Mystical Poems of Jalaludin Rumi

Jalalud'din Rumi is one of the world’s most revered mystical poets.  During his lifetime he produced a prolific range of inspiring and devotional poetry which encapsulates the sufi's experience of  union with the divine.  These timeless classics have enjoyed a renaissance in recent years, as Rumi has become one of our most popular poets. Although Rumi was a Sufi and a great scholar of the Qu’ran his appeal reaches across religious and social divisions. Even during his lifetime he was noted for his cosmopolitan outlook.  His funeral, which lasted 40 days, was attended by Muslims, Jews, Persians, Christians and Greeks. 

                Rumi was born in 1207 on the Eastern shores of the Persian Empire. He was born in the city of Balkh( in what is now Afghanistan), and finally settled in the town of Konya, in what is now Turkey. It was a period of remarkable social and political turbulence. The 13th Century was the era of the crusades;  also the area where Rumi lived was under constant threat of Mongol invasion. The great upheavals Rumi faced during his life is said to have influenced much of his poetry.  

               Rumi met many of the great Sufi poets. For example, as a young boy he met the Sufi Master, Attar.  Attar is said to have commented about Rumi.

"There goes a river dragging an ocean behind it."

However the most important turning point in Rumi’s life was when he met the wandering dervish Shams al- Din. Shams was eccentric and unorthodox, but was filled with heart - felt devotion, that sometimes he couldn’t contain. Shams appeared to be quite different to the respectable and prestigious scholar, (as Rumi was at that point.)  However Rumi saw in Shams a divine presence. This meeting and their close mystical relationship was instrumental in awakening Rumi’s latent spirituality and intense devotion. It was at this point Rumi abandoned his academic career and began to write his mystical poetry. 

 Rumi’s poetry is wide ranging and encompasses many different ideas but behind all the poetry the essential theme was the longing and searching for the union with the divine. Rumi was himself a great mystic. His outpourings of poetry were a reflection of his own inner consciousness. Ironically Rumi said that no words could adequately explain the experience of mystical union. Yet his words are inspiring signposts which point towards the divine.   

In his poetry Rumi frequently uses imagery which may be unexpected. For example although Islam forbids alcohol, he often describes the sensation of being “drunk  and intoxicated with ecstasy for his beloved." Here drunk implies the bliss of the divine consciousness. Love is a frequent subject of Rumi's poems, descriptions of seeming romantic love is an illusion to the all encompassing pure, divine love.  Metaphors such as this are common to other Sufi poets such as Omar Khayyam, Hafiz, and Attar.

 Rumi's poetry is so widely appreciated because it has the capacity to uplift our own consciouness. Reading the words of Rumi can awaken in ourselves,  our own spiritual self.

Reason says love says

Reason says love says

Reason says, "I will beguile him with the tongue;"

Love says, "Be silent. I will beguile him with the soul."

The soul says to the heart, "Go, do not laugh at me and yourself.

What is there that is not his, that I may beguile him thereby?"

He is not sorrowful and anxious and seeking oblivion

that I may beguile him with wine and a heavy measure.

The arrow of his glance needs not a bow that I should

beguile the shaft of his gaze with a bow.

He is not prisoner of the world, fettered to this world

of earth, that I should beguile him with gold of the kingdom of the world.

He is an angel, though in form he is a man; he is not

lustful that I should beguile him with women.

Angels start away from the house wherein this form

is, so how should I beguile him with such a form and likeness?

He does not take a flock of horses, since he flies on wings;

his food is light, so how should I beguile him with bread?

He is not a merchant and trafficker in the market of the

world that I should beguile him with enchantment of gain and loss.

He is not veiled that I should make myself out sick and

utter sighs, to beguile him with lamentation.

I will bind my head and bow my head, for I have got out

of hand; I will not beguile his compassion with sickness or fluttering.

Hair by hair he sees my crookedness and feigning; what's

hidden from him that I should beguile him with anything hidden.

He is not a seeker of fame, a prince addicted to poets,

that I should beguile him with verses and lyrics and flowing poetry.

The glory of the unseen form is too great for me to

beguile it with blessing or Paradise.

A new rule

It is the rule with drunkards to fall upon each other,
to quarrel, become violent, and make a scene.
The lover is even worse than a drunkard.
I will tell you what love is: to enter a mine of gold.
And what is that gold?

The lover is a king above all kings,
unafraid of death, not at all interested in a golden crown.
The dervish has a pearl concealed under his patched cloak.
Why should he go begging door to door?

Last night that moon came along,
drunk, dropping clothes in the street.
"Get up," I told my heart, "Give the soul a glass of wine.
The moment has come to join the nightingale in the garden,
to taste sugar with the soul-parrot."

I have fallen, with my heart shattered -
where else but on your path? And I
broke your bowl, drunk, my idol, so drunk,
don't let me be harmed, take my hand.

A new rule, a new law has been born:
break all the glasses and fall toward the glassblower.

 This is to love

This is love: to fly to heaven, every moment to rend a hundred veils;
At first instance, to break away from breath --
first step, to renounce feet;
To disregard this world, to see only that which you yourself have seen I said, "Heart, congratulations on entering the circle of lovers,
"On gazing beyond the range of the eye,
on running into the alley of the breasts."
Whence came this breath, O heart?
Whence came this throbbing, O heart?
Bird, speak the tongue of birds: I can heed your cipher!
The heart said, "I was in the factory whilst the home of water and clay was abaking.
"I was flying from the workshop whilst the workshop was being created.
"When I could no more resist, they dragged me; how shall I
tell the manner of that dragging?" 

( Mystical Poems of Rumi 1", A.J. Arberry
The University of Chicago Press, 1968)