
alone remains. . . .

Colorlessness is the root of all colors, peace
the root of all wars.
That world is the root of this abode full of
heartaches; union is the root of every parting and separation.
Why are we in such opposition, oh friend? Why
does Unity give birth to this multiplicity?

Because we are the branch, and the four
opposite elements the root. The root has engendered
its qualities in the branch.

Since the substance of the spirit is beyond
separation, it does not partake of these qualities: Its qualities
are those of the divine Majesty.


--Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi
Mathnawi VI: 36, 45-50, 56-57, 59-63
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983