Setting Books Aside

It is reported that when Mevlana first met Mevlana Shamsuddin, he used to read the divan of Motanabbi at night.
"You are wasting your time," Shamsuddin told him. "Don't read it anymore."
Even though he said this once or twice, Mevlana continued reading it, and was very absorbed in it. One night, while he was carefully reading it, he fell asleep and dreamed that he was having an intense discussion with the scholars and jurists, and that he won the argument. Then, in the same dream, he regretted what he had done, asking himself, "Why did I do that? Was it necessary?" He went to leave the medresse.
At the moment, he awoke and saw Mevlana Shamsuddin enter. Mevlana Shamsuddin said to him, "Did you see what you have done to these poor jurists? All this difficulty comes from your reading Motanabbi's divan."
It is recounted that another night, Mevlana had another dream in which he saw Mevlana Shamsuddin holding Motanabbi by the beard. He led him to Mevlana and said, "Do you actually read this man's writing?"
A thin and feeble-looking man, Motanabbi pleaded. "Deliver me from Shamsuddin and don't disturb my divan again."
Eventually, Mevlana renonced religious studies and teaching, put a red turban on his head, his cloak from India over his shoulders and began to practice austerities and the sema. As he said,
       In all the land, I was the foremost ascetic and preacher
       My heart's desting made me a lover celebrating you.


Rumi and His Friends
Stories of the Lovers of God Excerpts from the Manaqib al-'Arifin of Aflaki