Rumi

Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī was a Persian-language poet, jurist and Sufi master, born in the region of Balkh in Khorasan, whose family settled in Konya in Anatolia. His meeting with the wandering dervish Shams of Tabriz transformed him into a mystical poet. His Masnavi and lyric poetry are the most widely transmitted expression of the Sufi experiential tradition, centred on love, longing and the return of the soul to God. The Mevlevi order formed around his memory.

Key ideas

• The soul longs to return to its divine source, like the reed flute lamenting separation from its reed-bed.
• Love, more than intellect alone, is the path to knowledge of God.
• Outward forms of religion point to an inner reality that experience reveals.
• Music and remembrance can open the heart to the divine.

Major works

• Masnavi-ye Ma'navi (Spiritual Couplets)
• Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi (lyric poems)
• Fihi Ma Fihi (discourses)

In the conversation

• Debate Reading Rumi as love poetry without the path is reading something he did not write Reza Tehrani · 5 replies