Jalal-Ad-Din
Rumi or Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273) was the greatest Sufi, mystic and poet in
the Persian language. “No Sufi poet has exerted a vaster influence on Muslim
and Christian west than Jalal-Ad-Din called Mawlana or Mawlawi, “Our Master.”
He was so influential in Islamic mystical thought that the ‘Masnavi’, his long
mysticodidactic poem, has been called
“the Quran in the Persian tongue” by the great fifteenth-century poet Jami of
Herat.
Shamsi Tabri had a great influence on Rumi’s life. On the
first meeting, Shamsi threw the books away in order to mean that theoretical
knowledge was meaningless to receive God’s love and to know the ultimate
reality. From then they became in ‘one spirit’. But Shamsi was murdered.
“Lost in thoughts of the beloved, he would whirl around one
of the architectural poles in his garden. Here he began the dance of the
whirling dervish. He would turn until he reached the place of disassociation of
body and thoughts and his hearts opened with ecstasy. Silently he repeated the
name of God.”
Rumi’s followers in the west founded a group of ‘Whirling
Dervishes who took the mystical dance of Rumi as their principal ritual.
We see actually that love of God is the main concern of
Rumi’s thought. Rumi’s poetry also reflects it:
‘Divan-i Shams, the Divan is a remarkable piece of literature
which translates the author’s ecstatic experiences directly into poetry.’
“The Masnavi, which shows all the different aspects of Sufism
in the 13th century, often carries the reader away with the loose
associations of thought, so that one understands what subjects the master had
in mind at a particular stage of life. The work reflects the experience of
divine love.”
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