LOVE

After Rumi had discovered his self and sensed what was in him, he began to see in others, too, what was in him. This way he unified the Love of God with the Love of Humanity. He came to the conclusion that to love humans is to love God. When read carefully, the following couplet makes it quite clear to whom Rumi's infinite love of Shams really was addressed: "Shams of Tabriz is a pretext. We are the one praised in beauty, we are the one praised in grace. "In another poem, Rumi advises us to appreciate the value of each other and to love each other because we love our loved ones not because of their physical beings but because of God.

Come, come, let us appreciate each other, beware of the value of each other. Because you never know, we suddenly might be separated.

Now that our Prophet has said: "The believer is the mirror of the believer, " why are we turning our face from the mirror?

Grudges and hate darken friendship and injure the heart. Why don't we tear out and throw away grudges from the heart?

Come, join us. We are Lovers of God; join us so we open for you the doors of the garden of love.

Sit in our house as a shadow; we are the neighbors of God's sun. We are invisible to the eye, just as is the soul.

We have no trace or mark, just as the love of the lovers. But our signs are in you and in front of you because we are both hidden as well as apparent just as the soul.

Whatever you may be speaking of, look further and higher and even beyond that because we are beyond the beyonds.

You are like water, but you remain in a hole; you are imprisoned. Open up a way for yourself so you may join us, because we are a flood flowing toward God.

Come so we may speak to each other from spirit to spirit, talk to each other in a way hidden from eyes and ears.
Let us laugh without lips and teeth just as the rose garden. Let us discourse without lips and mouth just as the thought.

Let us tell the secret of the world completely with our mouth closed at the level of 'Aql al-Awwal (the First Intellect) and in the awareness of God's existence.

Nobody talks to himself with a loud voice. Since we are all one, let us call out to each other from our hearts without mouths or lips.

How can you say to your hand “Hold" Is that hand yours? Since our hands are one, let us talk about this issue.

Hands and feet are aware of the state of the heart. Let us give up conversation made with our tongues and vibrate our hearts.

Rumi's love of humanity is infinite. Beginning with the ancient Greek and Latin poets, including all the classical poets, dramatic writers, philosophers, and sociologists of the West, none had the love of humanity that Rumi felt and let his readers feel.

Come, come get closer. Till when is this banditry going to continue? Since you are I and I am you, what is this "us and them"? We are God's holy light; we are God's mirror.

So why are we struggling with each other? Why is one light running away from another light so much? We, all humans, are gathered like a body in the being of a mature person.

But why are we squint-eyed? Although we are limbs of the same body, why do the rich look down on the poor?

Why does the right hand look down on the left hand of the same body? Since both of them are hands of your body, what is the meaning of lucky and unlucky on the same body?

We, all humans, are in reality alt one essence. Our minds are one, and our heads are one.

But we have seen one as two because of the curvature of the heavens. Come, liberate yourself from this selfishness and rec­oncile with everybody and be nice to people. As long as you are in you, you are a grain, a particle. But when you mix and unite with others, then you become an ocean, a mine. Ever human carries the same soul, but the bodies are in hundreds of thousands. Similarly, there are countless almonds in the world, but there is the same oil in each of them. There are many tongues and dialects in this world, but the meaning of all of them is the same.

Waters put in different containers unite when the contain­ers are broken and start to flow together as one stream.
If you understand what unity, tawhid, means, if you attain unity and if you rip and throw away meaningless words and     thoughts, the spirit sends news to those whose hearts' eyes are open and tells them the truth.

In the above examples, Rumi's thoughts on the love of humanity are  llustrated. Rumi will whisper many secrets in the ears of those who carefully read these and reflect on them thor­oughly.Every saint has his own way of feeling. As a saint, Rumi, always speaks of love and lovers. For this reason, Rumi has been entitled, "The Sultan of Lovers. " In one of his poerns, Rumi says:

Our prophet's way is the way of love.

We are the children of love, and our mother is love.

There is no doubt that Rumi, throughout his works, empha­sizes the concept of love over all else. In the many stories narrat­ed in his book Mesnevi and in flowing poems that compose his book Divan-iKabir, the focus is on love. The love of which Rumi speaks is not a transient love. It is not a metaphorical love (Ishq Majazi), it is real. The love of which he speaks is love toward the True, which also is called divine love, the love felt for God. Stating that love is an attribute of God, Rumi says:

Love is the attribute of God, who has no need of anyone. To be in love with other than him is metaphorical love.

In order to understand the concept of love, we have to elab­orate the concepts of Ishq Majazi and Ishq Ifahi, which also are known as real love. These two kinds of love are known in the teaching of Rumi. The first one, Ishq Majazi, is related to the material world and bodily love, like the love between male and female. As the real love, Ishq Haqiqi, is the love which is felt toward God. In other words, the metaphorical love is transient and, therefore, fleeting. However, real love is eternal and infinite.

Some saints think that what is known as metaphorical love is not an empty one as long as it is not stained and contaminat­ed with bodily desires. It is believed that this type of love can be a bridge to real love. According to this group of saints, love for the beautiful is not love for a person, but it is love for the beau­ty that the person has. The amazing beauty of the beautiful is a reflection of the beauty of the Creator, His Art, His power, and His majesty. To be amazed by such a beauty opens the way to the real love. Rumi says:

Love, be it real or metaphorical, ultimately takes humans to God.

A question needs to be answered here. Why has this metaphorical love, Ishq Majazi, been given to humans? Centuries before Freud, the psychoanalyst of modern rimes, Rumi men­tioned the concept in the following poem:

God has created a desire between man and woman. As a result of their union, life in the world continues.

Ibn al-'Arabi (d. 1240), a prominent Muslim mystic, thinks of this desire mentioned above as complementary. He says the following, "Humans, male or female, are complete after mar­riage. Alone, woman is a half and man is a half. The man com­pletes himself with the woman. The woman completes herself with man. This union is not a material one, but a spiritually com­plementary one. "81 Therefore, this desire or romantic love, in fact, is a reflection of the Qur'anic verse, which says, "I have breathed my spirit into Adam and the children of Adam." Therefore, a union of man and woman is, in fact, not a worldly or fake desire; rather, it has a relationship with the world beyond the materialistic life. It is a relationship between acquainted spir­its, and it is an expression of love to one another. However, this love should not be undervalued down to the mere biological lev­el, like that of animals. As the most honorable creatures of God, we have to have different levels of this love through marriage and through the principles of the Law of Islam. Therefore, the reli­gion of Islam does not prohibit romantic love and also does not prohibit marriage. As Rumi says, "This romantic love or desire has been given to people for the continuation of humanity. At the same time, human beings are expected to struggle against their biological desires. "

There is no institutionalized celibacy in Islam for males or females, but there is chastity and pure life and control over desires. The relationship between males and females is limited to the concept of marriage. Rumi believes that marriage satisfies allowing one to control his or her desires. Immoral relationships stain one's conscience. Therefore, this type of relationship is prohibited in Islam. Love is not prohibited, but adultery is. The following prophetic tradition explains the dimension of this love. The Prophet says:

The one who falls in love and keeps it to himself and stays chaste and dies, is a martyr.

This tradition suggests that those who avoid adultery, strug­gling against their desires, when they die in chastity, are consid­ered martyrs because biological desires are among the most dan­gerous enemies of human perfection. To defeat these desires is considered to be one of the most heroic acts. In another poem, Rumi says:

Anger and desire make humans blind. Therefore, they change the direction of the spirit.

If romantic love is not kept under control, it may deviate believers from worshipping God and may ruin their happiness and even may take them away from the real sense of humanity All bodily desires, since they are fleeting, if they are satisfied in an immoral way will be replaced by a pained and guilty con­science after the desires leave. As a Turkish poet says:

Some of them have touched the conscience, and some have touched the body and spirit. Whatever I have done for the sake of desire, I have become repentant.

The desires that we run after, some of them wound our con­science, some of them wound our body, and some of them ruin our health. Ultimately, we will repent.

Therefore, giving our heart to transient things, to unstable things, such as seasons, and transient beauties, is meaningless. Rumi, in the spring season, watching a flower, which grows, smiling and dancing with the breeze, thinks of the relationship between his flower and the sun. The sun speaks to the flower as follows:

"Oh smiling flowers! Oh green grass! I will see when I pass over you. Now you are quite joyful because you don't think of your end. Humans, youth, beauties are similar. Beauties open like a flower. They are proud of the beauty of their body. They look at the mirror and they love because they receive power from the spirit hidden in them. It gives life to them and makes them happy. "

The spirit speaks to the beautiful who are proud of the beauty of their body as follows:

"You live because of my light. What is the reason for this pride? Through the power that I give you for one or two days, you move, you feel happy, and you think that this material life never will end. Your joy is so big that it cannot fit in this world. Wait and see after I leave you. Those who have loved you very much will bury you in a grave where your body is eaten by ants and snakes. Is there anyone who is content with death? Even those who are content with death will plug their nose so they don't smell your body. "

Another Turkish poet, Adanali Ziya, says:

The sun of beauty ultimately sets. I am in love with the Eternal One. I do not love those who are fleeing.

After briefly mentioning the concept of transient love, Ishq Majazi, we have to elaborate the concept of divine love. Therefore, the question that is posed needs to be answered. How can humans love God, who is not seen, not known, and not understood thor­oughly? In feet, God's Messenger, Prophet Muhammad, referring to this ambiguity, says,

O Lord, we have not understood You, as You are supposed to be.

The Prophet of Islam, despite his closeness to God, confess­es that he has not understood God as He merits. Therefore, for ordinary people it is hard to understand, and if they do not understand, how can they love? Ali, the cousin and son-in-law Of the Prophet, says, "I don't worship a God whom I don't know." Of course, God is not a material entity to be seen by the eyes. We cannot see Him as we see creatures. As another Turkish poet, Muallim Naci, says,

The mindful know that there is one God, although His personality is not understood.

In order to love God, first of all, we have to feel His exis­tence with our reason, conscience and submission. We have to accept His existence. How beautifully it is said in the following poem by Ibrahim Hal al-Din:

When you read a book, you ask who the writer is. When you see a nice building, you wish to know who the builder is.

Have the heavens and the earth no owner? When one thinks of it, one understands, That everything proves to us That there is a great and Almighty God.

The Creator of this universe, including our planet, has adorned the universe with beautiful works of art, has hidden Himself behind his works, and has made His works as a veil for Himself. We cannot see Him, but His works are obvious. Everything has been created beautifully. The world is ruled by unchangeable rules. The Creator is majestic and unique. Rumi, in one of his poems, prays to the Lord as follows:

O Lord, who gives life to my life, lifts the veil on your face.

O You who joins me in my grief and my problems.

O My Lord, wherever I am, you are with me.

O Beloved who is with me in the night.

O the one who hears my supplications all the time.

O My Lord who has sent the fire of love to all atoms of my

Body you are exalted from all shapes and all bodies, and you are purer than all spirits.

You have no image or shape, but you are the magnet of all my shapes.

All my existence runs toward you and annihilates itself in you.

Known and loved, but He loves to be known and loved.

The question is in what way can we love God? We have five known senses, but, in fact, we have a sixth sense as well. We can conceptualize and feel God through this sixth sense. Humans have become different than animals through reason, heart, light, and inner sense. The inner eyes in humans are called the "eyes of the heart," or Basirah. These eyes are stronger than the eyes inour head. Rumi says that, "You have two heads. One belongs to the worldly life, whichmade of dust. The other belongs to the heavens. It is a pure and spiritual head. "Through this spiritual head and spiritual eyes, we can understand the reality. Accordingly, what is not understood through the five senses can be understood through the spiritual head and the spiritual eyes can be felt and tasted through the eyes of the heart. No one can deny the love of God except those who lowered themselves from the level of humanity to the level of animals, and have not senses beyond the biological five senses.

To love God is to give thanks to God. If we think deeply, we will see and feel that God loves humankind, because He has given to us what He has not given to any other creature. Not loving God, despite His unlimited bounties, is to be ungrateful. In fact, there is a human need for love and faith. The person who has abandoned this spiritual need becomes ungrateful, not only to God, but also to all creation, for he has abandoned his real duty. This creates emptiness in the spirit, and such persons feel that they are missing something important. Through think­ing, one will understand that there is a strong relationship between God, the Creator, and man, His servant. This state hardly is understood. Mostly, we take refuge in God when we are bored, when we grieve, or when we face a disaster, even in some joyful times because God is closer to us than ourselves. The Qur'an says, "He is closer to you than your jugular vein. " Those who act according to the command of their conscience, remember God frequently, work for humanity, do good deeds and commit their actions perfectly regardless of the nature of their duty, and those who pray to God excessively are the happy people who have reached this level of closeness to God.

God is not something material. Therefore, closeness to Him should not be understood in a material or physical sense. This closeness has nothing to do with space and distance. The close­ness is through the senses, love, and attributes. As the verse sug­gests, "I have blown into him (Adam) a part of my spirit”

Man, who has become the reflection of this verse, is the one who is close to God; and for this reason God commanded the angels to bow before Adam. The verse says, "Surely, We have made you a vicegerent on the earth, " which indicates the supe­rior level of humanity among all creatures. There is a relation­ship between humankind and God through this special creation of humankind. This is because God has created humankind and made them His vicegerent on the earth. He has given man supe­riority over all other creatures. Rumi, describing the situation of a man who feels alone in this life and has been left by all his friends, says:

Don't feel alone. There is a hidden One here.

The One who is referred to by Rumi is the One who can not fit within the heavens and earth because of His majesty, but can fit into the heart of the believer because the heart of the believer can be larger than the universe as long as it is attached to God. In another poem, Rumi says:

There is another soul in your soul. You seek for that soul. In the mountain of your body, there is a highly valuable ele­ment. You seek for the mine of that element. O mystic who looks around, if you search for Him don’t look for Him outside. For Him, look inside.

The soul of our soul is the spirit which came from Him. The search for the soul is the search for God. To understand God is to love God. But what is love of God in the heart of the servant? This is a feeling in the heart, and the sense of the servant cannot be described in words. It is a subtle, joyful, and pure sense. This leads humans to exalt God over everything, to seek His pleasure before everything. When he fulfills his duties to God he finds relaxation in his inner self. Therefore, those who are friends of God and feel friendship with God stay in the state of pureness having that ritual absolution, not only at the time of the five dai­ly prayers, but they always think of Him as much as they can.

They remember Him with their hearts, they feel Him in their inner sense, and they work hard to have excitement toward Him. The servant will find God's power, His art in everything and in every event and will be amazed. When people smell a beautiful flower's fragrance, they will see the art of God. When people eat fruits, they think of the creation of these tasteful fruits from this soil, and they are amazed by the bounties of God that have been given to them and give thanks. Those who travel toward God have to believe in the ultimate justice of God. If they see some injustice in their society, they believe that sooner or later, His jus­tice will prevail, here in this world or the other.

The goal of the mystic is to understand and love the One who has created humankind. The love of the servant for God is not described through inclination, limitation, or encompassing because God cannot be encompassed or limited. In the Sufi tra­dition, love is described as annihilation in the Beloved. Therefore, love cannot be described, understood, limited, or defined by bor­ders. At the same time, there is nothing more clear and certain than love in the heart of the lover, as long as the lover feels and understands. It is well-known that when something is not under­standable, we try to explain it. Through this explanation, we avoid any ambiguity. When it comes to the concept of love, there is no need to explain it. Rumi explains in his following poem:

Whenever I need to explain the concept of love and think of it, I feel repentant when I become influenced by love.

My pen moves over the paper, and the pen would not dare and splits.

Reason, as far as the explanation of love is concerned, is like a donkey stuck in the mud.

Finally, love has provided the explanation of love and the lover.

Similarly, Rumi, in the beginning of his Mesnevi says, "Someone asked me, 'What is love?' And I told him when you become like me, you will understand. "Therefore, love cannot be counted or measured. In reality, it is an attribute of God.

Prophet of Islam. Moreover, they love not only the Prophet of Islam, but all messengers of God. Rumi has a special place in his heart for the Prophet of Islam because he proposed a high level of ethics for humanity, such as freeing slaves and taking care of the poor. Historically speaking, there is no historical personality like Muhammad who brought freedom to the slaves and the lower classes. Therefore, not only Muslim saints but philoso­phers like Thomas Carlyle and the German poet Goethe have fallen in love with Prophet Muhammad because of his service to humanity throughout his life. In their books, they have expressed their reverence for Prophet Muhammad. Very recently, Michael Hart has written a book about the hundred most influential his­torical personalities and ranked Muhammad number one.

Throughout the history of Islam, Muslim scholars and poets have expressed their love for the Prophet of Islam. These poems and writings have constituted a tremendous amount of literature about the love of the Prophet in Islamic literature. Rumi is one of the prominent Islamic mystics and poets, who wrote on the same subject. When he writes about the Prophet, his poetry receives an excitement and warmness because the poem involved in the love of the Prophet is illuminated by his light. For example, in the following poem, he speaks of the love of God, and he immediately jumps to the love and remem­brance of the Prophet.

We hear all the time the voice of divine love from right and left.

With the influence of this voice we are ascending to the heavens.

Who has the capacity of watching us?

Before coming to this world we were in heaven.

We were friends of the angels.

There is our real homeland, and we will return to it.

How distant are the pure pearl of the divine and the dirty world of the soil. Without thinking of your honor, you came to this lower world. Pick up your properties and tie up your bur­den. This place is not ours. We have to migrate.

The young chance is our friend. Sacrificing the soul is our job. And the head of our caravan is Mustafa, the Prophet, of whom the whole universe is proud.

Mustafa, peace and blessings be upon him, is so high a being that the moon did not dare to see his face and split.
The fragrance of the wind of this spring comes from his blessed hair. The shining of our imagination comes from his beauty' which reminds us of the newly rising sun.

In these poems, Rumi remembers the Prophet and his love. He speaks of the Prophet sometimes with the name of Ahmad and sometimes with the name of Muhammad and sometimes with the name of Mustafa. These are honorable names of the Prophet. As well known, every saint in Islam has his own way and focus on specific things. As far as Rumi's way is concerned, love, love of God, and love of humanity because of their mani­festation of God's love are all emphasized. Because of Rumi's great love for humanity, he tolerated the mistakes of people. Therefore, one has to consider Rumi's love for the Prophet from this perspective. The well-known title of Prophet Muhammad is Habib (of) Allah or the Beloved of God. The Prophet is the ide­al model of all human beings. Therefore, his love for the Prophet is based on this principle. In his famous poem, Rumi says:

I am the servant of the Qur'an as long as I live. And I am the soil where the foot of Muhammad stepped.

With this Rumi expresses his deep love for Muhammad. Therefore, Rumi can be considered one of the great poets who emphasized the love of the Prophet in his poems. In some of his poems, he dedicates the entire ghazal to the Prophet. These are called na't in which the attributes of Muhammad are narrated. In some cases, Rumi, while speaking about various things, sud­denly refers to the love of the Prophet. For example, while speaking of the relationship between the heart and love, Rumi refers to Prophet Muhammad and his great Companion Abu Bakr, Rumi says:

Heart and love have become friends, like Ahmad and Abu Bakr became friends in the cave. These two friends' names were di­ferent, but their spirits was one.

In another poem, Rumi expresses Prophet Muhammad's light, as the light enlightening the whole world.

The light of Muhammad has become distributed in millions of pieces and has encompassed the whole world.

The Prophet was like the lightening of that light.

When it strikes, all veils of unbelief are torn, and thousands of monks are influenced by Muhammad and run toward him.

In another poem, Rumi speaks of unbelief in the light of Prophet Muhammad.

When Muhammad's light came, unbelief put on its black clothes.

When the period of the eternal kingdom came, the unbe­lievers hit the drum to prevent death.

The whole face of the earth had become green. The heavens envied the earth and tore its sleeve. The moon had become split. The earth received life and became alive.

Last night, there was a big commotion among the stars because a peerless star had descended to the earth.

Rumi speaks of the love of the Prophet in his monumental work, the Mesnevi. He says the following:

If the face of Muhammad is reflected on a wall, the heart of the wall will become alive.

The wall, through his blessed reflection, will have such great happiness that even the wall will be rescued from hypocrisy.

It was a shame for the wall to have two faces while the pious and the pure had only one.

In another poem, Rumi speaks of Prophet Muhammad's intercession in this world and in the other world.

The honorable Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, is the intercessor in this world and the other.

This world is the world of religion and the other world is the world of paradise.

He shows them the way in this world, and in the other world, he shows them his moonlike face.

Muhammad's secret and evident prayer was to say:

"O my Lord, show my followers the right path. In fact, they don't know. "

With his blessed breath, the doors of the two worlds were opened.

His prayer had been accepted in both.

No one like him has come to the world, and no one like him will come.

According to Rumi, as indicated in one of his poems, all Muhammad's words came from the ocean of reality. He says:

His words totally are pearls from the ocean of reality

Because his heart was united with the ocean of truth.

In another part of his Mesnevi, Rumi narrates miracles of Muhammad in several of his poems with great enthusiasm.

It has been narrated from Anas, son of Malik, that a certain per­son became his guest.

He (that person) related that after the meal Anas saw that the table napkin (was) yellow in hue,

Dirty and stained; and said, "O maid-servant, throw it into the oven at once. "

Thereupon the intelligent (maid) threw it into the oven, which was full of fire.

All the guests were astounded thereat: they were in expec­tation of (seeing) the smoke of the (burning) napkin.

After a short time she took it out of the oven, clean and white and purged of that filth.

The party said, "O venerable Companion, how didn't it burn, and how too did it become cleansed?"

He replied, "Because Mustafa (Muhammad) often rubbed his hands and lips on this napkin. "

O heart afraid of the fire and torment (of Hell), draw nigh unto such a hand and lip as that!

Since it (the Prophet's blessing) bestowed such honour upon a lifeless object, what things will it reveal to the soul of the lover!

Inasmuch as he (the Prophet) made the clods of the Ka'ba the qibla, do you, O soul, be (as) the dust of holy men in (your) war {against the flesh).

Afterwards they said to the maid-servant, "Witt not you tell (us) your own feelings about all this?

Why did you (so) quickly cast it (into the oven) at his behest? I suppose he was acquainted with the secrets, (But) why did you, mistress, throw such a precious napkin into the fire?"

She answered, "I have confidence in the generous: I do not despair at their bounty.

What a piece of cloth? If he bid me (myself) go without regret into the very essence of the fire,

I, from perfect confidence (in him), will fall in: I have great hope of them that are devoted to God.

I will throw myself, not (only) this napkin, because of my confidence in every generous one who knows the mystery"

O brother, apply thy self to this elixir: the faith of a man must not be less than the faith of a woman.

The heart of a man that is less than a woman is the heart that is less (in worth) than the belly.

Rumi in a poem in his Divan-i Kabir, speaks of the influence of the Prophet of Islam on his Companions and how they were amazed by his personality and teachings. "

In another poem from his Divan, Rumi speaks of the light that Muhammad brought to humanity, and how people that were bewildered in the darkness of disbelief came to life with the light brought by Muhammad.

In another poem from his Divan, Rumi speaks of the light that Muhammad brought to humanity, and how people that were bewildered in the darkness of unbelief came to life with the light brought by Muhammad.

In another poem, again in his Divan, Rumi speaks of Islam that Muhammad revealed to humanity and the strength that remained in this religion even after centuries.

In the Mesnevi, Rumi speaks of the Prophet of Islam and the Qur'an, which have remained unchanged as a promise of God.

This displays the strength of Islam and its prophet, according to Rumi.

Rumi wrote these poems seven centuries ago in the time of turbulence and almost total destruction of the Muslim world by the Mongols and Crusaders. Mosques were destroyed and thou­sand of Muslims lost their lives. Despite this horrible destruc­tion, Rumi was not a pessimist. As seen in his poems, he spoke of love and hope and believed that Islam will remain as a religion forever. He suggested that Muslims will face that kind of oppres­sion from transgressors with patience and hope.

 

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