Whirling Dervishes

I have been in Konya...

I have been to Konya in Turkey where the Mowlana museum is placed, which  also is the mausoleum of Rumi. Here are some pictures from the museum, Mevlâna Cultural Center and the tomb of Shams Tabrizi.

"Ya hazrate Molana"

The entrance

Masnavi in original (one of the books in the series).

Masnavi is a spiritual writing that teaches Sufis how

 to reach their goal of being in true love with God.

The Mevlâna Cultural Center, this is the world's

grandest and most modern whirling dervish hall.

"Either seem as you are or be as you seem"

in several languages.

"Mosque and tomb of Sheikh Shams Tabrizi"

The entrance

Who was Jalal al-Din Rumi?

Born in 1207 in Khurasan (formerly Persia and contemporary Afghanistan), Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi was the son of an Islamic scholar. At the age of 12 he and his family made a pilgrimage to Mecca and then settled in the town of Konya in 1228. Initiated into Sufism, Rumi studied in Aleppo and Damascus, returned to Konya in 1240, and began teaching as a Sufi sheikh. Within a few years a group of disciples gathered around him, due to his eloquence, theological knowledge and engaging personality.

In 1244 a strange event occurred that was to profoundly change Rumi’s life and give rise to the extraordinary outpouring of poetry for which he is famous today. A wandering mystic known as Shams al-Din of Tabriz came to Konya and began to exert a powerful influence on Rumi. Despite his position as a teacher, Rumi became devoted to Shams al-Din, ignored his own disciples and departed from scholarly studies. Jealous of his influence on their master, a group of Rumi’s students twice drove the dervish away and finally murdered him in 1247.

Overwhelmed by the loss of Shams al-Din, Rumi withdrew from the world to mourn and meditate. During this time he began to manifest an ecstatic love of god that was expressed through beautiful poetry, listening to devotional music and trance dancing. Over the next twenty-five years, Rumi’s literary output was phenomenal. In addition to the Masnavi, consisting of nearly 25,000 rhyming couplets, he composed 2500 mystical odes and 1600 quatrains. Virtually all of the Masnavi was dictated to his disciple Husam al-Din in the fifteen years before Rumi’s death. Rumi would recite the verses whenever and wherever they came to him – meditating, dancing, singing, walking, eating, by day or night - and Husam al-Din would record them.

Rumi is also known for the Sufi brotherhood he established with its distinctive whirling and circling dance, known as Sema and practiced by the Dervishes. The Sema ceremony represents the mystical journey of an individual towards union with the divine. Dressed in long white gowns, the dervishes dance for hours at a time. With arms held high, the right hand lifted upward to receive blessings and energy from heaven, the left hand turned downward to bestow these blessing on the earth, and the body spinning from right to left, the dervishes revolve around the heart and embraces all of creation with love.

Rumi passed away on the evening of December 17, 1273, a time traditionally known as his ‘wedding night,’ for he was now completely united with God.

You ask me- Rumi

THIS MARKET

Can you find another market like this?
Where, with your one rose

you can buy hundreds of rose gardens?
Where, for one seed you get

a whole wilderness? For one weak
breath, the divine wind?

                                        -Rumi

EMPTY BOAT

Some huge work goes on growing.
How could one person´s words matter?

Where you walk heads pop from the ground.
What is one seed head compared to you?

On my death day I´ll know the answer.
I have cleared this house, so that your work
can, when it comes, fill every room.

I slide like an empty boat
pulled over the water.

In the slaughterhouse of love they kill only
the best, none of the weak or deformed.
Don´t run away from this dying.
Whoever´s not killed for love is dead meat.

                                                                    -Rumi

Every man is an open book

Every man is an open book, each and every one of us a walking Qur´an. The quest for God is ingrained in the hearts of all, be it a prostitute or a saint. Love exists within each of us from the moment we are born and waits to be discovered from then on. The whole universe is contained within a single human being- you. Everything that you see around, including the things you might not be fond of and even the people you despise or abhor, is present within you in varying degrees. Therefore, do not look for Sheitan outside yourself either. The devil is not an extraordinary force that attacks from without. It is an ordinary voice within. If you get to know yourself fully, facing with honesty and hardness both your dark and bright sides, you will arrive at a supreme form of consciousness. When a person knows himself or herself, he or she knows God.
                                                                                         -Shams of Tabriz