For close to 800 years , the Book of the Iranian poet Rumi have inspired , comfort and consoled the great unwashed of all ages , origins and walk of life of life sentence . hold Jalāl ad - Dīn Muhammad Rūmī , the mysticpoet , bang today simply as Rumi , has been quoted for centuries and exceed fourth dimension , language and finish tobecome one of the best - selling poet in the United States . While Rumiwrote inPersian and Arabic ( in addition to some Turkish and Greek ) , his poems were recognize all over the world by the terminal of the 20th century , mobilize widely in westerly Europe and the U.S. , in particular ( case in stage : the 1999 Deepak Chopra - produced album , " A Gift of Love : Music Inspired by the Love Poems of Rumi , " boast readings of his verse form by the likes of Madonna , Martin Sheen , Demi Moore , Goldie Hawn , and more ) .
" Beautiful , heavy verse has always been a balm for Rumi , who is amongst only a handful of poet throughout history who defy the passage of time and linguistic barriers , and speak to the mortal of mankind , " saysNarguess Farzad , senior reader in the Department of the Languages and Cultures of the Near and Middle East at SOAS ( School of Oriental and African Studies ) , University of London , via email .
A Biographical Sketch
bear in 1207 in what is now Afghanistan , Rumi was the Logos of a theologian and mystical preacher . When theMongolsinvaded primal Asia between 1215 and 1220 , Rumi ’s family and a radical of disciplescaravanned through many ancient citiesincluding Baghdad and Damascus , performed pilgrimage in Mecca , and finally go under in present - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. Turkey . Rumi grew up practicingSufism , a orphic form ofIslamrooted in the search for divine love and knowledge through verbatim experience with God . His life reportedly take a turn of events in his 30s when he metSham al - Din , a wandering Sufi mystic who went on to become his guru . When Sham go away four year later ( he was allegedly murdered ) , Rumi ’s heartbreak lead him to startle write .
And he wrote — a mountain . In fact , it would be tough to narrow down down the most popular Rumi passages considering how fertile the author was . He wrote over 3,000 ghazals ( to begin with Arabic verses make out with love and red ) , and over 2,000 robaiyat , ( four - furrow rhyming poems ) . And that staggering amount of work does n’t even take into story theMasnavi — considered one of the most influential full treatment of Sufism and unremarkably refer to as " thePersian Quran " — aseries of six Christian Bible of poetryamounting to around 25,000 verse or 50,000 lines .
" His six - volume magnum opus ofSpiritual Versesalone is five times the length of Milton’sParadise Lost , and then there are the 3,000 - plus rapt hymn to love and the many quatrains that makes it near out of the question to choose a darling , " say Farzad .
Five Enlightening Rumi Passages
So , while it would be near impossible to break down the intact bulk of Rumi ’s wisdom , here are five of his most authoritative teachings and the passages that straighten out them and enamour his spirit :
1. Rumi Wrote Extensively About Love
On the surface , many of Rumi ’s poems and passages appear to be about love story , but concord to experts , his wisdom on topic of union and separation transcend that one minute interpretation of lovemaking . In this instance , " separation " may not just signify distance from a fan or loved one , but from a prison term , earned run average , look , or experience .
" In his sublime poetry , Rumi articulates so many of the challenge and experience that we grip with in our turbulent world , and these are often encapsulated in the essence of detachment . Separation can seem in many context : separation from the land of one ’s parturition , from the security of family unit or company of good friends , from one ’s dear , from the innocence that we once had or , for many , separation from the elysian Maker , " Farzad says .
2. He Illuminated the Essence of Artistic Inspiration
While this quote could certainly be interpreted as a amorous sublime gesture , it ’s safe to assume Rumi wrote this with divine allusions in brain , referring to the elbow room God had urge and enlightened him to view the human beings through sexual love and to produce prowess from that perspective .
" The magic of Rumi ’s verse line is that while he narrates the agonies of souls separate from a source of living , or a devotee , he never succumbs to despair or hopelessness , " Farzad says . " As well as wit and a mastery of storytelling , there is a scintillate energy and pleasure in his poetry that makes him an vastly pop poet not only in the Iranian mouth world but across the globe . "
3. Rumi Espoused the Practice of Religious and Racial Tolerance
Rumi was conjure up in the Islamic religion andhis Padre , Baha Valad , occasionally preach at the local mosque and as a Sunni legal expert . Rumi eventually come to be identified with Sufism , the mysterious outgrowth of Islam and " a school of practicethat underline the inward lookup for God and shuns physicalism , " accoring to The New York Times . But Rumi ’s oeuvre has beenlauded for give tongue to peace and toleranceand " his school of thought advocate tolerance , reasoning , goodness , charity and knowingness through lovemaking , look with the same center on Muslims , Jews , Christians and others likewise , " harmonise to the UMass Rumi Club website .
But among Rumi ’s shorter works , Farzad is drawn to one that alludes to the scriptural and Quranic account of the creation of valet , which she enounce can be read as :
4. His Message Is of Self-Empowerment and Spiritual Development
" Rumi ’s message of universal love , margin of organized religion and race , ego - empowerment , religious development and enlightenment are in truth timeless and timely for today ’s audiences , " tell author Shahram Shiva , founder ofRumi Networkand author of"Hush , Do n’t Say Anything to God : Passionate Poems of Rumi . ““Those few stemma talk about the hope of self - realization , enlightenment and at long last rising , where you evolve beyond the boundaries of a simple human to much higher aspirations . "
5. He Is a Pop Culture Phenomenon to This Day
This particular handing over from the verse form , " The Guest House , " gained popularity in an unconvincing context : it was featured on a Coldplay record album . As Rozina Aliwrotefor The New Yorker in 2017 , the " erasure of Islam from Rumi ’s verse start long before Coldplay got involved . " But as the poet and his work have been adopted and adapted in the westerly globe , the fact remain that passage like this one are steeped in Muslim teachings — an important aspect of Rumi ’s oeuvre that ’s often ignore in modern Western treatment of his verse . As Ali indicate out , " The Guest House " is from Rumi ’s six - book of account epic , the Masnavi , which is " riddled with Arabic excerpt from Moslem Christian Bible ; the record frequently touch to Koranic anecdote that offer moral lessons . "
" It would be nice if people could go beyond the breathless renditions of a handful of Rumi poems which have been the backdrop of fashion and catwalk shows for example , or ( although badly translate and completely get rid of from the original ) are YouTube or Instagram hits , " Farzad says . " It would be good if people pause to remember that Rumi was first and first a scholar of Islamic philosophy and mysticism , that his poetry was composed during one of the most troubled periods of the 13th 100 , and has a depth and comprehensiveness that is seldom considered . I vex that sometimes the veridical scholar is overshadowed by the parody of a gyration and hopping and skipping guru that was created in the late twentieth century . "
Rumi died on Dec. 17 , 1273 in Konya in south - central Turkey . His body was carried through the metropolis by a crowd of local Jews and Christians and he was bury beside his father in a splendid shrine , the Yeşil Türbe , or Green Tomb , which is today theMevlâna Museum .
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