The Timeless Wisdom of Rumi
A Message in the Form of the Book for the Modern World
Masnavi
Welcome to our website dedicated to exploring the wisdom of Rumi. Through his teachings, we seek to understand the complexities of our world and find deeper meaning in our lives. Rumi believed that God is hidden from us, but sees us always. He believed that we are born from the formless and will return to it in the end.
For Rumi, God's agency and our free will were not opposed, but rather worked together. He found the voice of God in the inward voice of the soul. Those who are close to God are free, but those who lack love and compassion are fettered by their own limitations.
Rumi believed that women hold a special place in the world, as they are the ones who hold dominion over the wise and men of heart. The qualities of love and tenderness can overcome our animal passions, and help us to grow closer to the divine.
In the end, Rumi taught us that true self-knowledge requires us to recognize and confess our flaws. We must constantly strive towards perfection, but not let our arrogance blind us to our own faults. By embracing humility and recognizing our own imperfections, we can grow closer to God and to each other.
We hope that this website will inspire you to explore the teachings of Rumi and to find meaning in your own journey.
At the heart of Rumi's teachings is the recognition that God is the first cause of all things, and that we are all connected to the divine through the power of love. He reminds us that the Beloved is all in all, and that we only need to remove the veil of egoism to experience this truth.
One of Rumi's most famous stories is that of the clever rabbit who outwits the tyrannical lion, and then urges his companions to engage in the more difficult warfare against their own inward lusts. This story speaks to the importance of self-awareness and the need to overcome our own inner demons in order to live a fulfilling life.
In his teachings, Rumi also emphasizes the importance of both trusting in God and using our own human exertion to achieve our goals. He reminds us that we are the friends of God when we work hard and strive to better ourselves and the world around us.
As we navigate the challenges of the modern world, Rumi's wisdom is as relevant today as it was centuries ago. We can all benefit from his insights on love, self-awareness, and the importance of both trusting in God and taking action to achieve our goals.
So let us take inspiration from Rumi's timeless wisdom, and strive to live our lives with love, compassion, and a deep sense of purpose. By doing so, we can create a more just, peaceful, and harmonious world for ourselves and for future generations.
Rumi wrote how through love all things become better. Doing kindness is the game of the good, who seek to alleviate suffering in the world. Wherever there is a pain, a remedy is sent. Call on God so that the love of God may manifest. Rumi recommended the proverb that the moral way is not to find fault with others but to be admonished by their bad example. The mosque built in the hearts of the saints is the place for all worship, for God dwells there.
Rumi began the third book of his Masnavi as follows:
In the Name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful.
The sciences of (Divine) Wisdom are God's armies,
wherewith He strengthens the spirits of the initiates,
and purifies their knowledge from the defilement of ignorance,
their justice from the defilement of iniquity,
their generosity from the defilement of ostentation,
and their forbearance from the defilement of foolishness;
and brings near to them whatever was far from them
in respect of the understanding of the state hereafter;
and makes easy to them whatever was hard to them
in respect of obedience (to Him) and zealous endeavor (to serve Him)
A sage warns travelers that if they kill a baby elephant to eat, its parents will probably track them down and kill them; yet they do so, although one refrains from the killing and eating. As they sleep, a huge elephant smells their breath and kills all those who had eaten the young elephant but spares the one who had abstained. From foul breath the stench of pride, lust, and greed rises to heaven. Pain may be better than dominion in the world so that one may call on God in secret; the cries of the sorrowful come from burning hearts. Rumi also told the story of the Hindus feeling the different parts of an elephant in a dark room. He emphasized that in substance all religions are one and the same, because all praises are directed to God's light. They err only because they have mistaken opinions. Sinners and criminals betray themselves especially in times of passion and angry talk. Prophets warn you of hidden dangers the worldly cannot see. Humans have the ability to engage in any action, but for Rumi worship of God is the main object of human existence.
Rumi wrote that Sufism is to find joy in the heart whenever distress and care assail it. He believed the power of choice is like capital yielding profit, but he advised us to remember well the day of final accounting.
Many of his stories are designed to show the difference between what is self-evident by experience and what is inferred through the authority of others. His philosophy of evolution of consciousness is encapsulated in the following verses:
I died as inanimate matter and arose a plant,
I died as a plant and rose again an animal.
I died as an animal and arose a man.
Why then should I fear to become less by dying?
I shall die once again as a man
To rise an angel perfect from head to foot!
Again when I suffer dissolution as an angel,
I shall become what passes the conception of man!
Let me then become non-existent, for non-existence
Sings to me in organ tones, "To him shall we return.
When the love of God arises in your heart, without doubt God also feels love for you. The soul loves wisdom, knowledge, and exalted things; but the body desires houses, gardens, vineyards, food, and material goods. Rumi also believed that there is no absolute bad; the evils in the world are only relative. A serpent's poison protects its own life; but in relation to a person it can mean death. When what is hateful leads you to your beloved, it immediately becomes agreeable to you. Solomon built the temple by hiring workers, for humans can be controlled by money.
Men are as demons, and lust of wealth their chain,
Which drags them forth to toil in shop and field.
This chain is made of their fears and anxieties.
Deem not that these men have no chain upon them.
It causes them to engage in labor and the chase,
It forces them to toil in mines and on the sea,
It urges them towards good and towards evil.
Rumi warned against bad friends who can be like weeds in the temple of the heart; for if a liking for bad friends grows in you, they can subvert you and your temple. He also warned against the judges who confine their view to externals and base their decisions on outward appearances; these heretics have secretly shed the blood of many believers. Partial reason cannot see beyond the grave; but true reason looks beyond to the day of judgment and thus is able to steer a better course in this world. Therefore it is better for those with partial reason to follow the guidance of the saints.
The Masnavi is a treasury of stories that Rumi used to illustrate the spiritual path. In the fifth book, Rumi tells us to cut down the duck of gluttony, the cock of concupiscence, the peacock of ambition and ostentation, and the crow of bad desires. These are the temptations that threaten to derail us from the path of the Divine. The story of how Muhammad cleaned up the mess of a glutton who drank the milk of seven goats after being locked in a room shows the humility of the prophet. Rumi concluded that the infidels eat with seven bellies but the faithful with one.
The peacock catches people by displaying itself. Pursuing the vulgar is like hunting a pig; the fatigue is extensive, and it is unlawful to eat it. Love alone is worth pursuing, but how can God be contained in anyone's trap? The most deadly evil eye is the eye of self-approval. The greed of the gluttonous duck is limited as is the greed of the lusty snake; but the peacock's ambition to rule can be many times as great.
Worldly wealth and even accomplishments can be enemies to the spiritual life. These are the human trials that create virtue. If there were no temptations, there could be no virtue. Abraham killed the crow of desire in response to the command of God so that he would not crave anything else, and he killed the cock to subjugate pernicious desires. The Masnavi tells us that to be truly free, we must cut down these birds that weigh us down and hold us back from the spiritual path.
Rumi suggested that God uses prophets and saints as mirrors to instruct people while the divine remains hidden behind the mirrors. People hear the words from the mirrors but are ignorant that they are spoken by universal reason or the word of God. Ultimately God will place in people's hands their books of greed and generosity, of sin and piety, whatever they have practiced. When they awake on that morning, all the good and evil they have done will recur to them. After enumerating their faults, God in the end will grant them pardon as a free gift. To tell an angry person of faults, one must have a face as hard as a mirror to reflect the ugliness without fear or favor. Like 'Attar, Rumi wrote of the mystic's attaining annihilation, but he explained that the end and object of negation is to attain the subsequent affirmation just as the cardinal principle of Islam "There is no God" concludes with the affirmation "but God," and to the mystic this really means "There is nothing but God." Negation of the individual self clears the way for apprehending the existence of the One. The intoxication of life in pleasures and occupations which veil the truth should pass into the spiritual intoxication that lifts people to the beatific vision of eternal truth.
ابدی سچائی کا خوبصورت نظارہ
Rumi's teachings in the Discourses were straightforward and direct. In the first chapter, he emphasized the importance of serving God above serving any prince or ruler. The true scholar should give more than take, making princes visitors of scholars instead of the other way around. To remove prejudices from one's discriminative faculty, Rumi suggested seeing a friend in Faith, which enables one to recognize true friends. Spending time with the undiscriminating leads to deterioration of that faculty.
Rumi taught the universal principle that any evil done affects only oneself, for how could wickedness reach out to affect God? However, if one becomes straight, all crookedness will disappear. Those who assist oppressors will find that God gives the oppressor power over them. God reproves us because He loves us. One reproves friends, not a stranger. Longing and regret are proof of God's love and care. If one perceives a fault in their brother, that fault is also within oneself. The learned are like mirrors. To rid oneself of faults in others, one must first get rid of them in oneself.
Rumi taught that all things in relation to God are good and perfect, but in relation to humans some things are considered bad. To a king prisons and gallows are part of the ornament of his kingdom; but Rumi asked if to his people they are the same as robes of honor. He argued that faith is better than prayer, because faith without prayer is beneficial, but prayer without faith is not. Rumi explained to his disciples that the desire to see the Master may prevent them from perceiving the Master without a veil. He went on,
So it is with all desires and affections, all loves and fondnesses
which people have for every variety of thing-
father, mother, heaven, earth, gardens, palaces,
branches of knowledge, acts, things to eat and drink.
The man of God realizes that all these desires are the desire for God,
and all those things are veils.
When men pass out of this world and behold that King without those veils,
then they will realize that all these things were veils and coverings,
their quest being in reality that One Thing.
All difficulties will then be resolved,
and they will hear in their hearts
the answer to all questions and all problems,
and every thing will be seen face to face.
Rumi believed that God created veils to shield us from his overwhelming beauty, much like how the Sun's light warms and lights up the world, but if it came too close, it would destroy everything. He likened this world to a dream, where material possessions are fleeting and temporary. The present depends on what we seek during our lives, and God teaches us in various ways, from the gallows of a thief to the robe of honor given by a king. Even suffering is a divine grace, as it can lead us to turn back to God and seek relief. Yet, believers should always be mindful of the suffering that exists in the world. The wickedness and vice of humans can be great, but Rumi believed that by surrounding ourselves with friends who have turned their backs to the world and their faces to God, we can begin to remove the veils that obstruct our path to spiritual enlightenment.