Mawlana Jalal-ud-Din Rumi

The name Mawlana Jalal-ud-Din Rumi stands for Love and ecstatic flight into the infinite. Rumi is one of the greatest spiritual and literary figures of all time and was the founder of the Mawlawi Sufi order. He was born in Balkh, presently Afghanistan on September 30, 1207 to a family of learned theologians.

His father Baha-ud-Din Walad (Bahauddin) was a renowned preacher, religious scholar and Sufi who with the advent of Mongol invasion of Central Asia took his family westward, on a journey to Baghdad and Mecca that eventually brought him to Konya.  On the way to Anatolia, he met and received the blessing of the one of most mystical Persian poets, Attar, in the city of Nishaburz Iran. It is reported that he said, as he saw Bahauddin walking toward him with the young Rumi a little behind, “Here comes a sea, followed by an ocean!” Attar gave the boy his Asrarnama, the book concerning the entanglement of the soul in the material world, and this meeting had a deep impact on Mawlana’s thoughts and later proved a source of inspiration to him in his work. The family continued and made the pilgrimage to Mecca and then set out northward to Anatolia and settled down in the city. It was here that Rumi was to spend his forty-some years of his life, where he composed his peerless works, and where he received the inspiration for sacred music and dervishes. Rumi became like his father, a religious scholar and mastered the sciences of his day. He was also initiated into the mysteries of Sufism. But it was the meeting with the mysterious Sufi, Shams al-Din Tabrizi (Shams), which set his soul on fire and turned him into an incomparable poet of Divine Love and Illumination.

The oldest and most reliable biography of Mawlana is Manaqib al-Arefin, which was written in the 14th century by Shams ud-din Ahmed Aflaki, which remains the primary source of reference for all scholars, engaged in his life. Mawlana spent 12 years on the composition of the six volumes. Rumi composed his Mathnawi and Divan-i Shams, the monumental works devoted to knowledge, gnosis and divine ecstasy, following the encounter with Shams, which changed the literary and spiritual landscape of Persian and Turkish worlds. Rumi was not a poet who happened to practice Sufism, but great Sufi master the rhythms of whose soul were expressed in poetry. He founded the Mathnawi Order, which exercised such a profound influence in the Ottoman world as well as its poetic and musical arts. He became a luminous star for both Persian and Turkish speaking worlds and his influence in these worlds subsists to this day.

Mawlana Jalal-ud-Din Rumi left this life on December the 17th 1273. Men of five faiths followed his bier. Mawlana was laid to rest besides his father in Konya in a splendid shrine, located in the garden offered to his father by the Seljuk King Kai Qubad 1That night was named Sebul Arus (Night of Union). Ever since, the Mawlawi dervishes have kept that date as a festival. The epitaph inscribed over his tomb reads from the opening line of the Mathnawi, “The Reed” that referred to Mawlana himself:

“When we are dead, seek not our tomb in the earth, but find it in the hearts of men of knowledge”.

Nowadays, Rumi is identified as one of the most universal of Islamic Saints and is becoming known throughout the World. The light of his teachings is beginning to illuminate the hearts and minds of many and has guided numerous generations of world during past seven centuries.

Mawlana Jalal-ud-Din Rumi addressed humanity as a whole saying: “I do not distinguish between the relative and the stranger.”

“In generosity and helping others be like a river
In compassion and grace be like the sun
In concealing other’s faults be like the night
In anger and fury be like the earth
In tolerance be like the sea
Either exist as you are, or, be as you look”

Mawlana Jalal-ud-Din Rumi (1207 – 1273)

Peace when seeking enlightenment for all people

Stephen