Out Beyond Ideas of Wrongdoing and Rightdoing

Perhaps Rumi's most quoted lines. The 'field' exists beyond moral duality—not in the rejection of ethics, but in a consciousness that transcends the categories of right and wrong. 'I'll meet you there' makes it intimate and personal: this is not abstract philosophy but an invitation to shared experience beyond judgment.

This passage reflects the Sufi station beyond duality (tawhid). It does not reject morality but points to a level of consciousness where the divine unity dissolves all opposites. The 'field' echoes the Quranic paradise but also the state of union (wisal) where lover and beloved become one. 'I'll meet you there' suggests that true meeting between souls requires transcending the ego's categories.

'The world is too full to talk about' is a statement about the limits of language before the fullness of experience. When we reach that field of unity, even the concept of 'each other'—of separation between people—dissolves. This is not nihilism but its opposite: such overwhelming fullness that words become inadequate. Rumi consistently points beyond his own medium.

The inadequacy of language (the 'poverty of expression' in Sufi terminology) is a recurring theme in mystical literature. When the soul reaches the station of union, dualistic language fails because there is no longer 'self' and 'other.' The phrase 'each other' presupposes separation, which the field of unity dissolves. This is the station of jam (gathering) where multiplicity returns to unity.

This tiny poem has become one of the most shared pieces of literature in the modern world, appearing on everything from wedding invitations to therapy offices. Its power lies in its radical simplicity: it names the deepest human longing—to meet another being beyond the defenses and judgments we construct—in just a few unforgettable words.

This passage from the Masnavi encapsulates the entire Sufi project in miniature: the transcendence of duality through love. It has resonated across cultures because it articulates a universal mystical insight found in all contemplative traditions—that the deepest reality lies beyond the mind's categories. Rumi's genius is expressing this insight in language so simple it needs no scholarly apparatus to understand.