I COME BEFORE DAWN

Muhammad says,
                           "I come before dawn
to chain you and drag you off."
It's amazing, and funny, that you have to be pulled away
from being tortured, pulled out
into this Springs garden,
                                     but that is 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're learned at school,
and they get really excited. They stay up all night,
as watchful and alive as thieves!

Remember the reward 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 give them milk.
The others love the beauty of the nurse.

The former memorise the proof texts of conformity,
and repeat them. The latter disappear
into whatever draws them to God.

Both are drawn from the source.
Any moving from the mover,
Any love from the beloved.

                                         RUMI