Poverty Is My Pride

The affair of (spiritual) poverty is beyond thy apprehension: do not look on poverty with contempt,
Because dervishes are beyond property and wealth: they possess an abundant portion from the Almighty.
The High God is just, and how should the just behave tyrannously to the dispirited (poor and weak)?
(How should they) give fortune and goods to that one, while they put this one on the fire?
The fire burns him because he hath this (evil) thought about the Lord who created both worlds.
Is (the saying) ‘Poverty is my pride’ vain and false?
No; ’tis thousands of hidden glories and disdains.

The Masnawi, Volume 1, 2350

Miniature: The Dogs Are Listening to Rumi at the Bazaar