25 The Poetry of Rumi
(Asia Minor, 1207-1273 CE)
Jalal al-Din Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet and scholar. Born in 1207 in the region of present-day Afghanistan, he spent much of his life in Konya, in what is now modern-day Turkey. Rumi practiced Sufi Islam, a mystical branch of the faith that emphasizes personal experience and a direct connection with the divine, rather than strict adherence to Islamic law. Although Rumi lived during the Middle Ages, and not the ancient world, his poetry continues to resonate with modern audiences through its exploration of universal themes such as love, suffering, and spiritual truth. Historically, Sufism played a major role in the spread of Islam, especially among Turkic peoples and communities in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Self-Aggrandisement and Vainglory No Part of Love
A lover was once admitted to the presence of his mistress, but, instead of embracing her, he pulled out a paper of sonnets and read them to her, describing her perfections and charms and his own love towards her at length. His mistress said to him, “You are now in my presence, and these lovers’ sighs and invocations are a waste of time. It is not the part of a true lover to waste his time in this way. It shows that I am not the real object of your affection, but that what you really love is your own effusions and ecstatic raptures. I see, as it were, the water which I have longed for before me, and yet you withhold it. I am, as it were, in Bulgaria, and the object of your love is in Cathay [China]. One who is really loved is the single object of her lover, the Alpha and Omega of his desires. As for you, you are wrapped up in your own amorous raptures, depending on the varying states of your own feelings, instead of being wrapped up in me.”
Love Needs No Mediator
When one has attained Union with God he has no need of intermediaries. Prophets and apostles are needed as links to connect ordinary man with God, but he who hears the “inner voice” within him has no need to listen to outward words, even of apostles. Although that intercession is himself dwelling in God, yet my state is higher and more lovely than his. Though he is God’s agent, yet I desire not his intercession to save me from evil sent me by God, for evil at God’s hand seems to me good. What seems mercy and kindness to the vulgar seems wrath and vengeance to God-intoxicated saints.
Humanity the Reflection of the Beloved
Parrots are taught to speak without understanding the words. The method is to place a mirror between the parrot and the trainer. The trainer, hidden by the mirror, utters the words, and the parrot, seeing his own reflection in the mirror, fancies another parrot is speaking, and imitates all that is said by the trainer behind the mirror. So God uses prophets and saints as mirrors whereby to instruct men, viz., the bodies of these saints and prophets; and men, when they hear the words proceeding from these mirrors, are utterly ignorant that they are really being spoken by “Universal Reason” or the “Word of God” behind the mirror of the saints.
The Wine Everlasting
O babbler, while thy soul is drunk with mere date wine,
Thy spirit hath not tasted the genuine grapes.
For the token of thy having seen that divine Light
Is this, to withdraw thyself from the house of pride.
A Mother Whose Children Were in the Beloved’s Keeping
A woman bore many children in succession, but none of them lived beyond the age of three or four months. In great distress she cried to God, and then beheld in a vision the beautiful gardens of Paradise, and many fair mansions therein, and upon one of these mansions she read her own name inscribed. And a voice from heaven informed her that God would accept the sorrows she had endured in lieu of her blood shed in holy war, as, owing to her sex, she was unable to go out to battle like the men. On looking again, the woman beheld in Paradise all the children she had lost, and she cried, “O Lord! they were lost to me, but safe with Thee!”
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.
The True Mosque
Fools laud and magnify the mosque,
While they strive to oppress holy men of heart.
But the former is mere form, the latter spirit and truth.
The only true mosque is that in the hearts of saints.
The mosque that is built in the hearts of the saints
Is the place of worship of all, for God dwells there.
So long as the hearts of the saints are not afflicted.
God never destroys the nation.
Questions for Discussion
Characterize Rumi’s vision of true love and spirituality. How might authorities from the Abrahamic faiths take issue with these poems?
