If you have lost heart

in the Path of Love

Flee to me without delay
I am a fortress invincible

(Rumi)
Rumi and his resting place (1207-1273)
Why study Rumi? Some popular facts
In 1997 Rumi was the best selling poet in US
Quoted in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen Covey
Celebrities like Mary Stuart Masterson & Jessica
Parker make yoga with Rumis reading
Robin Beckers dance company performed a
program called Dances from Rumi
The acoustic band Three Fish derived its name
from Rumis tale
2007 is announced as the year of Rumi by
UNESCO



Rumi: The Family Tree
Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi
1207 Balkh (Afghanistan) 1273 Konya
(Turkey)
Parents: Bahauddin Valad Mumina
Khatun
Alaaddin Chalabi & Jalaluddin Rumi
1
st
Marriage with Gawhar Khatun: Sultan
Valad & Alaaddin Chalabi
2
nd
Marriage with Karra Khatun: Amir
Chalabi & Malika Khatun






The People in his Life
1. Bahauddin Valad< the father.
2. Sayyid Burhanaddin< the successor of
the father.
3. Shams-i Tabrizi< the master or the
friend.
4. Salahuddin-i Zarqubi< the goldsmith.
5. Husameddin Chalabi< the student.
6. Sultan Valad< the son.


Bahauddin, the father and the first teacher
I was saying O God, I am in love with you and
seeking for You. Wherever will I see you? In the
world, beyond the world?
God moved me with the thought that the four walls
of your body and the space that contains you are
aware of you and live through you, but do not see
you. Though they do not see you, neither from
within nor from without, yet every atom of you is
filled with the evidences of you. Likewise, you
will not see Me within or without the world, but
the atoms of the world all have something of Me.
Your atoms thrive through Me and find joy in Me.
How could you not see Me? (Maarif)

Bahauddin Valad: the father

Dream and King of Clerics (Sultan al-
Ulama)
Islamic Law and Spiritual Matters
Rumi and His Father: Qibla
Occupation: Preacher > Maarif
From Balkh to Konya
Mongol Invasion? Fahr al-Razi?
Longing to find a more cosmopolitan urban
Bahauddin died in 1231 when Rumi was
24years old.
Sayyid Burhanaddin: the successor of the
father
Attain your fathers legacy full-share
and sun-like youll scatter light worldwide
Whatever is opposed to the self brings us near (to
God) and whatever agrees with the self makes us
more distant. When you act contrary to your
carnal self, Almighty God is at peace with you;
when you make peace with the self, you are at
war with God.
5 years fasting, 4 years Law education in Syria
Two books: Maarif & Maqalat
Rumi quotes Burhan: Stories, poems, many
Quranic verses and their explanations




Shams-i Tabrizi
Shams Tabriz, my heart is pregnant with you
when will I see a child born by your fortune (D)
My thoughts and reflections are inspired by you
As though I were your phrases and expressions.
Strange childhood and a man of wonder
Faqih and faqir / Scholar and Sufi
His writings called Maqalat-i Shams
Shams came Konya in 1244, Sh: over 60, R: 37
The first meeting with Rumi at the inn of sugar
sellers: Bayazid versus the Prophet ?



Shams quotes Sanai for Rumi:
Knowledge that takes you not beyond yourself
Such knowledge is far worse than ignorance.
Shams describes Rumi:
At times his extensive knowledge would
come before him and get in the way.
Again Shams:
You want to discover through learning; but it
requires going and doing.
Sama Whirling / Poetry
Shams disappears after 2 years to Damascus
Sultan Valad in Damascus & Shams is back
My sun and moon has come, my ears and
eyes have come / those limbs of argent, that
mine of gold has come! / let aberration fill
my head and light my eyes / if there is
anything else you like, that too has come.
Rumi, from learning and teaching to
absorption
Shams disappears again forever<
Rumi from absorption to perfection<

Was Shams the master or Rumi?
Rumi writes for Shams:

Whether I go east or west
or climb the sky
there is no sign of life
until I see sign of you

I was ascete of a country
I held the pulpit
fate made my heart
fall in love
and follow after you (divan)



Shams writes for Rumi
I first came to Mawlana with the understanding that I
would not be his master. God has not yet brought into
being on this earth one could be Mawlanas master; he
would not be mortal. But nor am I one to be a disciple.
It is no longer in me. Now I come for friendship, for
relief. (Maqalat)
Seeing your face, by God, is a blessing. Anyone
wishing to see the Prophet sent by God should look
on Mawlana when he is at ease, true to himself, and
not when he is standing on ceremony< Happy the
one who finds Mawlana! Who am I? One who found
him. Happy am I!

Who is Rumi?
Muslim
- Sunni
- Hanefi
- Maturidi
- Sufi / Servant of God / Lover of God
- Scholar, writer, story teller, poet
His Characteristics
- Inclusive: The Christian craftsman
- Forgiving: The prostitute
- Humble: The Christian priest



Rumis Writings
The Discourses of Rumi
1. Fihi Ma fih (What is in it is in it.)
- 71 talks and lectures in the style of oral
speech
- Recorded by his pupils
- Signs of the Unseen, trans. by Wheeler
Tackston
2. Majalis-i Seba (The Seven Sermons)
- His lectures on questions of faith and
ethics on ceremonial occasions. It is in
formal style.
- No English translation yet.
3. Maktubat (The Letters)
- Letters to his students and relatives
concerning their religious and daily issues
- 147 letters; dictated by Rumi
Rumis Poems:
1. Divan-i Kabir (The great collection of poems)
- It is also called Divan-i Shams due to its
last couplet
- 21.366 couplets about love, spiritual joy
- Rumi dictated the most of them in ecstasy
and whirling


2. Masnavi
- Masnavi adopts its name from verse form aabbcc.
etc.
- 25,618 couplets
- Rumi wrote first 18 couplets and dictated the rest
- He told many stories from his own and borrowed
some from Arabic, Persian, Jewish sources, Quran,
and Hadith
- Nicholson says that Rumi borrows much but
owes little; he makes his own everything that comes
to had.
RUMIS LEGACY:
- 60.000 lines in Persian = 120.000 lines in English;
more than Homer, Dante, Milton, Shakespeare

Rumi in his thoughts: Seeing things as
they are
If everything that appears to us were just as it
appears, the Prophet, who was endowed with
such penetrating vision, both illuminated and
illuminating, would never have cried out, Oh
Lord, show us things as they are. (F 5/18)
People look at secondary causes and think that
they are the origin of everything happens. But it
has been revealed to the saints that secondary
causes are no more than a veil. (F 68-80)
Pass beyond form, escape from names! Flee titles
and names toward meaning! (M 4/1285)
Beyond the Seen
The earth has the external shape of dust, but
inside are the luminous Attributes of God.
Its outward has fallen into war with its inward; its
inward is like a pearl and its outward a stone. (M)
The picture drives its movements only from the
Painters brush, the compass foot revolves around its
point. (D)
Light is the First Cause and every secondary cause is
its shadow. (D)
We are all darkness and God is light; this house
receives its brightness from the Sun (D)
Man
I look at my inmost consciousness and see a
universe hidden, Adam and Eve not yet arisen
from world. (M)
God created us in His own form: Our description
has taken instruction from His description. (M)
Form comes into existence from Formless, just as
smoke is born from fire. (M)
Adams lapse was a borrowed thing, so he
repented at once. But Iblis sin was innate, so he
could not find the way to precious repentance.

Mans purpose
If man were human through his form,
Muhammad and Abu Jahl would be the
same. The painting on the wall is the
likeness of a man. Look at that form. What
does it lack? That splendid painting lacks a
spirit. Go, seek that precious pearl. (M)

Oh Brother! You are your thought: The rest
of you is bones and fibers. If you think of
roses, you are a rosegarden; but if you think
of thorns, you are fuel for the furnace. (M)

And his return
Since the unbelievers are of the same kind
as hell, they are happy in the hellish prison
of this world. Since the prophets are of the
same kind as Paradise, they have gone to the
paradise of the spirit and the heart. (M)
Their origin was from fire: in the end they
returned to their origin< That group was
born from fire: Parts travel to their wholes<
The mother seeks her child, principles seek
out their derivatives< Without doubt every
kind takes pleasure in its own kind. The
part takes pleasure in its whole - look! (M)
Love
Every breast without the Beloved is a body
without head. The man far from Loves snare is a
bird without wings. What does he know of the
universe? For he knows nothing of Those Who
know. (D)
If you have not been a lover, count not your life as
lived, for on the Day of Reckoning it will not be
counted. Any time that passes without love will
be shamefaced before God.
God said to Love, If not for your beauty, how
should I pay attention to the mirror of existence?

What is Love?
Someone asked What is Love? I replied:
Ask not about these meanings! When you
become like me, then youll know. When it
calls you, youll recite its tale. (D)

Oh you who have listened to the talk of
Love, behold Love! What are the words in
the ears compared to vision in the eyes? (D)

What is Love? Perfect thirst. So let me
explain the Water of Life. (D)
The world as maintained by Love.
Gods wisdom in His destiny and decree
has made us lovers of one another.
That foreordainment has paired all parts
of the world and set them in love with
their mates.
Each part of the world desires its mate,
just like amber and straw
Heaven says to the earth, Hello You
draw me like iron to a magnet!
The female desires the male so that
they may perfect each others work
God placed desire within man and
woman so that the world might find
substance through their union.
He places desire in each part for
another part and their union gives
birth to offspring. (D)

Rumi: The Lover
I am like Majnun in my poor heart, which is without
limbs, because I have no strength to contest the
love of God.
Every day and night, I continue in my efforts to free
myself from the bonds of the chain of love; a
chain which keeps me imprisoned.
When the dream of the Beloved begins, I find my
self in blood.
Because I am not fully conscious, I am afraid in that
I may paint Him, with the blood of my heart.

In fact, You, O Beloved, must ask the fairies;
they know how I have burned through the
night.
Everyone has gone to sleep, but I, the one
who has given his heart to You, do not
know sleep like them.
Throughout the night, my eyes look at the
sky, counting the stars.
His love so profoundly took my sleep that I
do not really believe, it will ever come
back.
Whirling
Do you know what whirling is? It is hearing the voices
of spirits
Saying yes to Gods question Am I not your Lord?
It is deliverance from ego and reunion with the Lord.
Do you know what the whirling is? It is seeing the
Friends states,
hearing the secrets of God from across the curtains of
the unseen.
Do you know what the whirling is? It is escaping ones
existence, continuously tasting the everlasting
existence in the absolute nonexistence.
Do you know what the whirling is? It is making ones
head a ball in front of the Friends kicks of love and
running to the Friend without head and feet.
Do you know what the whirling is? It is knowing
Jacobs sorrow
And remedy, it is smelling the smell of the reunion
with Joseph from Josephs shirt.
Do you know what the whirling is? It is
swallowing Pharaohs spells just like Mosess
staff every moment.
Do you know what the whirling is? It is a secret
from the Prophetic Tradition: There is a moment
for me with God where no archangel or no
prophet can come in between God and me.
It is reaching that place without any means where
no angel can fit.
Do you know what the whirling is? It is, like
Shams-i Tabrizi, opening the eyes of the heart
and seeing the sacred lights.