Rumi's Inspiration

Greeting of the Rumi Festival 2003
by Raficq Abdulla

If you use any internet search engine and type in the world "Rumi" you will find an amazing array of entries. Rumi was described by Newsweek magazine in the USA as the "the hottest dead Sufi Poet in town". Indeed at one time not so long ago Rumi was the most read poet in the US. Rumi is the rage with superstars such as Madonna and Demi Moore, he is quoted by fashionable gurus such as Deepak Chopra, his poetry is made into lyrics which are played at discos and fashion shows. His mystical message is used by psychotherapists and counsellors to help people to acquire self-knowledge. Large gatherings come together in the US and the UK to hear 'translations' of this 13th Islamic mystic's poetry being read by high-profile personalities and to wonder at his message. In the Muslim world his verses are set to music and sung as ghazals and devotional songs.

Rumi is fun, he is Ecstasy, he is Longing, he is Desire and above all he opens for us the Path to Love.

Of course, what we read, see, hear, what we receive in this media-hyped age we live in, is at best a mediated version of the poet who lived over 700 years ago and whose history is set out in fragments of ancient texts and hagiographies. We do know that Rumi was born around 1207 CE near Balkh in present-day Afghanistan. When he was still a boy his father took his family away from the Balkh region which was being threatened by the Mongols and finally settled in Rum which is now known as Konya in Turkey.

Members of Rumi's family were Islamic scholars. His father, Baha al-din Muhammad was learned in Islamic Law and at the same time had a deep understanding of Islamic mysticism. The family settled in Rum and a following developed around the teachings of Baha al-Din. In due course Rumi took over his father's position as leader of the group of scholars and students, some years after his father's death. Rumi gained a great reputation in the region as an Islamic scholar and teacher. He was respected locally and regionally, he was a happy family man, he was an adviser to people in power and authority.

Then one day, a wandering Sufi mystic named Shams-e Tabriz, came into his life. From their first meeting, which is shrouded in myth, a certain charismatic power was generated which fuelled their subsequent relationship, and ultimately Rumi's poetry and thought. Shams turned Rumi's orderly world of teaching, contemplation and respectability upside down. Rumi was deeply moved by Shams whose influence over him was immediate and powerful. He went into a sort of retreat with Shams where he learnt the inner or esoteric knowledge which was to fire his poetry and his mystical teachings which reverberate in the world today.

The London Rumi festival is another manifestation of the influence and power of Rumi's poetry and teaching - we are all drawn to his charismatic presence as expressed through his life, through the music and dance inspired by his person and through his poetry.

Rumi has important things to say to us about our spiritual condition and he says it in verse which is unsurpassed in beauty, in intensity and in power which still has the ability to impress and move us seven hundred years after Rumi wrote his poetry. We are bound to listen to what he tells us, we are moved by his eloquence and many of us are transformed by his message.

©Raficq Abdulla 2003