\u201cReformation and counter-reformation\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
***<\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of the most interesting writers of classical Islam is the Anatolian poet and Sufi mystic Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi (AD\u00a01207-1273). \u00a0He is also known as a jurist and theologian, and as the head of a mystical community. \u00a0But he is most famous today as the author of a huge collection of rhymed Persian couplets called the Mathnawi<\/em> (or, depending on your language and pronunciation, the Masnavi<\/em> or several other possibilities). \u00a0The title simply means \u201ccouplets.\u201d<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rumi is especially\u00a0popular\u00a0among Iranians, Turks, and South Asians, typically under the title mawlana<\/em> or mevlana<\/em> (\u201cour master\u201d) or mevlevi<\/em> (\u201cmy master\u201d), or simply as Rumi<\/em> (pronounced roo-MEE<\/em>; meaning \u201cRoman\u201d or, more accurately, \u201cByzantine,\u201d since he lived in former Byzantine territory under the Seljuq Sultanate of \u201cRum\u201d or \u201cRome.\u201d \u00a0The Mevlevi Sufi order, which was founded after his death, is best known in the West as the \u201cWhirling Dervishes.\u201d \u00a0They are famous for using music and ritual dance as means of meditation and of drawing near to God.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rumi\u2019s work has been widely translated, and I\u2019m told that he has been, and may still be, the most popular or best selling poet in the United States. \u00a0(He\u2019s very fashionable\u00a0among adherents of \u201cNew Age\u201d thinking, though I\u2019m not at all sure that they understand him as he would have wanted to be understood.)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also very quotable. \u00a0(You\u2019re probably aware of the story of the blind men and the elephant, which appears in the Mathnawi<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
But I want to cite one particular passage of his poetry, which seems to me to be laying out a curious theory of a kind of \u201cevolution\u201d:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I died as a mineral and became a plant.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nI died as plant and rose to animal.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nI died as animal and I was Man.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nWhy should I fear?\u00a0 When was I less by dying?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nYet once more I shall die as Man, to soar<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nWith angels bless\u2019d; but even from angelhood<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nI must pass on: all except God doth perish.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nWhen I have sacrificed my angel-soul,<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nI shall become what no mind e\u2019er conceived.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nOh, let me not exist! For Non-existence<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nProclaims in organ tones,<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nTo Him we shall return.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nIn the end, he\u2019s talking about a mystical union with the divine. \u00a0But it seems to me not unreasonable to read him as talking, also, about a kind of human deification.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anyway, I share the passage with you as something to think about.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 You might find this latest installment of the bi-weekly Hamblin\/Peterson Deseret News column of some slight interest: \u00a0 \u201cReformation and counter-reformation\u201d \u00a0 *** \u00a0 One of the most interesting writers of classical Islam is the Anatolian poet and Sufi mystic Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi (AD\u00a01207-1273). \u00a0He is also known as a jurist and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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