Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi (1207–1273)

A scholar's son

Jalaluddin Muhammad was born in 1207 near Balkh, in Central Asia. His father, Bahauddin Walad, was a respected scholar, jurist and teacher of the inner path. Around 1215–1220, shortly before the Mongol invasions, the family left their home and travelled west by way of Baghdad and Makkah. In about 1228 they settled in Konya, then the capital of the Seljuk sultans of Rum, and it is from "Rum" (Anatolia) that the name Rumi comes. In Turkey he is known simply as Mevlana, "our master".

When his father died, Jalaluddin took his place as teacher and preacher. For nine years he was trained by his father's student, Sayyid Burhanuddin Muhaqqiq of Tirmidh. By his late thirties he was a respected scholar of law and religion, with many students.

The meeting with Shams

On 15 November 1244, a wandering dervish named Shamsuddin of Tabriz arrived in Konya. The meeting changed Rumi's life. The two spent months in companionship and conversation, and the scholar became a lover of God whose feelings poured out in poetry.

Shams left Konya and was brought back, and in December 1248 he disappeared, never to be seen again. Rumi's grief, and his discovery that what he had sought in Shams was within himself, gave rise to the Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi, a great collection of lyric poems signed with his friend's name.

The Masnavi

In his later years, at the request of his disciple Husamuddin Chalabi, Rumi composed the Masnavi-ye Ma'navi, the "Couplets of Inner Meaning": six books and more than 25,000 couplets of stories, teachings and commentary on the Quran and hadith, dictated over about twelve years. It opens with the song of a reed flute, cut from its reed bed, lamenting its separation: the soul longing to return to its Origin.

The Masnavi became one of the most loved books of the Muslim world. A famous line, usually attributed to the poet Jami, calls it "the Quran in the Persian tongue". His talks were also collected, in the prose work Fihi Ma Fihi.

The night of union

Rumi died in Konya on 17 December 1273. His followers did not call the day a death but Sheb-i Arus, the "wedding night" of the soul with its Beloved. It is still marked in Konya every December, and his tomb under the green dome draws visitors from all over the world.

After his death, his son Sultan Walad and his followers formed the Mevlevi order, known for its sema, the turning ceremony performed to music as an act of remembrance. In 2005, UNESCO recognised the Mevlevi Sema Ceremony as a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity.

Rumi in South Asia

Rumi's influence reached far beyond Anatolia. Allama Muhammad Iqbal called him his spiritual guide, Pir-e Rumi, and called himself Murid-e Hindi, his disciple from India. For Iqbal, Rumi showed that love and reason, faith and action belong together.

His message

At the heart of Rumi's poetry is love for Allah, and for His creation for His sake. The human soul is a reed cut from its bed, and all its restlessness is a longing to go home. The way back is the way of the Sufis in every age: remembrance, purity of heart, service and love.