Rumi, the thirteenth-century poet, was a master of death. As one of the world’s greatest mystics, he had the supreme experience of “dying before he died.” That is, he died to the false self and realized the true Self, the eternally real.

These poems are drawn from his deep well of wisdom. Some of them speak of death in the literal sense, and describe what happens beyond, or how to process the death of a loved one. Others describe a form of spiritual death (called “fanaa” in sufism) that happens while the body is alive.

These latter poems may seem fierce – and they are. But it’s important to remember that they describe the annihilation of the false self, which is a necessary precursor to realizing the true Self. They are invitations to courageous souls who are ready to give everything to see the truth for themselves.

In this collection of quotes, I have mixed and matched the poems which describe literal death with those referring to spiritual death (fanaa). The two ways of dying, after all, are not so very different, and their threads interweave to form a single tapestry of Rumi’s wisdom on death.

Rumi Quotes on Death

Quote #1

At the end of my life, with just one breath left, if you come, I’ll sit up and sing.

-Rumi (Translated by Coleman Barks)

Quote #2

This is how I would die into the love
I have for you:
as pieces of cloud dissolve in sunlight.

-Rumi

Quote #3

Only love has power over lovers. Death has none.
The beloved is giving as he appears to take away.
Breath diminishes as spirit flows stronger,
a falcon released to the wind.

-Rumi (From “Daybreak”, translated by Coleman Barks)

Quote #4

Inside this new love, die.
Your way begins on the other side.
Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.
Escape.
Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.
Do it now.
You’re covered with thick cloud.
Slide out the side. Die,
and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign
that you’ve died.
Your life was a frantic running
from silence.

The speechless full moon
comes out now.

-Rumi (From “Quietness,” translated by Coleman Barks)

Quote #5

Death is a wedding feast,
and the secret of that
is that God is one.

Sunlight comes in through the windows
and gets reflected around the room.

Then the windows are closed.
Individual grapes become dark wine.

For someone who lives in the light of God,
Death is nourishment.

-Rumi (From “The Deepest Rest”, translated by Coleman Barks)

Quote #6

I was dead, then alive.
Weeping, then laughing.

The power of love came into me,
and I became fierce like a lion,
then tender like the evening star.

-Rumi (From “Sublime Generosity”, translated by Coleman Barks)

Quote #7

When I die
when my coffin
is being taken out
you must never think
I am missing this world

Don’t shed any tears
don’t lament or
feel sorry
I’m not falling
into a monster’s abyss

When you see
my corpse is being carried
don’t cry for my leaving
I’m not leaving
I’m arriving at eternal love

-Rumi (From “When I Die,” translated by by Nader Khalili)

Quote #8

In the slaughterhouse of love, they kill
only the best, none of the weak or deformed.
Don’t run away from this dying.
Whoever’s not killed for love is dead meat.

-Rumi (Translated by Coleman Barks)

Quote #9

Lovers work, so that when body and soul
are no longer together,
their loving will be free.

Wash in wisdom-water, so you will have no regrets
about the time here.

-Rumi (From “With You Here Between”, translated by Coleman Barks)

Quote #10

I thought you were dead. I was,
but then I caught your fragrance again
and came back to life.

-Rumi (From “The Wine Vat’s Lid”, translated by Coleman Barks)

Quote #11

Your non-existence before you were born
is the sky in the east.

Your death is the western horizon,
with you here between.

The way leads neither east nor west,
but in.

-Rumi (From “With You Here Between”, translated by Coleman Barks)

Quote #12

We have such fear of what comes next. Death.
These loves are like pieces of cotton.
Throw them in the fire.

Death will be a meeting like that flaring up,
a presence you have always wanted to be with.

-Rumi (From “A Given”, translated by Coleman Barks)

Quote #13

Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round
in another form. The child weaned from mother’s milk
now drinks wine and honey mixed.

-Rumi

Quote #14

Last night things flowed between us
that cannot now be said or written.

Only as I’m being carried out
and down the road, as the folds of my shroud open in the wind,

will anyone be able to read, as on
the petal-pages of a turning bud,
what passed through us last night.

-Rumi

Quote #15

Behold the body, born of dust–
how perfect it has become!

Why should you fear its end?
When were you ever made less by dying?

When you pass beyond this human form,
no doubt you will become an angel
and soar through the heavens!

But don’t stop there.
Even heavenly bodies grow old.

Pass again from the heavenly realm
and plunge into the ocean of Consciousness.
Let the drop of water that is you
become a hundred mighty seas.

But do not think that the drop alone
becomes the Ocean–
the Ocean, too, becomes the drop!

-Rumi (From “A Garden Beyond Paradise”, translated by Coleman Barks)

Quote #16

O Generous Ones,
Die before you die,
even as I have died before death
and brought this reminder from Beyond.

Become the resurrection of the spirit
so you may experience the resurrection.

This becoming is necessary
for seeing and knowing
the real nature of anything.

-Rumi (From Mathnawi VI: 754-758, Translated by Camille and Kabir Helminski)

Quote #17

When for the last time
you close your mouth,
your words and soul
will belong to the world of
no place no time.

-Rumi (From “When I Die,” translated by by Nader Khalili)

Quote #18

Remember me.

I will be with you in the grave
on the night you leave behind
your shop and your family.
When you hear my soft voice
echoing in your tomb,
you will realise
that you were never hidden from my eyes.
I am the pure awareness within your heart,
with you during joy and celebration,
suffering and despair.

-Rumi (From “In the Arms of the Beloved,” translated by Jonathan Star)

Quote #19

You mustn’t be afraid of death
you’re a deathless soul
you can’t be kept in a dark grave
you’re filled with God’s glow

-Rumi (From “Rumi, Fountain of Fire,” Translated by Nader Khalili)

Quote #20

When you pour into my goblet
the bitter drink of death,
I’ll kiss the goblet full of joy, dear,
and drunken I shall die.

-Rumi (From “‘Look! This is Love,” translated by Annemarie Schimmel)

Quote #21

I placed one foot on the wide plain
of death, and some grand
immensity sounded on the emptiness.

I have felt nothing ever
like the wild wonder of that moment.

-Rumi (From “The Soul of Rumi,” translated by Coleman Barks)

Quote #22

This place is a dream.
Only a sleeper considers it real.
Then death comes like dawn,
and you wake up laughing
at what you thought was your grief.

-Rumi (From “On Resurrection Day,” Translated by Coleman Barks)