God's Harshness and Cruelty

"O Thou, whose harshness is better than the pledge of the faithful, the kindness of the faithful is also from Your bounty.
You counsel the heedless with a hundred courtesies, yet he turns away from your counsel.
A single person who obstinately refuses to listen, will baffle a hundred eloquent speakers.
Such hearts that are bound up in egoism are harder than stone...
The remedy for such a heart is the gift bestowed by the One who transforms: receptivity is not a necessary condition for God's bounty.
No, God's bounty is the necessary condition for receptivity...
Until the sinner deems himself rebellious, how can tears run from his eyes?
Oh, take hope! Now, today, arise, O weeper and laugh continually...
The cruelty done by God is better than the clemency of both worlds.
In God's cruelty there is a hidden kindness: to surrender the soul for God's sake, increases the life of the soul.
Pay attention, dismiss suspicion and error: make your head a foot to hasten towards God, since God has bidden you to come...
My ear is deaf to all words but His: God is dearer to me than my sweet soul.
Who is the soul that I should prefer her to the Gracious One?
What is a flea that I should burn a blanket on account of it?
I know no good, but God's good.
If you are a true believer, come now, and enter the ranks of battle, for a feast has been prepared for you in Heaven....hasten towards the heavenly table."

Rumi (Vol. 5, 1525-1730)

Commentary: A strange journey it is...where grace can come in the form of rebelliousness, and a heart of stone; where the harshest of circumstances can hide a tender compassion, and a great love.