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Jalal al-Din Rumi, Maulana and Redhouse, James W. (James William), Sir
Jelāl is said to have related that Shemsu-’d-Dīn forbade him to study any more the writings of his father, Bahā Veled, and that he punctually obeyed the injunction.
But one night he dreamt that he was in company with a number of friends, who were all studying and discussing with him those very writings of Bahā Veled.
As he woke from his dream, Shems was entering the room with a severe look. Addressing Jelāl, he asked: “How hast thou dared to study that book again?” Jelāl protested that, since his prohibition, he had never once opened his father’s works.
“Yes,” retorted Shems, “there is a study by reading, and there is also a study by contemplating. Dreams are but the shadows of our waking thoughts. Hadst thou not occupied thy thoughts with those writings, thou wouldst not have dreamt about them.”
“From that time forward,” remarked Jelāl, “I never again busied myself with my father’s writings, so long as Shemsu-’d-Dīn remained alive.”