Relative realities..

I never lamented about the vicissitudes of life

or complained of the turns of fortune

except on the occasion when I was barefooted

and unable to procure shoes.

Yet when I entered the great mosque of Kufah

with a sore heart and beheld a man without feet

 

I offered thanks to the bounty of God,

consoled myself for my want of shoes and

recited:

'A roast fowl is to the sight of a satiated man

less valuable than a blade of fresh grass

and to him who has no money or influence

a charred turnip is a roasted fowl.'

(Saadi)

Spirituality 

Who was Mevlana Rumi?

Mevlana Jalalludin Rumi (1207-1273 CE) (ra) was the one of the greatest Sufi poets of all time, arguably the greatest Sufi poet ever.

Through metaphor, allegory and stories his mystical poetry explained the essential truths of spirituality in ways that attracted and interested people of many backgrounds. His works are filled with gems of wisdom which people may benefit from in different ways.

Through Rumi untold numbers of worldly irreligious people became spiritual and man spiritual people achieved gnostic understanding and harmony with the Divine.

Loved by many wise people, Rumi's works have raised the ire of many superficial and un-spiritual people who became baffled by the means he transmitted spiritual wisdom and love of the Divine through.

Rumi was born in the land of Balkh and he was the son of a learned scholar called Sheikh Bahauddin (ra). Young Rumi’s spiritual states started to show even in his early childhood when he started to get visions of saints and angels.

Rumi's father was a well loved teacher and a critic of the Greek philosophical systems that were influential at the time. Due to the plottings of certain scholars associated to these philosophical systems Sheikh Bahauddin  was forced to leave his homeland and begin a journey that would eventually see his relocation in the land that is now called Turkey.

Along with his followers the Sheikh experienced many interesting events in these years, as did young Rumi.  When the great Sufi writer Khwaja Fariduddin Attar (ra) observed the Rumi at six years old he noted his good qualities and saw in him potential. When Ibn Arabi (ra) saw the young Rumi he was even more impressed and hinted by metaphor that he saw in young Rumi that he would become a great spiritual teacher.

After a period in Baghdad Sheikh Bahauddin and his party (including Rumi who had by now become a quite learned young man) relocated to Konya in the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, welcomed greatly by the Sultan who lead the Sheikh's horse into the city himself.

When Mevlana Rumi was 24 his father Sheikh Bahauddin passed away. After a time he went to Syria to continue his studies and in the years he was their he became a notable scholar of the religion.

He was welcomed back in Konya with great honour and there he took up a teaching post, as a respected scholar of the religion, but one day a mysterious spiritual wanderer called Shamsuddeen Tabrizi (ra) arrived in the city. He worked in the humble trade of basket maker, but he had studied with many great spiritual teachers and had traveled the lands seeking spiritual wisdom. Shams had visited many famous spiritual teachers, but had not found one who could inspire him, in fact many of them had become his pupils. Shams influence on Rumi would change everything in an amazing way.

It was some time around the 28th November 1244 CE when Shams first spoke to Rumi as the scholar  was riding past on his mule, followed by his disciples. Shams had taken hold of the mule’s bridle and had challenged Rumi with some paradoxical questions that had shocked the intellectual faculties of Rumi to such a degree that he had fainted.

When Rumi awoke he invited Shams home to come and discuss things with him and the pair spent the next several weeks engaged in metaphysical, spiritual, philosophical and scientific discussion. Shams had found one whom he knew had greater potential than himself, Rumi had found one who could take his spiritual understanding to levels he had not imagined existed and had lit a spiritual light in Rumi and a new wonderful awareness of the Divine, an awestruck sense of love and wonder of God.

Rumi emerged into a new stage of his life in which he moved beyond being an exoteric (external) master of the religion to becoming an esoteric (internal) one. Through the influence of Shams he was struck with an outpouring of ideas and understandings that he would turn into beautiful poetry as a means of expressing it.
Rumi's poetry would be filled with an outpouring of wisdom, expressed through the means of metaphor and story.

In 1246 CE Shams disappeared, it was not the first time he had done so, but this time he did not reappear again with stories of travels, or travels unspoken of. This time he did not return. Mevlana Rumi mourned Sham's disappearance greatly as to him he had become a spiritual father and friend of unimaginable value. Rumi now put on a simple hat and made this his way of dressing, and a wide cloak and many of his followers have dressed this way ever since.

Rumi’s spiritual outpouring continued and his poetry would be recorded in his great Mathnavi, a book which  would often transport the inner meanings of Islamic spirituality to all types of people, be they Muslims or non-Muslims. It would become known not only as a great work of spiritual science but also as a wonderful work of Persian poetry. Rumi's influence would become a benevolent light that would spread both love of God, brotherly love and love and mercy for the creatures in many places for many long years. It still does. 

Further reading Rumi on Abode of Mercy

Risal-i Nur, a Great Work

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (ra) was a deep thinker and a very merciful soul who read the Holy Qur’an deeply and through his reading of it new understandings and thoughts would come to him. He would recite these inspirations to his disciples who would write them down, storing them like gems.

Bediuzzaman first began to write, explaining the truths of the Holy Qur’an, even during the first world war when he lead a band of volunteers as they defended Turkey, teaching even whilst he and his companions were under fire or on horseback. 

These inspired explanations Bediuzzaman made of the Holy Quran developed into a great treatise called the Risale-i Nur, through which he expounded and explained the truths of real Islam in terms that modern people could understand.

Bediuzzaman was a man of worship, agape love and humanity, whose teachings reach beyond his locality and are as beneficial for people of the West as they are for the people of the East.

The Risale-i-Nur explained ultimate truths and demonstrated the superiority of the Divine Inspiration (that lead to the Revelation of the Divine Scriptures such as the Holy Qur’an and Bible) over man made moral and existential philosophies.

Bediuzzaman explained in many ways that the Messages from God (that are the Divine Scriptures) provide the moral and spiritual guidance that people need, whilst science and philosophy can only ever bring true benefits when they are used in harmony with this reality. 

Through the study of the Risale-i Nur we may gain a new understanding of human life and our needs in this modern age.

Further viewing...

From the Risale-i Nur

Who was Bediuzzaman Nursi?

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (ra) (1873-1960 CE) was a great spiritual thinker of the 20th century CE who wrote a important commentary on the Holy Qur’an which is called the Risale e Nur (or the treatise of light). Through this work he helped keep the light of real Islam awake in the hearts of many Turks during dark days when that land was dominated by harsh hearted secular fundamentalists.

Bediuzzaman was a great spiritual teacher who came from very humble origins, born of a devout Kurdish village family in beautiful Eastern Anatolia, he grew from very humane and spiritual roots.

Bediuzzaman lived a long time and saw the fading of the Ottoman Caliphate, the occupation of Turkey by the hostile powers and the rise and development of the Turkish Republic. At first he faced many years of oppression in the Republican period. It was launched against him by the secular fundamentalist Republican Peoples’ Party, but later the arrival of the Democrat party saw the start of the very gradual rebirth of true Turkey, and Bediuzzaman's writings were at the heart of this rebirth.

The monumental Risale e Nur is a book that teaches genuine Orthodox Islam in a way compatible with the modern age and comprehensible to modern minded people.

Further Reading Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (ra) on Islam & Spirituality

Viewing A Luminary of his times 

About

Come, come, whoever you are.
Wayfarer, worshipper, lover of life, 

it doesn't matter
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come even if you've broken vows a thousand times,
Come and yet again come.

 (Rumi) 

Hold on to God’s Mercy

the Handhold

that Doesn’t Break

Race each other to forgiveness

from your Lord

and a Garden as wide as the

Heavens and the Earth,

prepared for the dutiful

(Surah Imran 133)

And whoso does good works,

whether of male or female,

and he (or she) is a believer,

such will enter paradise

and they will not be wronged

the dint in a date- stone.

(Surah an Nisa 124)

..Their Lord gives them good tidings of mercy from Him, and acceptance,

and Gardens where enduring pleasure will be theirs;

There they will abide for ever.

Lo! with God there is immense reward.

(Surah Taubah 21-2)

Greetings, salutations and welcome to my blog.  It is a blog about Islamic spirituality and various spiritual and social issues. It is particularly inspired by the writings of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (ra) and Mevlana Jelalludeen Rumi (ra) and the many other wise benevolent sages of the religion. 

It is a blog that I have been drawn to create due to an inner urge to try and spread some of the light of Islam around (InshaAllah), in this time in which worldliness and materialism are running rampant in mens’ hearts.

This may seem to be a grand and unusual project for a bufoon such as myself, but its worth a try.

The means by which I intend to work towards my goal (God willing) are to tactfully reproduce some basic Islamic knowledge for readers, knowledge gathered from sound Islamic sources.

Much of the material that I am using is from a booklet for new Muslims that I have been trying to write (writing, deleting, re-writing, adding new things, removing things, correcting things as I became less ignorant, deleting and otherwise playing with and trying to improve) in the past several years. The rest is either new or reused from a blog a I had some years back.

To attain true health every human being needs to develop a good relationship with their Creator, Cherisher and Sustainer – God, the Merciful and Compassionate.

Through obeying and nurturing their relationship with God people grow in wisdom and spiritual health. By learning to rely upon Him and ask Him for help and guidance a person benefits in more ways than they can imagine.

For spiritual health we need to remember that we are His servants and whilst He rejects the haughty people who try to compete or argue with Him, He accepts the humble people who surrender to him in faith, because that is what true faith is, submission to the Creator.

Truly, we need to remember that we become close to God by learning and following in the ways of His Messengers and remembering his life, reflecting upon it in relation to our own lives.

When we nurture our relationship with God we can become people who spiritually feel faith as well as practice it. We can gain a sense of acceptance in regards to God’s decree and trust in Him that He will look after us and coming from this are peace of mind, confidence, strength and the capacity of mercy and tolerance towards others.

We can all surrender to our Creator and make friends with Him in our hearts if we let ourselves. Make and maintain this connection, as it is the most important connection in your life.

Say: He is Allah, the One!

Allah , the eternally Besought of all!

He begets not nor was begotten.

And there is none comparable to Him.

(Holy Qur’an Surah Ikhlas)