Math'navi Manavi
A hundred more years from now
My poems will be the evening-talk,
Like Joseph's beauty!
Rumi.
Masnavi is the great masterpiece of Persian Sufi poet, Maolana Jalaluddin
Balkhi(Rumi) who lived in the 13th century.
The title Masnavi-I Manavi
means 'Rhyming Couplets of Profound Spiritual Meaning.' Comprising six
books of poems that amount to more than 50,000 lines, Masnavi pursues its
way through 424 metaphorical, allegorical, and mystical stories that
illustrate Man's predicament in his/her spiritual journey in search of
God.
"If you're thirsting for the spiritual Ocean, make a breach in the island
of Masnavi." Rumi.
"The Masnavi is a majestic river, calm and deep, meandering through many
a rich and varied landscape to the immeasurable ocean; the Divan is a
foaming torrent that heaps and plunges in the ethereal solitudes of the
hills.. Rumi is the greatest mystical poet of any age."
Professor R.A.Nicholson (the great 20th century British Orientalist and
scholar of Rumi who dedicated 35 years of his scholarly life to
translating Rumi's Masnavi from Persian/Farsi to English).
"When I experienced Rumi's poetry, which is vibrant with the tone of
ecstasy and with melody, I realized the deficiencies of Shakespeare,
Goethe, and Victor Hugo."
The French writer, Maurice Barres.
"The sublime humanism of Rumi fired the imagination of mankind long before
the West discovered the dignity of man. Dante was a young boy at the
time of Rumi's death.
The great humanist of the West, Petrarch came a
full century after him; and Erasmus followed him two and a half centuries
later.
Hegel considered Rumi as one of the greatest poets and thinkers
in world history.The twentieth century German poet Hans Meinke saw in
Rumi 'the only hope for the dark times we are living in.'...In Turkey,
Iran, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, Rumi is honored as a saint,
a sage, and a seer..."
Excerpts from Professor Afzal Ikbal, the great Pakistani scholar of Rumi's par excellence book 'The life and work of Jalaludin Rumi'. Professor Ikbal's monumental book is A MUST READ for anyone interested in Rumi's scholarly biography and teachings.
The life & Work of Jalaludin Rumi-By Afzal Ikbal
"Rumi is thus seen, not just as an icon of Islamic civilization
(or of Afghan, Iranian, Tajik or Turkish national heritage), but of
global culture. And, indeed, the popular following he enjoys in North
America as a symbol of ecumenical spirituality is evident in bookstores,
poetry slams, church sermons and on the internet.."
Professor Franklin Lewis on Rumi's influence in our beloved America.
"The universal message of Rumi is a hopeful alternative to the ignorance
and lack of spirituality in modern times. Rumi's writings of the
thirteenth century advocate an understanding that there is something
beyond religion and scholarly learning that can open our eyes to the
reality beyond this existence; for Rumi we must climb a spiritual ladder
of love. Furthermore, Rumi envisioned a universal faith, embodying all
religions, because he understood that the cause of every religious
conflict is ignorance. Rumi implies that religiosity consists in
something other than outward religions. Real belief is apparent only on
the inside of a person, which is not visible. Therefore, Rumi makes it
clear that the religion of love involves loving the eternal and invisible
source of existence.."
Excerpts from Rumi and the Universality of his Message, by Muhammad
Este'Lam.
...