Rumi

Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī (Persian: جلال‌الدین محمد رومی‎), also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Balkhī (جلال‌الدین محمد بلخى), Mevlânâ/Mowlānā (مولانا, "our master"), Mevlevî/Mawlawī (مولوی, "my master"), and more popularly simply as Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century Persian poet, Hanafi faqih, Islamic scholar, Maturidi theologian, and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan in Greater Iran.

Notes

Rumi's major works are the Diwan-i Shams-I Tabrizi (40,000 versus) and the Mathnawi (25,000 versus)

"Most poems in the Diwan represent particular spiritual states or experiences, such as union with God or separation after Union..."

'...the Mathnawi is relatively sober. It represents a reasoned and measured attempt to explain the various dimensions of spiritual life and practice to disciplines intent upon following the Way. More generally, it is aimed at anyone who has time to sit down and ponder the meaning of life and existence. "

Distinction between the "Science of the Body" and the "Science of Religion"

Every science acquired by study and effort in this world is the "science of bodies." But the science acquired after death is the "science of religions." Knowing the science of "I am God" is the science of bodies, but becoming "I am God" is the science of religions. 2 To see the light of a lamp or a fire is the science of bodies, but to be consumed by the fire of the light or the lamp is the science of religions. Whatever is vision is the science of religions, whatever is knowledge is the science of bodies. (F 228/235)

Hierarchical Structure of Reality

"We have already alluded to the hierarchical structure of reality: the physical or visible world, then the spiritual world, then God. In fact, the Sufis all employ terms which describe a far greater complexity. These three levels provide only a rough outline. According to the Prophet, there are "70" or "70,000" veils of light and darkness separating man from God, and Sufis usually understand these veils to refer to ontological degrees. Rumi sometimes refers to the "18,000 worlds," which apparently lie on the same level of existence, but which may allude to a vertical hierarchy.²¹ He also refers to the 100,000 stages of the spirit, which certainly are arranged in ascending degrees."

Hierarchical Structure of Ascent to Spirit

"According to Rumi's teachings, the spirit must manifest itself as each of the four elements and only then enter into the three kingdoms. When it appears within the world in the form of a mineral, it begins its return to its own world. Through successive stages it is transformed from mineral to plant, to animal, and finally to man. When it assumes the form of a human being, the spirit is ready to begin disengaging itself from the material world. At first its consciousness is at the level of the animal spirit or ego. All of the directives of religion and the spiritual life are aimed at releasing it from this prison and taking it back to its original home."

"When man enters the spiritual path, he is gradually able to free his spirit from the confines of the ego. Hence the spirit sets out acquiring the knowledge, awareness, and "beauty" or virtues pertaining to the human state. The spirit ascends through the levels represented by the human and angelic spirits and ultimately may attain the level of the "spirit of sanctity." Symbolically, the journey through the human and angelic spirits is represented as an ascent by means of the ladder of the heavens, the very road by which the spirit had descended in the first place."

I died from the mineral kingdom and became a plant; I died to vegetative nature and attained to animality.

I died to animality and became a man. So why should I fear? When did I ever become less through dying?

Next time I will die to human nature, so that I may spread my wings and lift up my head among the angels. . . .

Once again, I will be sacrificed from angelic nature and become that which enters not the imagination. (M III 3901-03, 05)

Spiritual Social Class

The Prophet divided the creatures into a number of categories. Rumi quotes him as follows:

God the Most High created the angels and placed within them the intellect, He created the beasts and placed within them sensuality, and He created the children of Adam and placed within them both intellect and sensuality. So he whose intellect dominates his sensuality is higher than the angels, and he whose sensuality dominates his intellect is lower than the beasts. (M IV between 1496 and 97)

This saying delineates three basic kinds of creatures: angels, men, and beasts; and three basic kinds of men: angelic men, "ordinary" men, and bestial men. The first kind of men are the prophets and saints; the second kind are the majority of humanity, or the "common believers," within whom faith and unbelief are at odds; and the third kind are the unbelievers or followers of Satan.

The creatures are of three kinds. First there are the angels, who are sheer Intellect. Obedience, servanthood, and remembrance of God are their nature and their food. They eat these things and live these things. They are like fish in water: Their life is from water, their couch and their pillow are of water. Such things as obedience are not prescribed for the angels, since they are pure and free of sensuality. So what favor have they done if they indulge not in sensuality or have not the desires of self-will and the ego? They are pure of these things, so they do not engage in spiritual warfare. If they obey, that is not considered "obedience," since that is their nature. They can do nothing else.

Second are the beasts, who are pure sensuality and have no intellect to hold them back. They too are given no religious prescriptions.

There remains poor man, who is compounded of intellect and sensuality. He is half angel and half beast; half snake and half fish. His fish pulls him toward water, and his snake pulls him toward dry land. He is engaged in strife and war. "He whose intellect dominates his sensuality is higher than the angels, and he whose sensuality dominates his intellect is lower than the beasts."

The angel was delivered through knowledge and the beast through ignorance. The sons of men remain struggling in between.

Now some men have followed the intellect to such an extent that they have become totally angels and sheer light. They are the prophets and saints. . . .

:In some men sensuality has dominated their intellects, so that they have totally assumed the properties of animals.

And some men have remained struggling. They are that group who feel inside themselves a suffering, a pain, a distress, a longing. They are not satisfied with their lives. These are the believers. The saints are waiting to bring the believers into their own houses and make them like themselves. And the satans are also waiting to drag them down toward themselves to the lowest of the low (XCV 5). (F 77-78/89-90)

Quotes

"The spirit says to it, "Oh dunghill! Who are you? You have lived for a day or two from my radiance." (M I 3267-68)

"Experience shows that the spirit is nothing but awareness. Whoever has greater awareness has a greater spirit." Rumi.

Source Abbreviations

	A. J. Arberry, Mystical Poems of Rumi, First Selection, Poems 1-200. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968.
AA.	A. J. Arberry et al., Mystical Poems of Rumi, Second Selection, Poems 201-400. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1979.
D.	(Diwan-i Shams-i Tabriz) B. Furuzanfar ed., Kulliyyat-i Shams ya diwan-i kabir, 10 vols. Tehran: University of Tehran Press, 1336-46/1957-67. Italicized numerals refer to the number of the ghazal, while numerals in Roman type refer to the number of the line; when a ghazal has been translated in its entirety, numbers of lines are not mentioned.
F.	Fihi ma fihi, ed. B. Furuzanfar, Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1348/1969; A. J. Arberry (trans.), Discourses of Rumi London: John Murray, 1961.
M.	The Mathnawi of Jalalu'ddin Rumi ed. and trans. R. A. Nicholson, 8 vols. London: Luzac, 1925-1940.

Footnotes

References