Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī (Persian: جلالالدین محمد بلخى Persian pronunciation: [dʒælɒːlæddiːn mohæmmæde bælxiː]), also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (جلالالدین محمد رومی Persian pronunciation: [dʒælɒːlæddiːn mohæmmæde ɾuːmiː]) and popularly known as Mevlānā in Turkey and Mawlānā[1] (Persian: مولانا Persian pronunciation: [moulɒːnɒː]) in Iran and Afghanistan but known to the English-speaking world simply as Rumi[3] (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273) was a 13th-century Persian Muslim poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic. Rūmī is a descriptive name meaning "Roman" since he lived most of his life in an area called "Rûm" (then under the control of Seljuq dynasty) because it was once ruled by the Eastern Roman Empire. He was one of the figures who flourished in the Sultanate of Rum
It is likely that he was born in the village of Wakhsh, a small town located at the river Wakhsh in Persia (in what is now Tajikistan). Wakhsh belonged to the larger province of Balkh, and in the year Rumi was born, his father was an appointed scholar there. Both these cities were at the time included in the greater Persian cultural sphere of Khorasan, the easternmost province of Persia and was part of the Khwarezmian Empire.
His birthplace and native language both indicate a Persian heritage.
His father decided to migrate westwards due to quarrels between
different dynasties in Khorasan, opposition to the Khwarizmid Shahs, who
were considered deviant by Bahā ud-Dīn Walad (Rumi's father), or fear of the impending Mongol cataclysm. Rumi's family traveled west, first performing the Hajj and eventually settling in the Anatolian city Konya (capital of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, in present-day Turkey). This was where he lived most of his life, and here he composed one of the crowning glories of Persian literature which profoundly affected the culture of the area.
He lived most of his life under the Sultanate of Rum, where he produced his works and died in 1273 AD. He was buried in Konya and his shrine became a place of pilgrimage. 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.
Rumi's works are written in the New Persian language. A Persian literary renaissance (in the 8th/9th century) started in regions of Sistan, Khorāsān and Transoxiana and by the 10th/11th century, it reinforced the Persian language
as the preferred literary and cultural language in the Persian Islamic
world. Rumi's importance is considered to transcend national and ethnic
borders. His original works are widely read in their original language
across the Persian-speaking world. Translations of his works are very
popular in other countries. His poetry has influenced Persian literature as well as Urdu, Punjabi and other Pakistani languages written in Perso/Arabic script e.g. Pashto and Sindhi.
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."
Rumi was probably born on 30 September 1207 in the province of Balkh in the district of Wakhsh[15] in Khorasan (now in modern Afghanistan/Tajikistan). He died on 17 December 1273 in Konya in Seljuqid
Rum (now modern Turkey). 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.[4] 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.[25]
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.[25][26][27] 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.[25][26][27] The most complete genealogy offered for the family stretches back to six or seven generations to famous Hanafi Jurists.[25][26][27]
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)[28]
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." 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.[29] From there they went to Baghdad, and 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.[30]
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![31]
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:
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.Listen to the reed and the tale it tells,
How it sings of separation...[32]
In December 1273, Rumi fell ill; he predicted his own death and composed the well-known ghazal, which begins with the verse:
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 Mevlana Museum), was erected over his place of burial. His epitaph reads: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.[33]
When we are dead, seek not our tomb in the earth,
but find it in the hearts of men.[34]
The 13th century Mawlana 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.
The general theme of Rumi's thought, like that of other mystic and
Sufi poets of Persian literature, is essentially that of the concept of tawhīd –
union with his beloved (the primal root) from which/whom he has been
cut off and become aloof – and his longing and desire to restore it
The Masnavi weaves fables, scenes from everyday life, Qur'anic
revelations and exegesis, and metaphysics into a vast and intricate
tapestry.[35] In the East, it is said of him that he was "not a prophet — but surely, he has brought a scripture".
Rumi believed passionately in the use of music, poetry and dance as a
path for reaching God. For Rumi, music helped devotees to focus their
whole being on the divine and to do this so intensely that the soul was
both destroyed and resurrected. It was from these ideas that the
practice of whirling dervishes developed into a ritual form. His
teachings became the base for the order of the Mevlevi which his son
Sultan Walad organized. Rumi encouraged Sama, listening to music and turning or doing the sacred dance. In the Mevlevi tradition, samāʿ
represents a mystical journey of spiritual ascent through mind and love
to the Perfect One. In this journey, the seeker symbolically turns
towards the truth, grows through love, abandons the ego, finds the truth
and arrives at the Perfect. The seeker then returns from this spiritual
journey, with greater maturity, to love and to be of service to the
whole of creation without discrimination with regard to beliefs, races,
classes and nations.
In other verses in the Masnavi, Rumi describes in detail the universal message of love:
The lover’s cause is separate from all other causes
Love is the astrolabe of God's mysteries.[36]
(source: wikipedia)
Jalaludin Rumi Poetry.
"One went to the door of the Beloved and
knocked. A voice asked, 'Who is there?'
He answered, 'It is I.' The voice said, 'There is no room for Me and Thee.'
The door was shut.
After a year of solitude and deprivation he returned and knocked.
A voice from within asked, 'Who is there?'
The man said, 'It is Thee.'
The door was opened for him."
-- Jelaluddin Rumi
| “ |
I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was Man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar With angels bless'd; but even from angelhood I must pass on: all except God doth perish. When I have sacrificed my angel-soul, I shall become what no mind e'er conceived. Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence Proclaims in organ tones, To Him we shall return. |
” |
مُردم از حیوانی و آدم شدم — پس چه ترسم؟ کی ز مردن کم شدم؟
حملهٔ دیگر بمیرم از بشر — تا برآرم از ملائک بال و پر
وز ملک هم بایدم جستن ز جو — کل شیء هالک الا وجهه
بار دیگر از ملک پران شوم — آنچه اندر وهم ناید آن شوم
پس عدم گردم عدم چو ارغنون — گویدم کانا الیه
راجعون
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