Shams-i TabrÄ«zÄ« or Shams al-Din Mohammad was a Nizari Ismaili Persian poet, who is credited as the spiritual instructor of MewlÄnÄ JalÄl ad-DÄ«n Muhammad Balkhi, also known as Rumi.âš
One day Rumi was reading next to a large stack of books. Shams Tabriz, passing by, asked him, "What are you doing?" Rumi scoffingly replied, "Something you cannot understand." (This is knowledge that cannot be understood by the unlearned.) On hearing this, Shams threw the stack of books into a nearby pool of water. Rumi hastily rescued the books and to his surprise they were all dry. Rumi then asked Shams, "What is this?" To which Shams replied, "Mowlana, this is what you cannot understand." (This is knowledge that cannot be understood by the learned.)
One of my favorite quote of Shamas Tabraizi is:
"A life without love is of no account. Don't ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, eastern or westernâŠdivisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple. Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire! The universe turns differently when fire loves water"
~ Shams Of Tabriz