Basheer Ahmed M.D.
A few years ago, while I was in Turkey, a long-cherished desire took me to visit Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi’s shrine in Konya, Turkey. A great scholar, philosopher or Sufi born once in a thousand years. And Rumi was one of those people who was born in 1207. Maulana Rumi the founder of the Mevlevi Sufi order was one of the greatest mystic poets that ever lived. His thoughts and philosophy had a great impact on the religious, cultural, and political thinking of modern times. So do his mystical writings, which cover every aspect of human life and inspire tolerance, acceptance, and humanism. In the present day and era, when the entire world suffers from rampant hate and extremism, Rumi’s universal message of love and unity showers down as rain on the deserts irrespective of religion, race, culture or any perceived barriers.
The Quran, contrary to public perception, contains two types of verses – verses of ‘fear’, and verses of the ‘love’ of Allah. In complete contrast with the majority of Ulemas, Rumi promotes and speaks the language of love. He conveys and promotes Islamic principles in such a way that an offence against any faith is discarded; rather, deep respect towards the all religions is imparted. Rumi’s appeal always reflects a universality same as his central message of universal brotherhood and love. “Love, be it real or metaphorical, ultimately takes humans to God”, said Rumi with love for the creator. And he further emphasizes this notion by saying that to love God, one has to learn and show love towards His creations first. Much more than ever, Rumi’s ideas and philosophy occupy a central seat in the present multicultural society where all kinds of people live and co-exist with their own beliefs. His thoughts, irrespective of time, always ensure that it provides a sense of dignity and equality for all the living. Sometimes, religious interpretations often lead to conflicting views and create hostility among different faiths. In such situations, one needs to turn toward the commonalities in religious teachings. Rumi clarifies that it’s not faith, belief or religion that causes conflicts hatred and violence. But on the contrary, it’s the greed and unrestrained ego which contributes to such human weakness. Similarly, one requires accepting differences and heterogeneity and going deeper into the soul of each tenet to avoid conflicts. If the world would have followed Rumi, social evils like Racism, bigotry Islamophobia, Christophobia, anti-Semitism and Cancel Culture would have had disappeared from this world.
Maulana Rumi was born in Balkh, a city in present-day Afghanistan in the year 1207 CE. His family is the descendants of the first Khalifa, Abu Bakr. His father was Shaikh Bahauddin Balad, a well-known jurist, Islamic scholar, and mystic. Rumi was brought up in a period of social and political turbulence due to the Crusades and the constant threats of Mongol invasions which in turn influenced much of his poetry. Rumi travelled extensively with his family from Balkh to Iran, Baghdad, Mecca, Damascus, and other parts of the Muslim world. In 1228, at the invitation of the Sultan of the Seljuk, the family finally settled in Konya, Anatolia, in present-day Turkey. Rumi studied under his father and later under a renowned Sufi scholar Burhanuddin al-Tirmidhi. In 1213, the family migrated to Nishapur, Iran, where Rumi met one of the most celebrated religious scholars of his time; Sheikh Fariduddin Attar, who had a considerable influence on Rumi during his early years. Rumi completed his scholarly education in Damascus, mastering the classical Islamic sciences, including the Quran and its Tafseer, knowledge of Hadith (traditions of Prophet (PBUH) and jurisprudence (fiqh). But it was in 1244 in Damascus that he met the famous Darvesh, Shams Tabrizi, the Persian poet who completely changed his life.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi)
Afterwards, they went on a spiritual journey together, learned from and taught one another. With the help of Shams, Rumi became more interested in ‘Tasawwuf’ and the Sufi traditions, and finally became a Sufi mystic spiritually connected to the Almighty.
Rumi composed poetry for 10 years in honor of Tabrizi and named it ‘Diwan Shams Tabrizi’. This was a collection of 40,000 verses, which is considered one of the greatest works on Tasawwuf in Persian literature, expressing the union of man to the divine.
Rumi’s major work, the ‘Masnavi’, is a six-volume poetical masterpiece containing about fifty thousand verses. Often celebrated as the greatest spiritual masterpiece that was ever composed by a human being, it explains the complexity of human lives in simple language.
Runi’s enlightened thought process and liberal appeal for tolerance and connection with the Almighty attracted people from all corners of the world, cutting across cultural and religious divisions.
Rumi’s work was translated from Persian to German by Joseph Hammer, an Austrian historian. However, it was Goethe, the Father of European romantic movement, who, greatly influenced by Rumi’s poetry, introduced Rumi to the Western World.
Khalifa Abdul Hakim’s says that “in the entire range of mystical literature of the whole world, there is none to equal him either in depth or in comprehensiveness and extent. Rumi is one of those rare saints and mystics whose intellectual fiber and creative moral and social effort is not weakened by subjective emotional experiences unrelated to the realities of everyday life.
One of his most famous statements is: “Yesterday, I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today, I am wise, so I am changing myself” – Rumi
In Rumi, spirituality, rationality, and universal morality have found a healthy synthesis, contributing to humane and democratic values around the world.
“Dr. Basheer Ahmed is the former professor of psychiatry, South Western Medical School, Dallas, Texas, and chairman emeritus MCC for Human services North Texas He can be reached at mbahmed05@yahoo.com”
