Jalal ad-Dīn Mohammad Rumi
WHO IS RUMI? Rumi, Jalal ad-Dīn Mohammad Rumi جلالالدین محمد رومی was born September 30, 1207 – and died December 17, 1273. He was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic. The English translation of his original Persian poetry is considered to be the most popular and best selling poetry in the United States. It has also been translated into many other different languages, including Russian, German, Urdu, Turkish, Arabic, Bengali, French, Italian, and Spanish, and is being presented in a growing number of formats, including concerts, workshops, readings, dance performances, and other forms of artistic expression, touching the hearts of people of all ages around the world. More than half a million copies of Coleman Barks’ English interpretations of Rumi’s poetry have been sold worldwide.
“When I am silent, I fall into that place where everything is music.” ~Jalal ad-Dīn Mohammad Rumi
Whirling Dervishes
Rumi wholeheartedly believed in using music, poetry and dance as the most direct way to experience God, and his most favorite instrument was the ney, or reed flute, although he was also a notable robāb musician. Rumi was buried in Konya, where his shrine has now is a place of pilgrimage. After Rumi died, his son, Sultan Walad, and his followers founded the Mevlevi Order, or the Order of the Whirling Dervishes, famous for their Sama ceremony and Sufi dancing.
WHY IS RUMI’S POETRY SO POPULAR? Within Rumi’s poetry can be found very clear and direct messages about life and love. His writing does not offend anyone and is accepted and quoted in churches, monasteries, synagogues and in public sectors by people of all cultures, including ministers, atheists, agnostics, philosophers, protesters, activists, enthusiasts, and revered by people of all ages, philosophies, and cultures. He teaches people how to live together in peace and harmony with one another, how to choose love above hatred, fear and hostility and how to live and practice global peace.
WHAT HAS RUMI WRITTEN? Rumi has written both poetry and prose. His poetry is generally divided into categories: the quatrains (rubayāt) and odes (ghazal) of the Divan, the six books of the Masnavi. The prose works are divided into The Discourses, The Letters, and the Seven Sermons. Probably Rumi’s most well-known major work is the Maṭnawīye Ma’nawī (Spiritual Couplets; مثنوی معنوی), a six-volume poem , containing approximately 27,000 lines of Persian poetry. It is considered by some Sufis as one of the greatest works of mystical poetry and regarded by some as the Persian-language Qur’an.
RUMI QUOTES Here are some of our most favorite quotes by Rumi:
“We are born of love; Love is our mother.” ~Rumi
We are born of love; Love is our mother. ―Rumi
Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart. ―Rumi
The wound is the place where the Light enters you. ―Rumi
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. ―Rumi
Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion. ―Rumi
Let the beauty of what you love be what you do. ―Rumi
Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life’s search for love and wisdom. ―Rumi
Everything that is made beautiful and fair and lovely is made for the eye of one who sees. ―Rumi
“I’ll meet you there.” ~Rumi
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about. ―Rumi
The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along. ―Rumi, The Illuminated Rumi
What you seek is seeking you. ―Rumi
“This is love: to fly toward a secret sky” ~Rumi
This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet. ―Rumi
Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it. ―Rumi
If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished? ―Rumi
Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form. ―Rumi
“Dance when you’re broken open.” ~Rumi
Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free. ―Rumi
You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life? ―Rumi
Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious. ―Rumi
Knock, And He’ll open the door. Vanish, And He’ll make you shine like the sun. Fall, And He’ll raise you to the heavens. Become nothing, And He’ll turn you into everything.
―Rumi
Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth. ―Rumi, The Essential Rumi
When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy. ―Rumi
Ignore those that make you fearful and sad, that degrade you back towards disease and death. ―Rumi
In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art. ―Rumi
It may be that the satisfaction I need depends on my going away, so that when I’ve gone and come back, I’ll find it at home. ―Rumi
“Oh, bird of my soul, fly away now. ~Rumi
Oh, bird of my soul, fly away now; For I possess a hundred fortified towers. ―Rumi
My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that, and I intend to end up there. ―Rumi
There is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled. There is a void in your soul, ready to be filled. You feel it, don’t you? ―Rumi
I have no companion but Love, no beginning, no end, no dawn. The Soul calls from within me: “You, ignorant of the way of Love, set Me free.” ―Rumi
Why should I be unhappy? Every parcel of my being is in full bloom. ―Rumi
“It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.” ~Rumi
Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder. ―Rumi
If you find the mirror of the heart dull, the rust has not been cleared from its face. ―Rumi
That which is false troubles the heart, but truth brings joyous tranquility. ―Rumi
RESOURCES
The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne, A. J. Arberry, Reynold Nicholson, San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1996 ISBN 978-0-06-250959-8; Edison (NJ) and New York: Castle Books, 1997 ISBN 978-0-7858-0871-8.
Franklin Lewis, Rumi Past and Present, East and West, Oneworld Publications, 2000. ISBN 978-1-85168-214-0 The Illuminated Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks, Michael Green contributor, New York: Broadway Books, 1997 ISBN 978-0-7679-0002-7.
La luz iIuminada Poesia de Jalal al-Din Rumi (Spanish Edition), by Jalal Al-Din Rumi, Elvia Ardalani (Translator), Paperback, 108 Pages, Published 2013 by Libros Medio Siglo, ISBN-13: 978-0-615-79391-7, ISBN: 0-615-79391-6
Majid M. Naini, The Mysteries of the Universe and Rumi’s Discoveries on the Majestic Path of Love, Universal Vision & Research, 2002, ISBN 978-0-9714600-0-3
The Masnavi, Book One, Bk. 1 (Oxford World’s Classics) by Jalal Al-Din Rumi, Jawid Mojaddedi (Translator), Jawid Ahmad Mojaddedi, Paperback, 304 Pages, Published 2008 by Oup Oxford, ISBN-13: 978-0-19-955231-3, ISBN: 0-19-955231-2
The Masnavi, Book Two (Oxford World’s Classics), by Jalal Al-Din Rumi, Jawid Ahmad Mojaddedi, Paperback, 304 Pages, Published 2007 by Oxford University Press, USA, ISBN-13: 978-0-19-921259-0, ISBN: 0-19-921259-7
Mawlana Rumi Review mawlanarumireview.com. An annual review devoted to Rumi. Archetype, 2010. ISBN 978-1-901383-38-6.
Mystical Poems of Rumi, by Jalal Al-Din Rumi, JA Rumi, Arthur John Arberry, Franklin D. Lewis, Ehsan Yarshater, Paperback, 356 Pages, Published 2008 by University Of Chicago Press, ISBN-13: 978-0-226-73162-9, ISBN: 0-226-73162-6
Rumi (Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets), by Jalal Al-Din Rumi, Peter Washington, Jalalu’l-Din Rumi, Hardcover, 256 Pages, Published 2006 by Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets, ISBN-13: 978-0-307-26352-0, ISBN: 0-307-26352-5
“Why is Rumi the best-selling poet in the US?”. BBC Culture. 2014-04-14. Retrieved 2014-05-23
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This article is written by Jean Voice Dart, M.S. Special Education from Illinois State University. Jean is a published author and has written hundreds of health articles as well as hosting a local television program, “Making Miracles Happen.” She is a Registered Music Therapist, Sound Therapist, and Master Level Energetic Teacher, and is the Executive Director, founder and Health and Wellness Educator of the Monterey Bay Holistic Alliance. Her writings can be found at www.findinggodslove.com The Monterey Bay Holistic Alliance is a registered 501 (c) 3 nonprofit health and wellness education organization. For more information about the Monterey Bay Holistic Alliance contact us or visit our website atwww.montereybayholistic.com.
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