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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The poet quotes Muhammad in one of the poems, saying that he will come take a person before _________.
(a) Nightfall.
(b) Death.
(c) Dawn.
(d) Birth.

2. "Sufis adore the darkness of the deep night, like the blackness of the ______ cloth, when conversation with the divine is easiest."
(a) Temple.
(b) Kaaba.
(c) Cotton.
(d) Pillow.

3. Not doing the work God sent you for is the equivalent of "using a _____ bowl to cook turnips in.
(a) Iron.
(b) Jeweled.
(c) Gold.
(d) Silver.

4. Not doing the work God sent you to do is like "pounding a _____ of the finest tempering to hang things on."
(a) Spear.
(b) Knife.
(c) Nail.
(d) Sword.

5. In a poem, Rumi asks the lion of the ________ to roar and rend open the writer, according to the content of the poem.
(a) Lion.
(b) Horse.
(c) Bear.
(d) Tiger.

Short Answer Questions

1. Rumi states that "the human shape is a _______ made of distraction and pain, trying to open the image of itself."

2. Jelaluddin Rumi was born in the remote town of _______ in what is now Afghanistan.

3. Rumi asserts in his poems that "the miracle of ______ is himself, not what he said or did about the future."

4. Love is more than an old study of _________, according to the writing of Rumi in this section.

5. Rumi met his companion Shams of _______ , described as a "street boddhisattva", in the marketplace.

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when you fast, according to the narrator of the poem, in one of Rumi's writings?

2. What will happen after the traveler's legs become tired during the journey?

3. What do Barks and Rumi have to say about the rhythms and the way that a person breathes in their life?

4. What does Rumi say has happened since he has been knocking on a door?

5. What is the question Shams asks Rumi, which leads Rumi to believe that Shams is a great person?

6. What is the metaphor Rumi uses to urge the reader to take risks in their life?

7. What is the real work of human beings, according to the writings of Rumi?

8. After the narrator says they are no religion or culture, not east or west, what does the narrator say they do belong to?

9. What is the metaphor Rumi uses in order to describe the pull of love in one's life and how one should be pulled by love?

10. What will happen to a person's present life when they are going on a spiritual journey, according to the writings of Rumi?

(see the answer keys)

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