When Divine destiny made clear what was to be, your eyes were opened and you began to see. But know this seeing too was destiny’s call; Stop dwelling on your stumble and your fall—worship God above all!
If you make repentance your daily habit and obsession, you’ll spend your life in endless self-confession. Half your days will pass in error and distraction, the other half in guilt and guilty reaction.
Release this anxious cycle of regret— seek better friends and work, a new mindset. For if you truly had no better way to choose, why punish what you had no power to refuse?
- Rumi + Jay
Commentary on Masnavi 4:1338–42
When the Divine destiny brought its ordainment into view, the eye was opened, so that repentance arrived.
This repentance is another manifestation of the Divine destiny; Abandon this repentance, worship God!
And if you make it a habit and become addicted to repentance, because of this habit, you will become more repentant every day.
One half of your life will pass in distraction and the other half will pass in repentance.
Take leave of this anxious thought and repentance: seek a better state and friend and work.
And if you had no better choice for your action, then for the omission of what is your repentance?
- Rumi
Words on Figs
Like Adam tasting fruit beneath the tree, his opened eyes first glimpsed mortality. He saw his nakedness and felt the shame, then sewed fig leaves to hide what can’t be tamed.
How often do we stitch our own disguise, and craft excuses, alibis, and lies? We weave our guilt into a threadbare cloak, these garments made of leaf and stem and smoke. Yet all our coverings, however thick, can’t hide us from the One we try to trick.
Those fragile leaves will wither in the sun— God knows our shame before our shame’s begun. Stop sewing garments from your own regret; the covering you need is not one you can knit.
Words on Blindness
Yet even in that garden, long ago, the seeing and the falling were one flow— the very knowledge of our wandering way was woven in creation’s first-born day.
How often do we shut our eyes in dread, and choose the comfort of ignorance instead? We turn from truths that stand before our face, pretending blindness is a state of grace. But willful sleep cannot undo what’s done, nor can denial hide us from the sun.
Words on Grace
But if a better path was there to take, that choice remains for next time you must make. For the Word made flesh will raise your soul to heaven; Grace comes to forgive and then forgive again.