RUMI - THE SUFI MYSTIC

HEROES OF THE EARTH Episode Two

Through Love all that is bitter will sweet.
Through Love all that is copper will be gold.
Through Love all dregs will turn to purest wine.
Through Love all pain will turn to medicine.
Through Love the dead will all become alive.
Through Love the king will turn into a slave!
--- Music by Armand Amar

Sufi mystic Jalal al-Din Rumi was born in 1207 as Jalal al-Din Mohammad-e Balkhi on the edge of the Persian Empire, in Balkh in modern-day Afghanistan (though another birthplace in Tajikistan is also claimed).

The son of Baha’ al-Din-e Valad, a noted scholar and theologian, Rumi’s family fled the Mongols, settling in Samarkand and then Anatolia. In 1224 Rumi married Gauhar Khatun, with whom he had two sons. In 1229, his father was invited by the sultan of Seljuk Turks to teach theology in the capital, Konya. Rumi was raised to be a scholar and teacher; after being sent to Aleppo and Damascus to finish his religious training, Rumi took over his father’s post.

Rumi’s discovery of poetry is generally dated to his midlife friendship with the mystic Shams al-Din Tabrizi. Around 1244, Shams arrived in Konya, preaching the possibility and necessity of direct communion with God. Rumi became a disciple and intimate friend to Shams; the two were rarely apart. It is said that Rumi’s sons and followers were jealous of Shams and drove him from the city. Whatever the cause, after Sham’s disappearance, Rumi consoled himself with writing poetry, chanting, and performing dance, in particular the circling dances set to music that became known as the whirling dervish.

Rumi quickly gained a reputation as an ecstatic visionary, and devoted the rest of his life to writing and worship. Rumi’s major works all date from after Shams’s disappearance: Diwan-e Shams-e Tabiz, or “The Collected Poems of Shams,” written partially in the voice of Shams; Mathnawi, or “Spiritual Couplets,” sometimes known as the Persian Koran and the most widely read poem in the Muslim world; and various prose works including Fihe ma fih, or “Discourses”; sermons designed for occasions, Majales-e sab'a; and many letters known as Maktubat. Rumi’s fame during his own lifetime was notable, and his death was widely mourned.

Rumi remains one of the world’s most popular poets. Scholars such as A.J. Arberry, Franklin D. Lewis, Jawid Mojaddedi, and Reynold A. Nicholson have translated Rumi’s works into numerous collections in English. Many popular translations of Rumi’s works have also been undertaken by Coleman Barks. According to Mojaddedi, Rumi’s resonance with contemporary readers can be traced in part to his vivid, simple imagery, his use of the second person and insistence on direct address, and to “his optimism of the attainment of union … Rumi celebrates union.”

BE SILENT

Be silent that the Lord who gave thee language may speak,
For as He fashioned a door and lock, He has also made a key.

I SAW THE WINTER WEAVING

I saw the winter weaving from flakes a robe of Death;
And the spring found earth in mourning, all naked, lone, and bare.
I heard Time’s loom a-whirring that wove the Sun’s dim Veil;
I saw a worm a-weaving in Life-threads its own lair.
I saw the Great was Smallest, and saw the Smallest Great;
For God had set His likeness on all the things that were.

THE SILENCE OF LOVE

Love is the astrolabe of God’s mysteries.
A lover may hanker after this love or that love,
But at the last he is drawn to the KING of Love.
However much we describe and explain Love,
When we fall in love we are ashamed of our words.
Explanation by the tongue makes most things clear,
But Love unexplained is better.

WOMAN

Woman is a ray of God, not a mere mistress,
The Creator’s Self, as it were, not a mere creature!

THE GIFTS OF THE BELOVED

Where will you find one more liberal than God?
He buys the worthless rubbish which is your wealth,
He pays you the Light that illumines your heart.
He accepts these frozen and lifeless bodies of yours,
And gives you a Kingdom beyond what you dream of,
He takes a few drops of your tears,
And gives you the Divine Fount sweeter than sugar.
He takes your sighs fraught with grief and sadness,
And for each sigh gives rank in heaven as interest.
In return for the sigh-wind that raised tear-clouds,
God gave Abraham the title of “Father of the Faithful.”

ALL RELIGIONS ARE ONE   

In the adorations and benedictions of righteous men
The praises of all the prophets are kneaded together.
All their praises are mingled into one stream,
All the vessels are emptied into one ewer.
Because He that is praised is, in fact, only One.
In this respect all religions are only one religion.
Because all praises are directed towards God’s Light,
These various forms and figures are borrowed from it.