RUMI

They appraised my head, my turban, and my robe.
They didn’t give even a penny.
Haven’t you heard my name in Universe?
I am Nothing, Nothing, Nothing.



دستارم و جبه و سرم هر سه به هم
قیمت کردند به یک درم چیزی کم
نشنیدستی تو نام من در عالم
من هیچکسم هیچکسم هیچکسم

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———————–

There is neither question nor answer on the way to Love,
Only a mystery.
The lover never answers to the Fatwa.
This is a matter of Absence, not existence.

نيست دعوى او در و عشق ره سريست
نيست معنى بجز او صفات که زيرا
نيست فتوى از جواب را عاشق مر
نيست ازهستى نستيست مسئله اين

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Who Rumi Was

In the following quatrain, or rubai, he describes himself:

“My turban, my robe, my head,

They aren’t worth a dime.

Haven’t you heard of my fame in the universe?

I have been annihilated,

I am nothing

I am Absent.”

-R. 198 P. 162

“Annihilation, Nothingness, Absence”, when one searches for him, he is pointing where to look. Certainly it’s not in his robe or turban.

There is an inherent danger in Rumi’s poems. They dazzle the eyes with their poetic beauty, so then one cannot see their prophetic meaning.

The price that he is asking to understand him is definitely not cheap. But who expects immortality to be cheap?

“O ones who want to smell my fragrance,

You must die first

Don’t look for me

When you are alive.”

- V. 20, G. 46

V. 7, G. 46

The death he refers to here is obviously not the chronological death; it is the salvation from the dungeon of existence. It is also not an intellectual concept. Mevlana is the Prince of Absence, he is God’s lover. Calling him a poet (it doesn’t matter how great a poet) is a big discredit to him.

“O Sultan of eternity,

I am free from gazelles, from verses.

Tell the rhyme, the meter,

That the torrent should wash them out.

The only thing a poet could do,

Is scratch the surface.”

-V. 7, 183

“I am not a poet.

My sustenance doesn’t come from poetry.

Also, I don’t talk much about virtue.

My virtue, my talent is a glass of love.

I drink that, only from the hand of the Beloved,

Not from anyone else.”

-R. 1518

Mevlana did not come from any particular (Sufi) school. His first teacher was his father, Muhammed Bahaeddin Veled (1151-1231). After his father’s death, a student of his, Burhaneddin Muhakkik (d. 1241) became Mevlana’s teacher.

Mevlana was a Muslim theologian. He took over his father’s religious school. We would most likely never know him if he hadn’t met Shams in on Fall Saturday October or November 24, 1244.

His spiritual life started immediately after that.

But he did not originate from any Sufi sect himself. The Mevlevi movement started many years after his death.

It is very difficult to call him a “Mystic”, in that traditional sense at least. But universally he was one of the best.

“I am the pure hearted Sufi

At the convent of the Universe,

Not one who wears a woolen cloak.”














———————–

O one, who lives everyday’s life,
Shame on you! Why do you live like this?
Don’t live without the Love that you won’t die for.
Die for that Love, so that you can become immortal.

ای آنکه به جان این جهانی زنده
شرمت بادا چرا چنانی زنده
بی‌عشق مباش تا نباشی مرده
در عشق بمیر تا بمانی زنده

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