Discourses of Rumi (Discourse 5)

Form too possesses great importance. No, much more than importance— it is of true substance. Just as the body will fail if it lacks a heart, so too it fails without a skin. If you plant a seed with no husk, it cannot grow, but if you bury it in the earth with its shell, then it germinates and
becomes a great tree. So, form is a great and necessary principle, and without it our task fails and
our purpose is not attained. Yes, this principle is reality in the eyes of those who know reality and have become reality!