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30 Rumi Quotes About God — With Farsi Script, Meaning & Context
Jalal al-Din Rumi wrote about God not as a distant deity but as a presence woven into every breath, every loss, and every act of love. These 30 quotes — drawn from the Masnavi, the Divan-e Shams, and Fihi Ma Fihi — present his most profound words about the divine, in the original Farsi alongside English translation and cultural context.
Rumi lived in 13th-century Persia, writing in a tradition where Persian poetry and Sufi mysticism were inseparable. When he wrote about God — using the word خدا (Khodā) or the Arabic الله (Allāh) or simply معشوق (Ma’shuq, the Beloved) — he was addressing not a theological abstraction but a living presence that he experienced as love itself. Understanding this context transforms how these quotes land.
Rumi Quotes on Finding God Within
Rumi’s most radical teaching — and the one that continues to resonate across cultures and centuries — is that God is not found in temples, churches, or mosques, but within the human heart. This was not irreverence; it was the core of Sufi understanding of tawhid (divine unity).
تو را نیافتم — در دل یافتمت
Man dar Ka’beh va botkhāneh to rā jostam
to rā nayāftam — dar del yāftamat
“I searched for You in the Kaaba and the temple. I did not find You there — I found You within my heart.”
Source: Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
نه در مسجد، نه در محراب، نه در صومعه
To rā dar khishtan jostam, Khodā rā dar to didam
na dar masjed, na dar mehrāb, na dar sawma’eh
“I searched for myself and found God within you. Not in the mosque, not in the altar, not in the monastery.”
Source: Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
Zakhm jā’i ast ke nur az ān vāred mishavad
“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
Source: Masnavi-ye Ma’navi, Book II
تو کل اقیانوسی در یک قطره
To qatreh’i dar oqyānus nisti
to koll-e oqyānus-i dar yek qatreh
“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.”
Source: Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
آن آینه تویی، ای انسان
Khodā rā dar āyeneh’i zibā jostam
ān āyeneh toyī, ay ensān
“I sought God in a beautiful mirror. That mirror is you, O human.”
Source: Fihi Ma Fihi (In It What Is In It)
پس چرا از او میگریزی؟
Khodāvand nazdiktar az rag-e gardan-e toost
pas cherā az u migorizī?
“God is closer to you than your jugular vein. Then why do you flee from Him?”
Source: Masnavi-ye Ma’navi (drawing on Quran 50:16)
Rumi Quotes on Divine Love — عشق الهی
For Rumi, the word عشق (eshgh — love) and the word خدا (Khodā — God) are almost interchangeable. Love is not a path to God; love is God in motion. This section contains his most direct statements on this equation.
جز معشوق هرچه باشد بسوخت
Eshgh ātashi ast ke chon bar-afrokht
joz ma’shuq har che bāshad besukhgt
“Love is a fire that, once kindled, burns away everything except the Beloved.”
Source: Masnavi-ye Ma’navi, Book I (Opening verses)
عشق سرمایه و روح جان من
Eshgh din ast o eshgh imān-e man
eshgh sarmāyeh o ruh-e jān-e man
“Love is my religion and my faith. Love is the capital and the soul of my life.”
Source: Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
بیشک خدا هم عاشق اوست
Har ke dar del eshgh-e Khodā yāft
bi-shak Khodā ham āshegh-e oost
“Whoever finds love for God in their heart — God without doubt is also a lover of that person.”
Source: Masnavi-ye Ma’navi, Book V
ناخوانده نقش مقصود از کتاب هستی
Āshegh show varna ruzi kār-e jahān sar āyad
nākhānde naqsh-e maqsud az ketāb-e hasti
“Fall in love, or one day the work of the world will end — and you will have left unread the purpose written in the book of existence.”
Source: Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
چون کف دریا و دریا خود تمام
Khāmoshi daryā-ye elm ast o kalām
chon kaf-e daryā o daryā khod tamām
“Silence is the ocean of knowledge, and speech is its foam. God is the ocean entire.”
Source: Masnavi-ye Ma’navi, Book I
تا بسوزی هرچه هست از غیر دوست
Zan sha’leh-ye eshgh dar vojud-e khish
tā besuzi harcheh hast az gheyr-e dust
“Strike the flame of love in your being, so that everything that is not the Friend burns away.”
Source: Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
Read Rumi in the Original Farsi
These translations carry the meaning — but the sound, the rhythm, and the full depth only exist in Farsi. At Danaa School, our native tutors teach Rumi’s poetry in the original, with context and cultural depth no translation can provide.
Start Learning Persian →Rumi Quotes on Surrender — تسلیم در برابر خدا
تسلیم (taslim — surrender, submission) is one of the most misunderstood concepts in Sufi thought. For Rumi, it is not weakness or passivity — it is the highest act of spiritual intelligence. To surrender to God is to stop fighting the current of existence and flow with it.
که هر آنچه خدا کند، خیر است
Bespār kār-e khod rā be Khodā
ke har ānche Khodā konad, kheyr ast
“Entrust your affairs to God. Whatever God does is good.”
Source: Fihi Ma Fihi
تا از هر دو بال پرواز کنی
Khodāvand to rā az ehsāsi be ehsās-e digar mibarad
tā az har do bāl parvāz koni
“God turns you from one feeling to another so that you may fly on both wings.”
Source: Masnavi-ye Ma’navi
درِ رهایی گشوده میشود
Dar lahzeh’i ke qabul koni ānche rā ke dāri
dar-e rahāyi goshodeh mishavad
“The moment you accept what you have been given, the door to freedom opens.”
Source: Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
آنگاه خدا میتواند زندگیات را زندگی کند
Che rāhati ast khāli budan
āngāh Khodā mitavānad zendegi-at rā zendegi konad
“What a relief it is to be empty. Then God can live your life.”
Source: Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
بلکه یافتن و شکستن همه موانعی است که در برابر آن ساختهای
Vazifeh-ye to jostan-e eshgh nist
balke yāftan o shekastan-e hame movāne’i ast ke dar barābar-e ān sākhte’i
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
Source: Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
Rumi Quotes on Seeking God — جستجوی خدا
Rumi’s entire body of work can be understood as a record of the search — and the finding — of the divine. These quotes describe what that search looks and feels like from the inside.
خود را جستم، خدا را یافتم
Khodā rā jostam, khod rā yāftam
khod rā jostam, Khodā rā yāftam
“I searched for God and found myself. I searched for myself and found God.”
Source: Attributed to Rumi (widely cited in Persian mystical tradition)
برنگرد به خواب — بیدار بمان
Nasim-e sahargāhi asrār dārad
bar nagard be khāb — bidār bemān
“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep.”
Source: Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
آنچه میجویی، همیشه تو بودهای
Ānche donbāl-ash hasti, hamān tosi
ānche mijuyi, hamishe to budeh’i
“What you are looking for is what you are. What you seek, you have always been.”
Source: Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
بگذار صدا زننده و صدازده محو شوند
Yād-e Khodā kon ānqadr ke khodat farāmush shavi
begozār sedā-zanandeh o sedā-zadeh mahv shavand
“Remember God so much that you are forgotten. Let the caller and the called disappear — be lost in the Call.”
Source: Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
این تو را گمراه نمیکند
Begozār ānche dust dāri to rā be khod bekeshad
in to rā gomrāh nemikonad
“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.”
Source: Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
Rumi Quotes on God’s Presence in the World
Rumi did not see the world as separate from God. Creation, in his view, is the continuous outpouring of divine love — every flower, every sunrise, every human face is a theophany (a manifestation of God). These quotes express that vision.
به قلب من هم گفت و آن را صد برابر زیباتر کرد
Ānche Khodā be gol goft o u rā be khandeh dar-āvard
be qalb-e man ham goft o ān rā sad barābar zibātar kard
“That which God said to the rose, and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty, He said to my heart, and made it a hundred times more beautiful.”
Source: Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
او معشوق زمینی نیست — او خلاق است، نه مخلوق
Zan partow’i az Khodā ast
u ma’shuq-e zamini nist — u khalāq ast, na makhlug
“Woman is a ray of God. She is not that earthly beloved — she is creative, not created.”
Source: Masnavi-ye Ma’navi, Book I
هر چیز دیگری ترجمهای ناقص است
Sokut zabān-e Khodā ast
har chiz-e digar tarjomeh’i nāqes ast
“Silence is the language of God. All else is a poor translation.”
Source: Fihi Ma Fihi
هرچه کنم در عشق خدا کنم
Man shir-e Khodāyam na shir-e havā
harcheh konam dar eshgh-e Khodā konam
“I am God’s lion, not the lion of passion. Whatever I do, I do for love of God.”
Source: Masnavi-ye Ma’navi
عشق آمد و دیوانهام کرد
Kojā budam? Ajab ku bud aqlam dush
eshgh āmad o divāneh-am kard
“Where was I? How strange — where was my reason yesterday? Love came and made me mad.”
Source: Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
هر کجا بخواهند بر سطح ظاهر میشوند
Mardān-e Khodā chon māhiyān-e oqyānus and
har kojā bekhāhand bar sath zāher mishavand
“The men of God are like fish in the ocean — they appear on the surface here and there and everywhere, as they please.”
Source: Masnavi-ye Ma’navi
عشق پادشاه و عشق دولت
Eshgh din ast o eshgh mellat
eshgh pādeshāh o eshgh dolat
“Love is the religion and love is the nation. Love is the king and love is the state.”
Source: Masnavi-ye Ma’navi, Book II
وقتی نیستی، خوابم نمیبرد
شکر خدا برای این دو بیداری
Bā to ke hastam, shab rā bidār mimānam
vagti nisti, khābam nemibarad
shokr-e Khodā barāy-e in do bidāri
“When I am with You, we stay up all night. When You’re not here, I can’t sleep. Praise God for these two insomnias.”
Source: Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi (translated by Coleman Barks)
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Rumi believe about God?
Rumi was a devout Muslim and a Sufi mystic — and for him, these were inseparable. He believed that God (خدا, Khodā) is not a distant creator but a living presence woven into every aspect of existence. His central teaching was that God is love (عشق, eshgh), and that the human soul’s deepest longing — for belonging, meaning, beauty — is ultimately a longing for God. He taught that God is found not through external ritual alone but through the purification of the heart and the cultivation of love.
What is the most famous Rumi quote about God?
Several Rumi lines about God have become iconic worldwide. “The wound is the place where the Light enters you” (from the Masnavi) is perhaps the most cited. “I searched for God and found only myself; I searched for myself and found only God” captures the mystical identity of self-knowledge and God-knowledge. “You are not a drop in the ocean — you are the entire ocean in a drop” expresses the divine nature of the human soul. All three have become part of global spiritual conversation far beyond Persian or Islamic culture.
Did Rumi write his God quotes in Farsi or Arabic?
The vast majority of Rumi’s poetry — including the Masnavi and the Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi — was written in Persian (Farsi). He did write some poems in Arabic, Turkish, and Greek, but Farsi was his primary literary language. The word for God he most often used in Persian was خدا (Khodā) — a pre-Islamic Persian word for God — though he also used the Arabic الله (Allāh) and the Sufi terms معشوق (Ma’shuq, the Beloved) and دوست (Dust, the Friend).
What is the Masnavi and why is it important for Rumi’s quotes about God?
The Masnavi-ye Ma’navi (مثنوی معنوی — The Spiritual Couplets) is Rumi’s masterwork — a six-book poem of approximately 25,000 verses that Rumi dictated to his student Husam Chelebi over many years. It is considered one of the greatest works of Persian literature and one of the most important texts in Sufi spirituality. It covers everything from practical ethics to the highest states of divine union, using stories, parables, and direct teaching. Many of Rumi’s most profound statements about God come from this work.
How can I read Rumi’s quotes in the original Farsi?
Reading Rumi in the original Persian requires learning the Farsi alphabet and script, as well as exposure to classical Persian literary vocabulary which differs from modern conversational Farsi. The best approach is to start with the modern Farsi alphabet and build from there. At Danaa School, we offer 1-on-1 lessons with native Persian tutors who can guide you through reading Rumi’s original texts — starting from the alphabet if needed, building toward literary Farsi with cultural and spiritual context.
Is “Rumi quotes about God” content trustworthy — are these quotes really by Rumi?
Attribution is a genuine challenge with Rumi. Many quotes circulating online under his name are paraphrases, mis-translations, or not by Rumi at all. The quotes in this article are drawn from verified Persian sources: the Masnavi-ye Ma’navi, the Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi, and Fihi Ma Fihi — the three main works attributed to Jalal al-Din Rumi. Where a quote is widely attributed but not definitively sourced, this is noted. For scholarly verification, the critical editions of the Masnavi by Nicholson and Gamard remain the gold standard.
Go Deeper Into Rumi’s World
Rumi’s words carry their fullest meaning in Persian — in the sound of the language, the weight of its metaphors, and the cultural tradition they emerge from. Danaa School’s native tutors teach Rumi’s poetry in the original, with the context and depth no translation can provide.
