Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

There are some significant personalities who with the help of their voice
and breath, their love and excitement, and their promise for humanity always
remain fresh and alive over the course of centuries. Time evidently fails to
make these characters obsolete. Their thoughts, analyses, explanations, and
spiritual messages, which will never be lost, represent, ever anew, alternative
solutions and prescriptions for todays social problems, in great variety and
diversity.
Let us listen to such voice:
"Come, come again, whoever you are, come!
Wanderer, fire worshipper or idolatrous, come!
Come even if you broke your vows a hundred times,
Ours is the portal of hope, come, come again as you are."
This voice belongs to a Muslim Sufi who lived in 13th centurys Anatolia
(Todays Turkey), yet it continues to flourish without recognizing any boundary
of time and place this voice is the voice of Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi.
Jalaluddin Rumi or known as only Rumi is such an interesting Sufi poet
that his poems and ideas are very well received even in todays modern world.
- Rumi was the best selling poet in US, in 1997.
- He penetrated todays popular culture so profoundly that celebrities
like Mary Stuart Masterson and Jessica Parker began to make yoga
with Rumis readings at Jivamukti Yoga Center in New York City.
- Robin Beckers dance company performed a program called Dances
from Rumi and the acoustic band Three Fish derived its name from a
tale told by Rumi.
- American minimalist composer Philip Glass, who has devoted
previous operas to Einstein, Gandhi, and the Hebrew Bible, now
offers with Robert Wilson a massive multimedia piece called Monsters
of Grace featuring a libretto of 114 poems of Rumi.
- And finally the year of 2007 is announced as the year of Rumi by
UNESCO to re-present Rumi and his thought to the attention of the
world.
Today, without any hesitation, Rumi is recognized as one of the best teachers
of all times.

So let us question: Who was Rumi and what made his voice different
from ours? Let us find the answer of this question in Rumis own words:
I am like Majnun in my poor heart, which is without limbs,
because I have no strength to contest the love of God.
Every day and night, I continue in my efforts to free myself from the bonds of the chain of love;
a chain which keeps me imprisoned.
When the dream of the Beloved begins, I find my self in blood.
Because I am not fully conscious, I am afraid in that I may paint Him,
with the blood of my heart.
In fact, You, O Beloved, must ask the fairies;
they know how I have burned through the night.
Everyone has gone to sleep, but I, the one who has given his heart to You,
do not know sleep like them.
Throughout the night, my eyes look at the sky, counting the stars.
His love so profoundly took my sleep that I do not really believe, it will ever come back.
Again, who is Rumi? - Rumi is a lover of God par excellence.
Rumi so profoundly loved the Creator and this love led him to the love
of Creation. Therefore, he made no any distinction between the poor and the
rich, the famous and the unknown, the powerful and the weak. He was in
union with the Creator, so was he with the all creation which is created by the
same Creator:
Come, come, let us appreciate each other, be aware of the value of
each other. Because you never know,
we might suddenly be separated.
Know that our Prophet Muhammad has said: The believer is the mirror of the
believer, why are we turning our face from the mirror?
Grudges and hate darken friendship and injure the heart. Why
dont we tear out and throw away grudges from the heart?
Come, join us. We are lovers of God; you join us so we are open for
you the doors of the garden of love.
Sit in our house as a shadow; we are the neighbors of Gods 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.

It is narrated that Rumi always loved people without making any

distinction between them. There was a prostitute in a hotel and she was
beautiful. She had a lot of other young women with her that had been forced to
this way of life. One day Rumi was passing in front of this hotel. This woman
came running out of the hotel. She approached Rumi, fell to his feet, and
started to entreat him in tears and to give him respects. Rumi called out to this
poor woman three times. Rabia, Rabia, Rabia. Upon seeing this situation,
other working for this woman came out of the hotel and fell Rumis feet. He
said: Such strong people! Such strong people! If you had not born the heavy
burdens of this difficult life, who would calm down the furious men who are
taken away by their desires and lost their way? If it were not for you, how
would the dignities of the women of dignity be apparent?
Someone from the elite who heard these words of Rumi said: It is
meaningless for a great saint like Rumi to show sympathy to street women and
compliment them like this.
Rumi replied to this criticism by saying: This woman is behaving just
the way she is; without any hypocrisy. If you are a true man, be like her. Leave
two-facedness and two-coloredness so that your inside and outside will be the
same. If your inside and outside are not the same, your everything will be in
vain.
Finally, this beautiful woman repented and became a woman like great
female saint Rabia al-Adawiyya and freed the women who used to work for her.
Although we do not know really whether the story happened or not as
exactly as we are told, it gives us an important angle about how to evaluate
people, the creatures of the Creator. It tells us that there is goodness in each
people and there is always a way of repentance from every sin and mistake. Our
duty is to see the beautiful aspects and attributes of the people rather than
focusing on their deficiencies and shortcomings. And then, find a gentle
approach to lead them repentance because our God is is the God of Mercy and
Forgiveness. In the Quran, the inspiration source of Rumi, God calls us as
follows: O you servants of Mine who have transgressed against your own
selves [by not living a good life and not following the exempla life of my
messengers]! Despair not of Gods mercy: behold, God forgives all sins for,
verily, He alone is much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace!" [39:53]
Is it really so that the one I love is everywhere?
Contrary to the contemporary portrayal of Rumi in the West as an
apostle of nondenominational spirituality in which individuals can pursue the
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development of their soul outside the established religious traditions,

particularly Islam, Rumi insists on the primacy of the Quran as his spiritual
source. He says:
Flee to Gods Quran, take refuge in it;
there with the spirits of the prophets merge.
(M,1:1537-44)
Therefore, it could be easily stated that the source of the mercy that Rumi
possesses is not himself, but the word of God. God says in the Quran that
Your Sustainer has willed upon Himself the law of grace and mercy so that
if any of you does a bad deed out of ignorance, and thereafter repents and lives
righteously, He shall be [found] much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace [6:54]
and what Rumi does is simply to follow the word of God and imitate Gods
ethic. He says:
Gods mercy is prior to His Wrath.
If you want to spiritual priority go and seek the prior Attribute.
(M:IV-3205)

If you are thirsty and drink a glass of water, you see God in the water. But the
person who is not a lover of God sees his own form in the water.
Rumi says:
If water is poured on fire, it extinguishes it. Water is superior to fire in therms
of form and appearance. But put water in a bowl, the fire boils it. If a pot
becomes an obstacle between the two, fire annihilates water and turns it into
vapor.
To observe for the whirling :
Place, Time, and Company are important things to fullfil whirling.
But Rumi himself did not obseve the whirling condition of time, place and
company. Since his whirling depended more on the ecstatic state that came
over him rather than the place and time formalities, he was observed to whirl
almost anywheter such as in schools, home, gardens, and streets.
Our spirit is freed from the prison of our body, and we leave our physical
existence. Rumi says love the BEAUTIY not the BEATIFUL to to avoid
polytheism. Verliy God is beautiful and loves beauty.

SORROW:
Patience is half of faith, hadith.
Sorrow thoroughly sweeps and cleans the house of the heart so that a new joy
and happiness arrives, says Rumi.
Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house,
so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the
bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls
up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow.
Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their
place.
When you go through a hard period,
When everything seems to oppose you,
... When you feel you cannot even bear one more minute,
NEVER GIVE UP!
Because it is the time and place that the course will divert!
The cure for pain is in the pain.
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.
Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I
am changing myself.
Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.
I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they
think.
Words are a pretext. It is the inner bond that draws one person to another,
not words.
Be like the sun for grace and mercy. Be like the night to cover others' faults.
Be like running water for generosity. Be like death for rage and anger. Be like
the Earth for modesty. Appear as you are. Be as you appear.
You were born with potential.
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You were born with goodness and trust. You were born with ideals and
dreams. You were born with greatness.
You were born with wings.
You are not meant for crawling, so don't.
You have wings.
Learn to use them and fly.
They say there is a doorway from heart to heart, but what is the use of a door
when there are no walls?
Do you know what you are?
You are a manuscript o a divine letter.
You are a mirror reflecting a noble face.
This universe is not outside of you.
Look inside yourself;
everything that you want,
you are already that.
Humanity has never been without these great teachers and especially
Anatolia, the land of Rumi and the junction of many cultures and civilizations
has always been fruitful with the examples of these great teachers.
As I conclude, I would like to quote from a contemporary Anatolian teacher
Fethullah Gulen, who is recognized as the contemporary Rumi by the former
prime minister of Turkey. Gulen says:
Be so tolerant that your heart becomes wide like the ocean. Become
inspired with faith and love for others. Offer a hand to those in trouble, and
be concerned about everyone.