Jalaluddin Rumi is famed as much in the west as in east for the tradition of whirling and an assortment of devotional poetry. His death anniversary on Dec. 17 is known as Wedding Night, or Seb-i Arus in Turkish. Like every year, dervishes and devoted fans across the world, especially in his final resting place Konya, Turkey, whirl like a spinning wheel to pay tribute to their beloved Mevlana, meaning Our Master. Others read his poetry in gatherings or in solitude to reflect on the intended message.
It must be obvious, by now, that Rumi's death is no somber event for his devotees. It's actually a celebration. Timothy Winter, a lecturer of Islamic Studies at Cambridge University, explains why: "Rumi's death is the moment of his union with his Lord. In Sufism, God is often symbolized as a feminine beloved, known as Layla."
After his father died, the young jurist and imam left for Damascus to deepen his knowledge of the religious laws and codes. But what he learned elsewhere would change his life and those of millions who came after him. At a bazaar, he met a mysterious man who was the first to question the value Rumi had placed on a legalistic approach to God.
As the story goes, one day while Rumi was reading next to a large stack of books, a passerby, who he later learned was Shams of Tabriz, asked, "What are you doing?" Rumi, assuming he was a vagabond, replied, "Something you cannot understand." Shams threw all his books into a puddle of water. Seeing his prized possessions ruining, Rumi acted quickly to save the books and much to his amazement they all came out dry. "What is this?" asked Rumi, Shams replied "Mowlana [Our Master in Persian], this is what you cannot understand." In another version of the tale, the books suddenly caught fire but they were not consumed.
Shams was a man of knowledge, who had committed the Quran to memory, and who renounced all his worldly possessions in search for a man who could "endure his company." Rumi was the one. As a result of their friendship, Rumi's outlook toward the faith changed, dramatically.
Between the two, it's hard to tell who was the master and who the devotee.
Their deep relationship raised many eyebrows, but they were inseparable. Indeed, as Columbia professsor Hamid Dabashi noted, "much of what we know of Shams is through Rumi's poetry." One may "fetishize their relationship," Dabashi said, "but Shams had a catalytic effect on Rumi, especially on his mystical ideas and his understanding of the universe."
Mr. Winter adds that it is "only in the company of an illuminated sage do we awaken," adding an example from Hinduism to showcase that it's a common idea across world religions: "Arjuna is transformed by the presence of Krishna so that his actions have no karmic consequence and are pure spiritual act. Without Krishna he is trapped in ego."
Rumi's lyrical poetry "The Works of Shams of Tabriz," written after Shams' disappearance, consists of 40,000 verses -- all dedicated to his master/devotee. But it's more than an individual tribute.
William Chittick, author of "Me and Rumi: The Autobiography of Shams-I Tabrizi," said in an interview that the work is skillfully crafted to elevate the spirits of readers. And the requisite to understanding his poetry is to read it within the context of the religion, which is the only way to decipher the higher meaning of Rumi's works.
Some poems incorporate allegories to lure the reader to reflect on its deeper meaning. For many on the Sufi path, Rumi's poetry is a vehicle to transcend the mundane, transient world. It captures the intensity of his spiritual journey and internal turmoil, which act as a guide for a seeker. As in the opening lines of this Ghazal, from the Mathnavi, which sets a contemplative mood:
Everyday I meditate upon this, and every night I groan
   Why is my own existence to myself the least known?
Whence have I come, why this coming here?
   Where to must I go, when will my home to me be shown?
I am in desperate awe, why was I ever created?
   For this, my creation, whatsoever was the reason?
Rumi died in 1273. To this day, his devotees celebrate his departure from the world as one would in a marriage, apt for a man who sought the highest love in life, and found it most completely in death.
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Fatemeh Keshavarz: Moving Colors And Shapes In Rumi's Lyric Poetry
I died a mineral and became a plant; I died a plant and rose an animal; I died an animal
and I was a man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall
die as a man, to soar With blessed angels; even from angelhood I must pass on. When I
have sacrificed my angel soul, I shall become that which no mind conceived.
Incidently, there has been a lot of stories and comments on Budhism on Huff Post. They talk about negation of God but meditation for self for inner fulfillment. You have summarized above beautifully, because I replied to these comments also about the realization of self and its development for the higher self and that involve something higher --- Anyway, one more addition to your article is that the dervishes delve into the glorification of God in HIs 99 names by chanting, and saying it loud or in heart, with regards to the whirling dervishes I read that their right hand is skyward and one fingure pointing to God above, and the left hand earthwards showing our presence on earth, trying to make the link, in a way asking for mercy for inner development and self's elevation and God's glorification. I also read that the meeting of Shams and Rumi and the Hijr or vanishing of Shams, the separation, was the force for Rumi to express Poetically in the Mathnavi as you say --- this may be a metaphor for that greatest separation when Adam landed on Earth from Heaven as a result of what happened up in heaven after his creation, when none of us were there/.
But if the poems are about seeking God, where is Shams in this equation? When Rumi met Shams, Chittick said, "he was raw," adding, Shams "cooked and burned him," preparing him for a rapturous journey. When one has attained that self control by devotion, remembrance and self sacrifice, there are two sides one is called the Zahir, or open as we see the world with our naked eyes, and the other side is the Batin, the hidden but a very active and conscious self, directing us to live a live in line with God's revelations or complete negations of divine and the deity who revealed them, that is a very big choice to make but in any case the self contained within and does not get exposed. Very interesting story for seekers of self with believe in God and may help those who negate the God but still try to master the self and its inuendos. So God help us all in your pursuit. Part 1
All kith and kin (all blood-related) live in a highly specified and rigid hierarchy in which relationships are defined. These determine relationships with neighbors. Even with brothers and cousins the order of precedence is known.
But there is one exception. The stranger. Two adult males meet for the first time. Strangers. There is at first danger for precedence is not known. Who is higher status? Should combat determine it?. In the above story we have an act of violence - the casting down of the books. Then the next step is taken. Two paths beckon. The familiar one is master and pupil. But the less familiar, the more inviting, is the unknown one of equality. Here we find in the above tale a tension between the two ways of relating to others. We are told we did not know who was master and who was pupil.
The notion of equality is important here. It fills the background. The equality with nature, with the living world as we comprise one harmonious whole.
Example:
The biggest rock band to ever come out of South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka) was Junoon, from Pakistan.
They were touted as the world's first "Sufi Rock Band".
Their album sales, to date, are over 30 Million, and still climbing ... not bad for a band who sings in Urdu ... especially when their lyrics consist of the poems of Sufi saints.
Junoon performed the first rock concert ever at the United Nations, in October 2001, as a benefit for 9/11 victims. Before they traveled to the U.S. to perform the concert, the members of Junoon received death threats in their native Pakistan. They flew to the U.S. and played anyway.
Check out Salman's intro to this song (he credits Rumi as a major inspiration).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B_q9wm2LTA
And here's Junoon showing New Yorkers a far different side of Islam than they're used to seeing, at a show in Central Park:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_agUaE7Ffs
Logically, before you can celebrate them you first have to prove the divine and the soul exist. Get busy.
Massive logic FAIL. You can't prove such a negative.
Also, the fact you have no proof is my point and you've proven it.
Shaykh Kabir Helminski and his wife, Shaykha Camilla Helminski, represent that order in North America.
See this: http://sufism.org/
Additionally, please note that Rumi classified his poetry as an esoteric commentary on the Qur`an.
"Layla, you got me on my knees." Derick and the Dominoes
You think?
See also, "The Male and Female in the Islamic Perspective", at http://www.studiesincomparativereligion.com/Public/articles/The_Male_and_Female_in_the_Islamic_Perspective-by_Seyyed_Hossein_Nasr.aspx
Does not Layla mean night in Arabic?
Is there any connection between this divine name and the tale of Layla and Majnun?
That tales speaks of unrequited love perhaps symbolic of the higher love.
I do.
http://sufinews.blogspot.com/2010/02/shaykh-abd-al-qadir-as-sufi-and-history.html