Breaking the Illusion of Limitation

Peer o Mureed - Maulana Rumi and Allama Iqbal

Videos on Rumi Part 3

Poetry by RUMI -- Who Says Words with My Mouth

 

When The Rose is Gone

Cry Out in Your Weakness

  

I, You, He, She, We 

 

The City of SABA

 

Didn't I Tell You

 

This is love

The Beloved is Here

 

The Meaning of Love

 

No Expectations

 

The Power of Now

 

The Path of Love

 

Love Said to Me..

 

 

Videos Part2: On Rumi Poetry

Sufi Music 

Don't Go to Sleep this Night

Rumi

 

Videos on Rumis' Poetry

Poetry by RUMI -- Only Breath 

 

A Gift of Love 

 

You Ask Me....

 

 

 

Rumi on Love!

Come let's fall in love again let's turn all the dirt in this world to shiny gold 

~ Rumi♥

 

Love is the Bridge between you and everything. 

~Rumi♥

 

Mathnavi or Mathnavi-e Maanavi

Mathnavi or Mathnavi-e Maanavi is the best known work of Rumi consisting of 24,660 couplets in seven books. Rumi himself defined his work as a work of destruction, destruction of the worldly for the sake of embracing the Divine. He warns the reader in advance to be prepared to let go of everything:

Every venture one's life may replete
Mathnavi's purpose is the Great Defeat.
Set afire, burning with cleansing heat,
On the anvil, egos ply and beat.
This book, if you open, read, entreat
Your life, a mendicant's, in the street.

    The Reed Flute

Pay heed to the grievances of the reed
Of what divisive separations breed
From the reedbed cut away just like a weed
My music people curse, warn and heed
Sliced to pieces my bosom and heart bleed
While I tell this tale of desire and need.
Whoever who fell away from the source
Will seek and toil until returned to course
Of grievances I sang to every crowd
Befriended both the humble and the proud
Each formed conjecture in their own mind
As though to my secrets they were blind
My secrets are buried within my grief
Yet to the eye and ear, that’s no relief
Body and soul both unveiled in trust
Yet sight of soul for body is not a must.
The flowing air in this reed is fire
Extinct, if with passion won’t inspire
Fire of love is set upon the reed
Passion of love this wine will gladly feed
Reed is match for he who love denied
Our secrets unveiled, betrayed, defied.
Who has borne deadly opium like the reed?
Or lovingly to betterment guide and lead?
Of the bloody path, will tell many a tale
Of Lover’s love, even beyond the veil.
None but the fool can hold wisdom dear
Who will care for the tongue if not ear?
In this pain, of passing days we lost track
Each day carried the pain upon its back
If days pass, let them go without fear
You remain, near, clear, and so dear.
Only the fish will unquenchingly thirst,
Surely passing of time, the hungry curst.
State of the cooked is beyond the raw
The wise in silence gladly withdraw.
Cut the chain my son, and release the pain
Silver rope and golden thread, must refrain
If you try to fit the ocean in a jug
How small will be your drinking mug?
Never filled, ambitious boy, greedy girl,
Only if satisfied, oyster makes pearl.
Whoever lovingly lost shirt on his back
Was cleansed from greed and wanton attack
Rejoice in our love, which would trade
Ailments, of every shade and every grade
With the elixir of self-knowing, chaste
With Hippocratic and Galenic taste.
Body of dust from love ascends to the skies
The dancing mountain thus begins to rise
It was the love of the Soul of Mount Sinai
Drunken mountain, thundering at Moses, nigh.
If coupled with those lips that blow my reed
Like the reed in making music I succeed;
Whoever away from those lips himself found
Lost his music though made many a sound.
When the flower has withered, faded away
The canary in praise has nothing to say.
All is the beloved, the lover is the veil
Alive is the beloved, the lover in death wail
Fearless love will courageously dare
Like a bird that’s in flight without a care
How can I be aware, see what’s around,
If there is no showing light or telling sound?
Seek the love that cannot be confined
Reflection in the mirror is object defined.
Do you know why the mirror never lies?
Because keeping a clean face is its prize.
Friends, listen to the tale of this reed
For it is the story of our life, indeed!

Ó Shahriar Shahriari
Vancouver, Canada
April 27, 1998

           Interpreting the teacher's couplet...            

In the land of the Soul, endless skies
Lord of the earth and skies, kind and wise
Ups and downs of the path, pain and ease
Climbing mountains high, sailing wide seas.

In the unseen, rain and cloud of different kind
Different sun and sky confound the mind
None is seen, save by the chosen few
Others in awe of the Creator’s view.
Rain’s purpose is to help plants to grow
Rain’s purpose is to help decay’s flow.
Growth and life spring from the spring rain
Autumn rain will only bring decay and pain;
The spring nurture the seed, water and feed
In the fall, feverish, yellow, tree and weed.
And so is cold and the wind, even the sun
Though different, from one source are all spun;
So it is, different, varied, in the unseen
Profit, loss, gainful, baneful, wise and green.
This is the eternal breath of the spring
In the heart and soul, green fields will bring;
What the spring shower does for the tree
Breath of life brings to the soul, fortunate, free.
If in place you find a tree of dry fame
Know that life-giving wind is not to blame
Wind fulfilled its purpose and blew
He who had soul, his own soul slew.

Ó Shahriar Shahriari
Vancouver, Canada
January 25, 1999

      Stealing a snake from a snake-catcher

Once a thief from a catcher, a snake stole
His prize, with ignorance, praise, and extol.
The catcher was thus relieved from its bite
Killed the thief, the killer snake, with fright.
The catcher came upon that familiar sight
Said, "my snake with life, has made this right.
I prayed for life, for my own sake
And what I found was none but snake.
Praise that my prayer was nullified
Gainful was the loss I identified.
We pray many times for loss and demise
With grace won’t hear Infinite Wise."

Ó Shahriar Shahriari
Vancouver, Canada
August 8, 1998

                                      

Rumi Lectures at Harvard University

These Lectures are given by Abdul Karim Soroush in Harvard University.

1. Critical Rationalism
2. Shi'i Contributions to the Disciplines of Fiqh and Kalam
3. Secularism and The World of Islam
4. Rumi, The Prophet of Love
5. Thoughts on The Eternal and ContextualIn the Quranic Message
6. Islam and the Concept of “Secularity”
7. Rumi Lectures, Harvard University
8. Rumi Lectures, Harvard University
9. Rumi Lectures, Harvard University
10. Rumi Lectures, Harvard University
11. Rumi Lectures, Harvard University
12. Rumi Lectures, Harvard University
13. Rumi Lectures, Harvard University
14. Religion and Modernity, Dar al Hikkmah, London
15. Islam and Pluralism, University of London  

Note: Click on the link to listen or download the audio file.

We stood together hand in hand in primordial time;
now at last, we are one again.

We are all of one soul struggling along one path,
and all drunk with the same wine.

From among the two worlds we chose Love alone;
except for that Love there’s nothing we adore.

What bitterness did our souls suffer from separation!
At long last, we are free from separation.

 

~Rumi♥

 

 

Mingled just for You and Me

Since the earth and the sky
are mingled just for YOU and ME.

  ~Rumi

 

 

 

“Love is from the beginning and it lasts till eternity.
The seekers of love will be infinite."

 
~Rumi

Two Suns a Day!

What a day today.
There are two Suns rising.... !
What a day
Not like any other day.
LOOK...!
The Light is shining in your HEART....
The wheel of life has stopped.

O you
who can see
into your own HEART....
What a day,
This is your day.
~Rumi

 

One Day!

One day You will take

my heart completely

and make it more fiery

than a dragon. Your

eyelashes will write on

my heart the poem

that could never come

from the pen of a poet.

                            --- Rumi

Everything is in you!

 

“Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.”
                                                                                             

                                                                                             ― Rumi

Beauty and Love

 

Beauty and Love are as body and soul.
Beauty is the mine, Love is the diamond.

                                                      -Rumi

Poems By Rumi

I've been looking for a long, long time,
for this thing called love,
I’ve ridden comets across the sky,
and I’ve looked below and above.
Then one day I looked inside myself,
and this is what I found,
A golden sun residing there,
beaming forth God’s light and sound.

                                                                    ~Rumi ♥

True Feelings of Soul!

When you do things from your soul, you feel a river, moving in you; a joy!

~ Rumi ♥

 

 

 

When inward tenderness finds the secret hurt, pain itself will crack the rock and Aaaah! let the soul emerge.

~ Rumi♥

Rumi Love Quotes

Rumi quotes will inspire you and bring you wisdom

Quotations Rumi left us all to enjoy! These Rumi quotes will inspire you and bring you wisdom. 

Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon how much he has polished it. Whoever has polished it more sees more -- more unseen forms become manifest to him.


Christian, Jew, Muslim, shaman, Zoroastrian, stone, ground, mountain, river, each has a secret way of being with the mystery, unique and not to be judged.



In silence there is eloquence. Stop weaving and watch how the pattern improves.

 In truth everything and everyone
Is a shadow of the Beloved,
And our seeking is His seeking
And our words are His words...
We search for Him here and there,
while looking right at Him.
Sitting by His side, we ask:
'O Beloved, where is the Beloved?'

Return from existence to nonexistence. You are seeking the Lord and you belong to him. Nonexistence is a place of income; flee it not. This existence of more and less is a place of expenditure.


The Eternal looked upon me for a moment with His eye of power, and annihilated me in His being, and become manifest to me in His essence. I saw I existed through Him.


                                            Let the beauty we love be what we do.

                                 The intelligent want self-control; children want candy.
                                       The art of knowing is knowing what to ignore.



The only lasting beauty is the beauty of the heart.
If you could get rid of yourself just once, the secret of secrets would open to you.

We rarely hear the inward music, but we're all dancing to it nevertheless.


Be like a river in generosity and giving help. Be like a sun in tenderness and pity. Be like night when covering other's faults. Be like a dead when furious and angry. Be like earth in modesty and humbleness. Be like a sea in tolerance. Be as you are or as you look like.

                                     He is a letter to everyone. You open it. It says, 'Live!

You know what love is?
It is all kindness, generosity.
Disharmony prevails when
You confuse lust with love, while
The distance between the two
Is endless.

Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi

O Love, you brought forth a jug
Filled with the ache that my heart clog
I won’t drink this wine, this drug!
Drink but for my heart’s sake!

From this wine poured me a cup
Wisely his praises I brought up
Bittersweet, pleasing to sup
Like the praises my heart would make.

From the Wheel of Fortune and fate
Stepped forth a Soul so great
I ran forth to demonstrate
The rewards my heart had at stake.

O Divine Secret, of Thee I ask
Yourself for crowds do not unmask.
Praised and thanked me for my task
For my heart’s sake, thus He spake.

I was pleased that my Beloved’s face
Towards my home its path would trace
And opened up with much grace
The veil covering my heart break.

If Love for blood may thirst
Brave warriors are curst
Mountains spontaneously burst
In such place my heart quake.

O Thou the bringer of cure
Pleasure and pain you endure
Only in you I am secure
Thou can cure my heartache.

Every fruit if only tries
My heart’s ache can realize
Melancholic face, bloodshot eyes
Streams form heart’s bloody lake.

King of the World put away tears
The Pride of Tabriz appears
Light of Truth, Shams, now nears
Thy light my heart will wake and take.



Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
by: Molana Jalal-e-Din Mohammad Molavi Rumi
Translated by: Shahriar Shahriari

The Life of Rumi

Jalaluddin Rumi

Jalaluddin Rumi, better known simply as Rumi, was perhaps the finest Persian poet of all time and a great influence on Muslim writing and culture. His poetry is still well known throughout the modern world, and he is one of the best selling poets in America.

Jalaluddin Rumi was born in 1207 in Balkh in present-day Afghanistan. Increasing Mongol incursions when he was around the age of eleven forced his family to leave Afghanistan, who travelled to Baghdad, Mecca, Damascus and finally settled in Konya in Turkey. Rumi lived here for most of his life.

Rumi was the son of a renowned Sufi scholar, and it is more than likely that he was introduced to Sufism from a young age. Sufism is a branch of Islam primarily concerned with developing the spirituality, or more precisely the inner character, of a Muslim.

Both he and his father were firm believers in the revelations of the Qur’an, but criticised the mere outwardly legal and ritual practice that was being promoted at the time. In fact, much of his work is dedicated to waking people up, and encouraging them to experience life themselves, rather blindly following the scholars of the day.

Rumi spent his early years, like many Muslims of the time, learning and studying Arabic, law, ahadith (the body of sayings of the Prophet Muhammad), history, the Qur’an, theology, philosophy, mathematics and astronomy.

By the time of his father’s death he had become an outstanding scholar in his own right, and took over his father’s position as one of the highest scholars in the country at the young age of 24.

He spent his time teaching and giving lectures to the public, and until the age of about 35, lived a fairly non-descript life.

Then in 1244 Rumi met a travelling Sufi, called Shams (or Shamsi Tabrizi) and the whole course of his life changed.

Shams became fast friends with Rumi, in whom he recognised a kindred spirit. The two developed a very close friendship and it was at this point that Rumi became more and more secluded, shunning the society of those he previously would discuss and debate matters with.

His relationship with Shams caused great jealousy in his family and other students, and after a few years, Shams disappeared. Many believe he was murdered, but Rumi himself did not think so. He travelled for years looking for his friend, and it was this loss that led to the outpouring of his soul through his poetry.

He wrote numerous lines of love poetry, called ghazals, but though they outwardly seem to be about Shams, it is not difficult to see that they are in fact poems describing his overpowering love of God.

Shams’ effect on Rumi was decisive. Whereas Rumi had before preached Islam soberly, he became, through Shams’ influence, filled with the love of God. What was inside his soul finally came out.

Many of Rumi’s ghazals are signed “Shams”. It is not clear precisely why he did this, although some orientalists believe this was out of humility and a sense of gratitude.

Rumi rarely wrote down his own poetry. The six books of poetry in the Mathnawi were written entirely by Rumi, who would compose and dictate the poetry, and his student Husam Chulabi, who would write and edit it.

It is believed that Rumi would turn round and round while reciting his poetry, and it is this dance which formed the basis for the Mevlevi Order, or Whirling Dervishes, after his death. Dervish means doorway, and the dance is believed to be a mystical portal between the earthly and cosmic worlds.

Rumi died in 1273 CE, halfway through the sixth volume of the Mathnawi.

The Mevlevi Order has been presided over by a member of Rumi’s family for over 800 years.
2007 was designated the UNESCO Year of Rumi.

His poetry

Rumi’s major works consist of two epic poems. The first is the Diwani Shamsi Tabrizi, named in honour of his friend Shams. It is often abbreviated to Diwan. It consists of about 40,000 verses in a vibrant and energetic style. It has been suggested that the Diwan represents Rumi’s feelings while in a dance-induced spiritual state.

Although the Diwan contains many short didactic passages, on the whole it appears as a collection of individual and seaparate crystallisations and concretisations of spiritual states undergone on the path to God. The overall ‘feeling’ of the Diwan is one of spiritual intoxication and ecstatic love.

The Sufi Path of Love, William C Chittick

At the end of the Diwan is a collection of poems of four lines, called quatrains. It is believed that about 1,600 can be correctly attributed to Rumi.

The Mathnawi is his other seminal work. It consists of 25,000 verses, in six books of poetry. The Mathnawi was written at the same time as the Diwan, and was probably intended to place the Diwan within the wider context of Islam. It is regarded as an explanation of some aspects of the Qur’an, placed within a more Sufi context.

…the Mathnawi is a commentary upon these mystical states and stations. It places them within the overall context of Islamic and Sufi teachings and practice. And it corrects the mistaken impression that one might receive by studying different poems in the Diwan in isolation and separating them from the wider context of Sufism and Islam.

The Sufi Path of Love, William C Chittick

Indeed, the problem with many translations of Rumi’s work is the separation of his poems on love from his belief in God and Islam. Many translations of his work have become mere love poems, and Rumi himself has become known as a love poet. Love is an overwhelming part of Rumi’s work, but for Rumi, this love was a higher love for God, and not for humans.

I am the servant of the Qur’an as long as I have life. I am the dust on the path of Muhammad, the Chosen one. If anyone quotes anything except this from my sayings, I am quit of him and outraged by these words.

Rumi’s Quatrain, No. 1173

Nevertheless, the imagery and language used in his poetry has transcended cultures and seas, and a recent reading of some of his poems has been compiled by the health writer Deepak Chopra. The readings are performed by some of the most well-known artists in America.
In addition to his poetry, Rumi’s commentaries on various aspects of Sufism were also written down. These comprise transcriptions of his lectures and sermons, along with some 145 letters that he wrote.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/art/rumi_1.shtml

Introduction to Rumi

Life of Rumi

Reason is powerless in the expression of Love. Love alone is capable of revealing the truth of Love and being a Lover. The way of our prophets is the way of Truth. If you want to live, die in Love; die in Love if you want to remain alive.

 
 
 

I silently moaned so that for a hundred centuries to come,
The world will echo in the sound of my hayhâ
It will turn on the axis of my hayhât

(Divan, 562:7)

 

The name Mowlana Jalaluddin Rumi stands for Love and ecstatic flight into the infinite. Rumi is one of the great spiritual masters and poetical geniuses of mankind and was the founder of the Mawlawi Sufi order, a leading mystical brotherhood of Islam.

 

Rumi was born in Wakhsh (Tajikistan) under the administration of Balkh in 30 September 1207 to a family of learned theologians. Escaping the Mongol invasion and destruction, Rumi and his family traveled extensively in the Muslim lands, performed pilgrimage to Mecca and finally settled in Konya, Anatolia, then part of Seljuk Empire. When his father Bahaduddin Valad passed away, Rumi succeeded his father in 1231 as professor in religious sciences. Rumi 24 years old, was an already accomplished scholar in religious and positive sciences. 

 

He was introduced into the mystical path by a wandering dervish, Shamsuddin of Tabriz. His love and his bereavement for the death of Shams found their expression in a surge of music, dance and lyric poems, `Divani Shamsi Tabrizi'. Rumi is the author of six volume didactic epic work, the `Mathnawi', called as the 'Koran in Persian' by Jami, and discourses, `Fihi ma Fihi', written to introduce his disciples into metaphysics. 

 

If there is any general idea underlying Rumi's poetry, it is the absolute love of God. His influence on thought, literature and all forms of aesthetic expression in the world of Islam cannot be overrated. 

 

Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi died on December 17, 1273. Men of five faiths followed his bier. That night was named Sebul Arus (Night of Union). Ever since, the Mawlawi dervishes have kept that date as a festival.

The day I've died, my pall is moving on -
But do not think my heart is still on earth!
Don't weep and pity me: "Oh woe, how awful!"
You fall in devil's snare - woe, that is awful!
Don't cry "Woe, parted!" at my burial -
For me this is the time of joyful meeting!
Don't say "Farewell!" when I'm put in the grave -
A curtain is it for eternal bliss.
You saw "descending" - now look at the rising!
Is setting dangerous for sun and moon?
To you it looks like setting, but it's rising;
The coffin seems a jail, yet it means freedom.
Which seed fell in the earth that did not grow there?
Why do you doubt the fate of human seed?
What bucket came not filled from out the cistern?
Why should the Yusaf "Soul" then fear this well?
Close here your mouth and open it on that side.
So that your hymns may sound in Where- no-place!

Schimmel, Annemarie. Look! This Is Love: Poems of Rumi.
Boston, Mass.: Shambhala Publications, 1991.

 

˜

Whirling Dervishes

As waves upon my head the circling curl, So in the sacred dance weave ye and whirl. Dance then, O heart, a whirling circle be. Burn in this flame - is not the candle He?

The Mawlawi rites samâ symbolise the divine love and mystical ecstasy; they aim at union with the Divine. The music and the dance are designed to induce a meditative state on the love of God. Mawlawi music contains some of the most core elements of Eastern classical music and it serves mainly as accompaniment for poems of Rumi and other Sufi poets. The music of the samâ (ceremony) is generally conducted by the chief drummer. Percussion accompaniment is supplied by the kudums (small kettledrums) and cymbals; melody is provided by the Ney (reed flute), the string instruments and the voice. The words and even syllables of the poetry are connected to the musical sentences. "Dervish music cannot be written in notes. Notes do not include the soul of the dervish."

 

The dervishes turn timelessly and effortlessly. They whirl, turning round on their own axis and moving also in orbit. The right hand is turned up towards heaven to receive God's overflowing mercy which passes through the heart and is transmitted to earth with the down turned left hand. While one foot remains firmly on the ground, the other crosses it and propels the dancer round. The rising and falling of the right foot is kept constant by the inner rhythmic repetition of the name of "Allah-Al-lah, Al-lah..." The ceremony can be seen as a great crescendo in three stages: knowing God, seeing God and uniting with God.

what is samâ? A message from the fairy, hidden in your heart;
with their letter comes serenity to the estranged heart.
The tree of wisdom comes to bloom with this breeze;
The inner pores of existence open to this tune.
When the spiritual cock crows, the dawn arrives;
When Mars beats his drum victory is ours.
The essence of the soul was fighting the barrel of the body;
When it hears the sound of the daf it matures and calms down.
A wondrous sweetness is sensed in the body;
It is the sugar that the flute and the flute-player bring to the listener.

(Divan, 1734:1-5)
Translated by Fatemeh Keshavarz,
'Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi',
University of South Carolina Press, 1998.

˜

The Ceremony

Whoever has heard of me, let him prepare to come and see me;
whoever desires me, let him search for me.
He will find me - then let him choose none other than I.

                                      Shamsuddin of Tabriz

The steps of the way to union with the Divine are performed according to strict rules. Within a circle the sheikh stands at the "post". It is the highest spiritual position, marked by a red rug indicating the direction of Mecca. Red is the colour of union and of the manifested world. The musicians' platform faces. There are 24 colour of union and of the manifested world. The musicians' platform faces the sheikh; the whirling dervishes take their places to his left.

 

The N'aat, a poem of praise to the Prophet, opens the ceremony. It is followed by a recitation from the Qur'an. The kudums (drums) then break the silence to introduce the flute solo that conveys the yearning for the union with God. The next step is the Sultan Veled Walk when the dervishes, following the sheikh, circle the hall three times, stopping to bow to each other at the "post".

 

The first selam (salutation) introduces the dance: the dervish obtains his permission to whirl by kissing the hand of the sheikh. The master of the dance directs him to his position: As the musicians play and the chorus chants, the sheikh stands at the "post" and the dervishes unfold and turn repeating their inaudible "Allah, Allah, Allah. . ." This part of the ceremony lasts approximately ten minutes and is repeated four times. At the fourth selam the sheikh joins the whirling. He represents the centre (the sun); the dervishes represent the orbiting planets turning around him and around themselves in the solar system of Rumi.

 

The Ceremony is concluded by the recitation of the Fatiha, the opening chapter of the Qur'an, followed by a prayer to Mowlana and Shamsuddin of Tabriz. All dervishes then join in chanting the "Hu" which is the all-embracing Name of God, the One.

˜

What is to be done, O Moslems? for I do not recognize myself.
I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Gabr, nor Moslem.
I am not of the East, nor of the West, nor of the land, nor of the sea;
I am not of Nature's mint, nor of the circling' heaven.
I am not of earth, nor of water, nor of air, nor of fire;
I am not of the empyrean, nor of the dust, nor of existence, nor of entity.
I am not of India, nor of China, nor of Bulgaria, nor of Saqsin
I am not of the kingdom of 'Iraqian, nor of the country of Khorasan
I am not of the this world, nor of the next, nor of Paradise, nor of Hell
I am not of Adam, nor of Eve, nor of Eden and Rizwan.
My place is the Placeless, my trace is the Traceless ;
'Tis neither body nor soul, for I belong to the soul of the Beloved.
I have put duality away, I have seen that the two worlds are one;
One I seek, One I know J One I see, One I call.
He is the first, He is the last, He is the outward, He is the inward;
I know none other except 'Ya Hu' and 'Ya man Hu.'
I am intoxicated with Love's cup, the two worlds have passed out of my ken ;
I have no business save carouse and revelry.
If once in my life I spent a moment without thee,
From that time and from that hour I repent of my life.
If once in this world I win a moment with thee,
I will trample on both worlds, I will dance in triumph for ever.
O Shamsi Tabriz, I am so drunken in this world,
That except of drunkenness and revelry I have no tale to tell. 

From Divan-i Shams