Rumi Expert against consensus
The following email exchange with a Persian scholar on this topic persuades me that the quote is not Rumi:
From: Ibrahim Gamard [mailto:]
Sent: Friday, March 01, 2013 1:07 AM
To: Von Smith
Subject: Re: verity of a quote attributed to Rumi
Dear Von,
I've been asked about this before, I couldn't trace it, and I wrote that it is obviously too modern and psychological to be Rumi. The word "barrier" is too unpoetic. And "love" is too vague: Rumi was a religious mystic, so he uses the word to mean God's love or love of God.
But you seem to have found the source of the quote in the "Course on Miracles"
[url]Quotes from A Course In Miracles[/url]
and I thank you for that.
It's also been added to a fake quote from another great Sufi master, Ibn al-'Arabi:
[url]Love Is A Place: Ibn Arabi[/url]
[url]MYSTICISM : On the Polished Mirror[/url]
Strangely, I found a webpage on which this "Rumi quote" has been translated into Persian prose!
[url]Rumi: Your task is not to seek for love . . . | Exopermaculture[/url]
Ibrahim
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On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 6:08 PM, Von Smith wrote:
Dear Sir,
I read your pages with great interest. I read a quote attributed to Rumi on Facebook. It did not sound like what I have read. This attribution is everywhere on the internet, mostly attributed to Rumi, but also attributed to the authors of A Course in Miracles. Could tell me if this is a Rumi quote, and if so, where I could find it. If not, that would be excellent information from an expert source.
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
I appreciate your scholarship and industry.
Sincerely,
Von Smith
Rumi Festival
Whether it be from Rumi or a Course in Miracles the message is a universal one. For anyone who's interested in the universal message of love and the unity of being why not take a look at the Rumi Festival this August 2 - 4th in the beautiful Scottish Borders rumifestival.org
Hello...perhaps your job is not to search for whom to sue for plagiarism, but to find the barriers you have created to block the love...
Note that those who attribute the quote to ACIM can point to the exact page, whereas those who attribute it to Rumi have not (so far, at least) specified which of Rumi's poems it comes from. Even without ACIM, it would be suspect as coming from Rumi, as it is not at all in Rumi's style of ecstatic poetry. Note also that the "attribution" by the BBC is part of a sidebar collection of short quotes, unrelated to the remarks by Prof. Crystal. Far more likely that this is a phony Rumi "quote", of which there are dozens in circulation on the internet.