The City

I swear by this city [Makkah]
And you, [O Mohmmad], are free of restriction in this city-
And [by] the father [Adam] and that which was born [of him],
We have certainly created man into hardship.
Does he think that never will anyone overcome him?

He says, "I have spent wealth in abundance."
Does he think that no one has seen him?
Have we not made for him two eyes?
And a tongue and two lips?
And have shown him the two ways?

But he has not broken through the difficult pass.
And what can make you know what is the difficult pass?
It is the freeing of a slave
Or feeding on a day of severe hunger
An orphan of near relationship
Or a needy person in misery

And then being among those who believed and advised one another to patience and compassion.
Those are the companions of the right.
But they who disbelieved in Our signs - those are the companions of the left.
Over them will be fire closed in.

Ramadan

excerpt of "Ramadan" by Rumi:

The lips of the Master are parched
from calling the Beloved.
The sound of your call resounds
through the horn of your empty belly. 

Let nothing be inside of you.
Be empty: give your lips the lips of the reed.
When like a reed you fill with His breath,
then you'll taste sweetness

Existence

Look at yourself, trembling, afraid of nonexistence:
Know that nonexistence
is also afraid
that God might bring it into existence.
If you grasp at worldly dignities,
it's from fear, too.
Everything, except love of the Most Beautiful,
is really agony. It's agony
to move towards death and not drink the water of life.

-Rumi
Mathnwai I, 3684-3687