reblogged from Today’s Zaman

The works of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, the anniversary of whose passing is celebrated throughout Turkey with Şeb-i Arus ceremonies on Dec. 17, have had a keen following in the Western world since the 19th century. This inspirational, world-renowned poet, whose prolific works continue to be a muse to the likes of Madonna and Deepak Chopra today, has become somewhat of a self-help guru, as he echoes the universal, timeless concerns of mankind, according to British academic and writer Dr. Abdal Hakim Murad, also known as Timothy Winter.

Murad — the dean of the Cambridge Muslim College, director of theology and religious studies at Wolfson College and the Shaykh Zayed lecturer in Islamic studies at Cambridge University — notes that although Rumi is inaccurately understood in popular culture as “an apostle of liberal spirituality, indifferent to the outward structures of religion,” serious scholarship has always affirmed his identity as a religious figure who embodies and speaks to the message of the Quran.

Noting that Rumi is the finest classical poet of the Muslim world, Murad stresses that the love that Rumi speaks of and is oft-shared in inspirational quotes is, as Rumi would have it, “our perception of the effects of the divine presence in creation,” and as such is the admiration of a reflected luminescence of the Divine.

Murad speaks about Rumi’s poetry, message and universal appeal in this Today’s Zaman interview.

What is it that Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi is saying that has allowed for his message to remain valuable and far-reaching over the past eight centuries?

He speaks of universal human concerns which are part of our lives, irrespective of culture. Behind the carapace of physical existence, he tells us, and under the skin of every atom, and driving the motion of every particle and energy field, there is the One Source. The Many do not come from the Many, but from the One. And that One is not only the object of philosophical enquiry, but has disclosed Itself to us in terms we may try to understand: The Beyond is pure mercy, justice, rightness and beauty.

These are the underlying energies of our universe. The heart intuits this and craves to connect with it; but only God can help us put our finger through the skin of reality and feel the luminous energy of the One which undergirds everything we see.

Western scholarship accepts Rumi as ‘servant of the Quran’

Mevlana is steadily becoming more popular, but how accurately is he known and understood?

There is an academic interest, which has now grown out of an early Orientalist quest for “influences,” and which sought the roots of his teaching in neo-Platonic and Gnostic mysteries. Today Western scholarship accepts that he is, as he says, “the servant of the Quran.” The writings of William Chittick in particular have shown British and American readers the insistently scriptural roots of Mevlana’s intellectual system.

The worldview, the terminology and the spiritual atmosphere of Mevlana’s works are thoroughly imbued with the Quranic ethos. This is another factor consolidating the universality and timeless appeal of his mystical vision of existence.

His message and his persona are seen as being somewhat supra-religious or independent of religion. Should we as Muslims find this problematic?

Some New Age authors in America like to appropriate Mevlana as an apostle of liberal spirituality, indifferent to the outward structures of religion. However, serious Western scholarship consistently affirms his full and loyal belongingness to his Islamic affiliation.

However, the use of Mevlana’s verse by the likes of Madonna, Deepak Chopra and various self-help gurus, while not based on proper scholarship or awareness of Mevlana’s context, serve the useful purpose of raising his profile among some spiritual seekers, who then progress to read more serious books. And one should not forget his use in serious Western music, such as various works by John Tavener, or the 1998 opera “Monsters of Grace” by the American composer Philip Glass — one of the most ambitious operas in recent musical history, and which takes Mevlana’s texts as its center of gravity.

Why is it that other Sufis or scholars of Islam have not been able to appeal to the masses the way Rumi has? Is it what he’s saying or how he’s saying it that is different?

Mevlana uses the familiar lexicon of Sufi teaching stories and a familiar Sufi dialectic about the journey of the soul; but his particular poetic brilliance — characterized by literary flourishes, unexpected metaphors and a light and natural Farsi diction — make him the finest of our classical Muslim poets.

However, we should recall that his poetry did not historically appeal to “the masses.” It requires a fairly high degree of education to understand him, particularly his “Divan-i Shems-i Tabriz,” much of which is elite verse baffling to “the masses.”

Everyone is speaking of “Love” in the popular discourse on Rumi. Just what is this love he speaks of?

He speaks of metaphorical love, which is the recognition we humans experience of perfection, symmetry, virtue and grace in our material world; and of true love, which is the creature’s love for the Creator. Metaphorical love is our perception of the effects of the divine presence in creation; it is the admiration of a reflected luminescence.

Hence it uplifts and transforms us, taking us from self-love to love of the other, from our passions to taking delight in the service of others, from preoccupation with the temporary to a more sensible appreciation of the eternal. It is the essence of the aesthetic capacity in the human soul.

Mevlana speaks to slaughtering the ego

What is the most misunderstood teaching or aspect of “Hazreti Pir Mevlana”?

In some popular Western accounts, he is understood as a guide on a path of “self-affirmation” or “self-discovery.” But he tells us that in reality, the self is an illusion and a prison. Only the Real is real. All else is a hall of mirrors.

Philosophy is limited by the finitude of human language, which constructs its categories and terms with reference only to phenomena in the world we perceive with our senses. Hence philosophers end up talking either about themselves, or about language.

Mevlana, by contrast, is asking us to drink from the flagon of a love which allows us to fly above the mere patterns of the brainwaves, to an intuitive and direct access to the Real. So we cannot “affirm ourselves.” Instead, we “slaughter the ego with the knife of self-discipline,” as Mevlana says. This is the significance of his famous ode about the chickpeas boiling in the pot. They complain of their suffering, but have no knowledge of its meaning or of the final purpose of the cook. Thus it is with human beings.

What is the reason for the acceptance of Mevlana as being “above religious schools of thought” and his work being embraced and read by other tariqas?

Mevlana followed the Maturidi school of theology, which makes it accessible to all the orthodox tariqas. Moreover, his poetry is so much at the center of the classical styles and themes of Sufism, and so free of controversy, that it has been embraced by a wide variety of tariqas. In particular, the tariqas which were influenced by Ibn Arabi’s school adopted Mevlana’s literature, following the appearance of a tradition of commentaries on the Mesnevi by experts on Ibn Arabi’s famous work on spiritual prophetology, the “Fusus al-Hikam.”

Categories: Islam, Rumi, Sufism