Rumi

 Rumi, the eternally beloved Sufi mystic, philosopher and poet

Few figures in the history of civilization have as successfully crossed borders of faith, language and geography as nimbly as Jalal al-Din Mohammad Rumi, the great 13th-century theologian and mystic poet. 

Rumi's works, composed primarily in Persian, transcend time and culture, making him one of the world's most beloved and widely quoted poets. 

Rumi introduced himself to the world as follows:
I am neither Christian nor Jew,
Neither Persian nor Muslim.
I am neither the East nor West,
Neither from land nor from water.

Across time, place and culture, Rumi's poems articulate what it feels like to be alive. His poems, sparkling with wisdom peppered with humour, help us understand universal themes such as love, loss, longing, and the search for meaning, as evidenced by his couplet, "Love is not contained in speech and hearing; Love is an ocean whereof the depth is invisible"

Rumi's reputation and appeal is in its eclectic layering of profound religious knowledge, personal charm and wit, and a playful capacious spirit that is both deeply human and haloed with otherworldly prescience. He brought musical instruments into prayer and practised the whirling dance of sama, declaring that these practices helped the human soul connect with its divine source. 

Rumi, aka Mevlana, born Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207–1273), was a Persian poet, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic.  At birth, his family named Rumi, Muhammad, though he came to be nicknamed Jalaladdin, meaning “majesty of the faith” in Arabic. As for "Mevlana," it connotes the honorific "our master," while "Rumi" relates to "the land of Rum" or "Anatolia," where he lived the last 50 years of his life.

Rumi lived during the 13th century in a region that now spans modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey. His life journey covered 2,500 miles from his birthplace in Balkh, Horasan, which at the time was inhabited by Turkish tribes, in what is now Tajikistan, to Samarkand in Uzbekistan, to Iran and to Syria, where Rumi studied at Damascus and Aleppo in his twenties. His final stop was Konya, in Turkey, where Rumi spent the last 50 years of his life. 

The transformative moment in Rumi’s life came circa 1244 when he met the wild-eyed mystic Shamsuddin of Tabriz, also known as Shams of Tabriz. 

Rumi was just 37, a traditional Muslim preacher and scholar, as his father and grandfather had been. But the two of them hit it off instantly, like a house on fire, theirs was an electric friendship that blazed across the night sky for three years – platonic lovers or beloved disciple and teacher -that we'll let the scholars debate. But we know for sure that their interaction made Rumi a mystic. 

After just three years Shams mysteriously disappeared teaching Rumi the all-important lessons of separation and detachment. 

 

Rumi coped with his unfathomable loss by writing poetry, a lifelong passion from age 37 to 67. He wrote 3,000 love songs to Shams (Diwan-e Shams-e Tabrizi), the prophet Muhammad and God. He also wrote 2,000 rubayat, four-line quatrains and the longest single-authored emphatically mystical poem ever written at 26,000 couplets, making it a significant work in its own right which we know as the six-volume spiritual epic, Masnavi-ye Ma'navi. It is rife with references to Hadith, Quranic sayings and devotion to the Prophet Muhammad. 

Rumi preached and lived by the principle of tolerance, for which he was greatly loved. He identified that all religions were fundamentally in pursuit of oneness with God. In doing so, Rumi flirted with the rigid heretical boundaries, irking local sultans and dour jurisdictional types who often, in the end, forgave him, for he was the great Mowlana.


During this period, Rumi incorporated poetry, music and dance into his religious practice. "I used to recite prayers. Now I recite rhymes and poems and songs,” he said. Within Islam itself, Sufism is a centuries-old current that sees religious practice as a means to oneness with God. Sufis have traditionally infused their devotion with poetry and music and reached for love as a metaphor to describe the human longing for a relationship with the divine. 

Rumi would whirl while he was meditating and while composing poetry, which he dictated and this got codified after his death into elegant meditative dance. 

These resonate deeply across cultures and religions, transcending the boundaries of time and geography. It is said that when you read any of his works, you find that Rumi answers new questions and imparts a different lesson each time.

In today's world, marked by materialism and disconnection, Rumi offers insights into inner peace, mindfulness, and the spiritual aspects of human existence. His emphasis on love as the essence of life appeals to those seeking deeper meaning.

In 1976 the poet Robert Bly handed Barks a copy of Cambridge don AJ Arberry’s translation of Rumi and said, “These poems need to be released from their cages.” Barks transformed them from stiff academic language into American-style free verse.  

Since then, Barks’ translations have yielded 22 volumes in 33 years, including The Essential Rumi, A Year with Rumi, Rumi: The Big Red Book and Rumi’s father’s spiritual diary, The Drowned Book, all published by HarperOne.  They have sold more than 2m copies worldwide and have been translated into 23 languages.

Barks opened the cage, and the bird, once again, started singing the melodious songs with their totality and substance.

“Rumi’s Secret, The Life of the Sufi Poet of Love”, the 2017 best-selling work by Brad Gooch has once again revived interest in the US, catapulting him to the top of the most read and quoted poets of all time.

Jawid Mojaddedi, a scholar of early and medieval Sufism at Rutgers University and an award-winning Rumi translator, presents us with four unique qualities of Rumi's innovative works

• First is his direct address to readers in the rare second person, says Mojaddedi.  “I think contemporary readers respond well to this directness.”
• Second is his urge to teach: “Readers of ‘inspirational’ literature are drawn to Rumi’s poetry.”  Third, “his use of everyday imagery.” and 
• Fourth, “his optimism of the attainment of union within his lyrical love ghazals. The convention in that form is to stress its unattainability and the cruel rebuffs of the beloved. Rumi celebrates union.

Tomb of Rumi

After his death, Rumi's followers established the Mevlevi Order (or Whirling Dervishes), known for its meditative dance and music rituals, that embody his teachings of divine love and unity.

Today Rumi’s tomb in Konya, Turkey draws millions of reverent followers including heads of state each year for a whirling dervish ceremony on 17 December, the anniversary of his death.

Historically, it was not Mevlana's birthday that was celebrated by his followers but the anniversary of his death, a day called Sheb-i Aruz, meaning "Wedding Night" in Persian. This was because Rumi, along with many other Sufis, believed that upon death, he would be reunited with his beloved, Allah. 

References

1. Ciabattari, J. (2022, February 24). Why is Rumi the best-selling poet in the US? BBC. Retrieved December 4, 2024, from https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20140414-americas-best-selling-poet
2. Anadolu Agency. (2021, September 30). Universality, relevance of Rumi’s thoughts amaze whole world. Daily Sabah. Retrieved December 4, 2024, from https://www.dailysabah.com/arts/universality-relevance-of-rumis-thoughts-amaze-whole-world/news
3. Moaveni, A. (2017, January 20). How Did Rumi Become One of Our Best-Selling Poets? New York Times. Retrieved December 4, 2024, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/books/review/rumi-brad-gooch.html