Celebrating divinity and sufism with Rumi the world’s greatest mystical poet, his life story begins on the eastern shores of the Persian Empire in the year 1207. Rumi’s life story is full of intrigue and high drama mixed with intense creative outbursts. He was a charming, wealthy nobleman and a scholar, who in his late thirties met a wandering and wild holy man by the name of Shams. In Rumi’s own words, after meeting Shams he was transformed from a bookish, sober scholar to an impassioned seeker of universal truth and love.
Shams and Rumi were close friends for about four years. Over the course of that time, Shams was repeatedly driven away by Rumi’s jealous disciples, including one of Rumi’s sons, Ala al-Din. In December of 1248, Shams again disappeared; it is believed that he was either driven away or killed. Rumi left the madrasah in search of his friend, travelling to Damascus and elsewhere. Eventually, Rumi made peace with his loss, returning to his home believing Shams to be a part of him, “His essence speaks through me…” said Rumi as he wrote more than 40,000 lyric verses, including odes, eulogies, quatrains, and other styles of Eastern-Islamic poetry.
Celebrating divinity and sufism, here are some of Rumi’s odes showing us our glory and wanting us to be more awake and alive:
“What you seek is seeking you”
“There is a voice that doesn’t use words. Listen”
“You are in truth, the soul, of the soul, of the soul”
“Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you”
“If someone asks but what is love? answer, dissolving the will”
“This is now, now is, all there is, don’t wait for then, strike the spark, light the fire”
