The Mathnawi of Jalaluddin Rumi

When there is no ‘predicate’ (relative quality) in him (any one), the existence of the ‘subject’ (the correlative term) is impossible.
When thou hast not the pain of self-restraint, there is no protasis: therefore the apodosis (recompense) does not follow.

A floral ornament is depicted here. 585. How admirable is that protasis and how joyful is that apodosis (recompense), a recompense that charms the heart and increases the life of the spirit!

Explaining that God (Himself) is the reward bestowed by Him for the (devotional) work of the lover.

For (His) lovers He (alone) is (all their) joy and sorrow; He (alone) is their wages and hire for service.
If there be any spectacle (object of regard for them) except the Beloved, ’tis not love: ’tis an idle passion.
Love is that flame which, when it blazes up, consumes everything else but the Beloved.
He (the lover) drives home the sword of Not in order to kill all other than God: thereupon consider what remains after Not.

A floral ornament is depicted here. 590. There remains except God: all the rest is gone. Hail, O mighty Love, destroyer of polytheism!
Verily, He is the First and the Last: do not regard polytheism as arising from aught except the eye that sees double.
Oh, wonderful! Is there any beauty but from the reflexion of Him? The (human) body hath no movement but from the spirit.
The body that hath defect in its spirit will never become sweet, (even) if you smear it with honey.
This he knows who one day was (spiritually) alive and received a cup from this Soul of the soul;

A floral ornament is depicted here. 595. While to him whose eye has not beheld those (beauteous) cheeks this smoky heat is (appears to be) the spirit.
Inasmuch as he never saw ‘Umar ibn ‘Abdu ’l-‘Azíz a pious Caliph, to him even Hajjáj a notorious tyrant seems just.
Inasmuch as he never saw the firmness (unshakable strength) of the dragon of Moses, he fancies (there is) life in the magic cords.
The bird that has never drunk the limpid water keeps its wings and feathers in the briny water.
No opposite can be known except through its opposite: (only) when he (any one) suffers blows will he know (the value of) kindness.

A floral ornament is depicted here. 600. Consequently the present life has come in front (first), in order that you may appreciate the realm of Alast the primordial covenant between God and humanity.
When you are delivered from this place and go to that place, you will give thanks (to God) in the sugar-shop of everlastingness.
You will say, ‘There (in the world below) I was sifting dust, I was fleeing from this pure world.
Alas, would that I had died ere now, so that my (time of) being tormented in the mud might have been less!’

Commentary on the saying of the Prophet, on whom be peace, “None ever died without wishing, if he was a righteous man, that he had died before he (actually) died, in order that he might sooner attain unto felicity; and if he was a wicked man, in order that his wickedness might be less.”

Hence the wise Prophet has said that no one who dies and dismounts from (the steed of) the body

A floral ornament is depicted here. 605. Feels grief on account of departure and death, but (only) grieves because of having failed (in good works) and missed his opportunities.
In sooth every one that dies wishes that the departure to his destination had been earlier:
If he be wicked, in order that his wickedness might have been less; and if devout, in order that he might have come home sooner.
The wicked man says, ‘I have been heedless, moment by moment I have been adding to the veil (of sin).
If my passing (from the world) had taken place sooner, this screen and veil of mine would have been less.’