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    A Treasury of Rumi
    A Treasury of Rumi
    A Treasury of Rumi
    Ebook258 pages3 hours

    A Treasury of Rumi

    By Muhammad Isa Waley and Jalal al-Din Rumi

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    About this ebook

    The time has come to reveal more of Rumi than the inaccurate portrayal of a new age guru. With careful selections from his work and accompanying commentaries this book will bring readers closer to his poetry’s true, traditional meaning.

    Everyone has, in their view, become my close friend
    but they have not sought out the secrets within me.’
    — Rumi
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKube Publishing Ltd
    Release dateJan 15, 2019
    ISBN9781847741059
    A Treasury of Rumi
    Author

    Muhammad Isa Waley

    Dr Muhammad Isa Waley is an editor, researcher, and translator. He worked for 45 years as curator of Persian and Turkish manuscripts and books, first at the British Museum and then at the British Library. His main fields of research are the verse and prose literature of Muslim spirituality, and Islamic manuscripts. The subject of his Ph.D. thesis was the Dīvān or lyric poems of Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī. His other published translations include Al-Arba‘īn (Forty Hadiths) of Jāmī; Mawlid al-Barzanjī, a paean on the Blessed Prophet’s Birth; and The Book of Contemplation (Kitaāb al-Tafakkur), Book 39 of Imam al-Ghazālī’s Iḥyā’ ‘ulūm al-dīn.

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      Book preview

      A Treasury of Rumi - Muhammad Isa Waley

      A TREASURY OF RūMī

      THE TREASURY SERIES IN ISLAMIC THOUGHT AND CIVILISATION

      A Treasury of Rūmī: Guidance on the Path of Wisdom and Unity

      First published in England by

      Kube Publishing Ltd,

      Markfield Conference Centre,

      Ratby Lane, Markfield,

      Leicestershire le67 9sy,

      United Kingdom.

      tel: +44 (0)1530 249230

      fax: +44 (0)1530 249656

      website: www.kubepublishing.com

      email: info@kubepublishing.com

      © Muhammad Isa Waley, 2019

      2nd impression, 2020

      All rights reserved.

      The right of Muhammad Isa Waley to be identified as

      the compiler and translator of this work has been asserted

      by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and

      Patents Act, 1988.

      cip data for this book is available from the British Library.

      isbn 978-1-84774-102-8 casebound

      isbn 978-1-84774-105-9 ebook

      Cover design: Inspiral Design

      Book design: Imtiaze Ahmed

      Persian, Arabic & English typeset: nqaddoura@hotmail.com

      Printed by: Imak Offset, Istanbul, Turkey

      Contents

      part_logo

      Transliteration Table

      Arabic Consonants

      With a shaddah, both medial and final consonants are doubled.

      Vowels, diphthongs, etc.

      Introduction

      Afew decades ago, few people would have required evidence that Mawlānā Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad, known to many today simply as ‘Rūmī’, was a serious Muslim. But nowadays, many of the published presentations of his work and thought seem concerned in showing this great Islamic scholar, teacher and saint as ‘the acceptable face of Islam’: a mediaeval Muslim civilized and humanistic enough to know how to keep Islam in its proper place, so to speak. (To say this is not to deny that Mawlānā Rūmī is a highly appropriate voice for Islam in this day and age.) Moreover, some of the English interpretations of his work that have sold in large numbers are skilfully written but seriously inaccurate. In extreme cases, they evoke an image of a Rūmī who embraced, far ahead of his time, some of the heresies and vices most detested in normative Islam. The version of Jalāl al-Dīn that became ‘the best-selling poet in North America today’ is not altogether authentic. As he himself writes, in one of the first lines of his masterpiece, the Mathnawī-i ma‘nawī: ‘Everyone has, in their view, become my close friend / but they have not sought out the secrets within me.’ By contrast with this contrived image of a ‘New Age Rūmī’, this book aims to prove and illustrate, by presenting relevant texts in translation, the thoroughly traditional basis of the teachings of a man whose personal name (ism) is that of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace; and whose honorary title (laqab) means ‘Majesty of the Faith’.

      That is not, however, the sole purpose of this book. For many Muslims and non-Muslims, the current discourse concerning Islam is so dominated by concerns to do with extremism and terrorism that little time or space is left to consider the central aspects of the Dīn, these being the relationships between each individual human being and (i) his or her Lord and Cherisher, the Master and Owner of the entire universe; (ii) the Emissary of God, to whom he or she addresses greetings in every prayer; (iii) the rest of humankind, to whom the Dīn assigns us a hierarchy of obligations; and (iv) our mother and temporary home, the Earth, and all its creatures. The faith of Islam as conveyed by the Seal of the Prophets, may God exalt and preserve him, has an abundance of teachings on all these subjects. Since his time it has been and remains the duty of his inheritors, the people of sacred learning, to safeguard, propagate and explain those teachings. Prominent among these people have been the masters of the science of Taṣawwuf (Sufism), the subject matter of which is the purification of the self and iḥsān, or excellence, in worshipping and serving God Most High wholeheartedly and with sincere intentions, and in coming to know and have a close relationship with the Lord and Cherisher of all Existence. To strive to achieve such excellence to the very best of one’s ability is to fulfil the purpose for which humankind was created.

      The aim in compiling this Treasury has been to present a small but telling selection of excerpts from the teachings of Mawlānā Rūmī, representing the variety of broad themes and types of discourse to be found in them. The easiest way to achieve this would have been to confine oneself to the prose works, which are in general the most accessible to the modern reader. Moreover, the format of the Treasury series calls for excerpts that are brief, and the more discursive nature of Rūmī’s verse narratives and teaching makes it difficult to find passages that are not only concise but also ‘self-contained’. It also precludes the inclusion of the longer narratives characteristic of the Mathnawī.

      To omit the poetical works entirely, however, would have been a disservice not to only to the author but also to the reader. Many Muslims today are brought up and educated having little contact with poetry, and consequently may find it more challenging to follow, understand and fully appreciate the points being made. Inshallāh the comments attached to each excerpt will help them to understand, contextualize, and benefit from the content. In addition, while a rhyming and rhythmic text is easier to memorize, part of the wisdom behind imparting teachings in verse form is to demand more of the reader. Making the effort to interpret, engage with, and absorb them may aid retention or memorization. The same can be said of the Holy Qur’an, which demands our attention and effort, as well as evoke wonder in us, by employing parables, symbols and metaphors with miraculous power and eloquence. The words of Rūmī cannot be placed on the same level as the Qur’an, but many passages in his Mathnawī and other works are in effect pieces of Qur’anic commentary, as we shall see.

      The following abbreviations have been used in referring to sources:

      THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JALāL AL-DīN RūMī

      Historical Background

      The seventh century AH (thirteenth century CE) was a time of immense turmoil in Central and Western Asia. The cataclysm of the Mongol invasion and conquest, a turning point in history, had as great an impact on these particular regions as on any other. The Seljuks of Rūm, the ruling dynasty in much of Asia Minor, often suffered from weak governance and internecine conflict. It was part of the Sufis’ mission to try to improve the lot of ordinary people by influencing the rulers in the direction of compassion and fair taxation and rule. Here both Mawlānā Jalāl al-Dīn and his son and successor Sulṭān Walad played an important role.

      Part 1: The Religious Scholar

      Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad was born in 604/1207, either in the town of Vakhsh (in today’s Tajikistan) or possibly in Balkh, Afghanistan. His background was learned, Persian-speaking, and Sunni. His father, Bahā’ al-Dīn Walad, was a religious scholar and mystic whose Meditations (Ma‘ārif), distinctive (and sometimes daring) personal meditations rich in imagery, clearly influenced his son. In about 619/1219, probably because of the threat of invasion by the Mongols, the family travelled west to Baghdad, then performed Hajj. Like many who had emigrated from the East, they then proceeded to Asia Minor, living in various towns for some years before finally settling in Konya. By this time Jalāl al-Dīn and his wife Gawhar Khātūn, whom he had married at the age of eighteen, had two sons. In 628/1231, Bahā’ al-Dīn died and was succeeded in his teaching post by Jalāl al-Dīn, now an expert in the Islamic sciences.

      The following year, Burhān al-Dīn Muḥaqqiq Tirmidhī, a former disciple of Bahā’ al-Dīn Walad, arrived in Konya to supervise Jalāl’s further training. Under the guidance of Burhān, whose Persian discourses (Ma‘ārif) are too little known, the young scholar travelled the spiritual path of Sufism, graduated from the hard school of asceticism (zuhd) and spiritual retreat (khalwa), and enhanced his learning and experience through two periods of study in Syria. While there he encountered some of the leading Sufis of the day and became familiar with Arabic poetry. This period ended with Burhān al-Dīn’s death in 638/1240. Jalāl al-Dīn was by now a respected scholar and preacher in Konya, in Sufism as well as in Ḥanafī jurisprudence and other religious sciences. In time he gained influence among the most important political figures of the day. Some came to visit and learn from him, and with others he corresponded.

      The Sun of Truth

      The event that revolutionized Rūmī’s life has since indirectly influenced the lives of multitudes. In 642/1244 a wandering dervish named Shams al-Dīn Tabrīzī arrived in Konya. In their first encounter, Shams showed Jalāl al-Dīn that there were whole realms of knowledge and experience that had been closed to him. Each found that in the other’s company and guidance a door to new spiritual realization had opened. Intoxicated with this love, Jalāl al-Dīn no longer cared what others thought. The radiance of Shams’s presence was, it seemed to him, barely separable from the radiance of God Himself. Had not the Prophet Jacob suffered inexpressible sorrow and became almost blind from weeping at the loss of his son Joseph, that peerless reflection of Divine Beauty? For over a year, Jalāl al-Dīn and Shams were almost constantly together. Because of things that certain people have written, it needs to be spelled out that this was a Divinely willed, platonic friendship: two complementary spiritual types of exceptional stature, each learning from and devoted to the other. It is clear from the sources that Shams was the more jalālī (rigorous and majestic) of the two and Jalāl al-Dīn the more jamālī (mild and serene).

      The event that revolutionized Rūmī’s life has since indirectly influenced

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