Rumi whisper of words and wisdom

picture from Pinterest — Zeinab Adam

That’s the sculpture of Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, or simply Rumi, a 13th-century poet, Hanafi faqih, an Islamic scholar. Normally sculptures are made for those who desperately need to get noticed and go big for anyone to know they exist but Rumi didn’t want all that — he was big by nature, big by poetry.

The famous Sufi writer, author, and teacher Rumi has been claimed by four modern nations. Afghanistan where he was born in the Balkh, Samarkand in Uzbekistan where he lived in his childhood, Turkey where he lived and died in the Anatolian city of Konya, and Iran where he wrote almost his poetry in Persian.

But the man was not only claimed by these four countries but many in the world, they loved his poetry which was if anything authentic. he was much respected and regarded as a great scholar like his father who had been invited to Konya and Rumi just loved the place and his poetry was destined to remain. Konya was a center of learning for all Islamic teachings and at the age of 25 after his father died, Rumi had inherited the madrassa ( religious school) to teach and give sermons.

Rumi’s life was about hard facts on love, life, friendship, honesty and how to be honest and know the religion, and how to make God in the center of your life but non of these matter if they can’t turn into actions . All that would change when he met Shams-e Tabrizi who changed his life from a normal scholar and jurist to ascetic. there Rumi journey had begun for preaching love, tolerance, and acceptance throughout his poems. he said for example

In the love, be like the sun

In the friendship, be like a river

In keeping secrets like the night

In Modesty like the sand

and in the anger like the dead

That was Rumi and what type of man he became after meeting Shams — a man that if anything was filled with love and affection for God , he could express that love in his own words and poems, that’s why he opened the floodgates of the poetry in Rumi

It was a friendship between two men that lasted only 2 years after everyone got jealous of the closeness and connection between them until Shams disappeared forever but their mystical bond remained intact.

Rumi and Shams understood that with the love of God — they would love people, they would love animals and they would love nature. You can see this from Shams Al Tabrizi’s 40 rules of love but Rumi also had the same forty rules of life and love and had to say this to his mentor and motivating friend

Bountiful is your life , full and complete Or so you think until someone comes along and makes you realize what you’ve been missing all these times, like a mirror that reflects what’s absent rather than present He shows you the void in your soul , The void you have resisted seeing

That person can be a lover , a friend or a spiritual master

Sometimes, it could be a child to look after

What matter is to find the soul that will complete yours

All the prophets have given the same advice

Find the who shall be your mirror

For me that mirror is Shams Al Tabriz

Rumi described Shamz companion “as a fourth reading of the Quran — a journey that can only be experienced from within but never grasped from outside”

Shams and Rumi’s lessons of life were simple — to love and spread that to others.

This story is inspired by the famous novel Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak.

Thank you for your time to read my articles and stories here. It means the world to me

Misbah Sheikhh Rebecca Ruth Gould, PhD Ann Mary Alexander Ann Litts TzeLin Sam Erica L Soerensen

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