How Perfect Are You? | Paul Coelho

He was talking to a friend, who asked him: Have you never considered getting married?

I have, he replied. In my youth, I resolved to find the perfect woman. I crossed the desert and reached Damascus, and I met a lovely, very spiritual woman, but she knew nothing of the world. I continued my journey and went to Isfahan; there I met a woman who knew both the spiritual and the material world, but she was not pretty. Then I decided to go to Cairo, where I dined in the house of a beautiful woman, who was both religious and a connoisseur of material reality.

Why didn't you marry her, then?
Alas! my friend, she was looking for the perfect man, he replied.

- From Stories for Parents, Children and Grandchildren by Paulo Coelho

- Paul Coelho is brazilian Novelist and a Lyricist and one of the most influential authors of all time

I am Before, I am After

I am before, I am after
The soul for all souls all the way.
I'm the one with a helping hand
Ready for those gone wild, astray.

I made the ground flat where it lies,
On it I had those mountains rise,
I designed the vault of the shies,
For I hold all things in my sway.

To countless lovers I have been
A guide for faith and religion.
I am sacrilege in men's hearts
Also the true faith and Islam's way.

I make men love peace and unite;
Putting down the black words on white,
I wrote the four holy books right
I'm the Koran for those who pray.

It's not Yunus who says all this:
It speaks its own realities:
To doubt this would be blasphemous:
"I'm before-I'm after," I say

- Yunus Emre