“The shop of Oneness,

The Ocean that has many harbours,

Yet where there is no division

Between man and man, or woman,

But only a unity of souls

In the process of return to their Creator,

Whose breath lives inside each one

An helps to guide us home.” …

Among human beings, there must always exist those, whom through Divine Grace, have received their Trusts from God in this worldly life. They move about in the world as if they were part of it, yet inside, their hearts and souls are in the Divine Presence. If they ask of God, their request is accepted, and if they look at mankind, it is always with the eye of mercy to those less fortunate than themselves. They are known as the Friends of God, called Awliya in Sufism. It is Sufism which is related to them and they are product of Sufism. Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi was such a friend of God.

Talking about Rumi, the greatest Sufi poet is like flying in the celestial sphere amongst the heavenly stars and planets. Today, in this world full of misery, sorrow, pain, suffering, ingratitude, and materialism, the spiritual influence of Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi is being felt by people of diverse beliefs throughout the world. He is being recognised in the Western countries, as he has been for last seven centuries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, as one of the greatest literary abd spiritual figures of all time. Rumi, without doubt, is the most eminent Sufi poet whom Persia has produced, while his momentous mystical work, Mathnawi desrves to rank amongst the great poems of all times. Sir Muhammad Iqbal, one of the most renowned thinker and philosopher of Pakistan, and who himself has been moulded into the pattern set by Rumi, once remarked that, “The world of today needs a Rumi to create an attitude of hope, and to kindle the fire of enthusiasm for life.” These humble pages are created by this feeble slave, a sinner, who is in need of God’s mercy, in a hope that such a modest presentation will enlighten and enrich the troubled souls of humanity everywhere. Let each word of the Maulana, the greatest of all spiritual teachers, provide nourishment to our emaciated spirits, and cause sweet flowers to grown in the barren soil of our hearts, with sweet-scented fragrance all around our painful and tattered existence .

“God, in spite of the skeptics,

Caused spiritual gardens with sweet flowers to grow

In the hearts of His friends.

Every rose that is sweet-scented within,

That rose is telling of the secrets of the Universal.

Their scent, to the confusion of the skeptics,

Spreads around the world, rending the veil.” ……….Rumi (Mathnawi)

Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi was born on 30th September 1207 (6 Rabi al-Awal, 604) in Balkh, in what is today Afghanistan. He died on 17th December 1273 (5 Jamadi al-Awal, 672). His life, therefore, covers the entire span of the thirteenth century, which was the seventh century of Islam. At an early age his family left Balkh because of the danger of invading Mongols, and settled in Konya, Turkey, which was than the capital of Seljuk Empire. His father, Maulana Bahauddin, was a great religious teacher who received a position at the University of Konya.

The Master Sanai lived during the eleventh and twelvth centuries, and is reckoned to be the earliest Afghan teacher to use the love-motive in Sufism. Maulana Jalal-ud-din Rumi(born in Balkh, Afghanistan) acknowledged him as one of his inspirations. Attempts were made by religious fanatics to brand him an apostate from Islam, but they did not succeed. Characteristically, his words have regularly been employed since then by the spiritual descendants of these narrow clerics to bolster their own pretensions. By a quite familiar process, when Sufi terminology and organization had been adopted by religious enthusiasts to the extent that the distinction between the Sufis and these superficialists had been blurred, the fanatics tried more than once to claim that Sanai was not a Sufi at all. The reason for this was that his thoughts could not be easily reconciled with narrow religiosity.

Rumi’s major work, generally considered to be one of the world’s greatest books, is his Mathnavi-i-Maanavi (Couplets of Inner Meaning). His table-talk (Fihi Ma Fihi), Letters(Maktubat), Divani Kabir, and the hagiography Munaqib El-Arifin, all contain important parts of his teachings. The few selections, from all of these sources, are meditation-themes which can be taken as aphorisms and declarations of dogma, or as pieces of sage advice. Their Sufic usage, however, goes far beyond this. Rumi, like other Sufi authors, plants his teachings within a framework which as effectively screens its inner meanings as displays it. This technique fulfills the functions of preventing those who are incapable of using the material on a higher level from experimenting effectively with it; allowing those who want poetry to select poetry; giving entertainment to people who want stories; stimulating the intellect in those who prize such experiences.

Of the most revealing of his sentences is the title of his table-talk: ‘In it what is in it’ (‘You get out of it what is in it for you’ ). Rumi had the uncomfortable Sufi habit of excelling in literary and poetic ability beyond all his contemporaries, while constantly affirming that such an attainment was a minor one compared with Sufihood.

You Are Drunk

“And i’m intoxicated.

No one is around showing us the way home.

Again and again I told you,

Drink less a cup or two.

I know in this city no one is sober,

One is worse than the other,

One is frenzied and the other gone mad.

Come on, my friend, step into the tavern of ruins,

Taste the sweetness of life in the company of another friend.

Here you’ll see at every corner someone intoxicated,

And the cup-bearer makes her rounds.

I went out of my house a drunkard came to me,

Someone whose glance uncovered,

A hundred houses in paradise.

Rocking and rolling he was a sail,

With no anchor but he was the envy

Of all those sober ones remaining on the shore.

Where are you from I asked;

He smiled in mockery and said,

One half from the east,

One half from the west,

One half made of water and earth,

One half made of heart and soul,

One half staying at the shores and,

One half nesting in a pearl.

I begged take me as your friend,

I am your next of kin.

He said I recognize no kin among strangers;

I left my belongings and entered this tavern,

I only have a chest full of words,

But can’t utter a single one.”

The Way

“The Way has been marked out.

If you depart from it, you will perish.

If you try to interfere,

With the signs on the road,

You will be an evil-doer.”

True Reality

“Of this there is no academic proof in the world;

For it is hidden, and hidden, and hidden.”

The human Spirit

“Go higher! Behold the Human Spirit.”

Rumi’s Spiritual Message

Come to me each and all

Raw, burned or baked

Clothed or naked

Poor or wretched

Humble or bigoted

Loved or hated

Come ye all, tell me all

Tell me your untold tale

Of betrayal and separation

Of longing and lamentation

Of pain and affliction

Of joy and adoration

Of unity and affirmation

Every secret you unveil

Harken to the sound of the reed

Resonating bliss and delight

For a nexus firm and bright

To the divine sacred light

After separation and fright

From the ghastly sight

Of an unholy dogma or creed

This reed is Rumi

A gnostic well- aware

Of life’s hope and despair

Of man’s love and care

And capacity to forebear

The life of a solitaire

No matter how gloomy

This reed is Shams-eddin

The Sun that cast glaring light

Upon Rumi, day and night

Like the spirit of a meteorite

Piercing and glowing bright

Transforming into an acolyte

Of his disciple Jalal-eddin

Disciple – master kindred souls

Taking chances

In love’s trances

In destiny’s lances

In reckless dances

In joyful glances

Brethren changing roles

In the secret heart of heaven remain

The ecstasy they evoke

The envy they provoke

The tradition they broke

The tender words they spoke

Waiting for the world to soak

In thunderous rain

The cosmic lightening will strike

The words will fall like rain

And spread across the plain

Heavenly Love shall restrain

Lust and greed insane

The sacred purging the profane

In East and West alike

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