About Rumi

About
Jalaluddin Rumi

Jalaluddin Rumi lived in Konya, Turkey from 1207 to 1273 CE. Rumi served his community as a religious scholar until a wandering dervish named Shams al-Din of Tabriz came into town. Shams put a theological question to Rumi that caused Rumi to faint dead away. When Rumi regained consciousness, his spiritual life had been transformed. For a year or two, Shams and Rumi were constant companions. Within three years of their meeting, Shams disappears. It has been rumored that some of Rumi's students may have arranged to have Shams killed because Rumi was neglecting them, but nothing is known for certain. Around this time Rumi leaves off preaching to the general public and devotes the remaining twenty-six years of his life to training his Sufi initiates and writing divinely inspired poetry.

In the passage below, Rumi speaks of his transformation:

Passion for that Beloved took me away from erudition and reciting the Koran until I became as insane and obsessed as I am.
I had followed the way of the prayer carpet and the mosque with all sincerity and effort. I wore the marks of asceticism to increase my good works.
Love came into the mosque and said, "Oh great teacher! Rend the shackles of existence! Why are you tied to prayer carpets?
Let not your heart tremble before the blows of My sword! Do you want to travel from knowledge to vision? Then lay down your head!
If you are a profligate and a scoundrel, do justice to troublemaking! If you are beautiful and fair, why do you remain behind the veil?
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 3)