Rumi and the Masnavi: How Poetry Becomes a Path to God
In the 13th century, in the city of Konya in what is now Turkey, a scholar of Islamic law and theology experienced a meeting so shattering, so completely reorganizing of his inner world, that it turned a distinguished professor into one of the greatest poets who ever lived. The meeting was with a wandering mystic named Shams of Tabriz . The scholar was Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi . What happened between them remains mysterious — exactly what Shams said or did to transform the learned but spiritually unfulfilled Rumi is not recorded. What is recorded is the aftermath: six years of volcanic poetic production, including the Masnavi ( Masnavi-ye Ma'navi — Spiritual Couplets), 25,000 verses considered the greatest work of Persian literature and one of the supreme spiritual poems in any language. Today, in translation, Rumi is the bestselling poet in the United States. His words appear on Instagram, on yoga studio walls, in graduation speeches and wedding ceremonies. Some of this ubiq...