Mevlana Jelal al-Din Rumi
Mevlana Jelal al-Din Rumi, who is known as “Mevlana”
in Turkey and as “Rumi” in the western world, can be called a mystic
poet, a thinker, a theosophist or a Sufi; but if you could ask him,
“What are you?” He could say, “I am nothing but a simple lover of
God”. A true lover of God has no definite nationality, language or
race for he loves everything without discrimination. He wrote the
Masnevi in six volumes, which gives the message of love, unity,
perfection, brotherhood and peace. It teaches man the path of Divine
Love that exalts him from lower stage to the highest one.
For more than seven centuries his Masnevi has
influenced the social and religious life in Turkey, Iran,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and the Central Asia. Recently, he has
also drawn attention of the Western scholars and poets.
He was born at Balkh, now in Afghanistan, in the year
1207; and was brought up under his father’s good care who himself
was a well-respected scholar and a lover of God. Three years before
the furious army of the Mongols invaded Afghanistan, Rumi’s father
migrated from his motherland to the Central Anatolia and passing
through Iran, Iraq, Mecca and Damascus he came to the city of
Karaman 100 km in the south of Konya the capital of the Great Seljuk
Empire, those days. He stayed in Karaman for some years where Rumi
got married. Being invited by the ruling Sultan Qayqubad they came
to Konya.
Rumi studied Arabic, Persian theology, jurisprudence,
logic, philosophy, mathematics, Islamic history and commentaries on
the Koran, partially at Balkh, Damascus and partially at Konya.
When he met Shams-i Tebrizi, a great lover of God and
a dervish, his whole life changed. He gave up teaching and became a
Godloving person. He learnt Divine secrets not from the books but
from the chest of Shams. When Shams left, Rumi was alone. He began
to moan like the reed-flute. His soul became restless due to the
love of God. During ten years he wrote his Masnevi of 30.000 verses
all in the same metre in Persian.
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