Introduction to Laleh Bakhtiar's, Rumi's Original Sufi Enneagram

Iranian Studies, 2014

Zaytoon, 2016

2005

The Citadel of Enchanting Images, 2018

The intention of this study is to examine the last tale of Sufi master Jalal-e-din Rumi in his masterpiece Masnavi or Mathnavi (trans. 2003). Sufism is one of the world's established mystical traditions and the Sufi Order is a school that offers training for initiates. Storytelling is an integral and important tradition within Sufism, fomenting the soul’s growth through knowledge. The medium of storytelling speaks directly to the heart and soul of the listener, penetrating where mere informational and intellectual lectures do not.

American Journal of Islam and Society, 2005

The Physical and Spiritual Phenomena After many years of pondering, I believe that the mystical poet-saint-literary genius Jalaluddin Rumi, in the field of Islamic literature and philosophy, stands high above other sages (hukama), philosophers, and religious scholars of the past or present. The magnitude and insight of his thought and his instinctive and experiential approaches supported by his formal education have proved Rumi fully capable of inquiring, penetrating, and philosophizing deeply into the meanings of both physical and spiritual phenomena. His profound understanding and address of the complexities of a coherent philosophy is at least comparable with that of any contemporary philosopher of his period. Although he does not stand in the order of a particular school of philosophers, he was fully aware of the commentaries and interpretations of Muslim thinkers about Classical Greek philosophy. The impact of Muslim philosophers' translations and their commentaries on Greek philosophers, especially of Averroes (Ibn Rushd 1126-1198) and his contemporary Jewish philosopher Maimonides (1135-1204), on Latin philosophical thought was such that Western thought between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries is inexplicable without considering the conceptual contribution of Averroes' presentation of rational and scientific discourses. Averroes and many other Jewish and Muslim philosophers reflected that there are different routes to the same truth, that served as a modern foundation for theoretical openness,

This article quotes plentifully from the research done by the late Franklin Lewis in his comprehensive book, Rumi: Past and Present, East and West (2000, 2008). Dr. Lewis commented, sometimes incisively, on most of the common misconceptions about the now popular thirteenth century mystical poet and Sufi master, Jalâl al-Din Rumi. However, due to the large size of the book, as well as its academic approach, his authoritative clarifications of these issues are not widely known. The present author summarizes his own research on the topics [in brackets] and quotes or summarizes what Dr. Lewis had to say.

Iran Culture House, New Delhi, 2020

Rumi’s Sufism intends to glean the grains of spirituality from the husk of religion. No tradition, according to him, is devoid of spiritual spark and hence none of them is untouchable. Rumi aspires to attain the station where all the apparent dissimilarities and incongruities merge into oneness and the cacophony of the world seems to be resolved through this enchanting harmony. His spiritual works are like mosaics which embrace the different shades of Indian spiritual tradition. In his Mathnavi and Odes, we find several tenets proposed that are alien to traditional Islam but closer to the Indian psyche. He has used a lot of Indian stories, fables, and anecdotes to substantiate his spiritual findings though with considerable alterations. In his, he has metaphorically referred to Hindustan as the supreme abode of Sufism. Many of his lines seem to be direct translations of vibrant Upanishadic Mantras. We have enough historical and geographical testimonies to explain the presence of Indian spiritual elements in Rumi’s psyche. It is proposed that being natively connected with Balkh, once a stronghold of Buddhism and Hinduism, the Indic ideas of re-incarnation, the importance of Karmic laws, utmost submission to the Guru, and making music instrumental to spiritual practices, etc. must have naturally engrained his thought process. Moreover, his master Shams-ul-din Tabriz is said to be a progeny of supposedly a Vaishnava convert to Islam. Besides this overt evidence, the remarkable cause of affinity between Rumi’s spiritualism and Indian spirituality is the common element of self-realization. It appears to be the contact zone where the two entirely different cultures and spiritual traditions with their peculiarities meet and mark a sonorous fusion. The present paper endeavors to trace the ample presence of elements of Indian spiritual tradition in Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi’s works and views him as a confluence of the Indo-Islamic culture and spiritualism.

2021

An online search for the name "Rumi" quickly returns tens of millions of results, offering links to a multitude of sites presented in a variety of languages.These sites are devoted to, or focus on, a 13th-century Persian poet whose social-media presence and ever-increasing number of groupies would be the envy of many a celebrity or public figure. The sheer quantity of just the English-language search results stands as a testament to the attraction that Rumi's philosophy and ecstatic poetry have for his followers and devotees, as well as for those who, in times of strife, seek solace and rectitude in his words and beliefs. When ordinary lives are wrenched apart by unanticipated crises, pandemics, acts of violence, and other disasters brought about by humankind's actions, more and more people are turning to this Islamic jurist, teacher, scholar, and mystic for guidance and inspiration.