Oh, happy is the man who was freed from himself
and united with the existence of a living one!
Alas for the living one who consorted with the dead!
He became dead, and life sped away from him.
When you have fled to the Qur’an of God,
you have mingled with the spirit of the prophets.
The Qur’an is the states of the prophets,
the fishes of the holy sea of Majesty.
And if you read and do not accept the Qur’an,
suppose you have seen the prophets and saints?
But if you are accepting, when you read the stories,
the bird, your soul, will be distressed in its cage.
The bird that is a prisoner in a cage
is not seeking to escape, it is from ignorance.
The spirits which have escaped from their cages
are the prophets, worthy guides.
From without comes their voice, of religion,
“This, this is the way of escape for you.
By this we escaped from this narrow cage”
(Rumi)