JALALU-D-DIN RUMI BELHI AND MASNAVI-I MA’NAVI

For its calligraphic beauty and value, a special place in the collection of Bosniak Institute – Foundation Adil Zulfikarpašić is held by the transcript of Masnavi (Matnawi-i Ma'nawi) by Jalal al-Din Rumi.

Wine in ferment is a beggar suing for our ferment.

Heaven in revolution is a beggar suing for our consciousness.

Wine was intoxicated with us, not we with it.

The body came into being with us, not we from it.

(Matsavi I, 1811, translated by R.A. Nicholson)

Rūmī is indeed a major peak of one branch of Sufi tradition; however, like every peak which is related to a mountain range it is part of, Rūmī is inextricably linked to the entirety of the tradition which, due to sacred teachings and the grace (barakah) within its spiritual meaning, was able to produce a saint and a poet of this dimension. He appeared at the moment when six centuries of Islamic spirituality had already shaped a tradition of immeasurable wealth. He lived during a century which was like a return to spiritual intensity of the moment of the genesis of Islam, a century which produced remarkable saints and sages throughout the Islamic world, from Ibn ‘Arebī of Andalusia, to Nedžmuddīn Kubrā of Samarqand. Rūmī came at the end of this period of immense spiritual activity and rejuvenation which molded the subsequent spiritual history of Islamic peoples.

After he had undergone a long period of training, formal and initiatic, Rūmī was completely acquainted with the long tradition that preceded him, both in Sufism and in other Islamic sciences. He was deeply immersed in Qur'anic sciences and numerous Qur'anic commentaries which had been published before him. Careful study of his works reveals not only the truth of his own assertion that his Masnavi is a commentary upon the Qur'an but that even his Diwān flows like a vast river which has come into being from mountain springs of the Qur'anic revelation. He had already experienced and lived in a sense, summarizing in himself the early Sufi tradition since he lived through and experienced different spiritual possibilities of Sufi heritage – respecting the fear of Dā’ūd el-Entākīj, Divine love of Rābi’a el-‘Adevijja and gnosis of Ibn ‘Arebī – in his own self:

 We are nothing, and this existence of ours, it is Your existence which cannot be seen.

The One who is invisible (God) let Him exist forever!

Our wind and our existence are Thy gift,

Oh God! It is You who gave us existence, God!

It is You, God, who showed the sweetness of existence on non-existence (nothingness).

It is You who made this non-existence fall in love with itself.

Take not away the delight of Thy nimets (bounty)!

Thy desserts, and wine, and the wine-cup, do not take away!

But if Thou takest it away, who will question Thee.

Does the picture quarrel with the painter?

Look not on us, look on Thy own Loving-kindness and generosity.

We were not: there was not demand on our part;

Yet Thy Grace heard our silent prayer and called us into existence.

No poet could depict in more moving words the utter nothingness of all existing things before the One who alone is. Here is the doctrine of the Oneness of Being (vahdet el-vudžūd) shrouded by the theophany of its own beauty. Likewise, Rūmī follows Ibn ‘Arebi in believing that the existence of everything is identical with the relation of that particular being to Being itself, that existents are nothing but the relation they possess to the Absolute, summarizing the entire teaching in the deceivingly simple couplet, which refers to the relation between beings and Being itself:

There is a link beyond all description and comparison;

 Between the Lord of creatures and their inner being.

As for the complementary doctrine of Universal Man (el-insān el-kāmil), which, like the doctrine of the Oneness of Being, was also formulated for the first time by Ibn ‘Arebī, its meaning is reflected throughout Rūmī's writings, but he does not use the term insān el-kāmil; rather, when wishing to refer to the idea, he uses such terms as macrocosm (ālem-i ekber), which he considers the spiritual man to be in contrast to “profane man”, who is the microcosm.

Therefore in outward form thou art the microcosm,

While in inward meaning thou art the macrocosm.

Rūmī's poetry is celebration both of life in its spiritual aspect and of death, which allows implementation of the spiritual dimension of life. Rūmī saw in death the sublime ecstatic moment of life, for he had already died before dying, according to the famous prophetic saying: “Die before you dieˮ. For him, death could only be entrance into the world of light, as he himself says in his well-known poem:

Go die, oh Sire, before thy death,

So that thou wilt not suffer the pain of dying.

Die the kind of death which is entrance into light,

Not the death which signifies entrance into the grave.

Rūmī had already entered the world of light before encountering physical death, and therefore physical death could not but be the moment of celebration when the last obstacle was lifted and he was able to return fully to the ocean of light, from which he had become momentarily separated. Rūmī had long before realized that amor est mors; through the love for God he had tasted death while physically alive and was a resurrected being shrouded in the light of Divine Knowledge, when still discoursing and walking among men. What had made it possible for Rūmī to look upon the encounter with death as a moment of supreme ecstasy was, of course, the kind of life he had led in this world, a life which had already led him into the state of sanctity before passing through the gate of death. This life was a witness to an extraordinary encounter with Shams and mutual liking, which led to the emergence of Diwān, and which encouraged Rūmī to leave the world of silence and resort to poetry to express what cannot be expressed if it did not arrive only from the holy silence. In a sense, Husāmuddīn Chalabī played the same role for Rūmī vis-à-vis Mathnawī. In the same way that there is no appropriate disciple, the initiatic role of the teacher retires within the being of the master, the lack of spiritual companionship and discourse can lead even the artistically most creative of Sufis to silence. To quote the well-known verse of Sa’dī:

If there were no rose, the nightingale would not be singing in the grove.

In the modern world, impoverished of spirituality and suffocating in an ambience where ugliness has become the norm and beauty luxury, Rūmī has become discovered by many as the antidote to the ills from which the modern world suffers. Indeed, he is the most powerful antidote provided his teachings are followed, however bitter might be the medicine he proposes. In order to draw aid from Rūmī,in the spiritual struggle at hand, one must read him not as a mere poet but as the porte-parole of Divine mysteries who like the birds could not but sing in melodies that move the spirit. The works of Rūmī and his ever-living spiritual presence stand as a strong beacon to guide men by means of beauty to that Truth which alone can liberate them from the illusory prison of deprivation and ugliness that they have created around themselves, a prison whose confines cannot be eradicated save by means of the message of men such as Rūmī, in whom the vision of the Truth and its expression is in the most perfect human form are combined. Verily, it must be said of the works of Rūmī's that:

These words are the ladder to the firmament.

Whoever ascends them reaches the roof –

Not the roof of the sphere that is blue.

But the roof which transcends all the visible heavens.

Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Islamic Art and Spirituality

Rūmī and Sufi Tradition

Transcript of Mathnawi in Isa-bey Tekke in Sarajevo from the holdings of Bosniak Institute – Foundation Adil Zulfikarpašić