1) The document discusses the importance of seeking a spiritual friend to guide one on their spiritual path. It uses examples from Rumi's writings to illustrate how a spiritual friend can help illuminate the mind and clear confusion. 2) Without a spiritual friend, one risks being misled by worldly or negative influences that increase darkness and hide the spiritual path. Solitude is important but not without guidance from a enlightened soul. 3) The spiritual friend acts like a mirror to help one see their true self and refine themselves, so they must be treated with care and respect. Overall the document emphasizes finding and learning from an enlightened spiritual guide.

1. Seek a Friend of God (Part 2)
(Rumi, Mathnawi II: Verses 23 – 55)
23 Go, (and) seek a friend of God quickly. When you have done that, God is your
friend.
24 The one who has fastened (his) sight on solitude has, in the end, learned (to do)
that from the Friend.
[The Friend: "He who has fixed his gaze upon seclusion (and made it his) object),
after all 'tis from the friend (of God) that he has learned that (lesson)."]
25 Solitude from "strangers" is necessary, (but) not from a (spiritual) friend. A fur
cloak is (necessary) for Winter, not Spring.
[Solitude from "strangers" is necessary: means from non-mystics who might
distract the spiritual seeker from the Path.
(But) not from a (spiritual) friend: "The object of spiritual retreat is to be alone
with God; but.... The murid (spiritual disciple) who would guard himself against
thinking of his spiritual master and guide; resembles a man who in warm spring
weather puts on the fur-coat that he wore as a protection against the winter cold."]
26 When the (discerning) intellect becomes combined with another intellect, the
(total amount of) light become increased and the road becomes clear.
27 (However, when) the base ego laughs (happily) with another ego, the (total
amount of) darkness becomes increased and the road becomes hidden.
[The base ego laughs (happily) with another ego: "(But if) the fleshly soul makes
merry with another fleshly soul, it is putting more covers on the already heavily
covered light of its soul and there is utter darkness; as a result the Reality cannot
be known." The "base ego" (nafs) is the "bodily self," which pressures one's mind,
emotions, and strives after bodily and worldly cravings for various pleasures and
satisfactions. This often conflicts with the inclinations of the spirit and the intellect
(using this word in its best sense of wise discernment).]
28 O man of the hunt! A (spiritual) friend is (like) your (own) eye, (so) keep it clean
of (bits of) twigs and straw.
[A (spiritual) friend is (like) your (own) eye: "Since the saint endowed with
knowledge of God is the means whereby the seeker attains to spiritual perception,
care must be taken to avoid anything that is not to his liking.” "It means, 'A guide

2. (murshid) who directs spiritual guidance is like your (own) eye...'" (So) keep it
clean of (bits of) twigs and straw.]
[“33.23: If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to
man what is right for him; 33.24: and he is gracious to him, and says, “Deliver him
from going down into the Pit, I have found a ransom; 33.25: let his flesh become
fresh with youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigour”; 33.26: then
man prays to God, and he accepts him, he comes into his presence with joy.
33.27: He recounts to men his salvation, and he sings before men, and says: “I
sinned, and perverted what was right, and it was not requited to me. 33.28: He has
redeemed my soul from going down into the Pit, and my life shall see the light.”
The Bible, Old Testament, the Book of Job.
Spiritual friend is the ‘fully realized and duly authorized teacher’ who declares to
man what is right for him and when man conducts himself as instructed by his
murshid, only then he is accepted by God.]
29 Take care! Don't make any dust (rise) with the broom of (your) tongue. (And)
don't give (your) eye a traveling present of (bits of) straw (from the road).
30 Since the (true) believer is the mirror for (another true) believer, his face is
protected from impurity.
[The (true) believer is the mirror for (another true) believer: Mathnawi I: 1327-28,
“O you who see the bad reflexion on the face of your uncle, it is not your uncle that
is bad, it is you: do not run away from yourself! The Faithful are mirrors to one
another: this saying is related from the Prophet.”]
[His face is protected from impurity: "i.e. he, being entirely pure, reflects thy
spiritual state and shows thee what thou really art."]
31 A (spiritual) friend is (like) a mirror for the soul in (a state of) sadness. O (you
who are as dear as the) soul, don't breathe upon the face of the mirror!
[Don't breathe upon the face of the mirror: "It means, 'Don't act with bold
rudeness toward the spiritual guide (murshid) and don't give signs of
stubbornness toward him.'"]
32 It's necessary to swallow (your) breath (in) every moment, so that it doesn't hide
its face in the presence of your breath.

3. [So that it doesn't hide its face in the presence of your breath: "(It means), 'So that
the spiritual guide won't suddenly turn (his) face away from you.'" "The seeker of
God, who is absorbed in servant-ship, must be silent in order that the adept (Sufi
master), who proclaims Lordship, may speak and by his utterances may captivate
the hearts of his disciples.
The rule in speaking is not to speak unless bidden, and then only of the thing that
is bidden; and the rule in silence is not to be ignorant or satisfied with ignorance
and forgetful. The disciple must not interrupt the speech of spiritual directors, or
let his personal judgment intrude therein, or use far-fetched expressions in
answering them."]
33 You are not less (valuable) than the earth: when a piece of earth finds a friend
from (among the qualities of) Spring, it obtains a hundred thousand (white)
flowers.
[A friend from (among the qualities of) Spring (az bahârî): "Bahari stands for rain
of Spring. Mathnawi I: 2035-39, “The Unseen World has other clouds and water
(than ours), it has another sky and sun. That is not discerned save by the elect; the
rest are in doubt as to a new creation. There is rain for the sake of nurture; there is
(also) rain for the sake of decay. Marvelous is the benefit of the rain of springtime,
(but) to the garden the autumnal rain is like a (consuming) fever. That vernal (rain)
makes it tenderly nurtured (flourishing), while this autumnal (rain) makes it sickly
and wan.”
Mathnawi I: 2043-44, “This breath of the Abdál (saints) is from that (spiritual)
springtide: from it there grows a green garden in heart and soul. From their
breaths there comes (is produced) in him who is fortunate the (same) effect (as
that) of the spring rain on the tree.”]
34 A tree which becomes joined with a friend from (among the qualities of) the
sweet air (of Spring) blossoms from head to foot.
35 (But) in the Fall, when it sees a contrary and opposing companion, it draws in
(its) face and head beneath (its) outer garment.
[In the Fall, when it sees a contrary and opposing companion: "i.e. the autumn
rain, which 'is like a consuming fever to the garden' (Mathnawi I: 2038)."]
[It draws in (its) face and head beneath (its) outer garment: "As applied literally
to the tree, the second hemistich means that in autumn the tree makes no display
of leaves and fruit, while its allegorical sense is that 'no spiritual development can
be derived from a bad friend, and what one has in one's soul is best concealed

4. from him.' Therefore, murid withdraws himself from bad company, i.e. people not
seeking God.]
36 It says, "(Having) a foul companion is to disturb (one) with affliction. Since he
has come, sleep is the best way for me.
37 "So I will sleep, (and) I will be (like) one of the Companions of the Cave -- (since
being) a lamenting prisoner is better than (suffering the tyranny of) Daqyanoos.
[The Companions of the Cave: refers to the story in the 18th chapter (sûrah) of the
Qur'an, according to which some pious young men fled religious persecution and
hid in a cave, fell asleep, and (by the Will of God) woke up to find that many years
had passed. This story was revealed to the Prophet to enable him to answer the
questions which the Jewish doctors of Yathrib had instructed the idolaters to ask
him, as a test of Prophet-hood.
The questions were three: “Ask him,” said the Rabbis, “of some youth who were of
old, what was their fate, for they have a strange story; and ask him of a much
traveled man who reached the sunrise regions of the earth and the sun-set regions
thereof, what was his history; and ask him of the Spirit, what it is.”
The tormentors of the Prophet, who had been to Yathrib to get hints from the Jews,
on their return to Mecca put these questions to the Prophet, after having told the
people that it was to be a crucial test.
The Prophet said that he would surely answer them upon the morrow, without
adding “if God will,” as though he could command God’s revelation. As a reproof
for that omission, the wished-for revelation was withheld from him for some days,
and when it came included the rebuke in verses 24-25, “And say not of anything:
Lo! I shall do that tomorrow, except if God will. And remember thy Lord when
thou forget, and say: It may be that my Lord guideth me unto a nearer way of
truth than this.”
Qur'an 18: 17, “He whom God guideth, he indeed is led aright, and he whom He
sendeth astray, for him thou wilt not find a guiding friend.”
The tyranny of) Daqyanoos: "Decius (A.D. 249-251) is the name of the pagan
emperor who persecuted them." This emperor persecuted the Christians within his
realm.]
38 Their waking (hours) were spent by (the tyranny of) Daqyanoos, (but) their
sleep was the (preserved) stock of (their) fame.

5. [Their sleep was the (preserved) stock: means that their value was preserved
while they were asleep, but was spent and wasted while they were awake and
forced to serve an idol-worshiping tyrant.]
39 Sleep is wakefulness when it is (combined) with wisdom. (But) what sorrow
(there is) for any wakeful one who sits with the ignorant!
[Sleep is wakefulness when it is (combined) with wisdom: Mathnawi VI: 4463,
'Put thyself to sleep (and escape) from this (vain) thinking: (then) lift up thy head
from sleep into (spiritual) wakefulness.' The 'sleep' of the mystic is really a higher
state of consciousness, and has nothing in common with the 'sleep of ignorance' in
which most people pass their conscious lives.]
[Mathnawi VI: 4503-04, “O Lord, appoint a spiritually endowed company to
redeem us from the chest of the body! Who but the prophets and apostles can
redeem the people from confinement in the chest of guile?”
Mathnawi VI: 4505-09, “Among thousands there is (only) one person of comely
aspect, who knows that he is inside the chest. He must formerly have beheld the
(spiritual) world, so that by means of that contrary this contrary should be made
evident to him. Because “knowledge is the true believer's lost camel,” he
recognizes his own lost camel and feels certain (that it is his). (But) he that has
never seen good fortune, how will he be perturbed in this calamity? Either he fell
into captivity in childhood, or was born a slave at first from his mother's womb.”
Mathnawi VI: 4510-14, “His soul has never known the delight of (spiritual)
freedom: the chest of (phenomenal) forms is his arena. His mind is forever
imprisoned in forms: he (only) passes from cage into cage. He has no means of
passing beyond the cage (and going) aloft: he goes to and fro into (successive)
cages. In the Qur’an (is the text), “If ye have the power, pass beyond”: these words
came from Him (God) to the Jinn and mankind. He said, “There is no way for you
to pass beyond the sky saves by (Divine) authority and by inspiration from
Heaven.”]
[Mathnawi I: 388-94, “Every night Thou freest the spirits from the body's snare,
and dost erase (the impressions on) the tablets (of the mind). The spirits are set free
every night from this cage, (they are) done with ordinance and talk and tale. At
night prisoners are unconscious of their prison, at night governors are unconscious
of their power. There is no sorrow, no thought of gain or loss, no fancy of this
person or that person.
This is the state of the ‘árif (gnostic), even without sleep: God said, (Thou wouldst
deem them awake) whilst they slept. Shy not at this. He is asleep, day and night, to the

6. affairs of the world, like a pen in the hand of the Lord's control. One who sees not
the hand in the writing thinks (that) the act (of writing proceeds) from the pen by
means of movement.”]
40 When the crows set-up (their) tents in the middle of Winter, the nightingales
become hidden, and are silent.
[When the crows set-up (their) tents in the middle of Winter: "The crow
represents the seeker of worldly goods."] The nightingales become hidden, and
are silent: "The saints hold aloof from any association with worldliness and
conceal themselves from the worldly."]
41 (This is) because the nightingale is silent without the (presence of) the rose
garden. (And) the hidden-ness of the sun is the killer of (the nightingale's)
wakefulness.
[The hidden-ness of the sun: refers to the fewer daylight hours during Winter, as
well as the frequent over-cast and stormy days. "'The absence of the sun' refers to
the dark days of winter, not to the darkness of night."]
42 O sun! You leave this rose garden so that you may radiate light under the earth.
43 (But) the sun of mystical knowledge has no movement, (and) it's rising-place is
none other than the spirit and the discriminating intellect.
44 Especially, a Sun of Perfection which is (active) in that (transcendent) direction.
It's occupation is (in radiating) an illumination, day and night.
[Which is (active) in that (transcendent) direction: "which is of yonder (world of
Reality)?" Mathnawi I: 111, "Whether love be from this (earthly) side or from that
(heavenly) side, in the end it leads us yonder."]
45 If you are an Alexander (the Great), come to the rising-place of (this) Sun. After
that, anywhere you travel, you are well illumined.
[If you are an Alexander (the Great), come to the rising-place of (this) Sun:
"According to Qur’an 18: verses 87, 91 where it is related that Dhu'l-Qarneyn
(Alexander the Great) journeyed to 'the place of sunset' and 'the place of sunrise',
'then he followed a road until, when he reached the rising-place of the sun, he
found it rising on a people for whom We had made no shelter from its beams', are
explained mystically:

7. 'After having marched to the setting-place of the sun (i.e. the darkness of the carnal
soul), he pursued his way to its rising-place (i.e. the illumined heart and spirit) and
found there a people who were not veiled from the sun (of Reality) by anything
but the excess of its light and the perfection of its manifestation.' "The rising-place
of (this) Sun" signifies the Perfect Man who, as a murshid (spiritual master and
guide), sheds spiritual radiance on his disciples."]
[“The rising-place of (this) Sun” is also the ‘Third Eye’ a point between two
eyebrows and Rumi is asking seekers that if they are real fighters like Alexander
(the Great) then they should have the courage to come to this point by
withdrawing their attention from the outside world and hold it there.] [You are
well-illumined: "thou art possessed of godly splendour."]
46 After that, anywhere you travel is the rising-place (of this Sun), (and all) rising-
places will be in love with your place of sunset.
[After that, anywhere you travel is the rising-place (of this Sun): "'When you
reach the goal, you will see that God reveals Himself everywhere and that
everything displays some attribute of Him.'" Qur'an 2: 115, "Whichever way you
turn, there is the Face of God."
(And all) rising-places will be in love with your place of sunset: "i.e. your place
of sunset (state of occultation, spiritual darkness) will become a focus for the
sunbeams of the Divine manifestation.”]
47 Your (bodily) senses (resembling those) of the bat are running toward the place
of sunset, (but) your pearl-scattering senses are traveling toward the place of
sunrise.
48 O mounted rider! The way of the (physical) senses is the road for donkeys. O
you (who are) bothering donkeys, have (some) shame!
49 Besides these five (bodily) senses, there are five (spiritual) senses, (and) those
(are) like red (colored) gold. But these (physical) senses (are) like copper.
[There are five (spiritual) senses: Mathnawi II: 3236-39, "The five (spiritual) senses
are linked with one another, because all these five have grown from one root. The
strength of one becomes the strength of the rest: each one becomes a cupbearer to
the rest. Seeing with the eye increases speech; speech increases penetration in the
eye. Penetration (of sight) becomes the (means of) awakening (stimulating) every
sense, (so that) perception (of the spiritual) becomes familiar to (all) the senses."

8. Through five senses of perception (ear, skin, eye, tongue, and nose), we experience
the outside world but the same senses when turned inward can open for us the
door of Reality.
Mathnawi II: 3240-44, “When one sense in (the course of it’s) progress has loosed
(its) bonds, all the rest of the senses become changed. When one sense has
perceived things that are not objects of sense-perception, that which is of the
invisible world becomes apparent to all the senses. When one sheep of the flock
has jumped over a stream, then they all jump across on each other's heels. Drive
the sheep, thy senses, to pasture: let them browse on (the pasture indicated in the
text)—He who hath brought forth the herbage, that there they may browse on hyacinth
and wild-rose; that they may make their way to the verdant meadows of the
Realities.”
Mathnawi II: 3249, “When (all) senses have become subject to thy sense, the
heavenly spheres cannot avoid (obedience to) thee.”]
50 In the market, where the people at the place of gathering (for the Day of
Judgment) will never buy the copper (-like) sense as (if it had the worth of) gold.
51 The (physical) senses of bodies are eating the food of darkness, (but) the senses
of the soul are grazing from a (spiritual) Sun.
52 O you (who) have carried the belongings of (your) senses to the Unperceived
(World), bring (your) hand from (your) chest, like Moses.
[Bring (your) hand from (your) chest, like Moses: refers to the Qur'anic account of
a miracle manifested (by the permission of God) by Moses, in which "he drew
forth his hand (from the folds of his garments) and it was (radiantly) white to
those who observed." (Qur'an 7:108; 26:33, and 27:12 and the account in The Bible,
Old Testament, Exodus 4:6).]
53 O you whose qualities (are those of) the Sun of spiritual knowledge -- yet the
revolving sun is bound to one attribute.
[O you whose qualities (are those of) the Sun of spiritual knowledge: "These
verses are addressed to the Perfect Man (a Sufi saint who reflects all the attributes
of God.”] [The revolving sun is bound to one attribute: "i.e. the production of
sensible light."]
54 Sometimes you are a Sun, and then you become an Ocean; sometimes (you are)
the mountain of Qaf, and then you become the Phoenix (bird).

9. [Sometimes you are a Sun, and then you become an Ocean: "The Perfect Man
illumines the world by the light of gnosis (mystical-intuitive knowledge); his
oceanic nature comprehends all realities.”
The mountain of Qaf: the legendary habitation of the phoenix bird, said to
surround the world.
The Phoenix (bird): a legendary bird, the only one of its kind, fabled to burn itself
and rise renewed from its ashes; a unique thing, a singular beauty.]
55 O you (who are) greater than (what can be conceived by) imaginations, and
much more than that, within your essence, you are not this or that.