RUMI AFTER THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SHAMS

Sultan Valad describes Rumi's state after Shams disappearance as follows: "After his departure, Rum almost lost his mind. The Shaykh who issued religious rulings became an ardent poet of love. He was an ascetic and became a bartender, but not a bar-tender that drinks and sells the wine made of grapes. The spirit that belongs to the holy light does not drink anything but the wine of light. ''30 Rum whirled day and night, and his crying was heard by all, young and old. Whatever gold and silver he received, he would give to the musicians; he gave everything to charity. To those who claimed to have seen Shams, he would bestow his garment if he did not have money. As Sultan Valad writes in his Ma'arif: "Someone told Rum that he saw Shams ad-Din. Rum gave him the garment he was wearing. They said to Rum: 'This man is lying. The news he gave has no substance. Why did you give your garment to him?' Rum said: 'Whatever I gave him was indeed only for this lie. If what he had told had been the truth, I would have given my life. "

In Ibtidaname, Sultan Valad writes that Rum went to Damascus to look for Shams, and in Damascus many people became his disciples. The people of Damascus had not seen such a love since Adam, and they admired Shams as a great saint since such a unique person as Rum was looking for him. Sultan Valad goes on to say: "Rum could not find Shams in Damascus, but he saw that Shams' truth and secret rose like the moon in his existence and said: 'Physically we are far away from each other, but beyond soul and body we are one light. See him or see me, O seeker, I am he and he is me. ‘In Ibtidaname, Sultan Valad writes about the oneness of Rum and Shams in spirit: "Shams of Tabriz and my father—may God bless the secrets of both— were among the elite of the most beloved servants of God. They were one person, one holy light. Separate in appearance bur one in truth. “He relates that after a few years, Rumi went to Damascus for a second time with his disciples. He stayed there for months. The date of Rumi's first as well as second Damascus trips are not known. Sultan Valad says that his father took his first trip to Damascus a few days after Shams' disappearance but fails to report how long he stayed in Damascus on his first trip. His second trip was made a few years later.

Rumi gave up hope after he failed to find Shams in spite of all of his searching. He also had heard the rumors about his murder. Now he was also aware that his son Ala al-Din Chelebi was involved in this. He found consolation in expressing his feeling through poetry filled with love and longing. I will share one from among many of these poems of longing:

O Friend of Heart! What a pity, you left us with sorrows and longing, and went away.

I know you didn't want 10 leave us. You complained and lamented. Rut this was not good. You obeyed the unchangeable judgment and walked away and left.

You ran in all directions. You sought remedies (to change the situation and) to stay with us, you made up excuses. But you couldn't find a remedy and you went without having a remedy.

What happened to your lap full of roses, to the luminous face like the moon? How did it happen that you went under the soil lowly and in shame?

How did you leave the assemblies of friends and the ranks of friends that were with you all the time and go under the ground among ants and snakes?

What happened to those meaningful words and beautiful speeches? What happened to the. mind that was familiar with divine secrets?

What happened to those hands that were holding our hands? What happened to those feet that walked to the gardens of Meram, to the rose gardens?

You were graceful and gracious; you knew how to win peo­ple's hearts and how to love people. Now you went to the soil which doesn't like people and swallows them.

What happened? What kind of an idea came to your mind so that you would take a curved and difficult road?

When you set off on that road crying, the heavens, too, started shedding tears and the moon scratched its face,

My heart has been filled with pain. What do I know? What should I ask? You tell me, did you go awake?

Now that you left us, did you choose the company of lovers of God and saints? Or have you been deprived of love? Or did you go in denial?

What happened to those sweet answers you gave to the questions you were asked? Now you stopped talking and gave up on speaking.

What kind of a fire is this? What kind of a longing is this? Like a guest, you never let anybody know and went away

Where did you go? Even the dust of your way cannot be found. The road that you took this time is indeed a road full of blood.

From these two great saints who saw the truth in each oth­er, admired each other, which one was superior?

It is a mistake to compare saints who have effaced their selves in divine love. These holy personalities who are cleansed from all human contamination, released from physical desires, blessed with the manifestation of God, submerged in the ocean of Unity, and self-effaced cannot be superior to one another. Is it not the same sunshine that is reflected by many mirrors that are free from dust and dirt? Can these be distinguished from one another?

When Rumi was looking for Shams in Damascus with his heart burning with the fire of longing, the gnostics of Damascus were fascinated by Rumi's knowledge, gnosis, and love. Those whose eyes were dazzled with Rumi's holy light were surprised to see a spiritual guide looking for a spiritual guide. Just as Rumi was looking for Shams, Shams had been looking for Rumi. Shams could not find what he was looking for in the famous shaykhs and spiritual guides in the towns he had visited, but when he found Rumi, he said: "Ever since I left my home town I have not seen any shaykh other than Rumi. I found what I was looking for in Rumi. “What had these two seen in each other? What had they found? They became mirrors for each other. They transcended the levels of shaykh, spiritual guide, deputy, and dis­ciple and saw what was inside them. Therefore, there is no use to consider either of them as the spiritual guide of the other. Why should we keep ourselves busy with these thoughts? Why should we say that there is a difference between them? We should know that both of them were among the most advanced scholars, gnostics, and spiritual guides of their time. There were many similarities of opinion and understanding between them. It is also a huge mistake to think of Shams only as an unconventional dervish who excited the great scholar Rumi and brought him to spiritual ecstasy and not to see Shams1 knowledge and gnosis.

Shams was a great scholar just like Rumi. As can be seen in his Maqalat, one clearly notices from his elaborations on issues that he was familiar with tafsir (Qur'anic commentary), hadith (Prophetic Tradition), poetry, and all sciences of his day. Like Rumi, he also did not like philosophy. According to Shams, it is possible to attain the truth only by adhering to the Prophet's way, refraining from ostentation, becoming a person of spiritu­al states, practicing what one believes in, and by divine love. Like Rumi, Shams was a lover of the Prophet. Just as Rumi declared: "I am the soil under the feet of Muhammad Mukhtar,” Shams also pronounced: "I would not exchange even an issue seeming to be of the least importance from the Sunna for a book like Qushayri's al-Risalah or other such important texts. Compared to the Prophetic Traditions, all those books are tasteless and dull. "

Rumi and Sham's views were unified in terms of abiding by the Law, advancing religious practice from imitative to a con­scious level, and walking on the path of faith and love far from ostentation. There might have been small differences between them in terms of methodology. Rumi was cautious; Shams was ardent and enthusiastic. But if Shams had not come, Rumi would have been second Sultan al-Ulama. Maybe he would have written tales in the Mesnevi similar to those found in Mantiq al-Tayr of Farid al-Din 'Attar (d. 1220 A. D.). Ardent love poems would not, however, have been written. The Divan-i Kabir would not have come to be. As Abdulbaki Golpinarli writes, "If Shams had not come, Rumi would not have become Rumi and would have remained a shaykh from the ranks of many shaykhs, a Sufi among countless Sufis. But it is also a fact that if Rumi had not seen Shams, nobody ever would have heard of Shams. Rumi was already ready for ecstasy He was like an oil lamp that was cleaned, filled with oil, its wick prepared. For this oil lamp to flare up, a spark was needed. Shams served that very purpose. And then Shams became like a moth to that flame. He gave his life to it and joined the light. Shams was a mirror to Rumi. Rumi saw in him the truth encompassing the whole universe and himself. And he fell in love with himself and praised himself. "

Shams of Tabriz is just a pretext.
We are the one praised in beauty.
We are the one praised in grace.
But to conceal this truth from the public, he said:
"He is the graceful King and we arc the poor. ''

If people were able to see what was in themselves and the truth in each other like Rumi and Shams, the world would become a paradise. Human beings would live in constant peace, wars would disappear, all the weapon factories would close, and there would be no hunger in Africa or elsewhere. The world would live in comfort. Rumi says: "Our bodies that we see in this world are actually the shadows of our real existence. In fact, we live above these shadows. "

In the world we live in today, in the age of the atom, in an age where people are chasing only after materialistic gains; aren't there no more Rumi's or Shams? New saints are not com­ing from the Khorasan region to Anatolia. They are not com­ing, but the Islamic countries are not empty. How well spoke Baba Kemal Khojandi: "Do not think that die lovers of God, the saints have all gone and the city of love has become empty The world is filled with people like Shams of Tabriz, but where arc the men like Rumi to see the truth in them?"

Now Rumi gave up hope of finding Shams alive and -stopped looking for him. He understood that he would not be able to find Shams in Damascus or elsewhere, but as Sultan Valad put it, he found him in his heart. He had found him but his eyes were still looking for a friend of heart like Shams. Although his family, sons, friends, students, and disciples surrounded Rumi, he felt an emptiness inside, and he felt alone. Surely the greatest friend of humans is God. Doesn't He say, "Wherever you are I am with you" Rumi expresses this truth as follows: "There is someone hidden here. Don't think that you are alone. "

Bur Rumi was in need of a friend of God, a mirror, and a horizon of spirit like Shams who would share this feeling and let him sense what was within him. Without such a friend, he was unable to find peace. Yahya Kemal expresses this spiritual loneliness in his poem "Horizons":

Spirit cannot live without horizons
Spirit searches for a spirit horizon
Those great prophets whose spiritual horizons were vast
But they are the exceptions beyond our discussion
They were very happy in this world
Living with their disciples and companions
What horizons and what nice spirits they had, O Lord!

Later on, Rumi would captivate the matter of the mirror of the spirit in a passage of the Mesnevi:

The soul's mirror is naught but the face of the friend, the face of that friend who is of yonder country (the spiritual land).

When your eye became an eye for my heart, my blind heart went and became drowned in vision.

I saw that you are the Universal Mirror unto everlasting: I saw my own image in your eye.

I said, "At last I have found myself: in his eyes I have found the shining Way.”

(But) my image gave voice from your eye (and said), "I am you and you arc I in (perfect) oneness.”

After Shams, Rumi's friend of heart, mirror of spirit became Salah al-Din of Konya. Rumi escaped spiritual loneliness with this companion and friend of heart. He found peace and tranquility.

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