1. Bilal Kuşpınar, PhD Professor of Philosophy Director of the International Rumi Center for the Study of Civilizations, Necmettin Erbakan University-KONYA Presentation at Waterloo University- 22 Sept. 2015

2.  Mawlana Rumi: ◦ Hailed and admired throughout the centuries after his death by numerous scholars, intellectuals, thinkers, Sufis and mystics all over the world.  «What shall I say in praising this lofty personality?  He is not a prophet; but he has a book.» ◦ Abd Al-Rahman al-Jami (d. 1492)

3.  Konya: ◦ The intellectual and religious life intensely stimulating ◦ The Capital of the Seljukid State ◦ Numerous smaller mosques and madrasas:  Ince Minareli Madrasa (1258) ◦ The Center for Islamic Sciences:  Sadr al-Din Qunawi  Spread the teachings of Ibn Arabi in Anatolia  Karatay Medrese (1251) ◦ The Center for Rational, Physical and Health Sciences

4.  Mawlana Muhammad Jalal al-Din al-Rumi al- Balkhi  Well known: ◦ Balkhi: Born in the city of Balkh (Afghanistan) ◦ Rumi in the West: Lived in the land of Rum (Romans) in reference to Anatolia ◦ Mawlana in the East: Our Master (honorific title by his peers and followers) ◦ Khudawandigar: Sultan, a title given by his father

5.  His father:  Muhammad Baha’ al-Din Walad (Bahauddin Walad): ◦ Well versed in religious traditions of Islam ◦ A noted scholar, theologian and Sufi ◦ Sultan al-Ulama (the Sultan of Scholars): a title conferred on him by his peers and disciples on account of his in- depth knowledge. ◦ His lineage goes back to the Prophet Muhammad ◦ Received illumination from Najm al-Dīn Kubrā ◦ Invited to Konya in 1228 by the Sultan Ala’ al-Din Kaykubad who had just built the magnificent mosque in the center of the town.

6.  Mawlana Rumi: ◦ Travelled with his father to Damascus, after their performance of pilgrimage. ◦ Met Ibn al-Arabi (d. 1240) who saw him walking behind his father and said: ◦ “Glory be to God! An Ocean is following a sea!” ◦ In 1225 when he was 18, he married Gawhar Banu in Karaman. ◦ In 1228 they all settled in Konya.

7.  Mawlana’s Teacher and Spiritual Masters: ◦ Taught by his father, Sultan al-Ulama Bahauddin Walad until his death in 1231.  The author of a magnificent work entitled Ma’arif (Illuminative Knowlegde) ◦ Followed by his father’s successor Sayyid Burhan al-Din Muhaqqiq Tirmidhi, known as Sayyid Sirdan (the Master of Secrets) as his spiritual tutelage ◦ Traveled to Aleppo upon Burhan al-Din’s advice and approval to deepen his knowledge ◦ Met briefly with Sham al-Din Tabrizi in Damascus

8.  Burhan al-Din praised Mawlana: ◦ “You have now become a man of exceptional qualities in all the sciences, such that prophets and saints point to you in admiration… Say ‘Bismillah (in the name of God),’ go forth and suffuse human spirits with fresh life and mercy; revive the dead of this mundane world with your love and spiritual wealth.”  Burhan al-Din, upon completion of his teaching, left for Kayseri in 1240 where he passed away in 1241.

9.  Mawlana succeeded his father’s chair as a scholar and continued to deliver lectures and sermons in Konya.  His lectures and sermons attended by his own disciples, the elite (i.e. Sultans), as well as by the public.  His preaching and teaching went on until his sudden encounter with Shams al-Din Tabrizi in 1244.

10.  The Meeting of Mawlana and Shams: ◦ Two great talents, two luminaries, two pure souls met face to face. ◦ Shams was sixty years old and Mawlana thirty- eight. ◦ The two lovers of the divine went into seclusion, devoting themselves entirely to God and conversing with each other in their mysterious way. ◦ This historic moment of the meeting of the two appears to have been designated in the sources as: ◦ the 'meeting of two seas or two oceans.’

11.  Who Sought Whom? Shams or Mawlana? ◦ Both were seeking for each other. ◦ The lover is at once the beloved, and the beloved is at once the lover, as Mawlana says:  “The hearts of heart-ravishers are captivated by those who have lost their hearts (to them): all loved ones are the prey of (their) lovers.  Whomsoever you deemed to be a lover, regard (him) as the loved one, for relatively he is both this and that. If they that are thirsty seek water from the world, (yet) water too seeks in the world them that are thirsty.”

12.  The Successive Stages in Mawlana’s Spiritual Journey:  Mawlana sums it up with this maxim:  “I was raw, cooked, then burned.” ◦ “Cooked” by the luminous inspiration of his father Bahā al-Dīn Walad and Sayyid Burhān al-Dīn; ◦ “Burned” by the fire of love, whose beauty he saw reflected in the luminous mirror of Shams. ◦ Shams became a mirror for Mawlana. ◦ Mawlana recognized his love of God in the personality of Shams.

13.  After the second disappearance of Shams, Mawlana turned into an ecstatic Sufi poet, articulating couples with the divine inspiration:  «As the sun moving clouds behind him run,  All hearts attend thee, O Tabriz's sun!» (Diwan-i Kabir)

14.  This mysterious experience is described in a famous passage of the Mathnawi:  A certain man knocked at his friend's door: his friend asked: ◦ "Who is there?"  He answered "I." ◦ "Begone," said his friend, ◦ “This is too soon! ◦ At my table there is no place for the raw.  How shall the raw be cooked but in the fire of absence?  What else will deliver him from hypocrisy?"  He turned sadly away, and for a whole year the flames of separation consumed him;

15.  Then he came back and again paced to and fro beside the house of his friend.  He knocked at the door with a hundred fears and reverence lest any disrespectful word might escape from his lips.  "Who is there?" cried the friend.  He answered:  “You, O charmer of all hearts."  "Now," said the friend,  "since you are I, come in, there is no room for two I's in this house." (M 1/3056-64)

16.  Shortly after Shams’s disappearance:  Mawlana experienced another spiritual love relationship with Salah al-Din Zarkub (Jeweler), ◦ the modest goldsmith in Konya, ◦ Received spiritual training from Sayyid Burhān al- Dīn ◦ Also attended Shams’s circle  Zarkub’s daughter later became Sultan Walad’s wife.

17.  For Mawlana both Salah al-Din and Husam al- Din were: ◦ nothing but reflections of the same divine beauty and power he had seen in the person of Shams.  In many cases he addresses Husam al-Din ◦ a "light of the sun ◦ another manifestation of the Sun of Tabriz.

18.  When Mawlana died on 17 December 1273, a night-of-his blissful reunion with His Lord- ◦ Husam al-Din succeeded to the leadership of his disciples.  But the formation of the order of the Mawlawi Sufi Order, Mawlawiyya, the establishment of a true hierarchy, ◦ was left to Sultan Walad (d. 1312), Mawlana's son, who took over his office after Husam al-Din's death in 1284.

19.  When he passed away on December 17, 1273, his funeral ceremony attended by all the people of Konya, young and old, Muslims and non-Muslims.  Some of the Muslims attempted to drive away the non-Muslims from the funeral procession, saying: ◦ “What does this ceremony have to do with you? This master of religion Mawlana belongs to us and to our faith.”

20.  But the non-Muslims replied: ◦ “We have understood and learned the truth of Moses and Jesus from his words. We have seen in him the traits and behaviors of the perfect prophets about whom we read in our Scriptures. We are his lovers and disciples just as you are his lovers and disciples. The personality of Mawlana is the Sun of truths, which shines upon the people and bestows light upon them generously. The Sun loves all houses and all houses are brightened by its light. Mawlana is like bread. No one can dispense with bread. Have you ever seen a hungry man fleeing from bread?”

21.  The followers of Mawlana Rumi call the night of his death Shab-i ‘Arūs, i.e., ◦ the night of blissful union,  It marks the joyous moment of the lover's return to and arrival in his Beloved.

22.  Mawlana says about death and especially his own death: ◦ “When my coffin begins its procession on the day of my death, do not think that I feel the grief of this world, that I fear departure from it; do not fall into such doubt. ◦ “Do not weep over me nor say, ‘what a pity!’ Should you fall into this trap of Satan, it would indeed be time for mourning. ◦ “Do not say ‘separation’ when you see my funeral procession. In fact, it will be for me a time of meeting and reunion. ◦ “Do not call ‘farewell’ when laying me down in my grave, for the grave merely veils from us the people of Paradise..."

23.  He also address to the visitors of his tomb as follows: ◦ “Brother, do not come to my tomb without a hand drum, for it is not fitting to grieve in the assembly of God. God Almighty has created me from the wine of love. Even though I die and decay, I am the same love. After our death, do not seek our tomb on the face of the earth; our tomb lies in the hearts of [God-loving] Gnostics." ◦ the grave merely veils from us the people of Paradise..."

24.  Sultan Walad's literary legacy: ◦ the Maarif (Book of Illuminative Knowledge) ◦ The three Mathnawis: Ibtidaname, "Book of the Beginning," ◦ Intihanama, "Book of the End," and ◦ Rababname, "Book of the Rebec"—  All considered authentic commentaries on Mawlana's work  and contain most of the trustworthy information about his life and teaching.

25.  Rumi's literary legacy: ◦ The Mathnawi (more than 27.000 couplets) (6 vols. (Poetical) ◦ The Mathnawli is without end, "even if the forests were pens and the ocean ink" (M 6/2247), as Mawlana says, alluding to the Koranic verse: ◦ “God's words are without end.” (Qur’an18:109). ◦ The Shop of Unity  Fihi ma fihi (Discourses of Rumi).  Diwan-i Kabir  Majalis-i Sab’a

26.  The Qur’an  The Prophetic Wisdom  The Intellectual and Spiritual Legacy of Islam  Ancient philosophical sources (Greek, Hellenic, Eastern)

27.  Mawlana’s spiritual mission: ◦ to make himself an instrument of guidance, leading people toward the true path and toward eternal happiness in accordance with the purpose of creation.  In full awareness of his spiritual mission he once said: ◦ “We are like the two legs of a compass: One leg stands firmly on the Law (i.e. the Qur'an and the wisdom of the Prophet Muhammad), and the other moves freely, embracing seventy-two nations.”

28.  I am the slave of the Qur’an and the earth beneath the Chosen Muhammad's feet as long as I am alive.  If anyone interprets my words in any other way, I deplore that person and I deplore his words, as well.

29.  “This is the Book of Mathnawi; it is the foundation of the foundation of the foundation of the Religion.” (The Dibajah/Preface to the Mathnawi I)  The first foundation: ◦ the Fundamentals of the Religion; the Shari’ah ◦ Islam  The second foundation: ◦ The Actual Practice of the Religion; the Tariqah ◦ Iman (Belief)  The third foundation: ◦ The Truth; the Reality; the Essence ◦ Ihsan (Morality; Spirituality)

30.  “It is called the Mathnawi.” (The Dibajah/Preface to the Mathnawi I) ◦ “All the contingencies and beings are found [in the universe] in pairs [of congeniety] either as being opposite to each other or corresponding with each other.” (Commentary)  The rationale for its title is from the Qur’an: ◦ “Of everything He made in pairs, two and two (13: 3) ◦ “We created you in pairs.” (11:40)

31.  “ It discloses mysteries concerning [the spiritual states] of arrival and certainty.” (The Dibajah to the Mathnawi I)  The state of arrival (wusul): ◦ The attainment of self-realization; the self-affirming Unity (Tawhid); the elimination of duality in the Presence of Divine Unity  The state of certainty (yaqin):  1) The certainty of knowledge: ◦ “the acceptance of what has issued forth from God by way of Prophecy.”  2) The certainty of actual vision: ◦ “the witnessing of things through self-disclosure and perceiving [their] realities in the heavenly world.”  3) The certainty of truth: ◦ “the ascertainment of the reality with the knowledge of the Real [i.e. God]; knowing and seeing through God.”

32.  “ And it (the Mathnawi) is the greatest comprehension [or knowledge] about God. ◦ “The greatest knowledge about God: concerning Reality, the Sufi path, matters phenomenal and spiritual, as well as the natures of ostensible and invisible things.”  And [it is] the most beautiful path of God. ◦ “The path of the Divine Unity (al-Tawhid), along with the secrets of the path of the Prophet Muhammad, the Guide to the straight path.”  And [it is] the plainest proof of God. ◦ “The most obvious evidence of God; the essential meaning of God’s Word.”  The parable of its light is as if there is a niche, within which is a lamp (24:45).” (The Dibajah to the Mathnawi I) ◦ “Through parables and similes it renders things luminous and intelligible, like the condition of a niche in which is a brilliantly radiating lamp…”

33.  “By it He causes many to stray and leads many into guidance.”  (The Qur’an 2:26) (The Dibajacah to the Mathnawi I)  “By the Mathnawi God causes many among people to astray and lets them not attain guidance because of their interpretation of the Mathnawi according to their own [selfish] desires.”  “By it, on the other hand, He guides many to the path of guidance and success and enables them to attain, by virtue of its lights and secrets, to the highest stages and most sublime stations.”  “And [it is] the explorer [and expounder] of the Qur’an.” (The Dibajacah to the Mathnawi I)  “The Mathnawi discloses the manifold mysteries of the Qur’an, both outwardly and inwardly, to the elite of the eminent people over seven layers and to the elite of the elite over seventy layers.”

34.  “And it is the [means of the] beautification of morality”. (The Dibajah to the Mathnawi I)  “The Mathnawi purges [one's] morality from bad human habits and vices, and also purifies hearts from natural impurities and material filth.  [In doing so], it helps one attain the [good] character that has been praised by the Prophet--may peace be upon him--who once said:  “There is nothing weightier on the scale of a believer than [his] good character on the Day of Judgment. Indeed, God loathes shamelessness and foulness.”

35.  Mawlana: ◦ Bayt-i man bayt-i nist iqlimast ◦ Hazal-i man hazal-i nist ta’limast  Employed a somewhat unconventional method in his teaching, preaching, and lecturing: ◦ His way is a path of love, par excellence. ◦ His spiritual legacy rests mainly on the love of God. ◦ The Sufi Path of Love by W. Chittick

36.  God: ◦ The nucleus and source of all spiritual and physical beauty. ◦ Absolute love (Wudd, hub, Ishq) ◦ Compassion (Rahmah) ◦ Grace (Lutf) ◦ Forgiveness (Ghufran) ◦ Wisdom (Hikmat)  Love: ◦ A divine attribute, as sublime as God Himself. ◦ The quintessence of life that encompasses the world and constantly descends, manifests and realizes itself as an epiphany.

37.  God: ◦ Reveals Himself in some aspects of the world.  The World: ◦ A theophany of the Divine Names. ◦ The Divine Names mentioned in the Qur’an: ◦ as the Most Beautiful Names:  The keys to perceive and unlock the treasures of God. ◦ A sum of the signs of God by which human breathes and acts in the universe.

38.  Know that it is the waves of love (of God) that turn the wheels of heaven. It is through the energy of love that we communicate from heart to heart.  There is a way from your heart to mine, and my heart knows it, because it is clean and pure like water. When the water is still like a mirror, it can behold the moon.

39.  Love is the wellspring of creation and the meaning of life.  Love is one of the attributes of God who is without peer, and self-subsistent.  Love for other than Him, then, is only a passing fancy.  Divine love is the fount of creation, the sovereign cure for all diseases; it is the remedy for arrogance and conceit, and the soothing unguent for all pain.

40.  Love has to be experienced to be understood.  Someone asked Mawlana: ◦ “What is love?” He replied, ◦ “Ask not about these meanings. When you become like me, then you will know it.” ◦  “Love is that flame which, when it blazes up, consumes everything else but the Beloved.”

41.  “Love is (one) of the attributes of God who wants nothing; love for aught besides Him is unreal.”  “The remedy of our pride and vainglory, our Plato and our Galen!  Through Love the earthly body soared to the skies: the mountain began to dance and became nimble.  Love inspired Mount Sinai, O lover, (so that) Sinai (was made) drunken and Moses fell in a swoon.  When Love has no care for him, he is left as a bird without wings. Alas for him then!”

42.  One of the underlying principles in Mawlana's writings:  Everything in the world has two sides, ◦ Form (surat): the outward appearance of a thing, ◦ Meaning' (ma'na): its inward and unseen reality.  Mawlana’s frequent reference to the Prophetic maxim-like supplication: ◦ “Lord, show us things as they are.”

43.  Form is shadow, meaning is the Sun. (M 6/4747)  In the face of meaning what is form? Very contemptible...(M 1/3330)  Know that the outward form passes away, but the World of Meaning remains forever.  How long will you make love with the shape of the jug? Leave aside the jug's shape: Go, seek water!  Having seen the form, you are unaware of the meaning. If you are wise, pick out the pearl from the shell. (M 2/ 1020-22)

44.  The human being is no exception to this form-meaning dichotomy. ◦...Your meaning is the captain and your form is the ship. (M 3/530) ◦ If man were human through his form, Muhammad and Abu Jahl would be the same. ◦ The painting on the wall is the likeness of a man. Look at that form. What does it lack? ◦ That splendid painting lacks a spirit. Go, seek that precious pearl! (M1/1019-21)

45.  Mawlana regards human as: ◦ A central being, endowed innately by God with a limitless number of faculties and placed by Him on the earth to fulfill and realize the purpose of his existence thereon. ◦ not simply a mechanical or an organic and biological body, but rather a very highly sophisticated spiritual being. ◦ Human's position in the entire universe:  Astrolabe; Vicegerent (Khalifa)

46.  “We have indeed honoured the children of Adam.” (Qur’an17:70).  This verse means to Mawlana: ◦ “As if God put a crown on the head of man, on account of which he is the chief substance and the primordial object, while all other things such as celestial spheres, planets, stars, and mountains, are merely "his accidents or concomitants" and like "a branch of a tree or a step of a ladder.”

47.  “Man is the substance, and the heavens are his accident. All things are branches and steps -he is the goal.” (M 5/3575) ◦ God created human being (Adam) in His own form. ◦ Human’s position is in no way comparable to the position of any other being, even not to the angel.

48.  “We are like that story of Mary in the Koran. Every one of us has a Jesus within, but until the pangs manifest, our Jesus is not born.  If the pangs never come, then our child rejoins its origin by the same secret path through which it came, leaving us empty, without the birth of our true self.” (Fihi Ma Fihi 5/38)  “The way of the Prophet is this: It is necessary to endure pain to help rid ourselves of selfishness, jealousy and pride.”  “The way of Jesus was wrestling with solitude and not gratifying lust.  The way of Mohammed is to endure the oppression and agonies inflicted by men and women upon each other.  If you cannot go by the Mohammedan way, at least go by the way of Jesus, so you will not remain completely outside the spiritual path.” (Fihi Ma Fihi 5/157)

49.  “God created us in His own form: Our description has taken instruction from His description.” (M4/1194)  “The Forgiving God desired in eternity to reveal and manifest Himself.  So He made a vicegerent, a Possessor of the Heart, to be the mirror of His Kingship.” (M 4/2151-53).  “Adam is the astrolabe of the Attributes of God Most High, his description the locus of manifestation for God's signs.  Whatever appears within man is God's reflection, like the moon in a stream.” (M 6/3138-39)

50.  Created by God in His image and appointed by Him as His vicegerent on the earth: ◦ Human being alone deserves to become a pure mirror for the manifestation of God's Names and Attributes. ◦ All knowledge and all things can be found within him. ◦ “[Man] You are an ocean of knowledge hidden in a dew drop, a world concealed in three ells of body.” (M 5/3579) ◦ “Man's bodily senses are infirm, but within him dwells a mighty nature...” ◦ “So man is in form a branch of the world, but in attribute the world's foundation. Know this.” (M 4/3759, 66)

51.  Human’s spirit: ◦ Originally dwelt with God in potency in a state of oneness with all other spirits and the angels.  During this potential stage in the loins of the yet uncreated Adam or in the world of the spirits, God posed a question to them: ◦ Am I not Your Lord? To which they, i.e. the spirits, answered, Yes, we testify. (Qur’an 7:172) ◦ This crucial event, known as the Primordial Covenant of Alast, ◦ took place before man's actual coming into the world.

52.  One of the essential requirements of human's vicegerency: ◦ To recollect the meaning of his affirmative answer to the above-cited question posed by God. ◦ His remembrance of this historic moment of Alast (Am I not Your Lord?) links him with his metaphysical origin.  The goal of human’s creation: ◦ to fulfill the requirements of the God-given trust and realize his assigned duties  his recollection of the Primordial Covenant  to assume the traits of God, reveal and display His Hidden Treasure.

53.  “What is this testimony? To make the hidden manifest, whether through words, deeds, or something else.  For the goal is to make manifest the hidden secret of your substance: Its attribute will remain, but these accidents will pass....  On the Day of Alast (the Covenant) the Beloved said something else, but in a whisper. Do any of you remember?  He said, “I have hurried to you, I have made you for Myself. I will not sell what I have made for Myself at auction.” (Divan-i Kabir 9265-66)

54.  During this Covenant of Alast, a formidable task was assigned to human beings, as indicated in the Qur’an as Trust: ◦ “There is one thing in this world that must never be forgotten. If you were to forget all else, but did not forget that, then you would have no reason to worry…If you go and accomplish a hundred other tasks, but do not perform that particular task, then it is as though you performed nothing at all… ◦ All these things the heavens, the earth and the mountains do, yet they do nor perform that one thing; that particular task is performed by us (humans): ◦ “We offered the Trust (al-Amanah) to the heavens, the earth and the mountains. They refused to carry it and were afraid of it. But human carried it. Surely, he is most unjust ignorant.” (33:72) (Fihi Ma Fihi 4/26-27)

55. ◦ “You offer an excuse, saying, ‘But I apply myself to lofty tasks. I study law, philosophy, logic, astronomy, medicine, and the rest.’ Well, for whose sake but your own do you study these?... All these things are concerned with your own situation, serving your own ends… ◦ For Soul (or Spirit) there is other food besides this food of sleeping and eating, but you have forgotten that other food. Night and day you nourish only your body. Now, this body is like a horse, and this lower world is its stable. The food the horse eats is not the food of the rider… ◦ But what is truly of importance and touches us more closely than anything else is our own Soul.” (Fihi ma Fihi 4/28-30)

56.  The loving friend came from the ends of the earth and became the guest of Joseph the truthful...  This discourse has no end. Come back, that we may see what that good man said to Joseph.  After he (Joseph) had told him his story, he (Joseph) said,  “Now, O so-and-so, what traveller's gift hast thou brought for me?...”

57.  God, exalted is He, will say to the people at the gathering (for Judgement): ◦ “Where is your present for the Day of Resurrection? ◦ Ye have come to Us and alone without provision, just in the same guise as We created you....  How the guest said to Joseph: ◦ “I have brought you a mirror as a gift, so that whenever you lose in it, you will see your own fair face and remember me.”  Joseph said, ◦ “Come, produce the gift.” He (the guest), on account of shame (confusion) at this demand, sobbed aloud.

58.  “How many a gift,” said he, “did I seek for you! No (worthy) gift came into my sight. ◦ How should I bring a grain (of gold) to the mine? How should I bring a drop (of water) to the (Sea of) 'Uman..? ◦ I deemed it fitting that I should bring to you a mirror like the (inward) light of a (pure) breast, ◦ That you may behold your beauteous face therein, O you who, like the sun, art the candle of heaven. ◦ I have brought you a mirror, O light (of mine eyes), so that when you sees your face you may think of me.”

59.  He drew forth the mirror from beneath his arm: the fair one's business is with a mirror.  What is the mirror of Being? Not-being. Bring not-being (as your gift), if you are not a fool... (M1/3156-3220)

60.  The deaf man said to himself: ◦ “Being hard of hearing, what shall I understand of the words spoken by that youth? ◦ Especially (as) he is ill and his voice is weak; but I must go thither, there's no escape. ◦ When I see his lips moving, I will form a conjecture as to that (movement) from myself. ◦ When I say, “How are you, O my suffering (friend)?” he would reply, ◦ “I am fine” or “I am pretty well.” ◦ I will say, “Thanks (to God)!”

61.  I ask, ◦ “What do you drink for cure?”  He will reply, ◦ “Some sherbet..”  (Then) I will say, ◦ “May you enjoy health!” ◦ “Who is the doctor attending you?”  He will answer, ◦ “So-and-so.”  I will then remark, ◦ “He is one who brings great luck with him, since he has come, things will go well for you. I have experienced (the luck of) his foot: wherever he goes, the desired object is attained.”  The good man (i.e. the deaf) made ready these conjectural answers, and went to see the sick neighbour.

62.  The deaf man asked, ◦ “How are you?” ◦ “I am at the point of death,”  Replied the patient. ◦ “Thanks (to God)!” cried the deaf man.  At this, the patient became resentful and indignant,  Saying (to himself), ◦ “What (cause for) thanksgiving is this? He has been my enemy." -- The deaf man made a conjecture, and (as now appears) it has turned out to be wrong.  After that, he asked him what he had drunk. ◦ “Poison,” said he.  “May it do you good and give you health!” said the deaf man.  The patient’s wrath increased.

63.  Then he inquired, ◦ “Which of the doctors is it that is coming to attend you?”  He replied, ◦ “Azrael (the Angel of Death) is coming. Get you gone!”  “His foot (arrival),” said the deaf man, "is very blessed: be glad!”  The deaf man went forth.  He said gaily, “Thanks (to God) for that! Now I will take leave.”  The patient said, ◦ “This is my mortal foe: I did not know he was (such) a mine of iniquity...”  Inasmuch as visiting the sick is for the purpose of (giving them) tranquillity, this is not a visit to the sick: it is the satisfaction of an enemy's wish.

64.  As (in the case of) the deaf man, who fancied that he did a kindness, but it had the opposite result.  He sits down well-pleased, saying,  “I have paid my respects, I have performed what was due to my neighbour.”  (But) he has (only) kindled a fire (of resentment) against himself in the invalid's heart and burned himself.  Beware, then, of the fire that you have kindled: verily you have increased in sin.  The Prophet said to our desert Arab, "Pray, for indeed thou hast not prayed (aright), my man.”  That is to say, “O God, do not mingle my prayer with the prayer of the erring and the hypocrites.”

65.  By the analogical reasoning which the deaf man adopted a ten years' friendship was made vain. ◦ Especially, O master, (you must avoid) the analogy drawn by the low senses in regard to the Revelation which is illimitable. ◦ If your sensuous ear is fit for (understanding) the letter (of the Revelation), know that your ear that receives the occult (meaning) is deaf. ◦ The first to bring analogical reasoning to bear against the Revealed Text was Iblis. ◦ The first person who produced these paltry analogies in the presence of the Lights of God was Iblis.

66.  He said, “Beyond doubt fire is superior to earth: I am of fire, and he (Adam) is of dingy earth.  Let us, then, judge by comparing the secondary with its principal: he is of darkness, I of radiant light.” M1/3358-98)

67.  “The wise man has made (use of) such reasoning and investigation on a cloudy day or at night for the sake of (finding) the Qibla;  But with the sun and with the Ka’ba before your face, do not seek to reason and investigate in this manner.” (M1/3404-405)

68.  The fly was lifting up his head, like a pilot, on a blade of straw and (a pool of) ass's urine. ◦ “I have called (them) sea and ship,” said he; “I have been pondering over that (interpretation) for a long while. ◦ Look! here is this sea and this ship, and I am the pilot and skilled (in navigation) and judicious.”  He was propelling the raft on the "sea": that (small) quantity appeared to him illimitable.  That urine was boundless in relation to him: where was the vision that should see it truly?

69.  His world extends (just) as far as his sight reaches; his eye is so big, his "sea" is big in the same proportion.  So with the false interpreter (of the Qur'an): like the fly, his imagination is (foul as) ass's urine and his conception (worthless as) a straw.  If the fly leave off interpreting by (following his own) opinion, Fortune will turn that fly into a humay. (M1/1082-90)

70.  You have interpreted (and altered the meaning of) the virgin (uncorrupted) Word: interpret (alter) yourself, not the (Divine) Book.  You interpret the Qur'an according to your desire: by you the sublime meaning is degraded and perverted. (M1/1080-81)

71.  Sama: ◦ Literally meaning 'audition' and 'listening to music’; ◦ Technically referring to a particular practice of the whirling dervishes as part of the spiritual exercises of the Mawlaviyya Sufi order, which was founded by Mawlana's son Sultan Walad on the basis of the latter's teachings. ◦ Initially introduced into the Islamic spirituality by Najm al-Din Kubra long before Mawlana who later adopted it.

72.  For Mawlana as alluded to in the Qur’an: ◦ All living beings, birds, animals, plants, human beings are in one way or another in the state of worship, either consciously or unconsciously uttering their respective mode of prayers. ◦ In this sense, prayer to God is universal.  Sama is a form of recollection (dhikr) of God.

73.  “Sama is the food of the lovers, for within it they find the Image of meeting with the Beloved.” (M 4/737)  “The people of God perform the ritual prayers and the sama displays what they are doing within their inmost consciousness.  To the viewers, they show how they follow God’s commands and prohibitions.  The singer in the sama is like the imam in the prayer: ◦ The participants follow him. If he sings slowly, they dance (whirl) slowly; and if he sings quickly, they dance quickly.” (Fihi Ma Fih 146-147)

74.  “What is the Sema? A message from those hidden within the heart. The heart –the stranger-finds peace in their message."  It is a wind which causes the branches of the intellect to blossom, a sound which opens the pores (apertures) of existence.” (Diwan-i Kabir 18177-82)  “The sama has become a window towards Your rose-garden; the ears and hearts of the lovers peer through the window.”  “When you come into the sama, you are outside of the two worlds. The world of sama is outside of this world and that.”

75.  “Dance everything other than Him under your feet! The sama belongs to you and you belong to it.  You do not see, but they [the lovers of God] can hear the leaves on the trees also clapping.  You cannot perceive the clapping of the leaves- you need the ear of the heart, not the body's ear.” (M 3/99-100)

76.  “The heavens are like a dancing dervish- cloak, but the Sufi is hidden. Oh Muslims, who has ever seen a cloak dance without a body within it?  At the time of sama, the Sufis hear another sound, from God's Throne.  You go ahead and listen to the form of the sama; they have another ear.” ◦ (Diwan-i Kabir 11163-64)

77.  THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE!