[Mowlana Vector]

"I was a tiny bug. Now a mountain. I was left behind. Now honored at the head. You healed my wounded hunger and anger, and made me a poet who sings about joy."
RUMI in Breathing Truth Quotations from Jalaluddin Rumi (Muriel Maufroy, 1997)

[Mowlana Vector]

"The pleasures of this world are delightful from a distance before the actual test.

From a distance they appear to be refreshing water, but when you approach them, you find they are a mirage.

The world’s bait is visible, but the trap is hidden: at first sight, the world’s favors seem sweet." (Mathnawi, VI, 316-317; 321)

Source: Rumi's "Jewels of Remembrance" (selected and translated by Camille and Kabir Helminski, 1996)

[Mowlana Vector]

I was in the garden in the morning and I was gathering roses

And all the time I was afraid that the gardener would see me.

The gardener, however, only spoke these kind words:

‘A few roses are nothing as I give you the complete garden’.

Rumi (# 1218, The Divan)

[Mowlana Vector]

"Your thinking is like a camel driver and you are the camel: it drives you in every direction under its bitter control." (Rumi)

[Mowlana Vector]

"What do empty people find attractive? Empty lies.
What do stupid people find attractive? Stupid ideas.
Each finds its own kind attractive. No cow ever felt attracted towards a lion." (Mulana Jalaluddin Rumi in Masnavi II, 2055-6)

[WarriorEtte]

Rumi says:

We cannot deny that God is responsible for evil just as he is responsible for good.

Yet this does not diminish His generosity.

His bestowing of evil is part of His perfection.

Here is an example:

A painter creates two kinds of picture, beautiful and ugly. He can portray beautiful young maidens; and equally portray nasty criminals. Both kinds of picture display his mastery.

The ugly pictures do not reflect his ugliness, but rather his creativity. In his creative genuis he can reveal the full horror of ugliness and thus reveal the perfection of his artistry.

If he were not able to paint ugly pictures, he would be imperfect,

That is why God has created both selfish unbelievers
and honest believers.

In this respect both faith and
unbelief bear witness to Him;

both through their behaviour
pay homage to His power.

The difference is that
the unbeliever does not recognise this and persues
other aims; while the believer rejoices in serving God.
" (- II 2535-45)


There is no absolute evil in the world since evil is
relative.. one person's food is another person's poison. For
the snake, poison is life, for humans it is death.
The fish needs water to breathe, while humans drown
in it."
( IV 65)

This post has been edited by Warriorette: 06 April 2005 - 07:23 PM

[Mowlana Vector]

"Do not seek trouble and turmoil and bloodshed: say no more concerning the Sun of Tabriz! This [mystery] hath no end: tell of the beginning. Go, relate the conclusion of this tale." (Rumi)

[Mowlana Vector]

"So delicate yesterday, the nightsinging birds by the creek.
Their words were: You may make a jewellery flower out of gold and rubies and emeralds, but it will have not fragrance."

[Mowlana Vector]

"If you do not possess the staff of caution and discrimination, use the eyes of him who sees. If there is no staff of caution and discrimination, do not wander on the road without a guide." (Rumi)

[Mowlana Vector]

"Leave all worries behind and maek your heart totally pure, like the face of a mirror with no image or design. Once your heart is cleansed of all images, it will contain them all"

[Mowlana Vector]

Wealth has no permanence: it comes in the morning,
and at night it is scattered to the winds.

Physical beauty too has no importance,
for a rosy face is made pale by the scratch of a single thorn.

Noble birth also is of small account,
for many become fools of money and horses.

Many a nobleman's son has disgraced his father by his wicked deeds.

Don't court a person full of talent either,
even if he seems exquisite in that respect:

take warning from the example of Iblis (Devi)l.
Iblis had knowledge, but since his love was not pure,
he saw in Adam nothing but a figure of clay.
(Masnawi, VI: 255-260)

Source: (Version By Camille and Kabir Helminski "Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance", 1996)

[Mowlana Vector]

"The saints come to the rescue of this world when hearing from everywhere the moans of the oppressed. They run towards them like God's mercy. These fortresses against weakness, these doctors of hidden disease, Are pure love, pure justice, pure mercy; like God they are unstained and impregnable."

[Mowlana Vector]

That which God said to the rose,
and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty,
He said to my heart,
and made it a hundred times more beautiful.
(Mathnawi, III, 4129)

[Mowlana Vector]

Enough Words

How does a part of the world leave the world?
How can wetness leave water?

Don't try to put out a fire
by throwing on more fire!
Don't wash a wound with blood!

No matter how fast you run,
your shadow more than keeps up.
Sometimes, it's in front!

Only full, overhead sun
dimishes your shadow.

But that shadow has been serving you!
What hurts you, blesses you.
Darkness is your candle.
Your boundaries are your quest.

I can explain this, but it would break
the glass cover on your heart,
and there's no fixing that.

You must have shadow and light source both.
Listen, and lay your head under the tree of awe.

When from that tree, feathers and wings sprout
on you, be quieter than a dove.
Don't open your mouth for even a cooooooo.

When a frog slips into the water, the snake
cannot get it. Then the frog climbs back out
and croaks, and the snake moves toward him again.

Even if the frog learned to hiss, still the snake
would hear throughthe hiss the information
he needed, the frog voice underneath.

But if the frog could be completely silent,
then the snake would go back to sleeping,
and the frog could reach the barley.

The soul lives there in the silent breath.

And that grain of barley is such that,
when you put it in the ground,
it grows.

Are these enough words,
or shall I squeeze more juice from this?
Who am I, my friend?

(Rumi translated by Coleman Barks)

[Mowlana Vector]

There is no edge to my vast desert;
There is no peace for my heart and my soul.
The world is taken, from end to end, by image and form;
Which of these images is mine?
If you see a severed head on the way
Rolling in the direction of the battlefied;
Ask him, ask him concerning my secrets
For, from him you hear my hidden mysteries.
What if one ear could be found;
Suited to understand the speech of my birds.
What if one bird could fly,
Who wore my ring of Solomon's secrets [around her neck].
What am I saying? when I know telling this tale
Is beyond my limits and my ability is.
How can I utter one word when each moment
My perplexity is more perplexing.

(Rumi in Divan 239:1-8)

[WarriorEtte]

A Thorny Tree

Hazrat Maulana Jalaluddeen Rumi (Rahmatullahi alaih) has related a story in his Mathnawi Sharif, which contains great lessons for all of us.

The story goes that a person had planted a thorn tree. He was told that the thorn tree was a hindrance and an obstacle since it was causing harm and injury to the people that passed by. The person promised to uproot the tree, saying : "I will do so tomorrow."

Despite the complaints of the people, many "tomorrows" came and many "tomorrows" went by, and no effort was made in uprooting the thorn tree. Eventually, after many years, the tree, having taken root deeply, grew in strength. The matter was finally taken to the municipality and the person was ordered to remove the tree.

Having no option, he set off to fulfil the task. However, with the passing of time, he had aged and weakness had set in. On the other hand, the tree had become so strong and firmly rooted that there was no scope of him uprooting such a big tree. Due to his weakness, he could not do anything.

The only way this thorn tree could be uprooted and removed was via a bulldozer. The bulldozer was his only means of ridding the path of the harmful thorn tree.

Of course, this is just a story to give lesson. The lesson derived is that if sins are not given up when they are "young", then the roots of these sins sink deeper and deeper, entrenching themselves in the heart. As such, they gain in strength, and a person fails in ridding his life of the thorn tree of his sins.

As a result, it becomes extremely difficult for him to uproot the tree of his sins. A greater Mujahada (striving) would be required from the person. He requires a greater amount of effort to restrain himself from Haraam.

However, as has been mentioned, with the aid of a bulldozer, the thorn tree would be removed. "And what, we may ask, is this bulldozer"

These bulldozers are the Ahlullah. Allah Ta'ala has given them such hearts, which contain such noor or light of Taqwa or piety, that in their company, people who have indulged in sins all their lives, will be able to, with ease, rid themselves of even major sins.

In the company of those who are true Ahlullah, sins of a lifetime will be uprooted. Those who were committing sins for 20 years and 30 years, will find the panacea for their spiritual illnesses.

A person should thus take courage and seek the assistance of the Ahlullah, and see the transformation that takes place with the Grace of Allah Ta?ala.

There are, however, conditions to be met.

We should have love and respect for the Ahlullah, and we should keep their company, without prejudice.

We should sit with the intention of reformation, with an open heart and mind.

If we attend such gatherings with these accompanying conditions, then we will leave with Noor in our hearts. It is via this Noor that such persons make sincere Taubah or repentance, and it is this Noor which is instrumental in creating the keen desire of change in their lives.



Ma'aarif-e-mathnavi.

[Mowlana Vector]

"Man is eyes, the rest is only flesh: But the true eyes are those that see the Friend; ... Merge the whole of yourself in your eyes, Go towards the vision, go towards the vision, go towards the vision." (M I 1406/M VI 1463 )

[Mowlana Vector]

Get up! do not sleep! we have come close.
We have already heard the dog and the rooster of that neighborhood.
By God they were signs from the village of the beloved;
All the flowers that we grazed on.
Get up! do not sleep! it is daytime.
The morning star has risen and we see the footprints.
It was night and the whole caravan was locked up in a caravanserai;
Get up! for we have rid ourselves of the dark and of the prison.
(Divan 1480:1-2, 8-9)

[Mowlana Vector]

Rumi Syndrome
By: Irfan Yusuf (13 May 2005)

She was at the pinnacle of her academic career. Before even finishing her Masters thesis, she had co-authored a paper published in a major scientific journal. By her mid-20’s, she was already regarded as a force in her field. Her family were proud of her. She was proud of herself.

Then crisis struck. Her heart was broken. She just had to get away.

Within 3 months, she was serving beer, wine and spirits in various pubs and at various public gatherings in Sydney. From scholar to barmaid. It was at one of these gatherings that I first met her.

As our friendship grew, she revealed her confused love/hate relationship with a part of her life that was always there yet rarely understood by her or explained by her acquaintances. Her father was Muslim, but she never met him. And when she wanted to meet him and was able to visit his homeland, it was too late. All she could meet were her half-siblings. The only traces of her father were photographs and a gravestone. And her unusual yet beautiful name which had been the butt of many a joke by her anglo-friends at primary school.

I felt her pain as if it was my own. Because both of us had been to hell and never wanted to return there. Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Hanson tells of one of his friends who was addicted to drugs. After years of struggle and social withdrawal, that friend now assists other addicts. Shaykh Hamza mentioned a golden saying of his friend …

“A religious person is someone who is scared of going to hell. But a spiritual person has already been to hell and never wants to go back.”

The barmaid and I had both been to hell and back. And both of us developed a deep attachment to Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi.

She was already a deeply spiritual person, having a large collection of books by the Dalai Lama and Deepak Chopra. The latter, in particular, influenced her greatly. Then on one of my visits to her bar, I introduced her to Rumi. She closed the dishwasher she had just stacked with beer glasses, washed and dried her hands, and looked at this humble book.

The next time I saw her, she replaced her usual “Hello, nice to see you again” with “Rumi is just so amazing. And I read an introduction to one of Deepak’s books. Even he says his greatest inspiration was Rumi. All his book titles are words from a Rumi poem. Thank you so, so much for that book!”.

So what is it about Rumi that can touch a scholarly barmaid and a lawyer with a hopeless grade-point-average? I guess it is the Rumi syndrome.

Rumi was at the pinnacle of his career. He was a professor of law, a qadi (judge) and a respected jurist. He had official patronage of one of the wealthiest and most sophisticated rulers of the time. He had his own house, servants, lots of admirers and students and a scholarly pedigree second-to-none.

But the higher they fly, the harder they fall. Rumi fell hard after meeting one roaming dervish named Shums. This meeting led to Rumi withdrawing from all his pomp and position, avoiding his students and spending months with Shums trying to sort out much deeper issues. And Shums, being the master of Islamic psychology (known as tasawwuf in the sunni tradition and irfan in the shi’i tradition), was able to diagnose and cure Rumi’s spiritual and emotional ailments.

Rumi’s students thought he was mad. He was maligned and insulted and humiliated. Yet he persisted. This process was about him, not them.

And when the process was complete, Rumi emerged a man with much more to offer than dry legal dissertations or books of fatawa (legal judgments). Rumi emerged as the universal poet, a man whose verse has influenced people and dragged hearts and souls to the message of peace through surrender to God (i.e. Islam).

Had Rumi remained a respected professor, had he refused the yearnings of his heart and the company of his spiritual practitioner (“murshid”), he will have remained one of a galaxy of hanafi jurists. His books would have been quoted in the footnotes of other juristic works. Perhaps a biography of his would be written and published from time to time. But God had greater things in store for the Mevlana.

If we are fortunate, God sends us some kind of murshid. That source of light may be a person. It may be a life-experience, a trial, a psychiatric illness or even a broken heart. One of my greatest trials was to travel all the way to South America to visit someone I had my heart set on marrying. When it did not work, I was devastated. The traces of that devastation stayed with me for years. And how ironic it was that the person who unintentionally broke my heart also introduced me to Rumi.

Rumi syndrome is all about withdrawal. The mad rush of modern life does not provide enough opportunities for us to stop and smell the roses. And yet our staying in the company of the rose garden will enable us to emerge with a smell that will beautify the lives of people around us.

If we do not allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by Rumi syndrome, we may go on for a while on the road to apparent success. But as we rise higher, we risk falling even harder. Rumi syndrome may seem like a crash landing, but its alternative is a crash.

Which explains why I can never bring myself to criticise those who spend days and weeks and months following the path of the Indian chishti master, Maulana Muhammad Illyas Kandhalwi (may God have mercy upon him). I might wonder about the families and jobs and businesses and commitments these soldiers of the soul leave behind. Yet what would I know of their real commitment to their soul and to the prophetic responsibility of tabligh which they feel so heavily?

It is only when we take ourselves out of our usual environment that we can really take stock. And so my dear sister-barmaid, if you are reading this, know that you too are experiencing Rumi syndrome. And just as I came out the other end of my retreat even more refreshed, so will you. And perhaps you might recover the heritage that you previously believed had died with your father, may Allah have mercy upon him.
==============================================

FURTHER READING

The Healing Balm of A Poet's Words

Why America Needs Rumi

Mevlana Rumi and Love

Abstracts Papers: International Conference on Mawlawi Rumi

[Mowlana Vector]

Fortitude
"Whether you are fast or slow, eventually you will find what you are seeking. Always devote yourself wholeheartedly to your search. Even though you may limp or be bent double, do not abandon your search, but drag yourself ever toward Him." (Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi)

[Mowlana Vector]

"The meaning of poetry has no sureness of direction; it is like the sling, it is not under control." (Rumi)

[Mowlana Vector]

"The soul which cannot endure fire and smoke won't find the Secret."
(Diwan - Ode 887)

[Mowlana Vector]

"When you are with everyone but me, you're with no one. When you are with no one but me, you're with everyone. Instead of being so bound up with everyone be everyone. When you become that many, you're nothing. Empty." (Rumi in Breathing Truth)

[Mowlana Vector]

"With will, fire becomes sweet water; and without will, even water becomes fire." (Rumi)

[Mowlana Vector]

Peace & War In The Illusory Material World
(Moulana Jalaludin Rumi's Mathnawi I:70-71)

Within the spirit(1), imagined forms are as nothing -- (yet)
witness an (entire) world going on (based) upon something
imaginary!

(Witness how) their peace and their war (is based) upon
something imaginary, and (how) their pride and their shame
(derives) from something imaginary.

Notes on the text, with line number
1) the spirit [rawân]: there is a pun between two meanings of this
word: "spirit" and "going." "The rational soul (rawán) belongs to
the world of Reality, while phantasy, which records and preserves
sense-data in the form of mental images, 'resembles a thing of
naught'; being the mainspring of our illusory existence (V 319 sqq.
[= translated by Nicholson: 'Every one is infatuated with some
phantasy. . . '], 2648 sqq. [= translated by Nicholson: 'The world of
imagination and the phantom of hope and fear is a great obstacle to
the traveller (on the mystic Way).'])." (Nicholson, Commentary)

Source
"The Mathnawî-yé Ma`nawî" [Rhymed Couplets of
Deep Spiritual Meaning] of Jalaluddin Rumi.
Translated from the Persian by Ibrahim Gamard (with
gratitude for R. A. Nicholson's 1926 British translation)

[Mowlana Vector]

Delusion

Delusion is a divine curse
that makes someone envious, conceited, malicious,
so that he doesn't know the evil he does
will strike him back.
If he could see his nothingness
and his deadly, festering wound,
pain would arise from looking within,
and that pain would save him.
(Rumi)

[Mowlana Vector]

I arrived once again, like the spring breeze;
I rose like the sun visible to all.
I am the Sun in mid-summer, contrary to the old season;
I have brought liveliness and joy to gardens.
A thousand ring doves are searching for me in their songs.
A thousand nightingales and parrots are flying in my directions.
The news of my arrival reached the fish in the sea;
The ferment of the sea created a thousand waves.
(Divan 1140:1-4)

[Mowlana Vector]

"When someone criticises or disagrees with you, a small ant of hatred and antagonism is born in your heart. If you do not squash that ant at once, it might grow into a snake, or even a dragon." (Maulana Rumi)

[Mowlana Vector]

You seek knowledge from books, ridiculous!
You seek pleasure from sweets, ridiculous!
You are the sea of knowledge hidden in a dewdrop;
you are the universe hidden in a body three yards long.
(Rumi, in Mathnawi, V, 3578-3579)

[Mowlana Vector]

I am the servant of the Qur'an as long as I have life.
I am the dust on the path of Muhammad, the Chosen one.
If anyone quotes anything except this from my sayings,
I am quit of him and outraged by these words.

[Original persian] : man banda-yé qur'ân-am, agar jân dâr-am
man khâk-é rah-é muHammad-e mukhtâr-am
gar naql kon-ad joz în, kas az goftâr-am
bêzâr-am az-ô, w-az-în sokhan bêzâr-am

Source: Rumi's Quatrain No. 1173