Monday, October 28, 2013
Rumi on Evolution
What Perfection!
The second you stepped into this world of existence
A ladder was placed before you to help you escape it.
First, you were mineral; then you transformed into a plant;
Then you became an animal. (How could you not know this?)
Then you changed yet again, and became a human being
Endowed with divine consciousness, reason, faith.
Look at your body, made from dust: what perfection it has!
- Jalal-ud-Din Rumi
(Translated by Andrew Harvey from A Year of Rumi)
This poem is often cited to show that Rumi believed in evolution. And indeed he did, if
we take into account that what he is talking about is the evolution of the atoms and molecules that eventually comprise our own bodies, which are gifted with "divine consciousness, reason, and faith."
(Image from internet)
