Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, Mevlânâ/Mawlānā, Mevlevî/Mawlawī, and more popularly simply as Rumi, was a 13th-century Persian Sunni Muslim poet, jurist, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic.
Moulana Muhammad Jalaluddin Rumi.
Who was he and why is his message so important to humanity at this time in history? On 30 September 1207 CE or so tradition holds, in the small village of Waqsh, in the region of Balkh, in the Persian province of Khorasan a son was born to the mystic preacher Sheikh Baha'uddin Walad. His name was Muhammad Jalaluddin and he and his family shortly moved to Samarqand. There was much strife in that part of the world at that time and also Jenghis Khan’s Mongols were moving west. The family and many of Baha’uddin’s students went on the Hajj to Mecca after which they heard that the Mongols had sacked Samarqand and were besieging Bokhara. They settled in Damascus and the young Jalal studied with various teachers. Then the family slowly moved toward the Seljuk Kingdom of Rum in what is now Anatolia in Turkey. The Sultan of Konya invited the party to settle in his town to help make it the finest centre of crafts and learning in the region.
Jalal became a College Professor in Religious subjects and a Master to many students at the Konya Religious School. He was given the clerical title of Moula and so students called him Moulana or ‘our master.’ One day he met a mystic named Muhammad Shamsuddin of Tabriz. Shams was an attained Master of Sufism which is the path of Spiritual Knowledge under Divine Grace and Guidance. Between these two a river of Ashk flowed. This word means a form of energy flow much like that between lovers yet without the sensual connotations of the ordinary human being.
Rumi, the 13th century Persian poet, has been called the greatest mystical poet of all time. During the last 25 years of his life, Rumi composed over 70,000 verses of poetry collected in 2 distinct volumes. Poetry focusing on varied and diverse topics. His work covers deeply philosophical and mystical, with poems of fiery soulful expression to passionate love verses filled with yearning and desire in volume 1. And in his second volume, which is his populist work, he switches to a work filled with anecdotes, life lessons, moral stories, stories from all three Abrahamic religions, popular topics of the day and even satirical tales.
At some point Moulana became a true lover of God flowing from heart to heart with all he met. He went where he was guided and could be governed only by God. Still he was born a muslim and followed the muslim obligations while at the same time he was friendly with all faiths. Then one day Shams disappeared, some say by murder and others say he just went East. Jalal went into a state of despair which eventually matured into a raging passion and ferment in his spiritual heart. From this he started to recite the most amazing poetry and deep mystical teachings. They were written down and today there are a few translations of that original Persian into English. He is best known for the name the Arabs gave to the region – Rumi or ‘of Rum.’ Contemporary translations of his materials have pushed him to rise to the US best seller list in poetry. His message of loving cooperation and the foibles of human nature woven into his great work the Masnavi could be followed by all of us. Especially in this day of constant war and terrorism which is so like his own time of the 13th Century C.E.
