I Come Before Dawn

Muhammad says,

“I come before dawn

to chain you and drag you off.”

It’s amazing, and funny, that you should have to be pulled away

from being tortured, pulled out

into this Spring Garden,

but that’s the way it is.

Almost everyone must be bound and dragged here.

Only a few come on their own.

Children have to be made to go to school at first.

Then some of them begin to like it.

They run to school.

They expand with the learning.

Later, they receive money

because of something they’ve learned at school.,

and they get really excited. They stay up all night,

as watchful and alive as thieves!

Remember the rewards you get for being obedient!

There are two types on the path. Those who come

against their will, the blindly religious people, and those

who obey out of love.  The former have ulterior motives.

They want the midwife near, because she gives them milk.

The others love the beauty of the nurse.

The former memorize the prooftexts of conformity,

and repeat them.  The latter disappear

into whatever draws them to god.

Both are drawn from the source.

Any movings from the mover.

Any love from the beloved.

~  Rumi