Rumi-background & two selections.(326)

Maulana Jalal Uddin Rumi (1207-1273) is burred in Konia, Turkey. Rumi implies, from Rome because Constantinople (Istanbul) was the seat of the Eastern Roman Empire and later became the seat of Eastern Orthodox Church (Byzantium). Rome of the western R.Empire and became the seat of Catholic Church (Vatican). All this happened after the conversion of Roman Emperor Constantine to Christianity in 330. It was Constantine who had convened the conference of all Bishops in Nicaea (Turkey) in 325 where the Christian creed also known as Nicaean creed was agreed upon.
Jalaluddin himself did not use "Rumi" much but after the 17th century its use became more frequent by Oriental studies authors..
Some of his contemporaries of Rumi were Ibn Arabi (1165-1240), Shaikh Saadi (1194-1283) and Farid Uddin Attar who was killed in 1222 when Mongols sacked Naishapur(Samarkand and Bukhara were sacked in 1220). They witnessed the destruction of Islamic institutions and death of millions inflicted by Mongol invaders.
Here is a selection from Masnavi of Rumi. Khaliq M Khan (Aug 2005)

"All these (various persons) are not in the right; nor again this herd is entirely astray,

Because nothing false is shown without the True,

The fool bought spurious coins in the hope of (it being) gold.

If there were no current (genuine) coins in the world,

how would it be possible to issue a false coin.

Unless there be truth, how should there be falsehood? That falsehood

receives brilliance from the truth..

Do not say, then, that all these utterance are false…

Do not say, then, that all (this) is fantasy and error:

Without truth fantasy exists not in the world.

Truth is the Night of Power (which) is hidden among the other nights…

Not all nights are (the Night of) Power".

* The seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Masnavi of Rumi. Tear not...(Post 74)

Tear not thy plumage off, it can not be replaced; Disfigure not thy face in wantonness, O fair one! That face which is bright as the forenoon sun--- To disfigure it were a grievous sin. 'Twere paganism to mar such a face as thine! The moon itself would weep to lose sight of it! Knowest thou not the beauty of thine own face? Quit this temper that leads thee to war with thyself! It is the claws of thine own foolish thoughts That in spite wound the face of thy quiet soul. Know such thoughts to be claws fraught with poison. Which score deep wounds on the face of thy soul.

Masnavi of Rumi. The end and object...(Post 75)

The end and object of all negation is to attain to subsequent affirmation, as the negation in the creed, "There is no God," finds its complement and purpose in the affirmation "but God." Just so the purpose of negation of self is to clear the way for the apprehension of the fact that there is no existence but the One. The intoxication of Life and its pleasures and occupations veils the Truth from men's eyes, and they ought to pass on to the spiritual intoxication which makes men beside themselves and lifts them to the beatific vision of eternal Truth.

Omar Khhayyam (1046-1131). From Rubayat. Oh come.. (Post 112).

Omar Khayyam is best known for his Rubayats translated by Edward Fitzgerald in the 1880s. Sufi poetry has lot of references to wine and love, more so in Hafiz(1325–1389) and Omar Khayyam. However their wine did not come from a bottle but a mystical experience. Love is Love of God (Ishque Allah). Oh, come with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies; One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies; The Flower that once has blown for ever dies.

Islam and Sufism an introduction

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