87.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Jalal al-Din Rumi, Maulana and Redhouse, James W. (James William), Sir
With his last breath Jelāl recommended to Husāmu-’d-Dīn to lay him in the upper part of his tomb, so that he might be the first to rise at the last day.
As he lay in his extreme sickness, there were earthquakes for seven days and nights, very severe, so that walls and houses were overthrown. On the seventh occasion, all his disciples were alarmed. He, however, calmly remarked: “Poor earth! it is eager for a fat morsel! It shall have one!”
He then gave his last instructions to his disciples, as follows:—“I recommend unto you the fear of God, in public and in private; abstemiousness in eating and in sleeping, as also in speaking; the avoidance of rebelliousness and of sin; constancy in fasting, continuous worship, and perpetual abstinence from fleshly lusts; long-suffering under the ill-treatment of all mankind; to shun the companionship of the light-minded and of the common herd; to associate with the righteous and with men of worth. For verily ‘the best of mankind is he who benefiteth men,’23 and ‘the best of speech is that which is short and to the purpose.’”24