Jalal ad-din Rumi Introduction:
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī (Persian: جلالالدین محمد بلخى),
also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (جلالالدین محمد رومی), and
more popularly in the English-speaking world simply as Rumi (30
September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century Persian[1][6]
poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic.[7] Iranians, Turks, Afghans,
Tajiks, and other Central Asian Muslims as well as the Muslims of South
Asia have greatly appreciated his spiritual legacy in the past seven
centuries.[8] Rumi's importance is considered to transcend national and
ethnic borders. His poems have been widely translated into many of the
world's languages and transposed into various formats. In 2007, he was
described as the "most popular poet in America."[9]
Rumi's works are written in Persian and his Mathnawi remains one of
the purest literary glories of Persia,[10] and one of the crowning
glories of the Persian language.[11] His original works are widely read
today in their original language across the Persian-speaking world
(Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and parts of Persian speaking Central
Asia).[12] Translations of his works are very popular in other
countries. His poetry has influenced Persian literature as well as Urdu,
Punjabi, Turkish and some other Iranian, Turkic and Indic languages
written in Perso-Arabic script e.g. Pashto, Ottoman Turkish, Chagatai
and Sindhi.
Name
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī (Persian: جلالالدین محمد بلخى Persian
pronunciation: [dʒælɒːlæddiːn mohæmmæde bælxiː]) is also known as Jalāl
ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (جلالالدین محمد رومی Persian pronunciation:
[dʒælɒːlæddiːn mohæmmæde ɾuːmiː]). He is widely known by the sobriquet
Mawlānā/Molānā[1][4] (Persian: مولانا Persian pronunciation:
[moulɒːnɒː]) in Iran and Afghanistan, and popularly known as Mevlâna in
Turkey. According to the authoritative Rumi biographer Franklin Lewis of
the University of Chicago, "[t]he Anatolian peninsula which had
belonged to the Byzantine, or eastern Roman empire, had only relatively
recently been conquered by Muslims and even when it came to be
controlled by Turkish Muslim rulers, it was still known to Arabs,
Persians and Turks as the geographical area of Rum. As such, there are a
number of historical personages born in or associated with Anatolia
known as Rumi, a word borrowed from Arabic literally meaning “Roman,” in
which context Roman refers to subjects of the Byzantine Empire or
simply to people living in or things associated with Anatolia. In Muslim
countries, therefore, Jalal al-Din is not generally known as
"Rumi"."[13] The terms مولوی Mawlavi (Persian) and Mevlevi (Turkish)
which mean "having to do with the master" are more often used for
him.[14]
Rumi was born to native Persian speaking parents,[15][16][17]
probably in the village of Wakhsh,[3] a small town located at the river
Wakhsh in Persia (in what is now Tajikistan). Wakhsh belonged to the
larger province of Balkh (parts of now modern Afghanistan and
Tajikistan), and in the year Rumi was born, his father was an appointed
scholar there.[3]
Greater Balkh was at that time a major center of a Persian
culture[11][17][18] and Khorasani Sufism had developed there for several
centuries. Indeed, the most important influences upon Rumi, besides his
father, are said to be the Persian poets Attar and Sanai.[19] Rumi in
one poem express his appreciation: "Attar was the spirit, Sanai his eyes
twain, And in time thereafter, Came we in their train"[20] and mentions
in another poem: "Attar has traversed the seven cities of Love, We are
still at the turn of one street".[21] His father was also connected to
the spiritual lineage of Najm al-Din Kubra.[8]
He lived most of his life under the Persianate[22][23][24] Seljuq
Sultanate of Rum, where he produced his works [25] and died in 1273 AD.
He was buried in Konya and his shrine became a place of pilgrimage.[26]
Following his death, his followers and his son Sultan Walad founded the
Mevlevi Order, also known as the Order of the Whirling Dervishes, famous
for its Sufi dance known as the Sama ceremony. He was laid to rest
beside his father, and over his remains a splendid shrine was erected. A
hagiographical account of him is described in Shams ud-Din Ahmad
Aflāki's Manāqib ul-Ārifīn (written between 1318 and 1353). This
hagiographical account of his biography needs to be treated with care as
it contains both legends and facts about Rumi.[27] For example,
Professor Franklin Lewis, Chicago University, in the most complete
biography on Rumi has a separate section for the hagiographical
biography on Rumi and actual biography about him.[28]
Rumi's father was Bahā ud-Dīn Walad, a theologian, jurist and a
mystic from Wakhsh, who was also known by the followers of Rumi as
Sultan al-Ulama or "Sultan of the Scholars". The popular hagiographer
assertions that have claimed the family's descent from the Caliph Abu
Bakr does not hold on closer examination and is rejected by modern
scholars.[28][29][30] The claim of maternal descent from the
Khwarazmshah for Rumi or his father is also seen as a non-historical
hagiographical tradition designed to connect the family with royalty,
but this claim is rejected for chronological and historical
reasons.[28][29][30] The most complete genealogy offered for the family
stretches back to six or seven generations to famous Hanafi
Jurists.[28][29][30]
We do not learn the name of Baha al-Din's mother in the sources, but
only that he referred to her as "Māmi" (Colloquial Persian for
Māma)[31] and that she was a simple woman and that she lives in 13th
century. The mother of Rumi was Mu'mina Khātūn. The profession of the
family for several generations was that of Islamic preachers of the
liberal Hanafi rite and this family tradition was continued by Rumi (see
his Fihi Ma Fih and Seven Sermons) and Sultan Walad (see Ma'rif Waladi
for examples of his everyday sermons and lectures).
When the Mongols invaded Central Asia sometime between 1215 and
1220, Baha ud-Din Walad, with his whole family and a group of disciples,
set out westwards. According to hagiographical account which is not
agreed upon by all Rumi scholars, Rumi encountered one of the most
famous mystic Persian poets, Attar, in the Iranian city of Nishapur,
located in the province of Khorāsān. Attar immediately recognized Rumi's
spiritual eminence. He saw the father walking ahead of the son and
said, "Here comes a sea followed by an ocean."[this quote needs a
citation] He gave the boy his Asrārnāma, a book about the entanglement
of the soul in the material world. This meeting had a deep impact on the
eighteen-year-old Rumi and later on became the inspiration for his
works.
From Nishapur, Walad and his entourage set out for Baghdad, meeting
many of the scholars and Sufis of the city.[32] From Baghdad they went
to Hejaz and performed the pilgrimage at Mecca. The migrating caravan
then passed through Damascus, Malatya, Erzincan, Sivas, Kayseri and
Nigde. They finally settled in Karaman for seven years; Rumi's mother
and brother both died there. In 1225, Rumi married Gowhar Khatun in
Karaman. They had two sons: Sultan Walad and Ala-eddin Chalabi. When his
wife died, Rumi married again and had a son, Amir Alim Chalabi, and a
daughter, Malakeh Khatun.
On 1 May 1228, most likely as a result of the insistent invitation
of 'Alā' ud-Dīn Key-Qobād, ruler of Anatolia, Baha' ud-Din came and
finally settled in Konya in Anatolia within the westernmost territories
of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm.
Baha' ud-Din became the head of a madrassa (religious school) and
when he died, Rumi, aged twenty-five, inherited his position as the
Islamic molvi. One of Baha' ud-Din's students, Sayyed Burhan ud-Din
Muhaqqiq Termazi, continued to train Rumi in the Shariah as well as the
Tariqa, especially that of Rumi's father. For nine years, Rumi practiced
Sufism as a disciple of Burhan ud-Din until the latter died in 1240 or
1241. Rumi's public life then began: he became an Islamic Jurist,
issuing fatwas and giving sermons in the mosques of Konya. He also
served as a Molvi (Islamic teacher) and taught his adherents in the
madrassa.
During this period, Rumi also traveled to Damascus and is said to have spent four years there.
It was his meeting with the dervish Shams-e Tabrizi on 15 November
1244 that completely changed his life. From an accomplished teacher and
jurist, Rumi was transformed into an ascetic.
Shams had traveled throughout the Middle East searching and praying
for someone who could "endure my company". A voice said to him, "What
will you give in return?" Shams replied, "My head!" The voice then said,
"The one you seek is Jalal ud-Din of Konya." On the night of 5 December
1248, as Rumi and Shams were talking, Shams was called to the back
door. He went out, never to be seen again. It is rumored that Shams was
murdered with the connivance of Rumi's son, 'Ala' ud-Din; if so, Shams
indeed gave his head for the privilege of mystical friendship.[33]
Rumi's love for, and his bereavement at the death of, Shams found
their expression in an outpouring lyric poems, Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi.
He himself went out searching for Shams and journeyed again to Damascus.
There, he realized:
Why should I seek? I am the same as
He. His essence speaks through me.
I have been looking for myself![34]
Mewlana had been spontaneously composing ghazals (Persian poems),
and these had been collected in the Divan-i Kabir or Diwan Shams
Tabrizi. Rumi found another companion in Salaḥ ud-Din-e Zarkub, a
goldsmith. After Salah ud-Din's death, Rumi's scribe and favorite
student, Hussam-e Chalabi, assumed the role of Rumi's companion. One
day, the two of them were wandering through the Meram vineyards outside
Konya when Hussam described to Rumi an idea he had had: "If you were to
write a book like the Ilāhīnāma of Sanai or the Mantiq ut-Tayr of
'Attar, it would become the companion of many troubadours. They would
fill their hearts from your work and compose music to accompany it."
Rumi smiled and took out a piece of paper on which were written the
opening eighteen lines of his Masnavi, beginning with:
Listen to the reed and the tale it tells,
How it sings of separation...[35]
Hussam implored Rumi to write more. Rumi spent the next twelve years
of his life in Anatolia dictating the six volumes of this masterwork,
the Masnavi, to Hussam.
In December 1273, Rumi fell ill; he predicted his own death and composed the well-known ghazal, which begins with the verse:
How doest thou know what sort of king I have within me as companion?
Do not cast thy glance upon my golden face, for I have iron legs.[36]
Rumi died on 17 December 1273 in Konya; his body was interred beside
that of his father, and a splendid shrine, the Yeşil Türbe (Green Tomb,
قبه الخضراء; today the Mevlâna Museum), was erected over his place of
burial. His epitaph reads:
When we are dead, seek not our tomb in the earth, but find it in the hearts of men.[37]
The 13th century Mevlâna Mausoleum, with its mosque, dance hall,
dervish living quarters, school and tombs of some leaders of the Mevlevi
Order, continues to this day to draw pilgrims from all parts of the
Muslim and non-Muslim world. Jalal al-Din who is also known as Rumi, was
a philosopher and mystic of Islam. His doctrine advocates unlimited
tolerance, positive reasoning, goodness, charity and awareness through
love. To him and to his disciples all religions are more or less truth.
Looking with the same eye on Muslim, Jew and Christian alike, his
peaceful and tolerant teaching has appealed to people of all sects and
creeds.
However, despite the aforementioned ecumenical attitude, and
contrary to his contemporary portrayal in the West as a proponent of
non-denominational spirituality, a number of Rumi poems suggest the
importance of outward religious observance, the primacy of the
Qur'an.[58]
Flee to God's Qur'an, take refuge in it
there with the spirits of the prophets merge.
The Book conveys the prophets' circumstances
those fish of the pure sea of Majesty.[59]
Seyyed Hossein Nasr states:
One of the greatest living authorities on Rûmî in Persia today,
Hâdî Hâ'irî, has shown in an unpublished work that some 6,000 verses of
the Dîwân and the Mathnawî are practically direct translations of
Qur'ânic verses into Persian poetry.[60]
Rumi states in his Dīwān:
The Sufi is hanging on to Muhammad, like Abu Bakr.[61]
His Masnavi contains anecdotes and stories derived largely from the Quran and the hadith, as well as everyday tales.
On the first page of the Masnavi, Rumi states:
"Hadha kitâbu 'l- mathnawîy wa huwa uSûlu uSûli uSûli 'd-dîn wa kashshâfu 'l-qur'ân."
This is the book of the Masnavi, and it is the roots of the
roots of the roots of the (Islamic) Religion and it is the Explainer of
the Qur'ân.[this quote needs a citation]
The famous (15th century) Sufi poet Jâmî, said of the Masnavi,[62]
"Hast qur'ân dar zabân-é pahlawî"
It is the Qur'ân in the Persian tongue.
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