“The branch might seem like the fruit's origin:
In fact, the branch exist because of the fruit.”
Mathnawi
Teachings of Rumi (1999)
Frequently quoted on social media, but was not written by Rumi in Persian.
Misattributed
Mathnawi
Teachings of Rumi (1999)
Context: "There's no courage", The Prophet said, "before the war has begun."
Drunkards vaunt their bravery when you speak of war.
But in the blaze of battle they scatter like mice.
I'm astonished by the man who wants purity
And yet trembles when the harshness of polishing begin...
When a man beats a carpet again and again
It's not the carpet he's attacking, but the dirt in it.
As translated in Masnavi I Ma'navi : The Spiritual Couplets of Maulána Jalálu-'d-Dín Muhammad Rúmí (1898) edited by Edward Henry Whinfield Book IV, Story IV : "Bayazid and his impious sayings when beside himself" <!-- also quoted in The Perennial Philosophy (1945) by Aldous Huxley -->
“Quit acting like a wolf, and feel
the shepherd's love filling you.”
"A Community of the Spirit" in Ch. 1 : The Tavern, p. 2
Disputed, The Essential Rumi (1995)
“The Sufi is hanging on to Muhammad, like Abu Bakr.”
As quoted in Rumi and Islam: Selections from His Stories, Poems, and Discourses — Annotated and Explained (2004) by Ibrahim Gamard p. 171
As quoted in "A feather on the breath of God" by Nur Elmessiri in Al-Ahram Weekly Online Issue No. 385 (9 - 15 July 1998) http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/1998/385/cu2.htm
Divan 1740:1-3, as translated by Fatemeh Keshavarz in Reading Mystical Lyric : The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi (1998)
“Be like a tree and let the dead leaves drop.”
https://twitter.com/wise_chimp/status/1488946174321205253?s=21