Rumi's Personality

SEFIK CAN EFENDI
Translated by Cüneyt Eroglu

The life of the great saint Rumi who honoured this mortal world in Belh and migrated to the other world in Konya after exhausting his counted breaths, is very different from the lives of other great men. Rumi’s life was spent away from his homeland. Rumi who fell away from his real homeland, the world of eternity, has also lived his life away from his metaphorical homeland. After leaving the beautiful Belh, the city of his childhood, Rumi travelled from land to land and decided to stay in Konya where he completed his life, which he spent away from his homeland, again away from his homeland. He reunited with Allah whom he loved very much and by whom he was very much loved. The fact is Rumi’s life doesn’t resemble the lives of other great men. In my possession, I have a lot of books about Rumi’s life written in many different languages, in Turkish or otherwise. Below I will mention the names of the authors from whose work I will quote. However, I could not find Rumi in any of these books. In these books, there is Rumi’s father Sultan-ul-Ulema, his spiritual guide Seyyid Burhaneddin-i Tirmizi, Shemseddin of Tebriz, Salahaddin, the goldsmith, Chelebi Husameddin, but there is no Rumi, the sultan of our hearts. This view is not a personal one.

My respected readers, pick a book from your library about the life of any great personality regardless of his or her area, someone who left a pleasant memory behind. And start flipping through pages. You will see that that person’s life, what he has gone through, what he has done and the accomplishments he has left behind from his birth to his death are all in that book. Yet in the books about Rumi, there is no Rumi. So, where is Rumi?

In fact, Rumi has concealed his life in his loved ones and their lives. Just as there is no poet called Jalaluddin-i Rumi in the Divan-i Kebir which contains thousands of laconic and meaningful poems which no other poet could write, and just as he has concealed his name by naming Mesnevi-i Sharif, which is actually a form of poetry honoured by Rumi’s use of this form, Husam-name (the book of Husam) instead of Jalal-name ( the book of Jalal), he has given his life to his loved ones and has concealed it.

One can find plenty of imaginary pictures, portraits and miniatures of Rumi. There are even mention of painters who painted pictures of Rumi in those days. There are also others like Eflaki who describe his physical characteristics. For example, someone told to Muiniddin-i Pervane that Rumi’s face was pale due to continuous fasting while Sultan Veled had pink cheeks. Can we imagine Rumi’s physical appearance based on these accounts and paintings?

Rumi had a thin and slender body and a pale skin. It has been told that one day he went to a Turkish bath. When he looked at himself in the mirror he noticed that he was very thin. He pitied himself and said "In my whole life I was never ashamed of anybody; however today when I saw my thin body in the mirror I am ashamed of myself."

Although Rumi had a pale skin he was very benevolent looking and awe-inspiring. The eyes of the holy saint were very attractive. They were very sharp and filled with exuberance. The glances of his luminous eyes were so powerful that whenever somebody, unaware of the power of Rumi’s eyes, would look directly at his luminous eyes, would come under the influence of these powerful eyes and would have to remove his eyes from him.

All these accounts and descriptions are related to Rumi’s physical characteristics. But how was his inner characteristics? In Mesnevi, he says:

"I wonder how I can see my face. I wonder what kind of a complexion I have. Am I someone with a clean and spotless face? Or am I someone with a dirty and sinful face? How can I observe this? To see my inner face, the picture of my soul, I have been struggling and searching. Yet my inner face was not showing in anybody and nothing was showing my inner face to me. I told to myself ‘For what purpose is the mirror invented? What end does it serve? Is it not invented so that everybody can look into it and see who they are and how they look?’ But the mirrors that we know of are made to show peoples outer faces and physical attributes. Where and how is the mirror that shows the face of the heart? The mirror of the heart is very expensive and very valuable. The mirror of the heart is nothing but the face of the Beloved. The face of the Beloved that shows our inner face, the face of heart, is not in this world. It is in the spiritual world." (Mesnevi, Vol. II, Couplet 95)

Where can the Beloved that can reflect Rumi’s inner world and character be found? Who can depict the inner characteristics of Sultan-ul-Ulema’s son? How can Sultan-ul-Ashikeen, the King of Lovers, be described?

Nobody can fully understand or describe this great saint who was nourished with the knowledge, manners and character of his father, the King of Scholars, and who was burnt and melted in the pot of Divine Love. He was a superior being that was cleansed from grudge, hatred, evil, selfishness, ostentation and from all human desires with the influence of Divine Love. He was a man of goodness and perfection and a man of love and gnosis. When he dived into the ocean of love he was freed from all contradicting views. He was detached from good and evil. In Mesnevi, he says:

"When you reach the ‘world of colourlessness’ just as you were in the eternal beginning, you will find that Moses and the Pharaoh have made peace." (Mesnevi, Vol. I, Couplet 2467)

While being a great scholar and a great saint Rumi was very modest. Young or old, of high position or of common folk, he would treat everybody with modesty. One could never see arrogance, pride and haughtiness in Rumi’s life. He would never distinguish between old and young, believer and disbeliever.

Since Rumi was entirely on the Muhammedan path and Muhammedan character he always saw himself insignificant and always abstained from arrogance and pride. We should read this quadruplet of Rumi and take lessons:

"They have valued my turban, my robe and my head, all three of them, at one dirhem (a small currency unit) or somewhat less. Haven’t you ever heard my name in this world? I am nothing, nothing, nothing."

Rumi says: "As long as you remain with yourself and as long as you worship yourself they won’t give you way from the obstacle of yourself. As long as your existence, the misconception that you are something, is with you don't think that you will ever find peace because you are still worshipping the idol of ‘self’. "In fact, some of the people take pride in their wealth or position, others boast with their skills and professions. The unmindful who think that they are walking on the path of Truth see themselves above the common folk due to their prayers, beads and pilgrimages. This quadruplet that shows the immenseness of Rumi’s humility as his other virtues and qualities is very interesting. How much value does Rumi attribute to his head which is a sun of inspiration, to the turban circumscribing that head like a halo and is a symbol of knowledge and gnosis, and to his robe that is a cover for the God’s jewel of beauty?

Rumi who was completely on the Muhammedan path and took Muhammed as an example to himself in everything was very much attached to asceticism and self-mortification due to the abundance of divine love in him. At this point, let us leave the word to Sipehsalar once again:

"This poor slave of Allah had been in Rumi’s service for forty years. He used to continue his worship from his youth to his passing away without decreasing. I have never seen him to put his head on a pillow and comfortably rest on the bed. It is a fact that Allah always brought to motion the body of His Holiness who was subjected to self-morification and gave strength to it. How can one describe his sleeplessness and discontent. Once during a night of whirling ceremony when sleep had overtaken those present, His Holiness leaned his back against the wall and put his blessed head on his knees. Sheik Muhammed Hadim came and brought a big blanket and put it on his blessed shoulders and covered his whole body with it.

When the friends feel asleep His Holiness stood up. He started praying. Then he walked around a little bit. He never rested and stopped." Sipehsalar tries to explain this state of ecstasy and discontent of Rumi by this poem from Divan-i Kebir:

"I have lost my mind for love because there is no strength in my heart which lost its hand and feet to resist His love. Day and night I keep on chewing on one end of the chain of love that ties me. I am in blood all over my body. I am afraid, if the vision of the Beloved comes I might spill blood of heart over Him. Ask the fairies of the nights of this lover who burns with the fire of love and cries and wheeps. When I come and go in the darkness my feet touches fairies. My heart, which is shattered in pieces, is travelling all night by burning like a star. By the spell of the unfair and cruel Beloved all my sleep has gone. O my Beloved, let me wear a dress of fire like the sun and with that fire let me beautify and enlighten the world like the sun. My love is a moment of Your love. Even if I escape and rest, my spirit never relaxes and rests. I attain peace and comfort that very moment when I do not separate from Your love, never rest and continuously burn and being burnt." (Divan-i Kebir, 1438)

In another poem of his Rumi, points to the same state and says:

"Everybody went to sleep, I, the lover who gave away his heart, did not sleep. All night my eyes are counting stars on the sky. Your love drew sleep away from my eyes such that it never returns. My sleep has drunk the poison of Your separation and died."

Sipehsalar writes: "If I was to describe one tenth of Rumi’s ecstasy, love and "attraction", I couldn’t fit it into this book." (Sipehsalar, Persian version, p. 22)

"O reader, may Allah make you succeed. Know that rapture of attraction is a state of fascination and ecstasy induced by God’s attracting his slave to Himself. It is being overwhelmed such that one forgets one’s self, it being fascinated by God’s greatness, power and attributes. Attraction is reunion with God, dying before death, and attaining God while living. If there no spiritual talent in the person walking on the path of Allah, no matter how much that person strive or how much he performs self-mortification, he never attains union with God. Attraction is a favour of Allah, the Most Glorious, in the eternal past. That is it is a spiritual bestowment that Allah has granted on the spirits of some people in the world of the spirits before coming to the world.

Our Prophet says: "There is an attraction among the attractions of Allah that is better than the worship of the whole mankind and ginies." If there happens an pause, a joylessness, a hopelessness to the person who walks on the path of Allah when he reaches a level, Allah, Most Dominant, Most Glorious, takes the traveller of the path of Allah to safety with his attraction due to the abundance of His Mercy and Favours and makes him attain his destination."

The eternal attraction bestowed by God was clearly visible in Rumi. Therefore, of every level and stage he attained with the continuously coming and overflowing attractions he would tell somewhat:

"The love burak (a vehicle for ascending to the heavens) of meanings has taken away my mind and my heart. Ask me: ‘Where did it take them?’ It took my mind and heart to that side which you don’t know, to beyond. It reaches a pavilion from where I saw no moon, no sky. I arrived in such a world that there even the world ceases to be the world. For one moment, excuse me, spare me, so that my mind returns to me and I can tell you what the spirit is and talk about its beauties. Don’t disregard my words. Listen to me, you, too, have a spirit. Try to understand the spirit. There are favours of the Beloved to us, bestowments, grants and gift. These are amazing, never before seen favours and bestowments. These are unique gifts. From the path of the senses comes clear lights and the hearts are being enlightened. When the spirit which resembles the star of Canopus, appears from the direction of rukn-i yemani(?) moon ceases to be visible as well as the sun and the seven poles of the skies. The light of the spirit overpower them all. For a moment take the religion which resembles a piece of gold and put it under your tongue so that you may realize how valuable an ore is in your heart, inside yourself. Enlighten the lights of the five sense that are in you. See them as the five daily prayers. Your heart is like the Chapter Fatiha, which consists of seven verses. Every morning there comes a voice from the heavens. If you can remove the love of this world from your heart you can hear it and find the trace of the path of truth and start to walk on it." (Divan-i Kebir, 3039)

In this regard, to explain the spiritual joy in the world of spirits Rumi says:

"O my Allah, my love was at the level of perfection when You created me in the eternal past. At that time there was no earth, no world. Neither the sun existed nor head of a man, nor his hat. There was nothing when you selected me for your love. I was with You in the eternal past, I was Your companion and friend. Now that I was with You and You were with me why are You hiding now? Why are You not revealing Yourself? The eye that sees is You, the one that says is You, the one that hears is You. You are the one who puts up curtain before our eyes to prevent them from seeing the truth and you are the one who tears up those curtains." (Divan-i Kebir, 3238)

Most of Rumi’s beautiful and influential poems were said when he was in a state submerged in rapture (istigrak) with divine love. What is this state of being submerged in rapture (istigrak)? When the special slaves of God, saints, attain the level of closeness and reunion with God, they are fascinated by the Beauty, Power, Majesty and Generosity. Coming under the influence of the Creator, the Absolute Beauty, they become ecstatic and intoxicated as if they drank a spiritual wine, a wine of love. Our Prophet tells us that these people lose their conscience by saying: "Allah has prepared a wine for his saints that when they drink it they become intoxicated, when they become intoxicated they enrapture, when they enrapture they become silent." When our Prophet was honoured by complete closeness to God as indicated by the Quranic verse "...at a distance of two bow lengths or (even) nearer." (53/9), when he was bestowed with that favour, when he saw Allah, Possessor of Absolute Majesty and Absolute Beauty, with his spiritual eye, when he discovered the divine entrustments and Lordly secrets he went into a state of indescribable spiritual joys. This spiritual wine that enraptured our Great Prophet was the wine of love, wine of truth.

Rumi said many poems that describe this spiritual wine that enraptures the saints and special slaves of Allah. I couldn’t proceed without taking some of them here. If we carefully read these poems and reflect on them, with the grace and help of Allah we can at least somewhat understand this spiritual state which is very difficult to explain and to understand:

"Our spirit was intoxicated and enrapture with an eternal wine before there was vineyard, wine and grape was created on earth. Before there was the big fight about that meaningful word of Hallaj, in Baghdad of the world of spirits we were saying ‘I am the Truth.' Before God created Adam from clay our liveliness was complete in the tavern of truths and we were very happy. In that world our spirit became a spiritual glass like the sun and that world got submerged in holy light from the wine of spirit. O cupbearer, make the arrogant people in this clay world so that they may realize of which kind of fortune they are deprived. May life be sacrificied for the cup-bearer who came from the path of spirit and brings out and reveals everything that is hidden and veiled." (Divan-i Kebir, v. II, no. 731)

After Rumi has discovered his self and sensed what was in him he saw in others what was in him, too. This way he unified the Love of Allah with the Love of Humanity. He came to the conclusion that to love human beings is to love Allah. When read carefully, the following couplet makes it quite clear actually to whom Rumi’s infinite love of Shems was.

"Shems of Tebriz is a pretext. In fact, we are the one peerless in beauty, the one peerless in boons and favour." (Divan-i Kebir, v. III, no. 1576)

In another poem, Rumi advises us to appreciate the value of each other and to love each other because we love our loved ones not because of their physical beings but because of Allah.

"Come, come, let us appreciate each other, know the value of each other. Because you never know we might be suddenly separated. Now that our Prophet has said: ‘The believer is the mirror of the believer.’ why are we turning our face from the mirror? Grudges and hates darken the friendship and injure the heart. Why don’t we rip off and throw away the grudges from the heart?" (Divan-i Kebir, v. III, no. 1535)

"Come, join us. We are Lovers of God, you join us so we open you the doors of the garden of love. Sit in our house as a shadow we are the neighbours of God’s sun. We are invisible to the eye, just as is the soul, we have no trace or mark, just as the love of the lovers. But our signs are in you and in front of you because we are both hidden as well as apparent just as the soul. Whatever you may be talking of look further and higher and even beyond that because we are beyond the beyonds. You are like water, but you remain in a hole, you are imprisoned. Open up a way for yourself so you may join us, because we are a flood flowing towards God. (Divan-i Kebir, v. III, no. 1540)

Come so we may speak to each other from spirit to spirit, talk to each other hidden from eyes and ears. Let us laugh without lips and teeth just as the rose garden. Let us discourse without lips and mouth just as the thought. Let us tell the secret of the world completely with our mouth closed at the level of "Akl-i Evvel" and in the awareness of God’s existence. Nobody talks to themselves with a loud voice, since we are all one, let us call out to each other from our hearts without mouths or lips. How can you say to your hand ‘Hold!’ Is that hand yours? Since our hands are one let us talk about this issue. Hands and feet are aware of the state of the heart. Let us make conversation with our tongue being silent and our hearts vibrating. (Divan-i Kebir, v. VI, no. 3020)

Rumi’s love of humanity is infinite. Starting with the ancient Greek and Latin poets, take all the classical poets, dramatic writers, philosophers and sociologists of the West, none has a love for humanity that Rumi feels and lets his readers feel. Shame on those who don’t know and understand Rumi and who don’t count him as a classical poet.

"Come, come, get closer. Till when is this banditness going to continue? Since you are I and I am you, what is this ‘us and them’? We are God’s holy light, we are God’s mirror. So why are we struggling with each other? Why is one light running away from another light so much? We, all human beings, are gathered like a body in the being of a mature human. But why are we squint-eyed? Although we are limbs of the same body why do the rich look down on the poor? Why does the right hand look down on the left hand of the same body? Since both of them are hands of your body what is the meaning of lucky and unlucky on the same body? We, all the human beings, are in reality all one essence. Our minds are one, and our heads are one. But we have been seeing one as two due to the curved heavens. Come, liberate yourself from this selfishness and reconcile with everybody and be nice to people. As long as you are in you, you are a grain, a particle. But when you mix and unite with others, then you become an ocean, a mine. Every human being carries the same soul but the bodies are in hundreds of thousands. Similarly, there are countlessly many almonds in the world, but there is the same oil in each of them. There are many tongues and dialects in this world but the meaning of all of them are the same. Water put in different containers unite when the containers are broken and start to flow together as one stream. If you understand what the unity (tevhid) means, if you attain unity and if you rip and throw away meaningless words and thoughts, the spirit sends news to those whose eyes of the hearts are open and tells them the truth. (Divan-i Kebir, v. VI, no. 3020)

In the above examples, Rumi’s thoughts on the love of humanity are illustrated. Rumi will whisper many secrets to the ears of those who carefully read these and reflect on them thoroughly.

Every saint has a disposition particular to himself. Rumi mostly talks of love of God and being a lover of God. For this reason the nickname "sultan of lovers" has been given to him. In fact, in one of his quadruplets he says: "The path of our Prophet is the path of love. We are the children of love and love is our mother."

The truth is in all his works Rumi dealt with this issue the most. In some of his parables in Mesnevi-i Shareef and in the ardent poems in Divan-i Kebir he always talks of love.

The love that Rumi talks of is not the metaphorical love that is mortal and transient. The love he tals of is the divine love that is felt towards God. Rumi says: "Love is of the attributes of Allah that is not in need of anybody or anything. To be in love with someone other than Him is a metaphorical love, a temporary desire." (Mesnevi, v. VI, no. 971)

Let us think about the terms of "metaphorical love" and "divine love", i.e. the true love, mentioned in the above couplet for us to better understand this subject. As commonly known love can be viewed from two perspectives as metaphorical and real.

The metaphorical love is material and physical love, that is women and men’s liking and loving each other. The real love, on the other hand, is the love felt towards God. In other words, the metaphorical love is love felt towards the creators while the real love is love felt towards the Creator. The metaphorical love is mortal and transient but the real love is infinite and ever-lasting.

The gnostics say that even a metaphorical love that is not contaminated and stained with lust is not in vain and it can lead one to the real love. They saw the metaphorical love as bridge that takes one to the real love, the love of Allah. According to them with this love that is felt not towards the beautiful but the beauty, seeing and being fascinated by the Beauty, Art, Power and Greatness of the Creator in the amazing beauty in the beautiful things opens to one the path of the real love. As Rumi says: "Whether love is metaphorical or real it finally leads one to God."

But then why was this metaphorical love given to humans? Centuries before Freud, one of our time’s greatest psychologists, Rumi expresses this fact: "Allah made man and woman love and be inclined to each other so that life on earth can continue with their union." (Mesnevi, v. III, no. 1415)

Muhyiddin-i Arabi, considers this metaphorical love as a completion and in the section "Fass-i Muhammedi" of his book "Fususu’l-Hikem" he writes: "A human being, be it a man or a woman, becomes complete with marriage. A single woman is half and a single man is also half. Man completes his missing part with the woman. Since the woman was created from the left rib of man she finds her essence in the man. Therefore, this union is not only a physical pleasure of the body but also a spiritual completion." When carefully viewed it can be seen that in this metaphorical love and union, there is an expression of the longing and yearning of the familiar spirits towards each other which were subject to intrinsic meaning of the verse "I breathed into him from my spirit" and which exist beyond their bodies and came from the same place. But this union has to be carried out not like animals but with marriage and within the regulations of the Law since we are the most honourable and most superior of all the creatures. Our religion does not prohibit us from loving and marrying.

On one hand, God has given us the metaphorical love and the feeling of lust so that the life would continue, as Rumi states, and on the other hand He commanded to keep the self under control and struggle with lust.

In Islam there is no priesthood and nunhood. Maintaining one’s dignity, living decently, keeping one’s feeling’s under control and union only with marriage are the principles. An illegitimate union that stains one’s conscience is considered a greatest sin. In our religion love is not forbidden but adultery is.

This following Prophetic Tradition clarifies this issue:

"If one falls in love and doesn’t reveal his love to others, and keeps it secret, maintains his dignity and decency and dies in this state, he becomes a martyr." (Feyzu’l-Kadir, VI/79) If one keeps his self under control and defeats his lust takes him to the level of martyrdom. This Prophetic Tradition also tells us that the death of a believer who battles his self by protecting himself from the sin of adultery is seens as the martyrdom of a believer that died while fighting for the religion because lust is one of the most awful enemies of man. Defeating this feeling is a great bravery. Rumi says:

"Feelings of anger and lust make man squint-eyed and change the direction of the spirit and distance one from the true path." (Mesnevi, v. I, no. 333)

If the metaphorical love is not kept under control it will distance us not only from worshipping God but also from happiness and humanity. In addition to being transient bodily pleasures are eventually replaced with bad conscience and sin if they are illegitimate.

How meaningless and in vain is it to devote one’s self to impermanent and transient things. The seasons and the beauties are all to pass. Rumi thinks of the address of the sun to the flowers that are blooming, smiling and dancing with the wind in a spring season:

"O flowers and plants that smile, let me pass once and then I shall see you. Now you are very joyful and not thinking of your final outcome. The humans, the youth and the beauty are also like this. The beautiful bloom like the flowers, they brag about the beauty of their bodies. They look in the mirror and feel joy because the spirit that hides in them gives them strength, make them lively and joyful. The spirit calls out to the bodies of those who are proud of their material beauty: ‘You are alive with my light. What is this pride? For a few day with the strength that I give you move, enjoy and think that this physical life will not end. Your coyness and coquerty doesn’t fit the world. Just wait till I leave you, then see your destiny. Those who love you very much bury you in a grave. They make you nourishment for the ants and snakes. Remember the one who was willing to die for you? He, too, closes his nose from your bad odor." (Mesnevi, v. I, no. 3265)

"When thinking what kind of an explanation to give for love I came under the influence of love and was ashamed of what I said.

My pen was running on the paper. When it came to the explanation of love it went into an ecstasy, could not take it and split into two.

The reason remained powerless in the explanation of love like a donkey stuck in mud. The explanation of love and being a lover is again made by love." (Mesnevi, v. I, p. 112)