Reviews of Religious Ground and Sufism .1 Religious Ground
way how to deeply recognize God by communing with Him instead of doing a tasteless or empty rituals of conventional religions:
While the Moslem Scriptures prescribe in detail the religious duties incumbent upon the believer, and regulate his behavior as a servant of God and a member
of the faithful community, we are not immediately concerned here to summarize this aspect of the Koran. We are interested rather to examine those
passage beloved by the Sufis as testifying to God’s Nature and Attributes, His self-revelation to mankind through the voice of Gabriel the angel speaking
to Mohammed. For these mystical texts are the chief encouragement and justification of the Sufi in his belief that he also may commune with God
1950: 16-17.
In the same book, Arberry also explains that the Sufis seem to notice the essential message through a deep comprehension of the Koran. Such knowledge of
the essence of God takes the Sufis to start and continue their appreciation toward God:
Remember God often is a phrase which constantly recurs in the Koran: in its context it has an obvious, neutral meaning, but the Sufis interpreted it in a
special way, and the word “remembrance” dhikir acquired in time a very particular connotation. “Everything upon the earth passeth away, save His
Face” seem where it stands to be innocent of all but its apparent intention;it is taken by the Sufis as the peg upon which to hang their characteristic doctrine
of the passing away fana’ of human attributes through union with God, whereby the mystic achieves the eternal continuance baqa’ of spiritual life
in Him Arberry, 1950:22
The characteristic of the Sufi order is that there is the existence of a master shaykh or pir and “apprentice” murid relationship. An “apprentice” places himself
under the spiritual direction of a “Master” shaykh or pir. This is a very esoteric and private relationship between them. The relationship, then, advances into the teaching
of the values of life and also spirituality. It concerns such topics as: mystical experience, education of the heart to rid itself of its lowermost instincts, the love of
God, and especially the approach towards God through a series of progressive stages
or stations and states.
The basic belief of Sufism is Love, since love is a projection of the essence of God to the Universe. Sufis believe that everything is a reflection of God. The Sufi
conception of divine love is not restricted to what the term of love of God implies; it also includes human loves with a perspective that views everything a manifestation
of God. The importance of Sufis is that they inspire man to lift his eyes to what exists beyond the physical world. Sufis believe that love is the most evident when the
object of love is absent. The chief aim of all Sufis then is to let go of all notions of ‘duality’ and
therefore of the individual self also, and realize the divine unity which is considered to be the truth. Islam, in general, believe that Humans are God’s slaves. However, as
it is said above, Sufism does not believe in the duality which means God and humans are separated. Humans and God are One; and this also includes everything in this
material world, as it was there before God created us. Humans come from God and must return to God whatever the way. Since Sufis follow that principles, God and
humans are one, Sufism’s rituals, teachings and aims are to be united with God. The desire to experience God, the Creator, the Supreme Entity has brought about
transcendent experiences. When they unite with God, the experience, then, is called a mystical experience.
However, as the consequence of the Sufis’ intimacy with God, they have never argued the different ways that people from different religions choose in
establishing their relationship to their God. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
2.3 The Life and the Work of Jalaluddin Rumi 2.3.1 The Life
Persian and Afghanis call Rumi “Jelaluddin Balkhi”. He was born on
September 30, 1207, in Balkh, Afghanistan, which was then part of the Persian Empire. The name Rumi means “from Roman Anatolia.” He was not known by that
name, of course, until after his family, fleeing the threat of the invading Mongols armies, emigrated to Konya, Turkey, sometime between 1215 and 1220. Due to
Rumi’s years in which he fled to safe places to avoid the destructive army of Mongols, Rumi and the Sufis group “performing the pilgrimage to Mecca, returning
northward to Syria and Asia Minor, visiting Sufi centres” Shah, 1964: 132-133. This information may lead us logically to think that in the journey to find a safe place
to reside, he stayed in or, at least was familiar with the tavern, since a tavern in early times was a hut placed at caravan stops in the Middle East for the shelter of traders
and travellers. So, Rumi might have been familiar with taverns as a result of his travels from one country to another to find a safe place to stay due to the massive
destruction of the Mongol army’s invasion of Persia and the Near-East in 1215-1220. It might help us to analyze the significance of a tavern in Rumi’s poem.
His father, Bahauddin Walad, was a theologian and jurist and a mystic of uncertain linage. Bahauddin Walad’s Maarif, a collection of notes, diarylike remarks,
sermons, and strange accounts of visionary experiences, has shocked most of the conventional scholars who have tried to understand them. He shows an astonishingly
sensual freedom in stating his union with God. Rumi was instructed in his father’s secret inner life by a former student of his father, Burhanuddin Mahaqqiq. Burhan
and Rumi also studied Sanai and Attar. At his father’s death Rumi took over the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
position of sheikh in the dervish learning community in Konya. His life seems to have been a fairly normal one for a religious scholar – teaching, meditating, helping
the poor- until in the late fall of 1244 when he met stranger who put a question to him. That stranger was the wandering dervish, Shams of Tabriz, who had travelled
throughout the Middle East searching and praying for someone who could “endure his company.
There are various versions of this encounter, but whatever the facts, Shams and Rumi became inseparable. Their friendship is one of the mysteries. They spent
months together without any human needs, transported into region of pure conversation. This ecstatic connection caused difficulties in the religious community.
Rumi’s students felt neglected. Sensing the trouble, Shams disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared. Annemarie Schimmel, a scholar immersed for forty years in the
works of Rumi, thinks that it was at this first disappearance that Rumi began the transformation into a mystical artist. “He turned into a poet, began to listen to music,
and sang, whirling around, hour after hour.” What makes Rumi’s mysticism different from any other mystics is that his
relationship with Shams is considered as a homosexual relationship which makes both Rumi’s family and his scholars suspicious and envy about their togetherness, as
it was said by Rumi: “You are the light of my house, don’t go away and leave me alone Iqbal, 1983: 115.
According to Iqbal, it cannot be argued that both Rumi and Shams were looking for the essence of life, as it is stated below:
Rumi, himself on a high spiritual pedestal was restless and was in quest of a man worthy of his confidence and so also was Shams. Both were men of great
spiritual eminence and, when they met, they naturally discovered each other PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
on account of their highly developed sense of intuition. Each of them felt like a traveller who reaches his destination after years of labour and toil. Perfect
harmony was established between two. Both found the long-sought-for confidant in each other, and they opened out their hearts as they would do to
no one else. The meeting brought about a unique peace and restlessness. Iqbal, 1983: 113-114
According to Iqbal, there are some reasons why Shams was not welcomed by the people closed to Rumi in Konya, namely:
ait was under his influence that Rumi gave up the professional gown for a peculiar dress of dervish; b to all appearances Shams did not rigorously
follow the Islamic tenets and sometimes he uttered words which ordinary people attributed to irreligion; c to a casual observer Shams gave the
impression that he did not care much about Islamic discipline Iqbal, 1983: 119-120.
Word came that Shams was in Damascus. Rumi sent his son, Sultan Velad, to Syria to bring his Friend back to Konya. When Rumi and Shams met for the second
time, they fell at each other’s feet, so that “no one knew who was lover and who the beloved.” Shams stayed in Rumi’s home and was married to a young girl who had
been brought up in the family. Again the long mystical conversation sohbet began, and again the jealousies grew.
On the night of December 5, 1248, as Rumi and Shams were talking, Shams was called to the back door. He went out, never to be seen again. Most likely, he was
murdered with the involvement of Rumi’s son, Allaedin; if so, Shams indeed gave his head for the privilege of mystical Friendship.
The mystery of the Friend’s absence covered Rumi’s world. He himself went out searching for Shams and went for journey again to Damascus. It was there that he
realized and he wrote the poems as follow: Why should I seek? I am the same as
he. His essence speaks through me. I have been looking for myself
The Union became complete. There was full fana, annihilation in the Friend. Shams was writing the poems. Rumi called the huge collection of his odes and
quatrains The Works of Shams of Tabriz. After Sham’s death and Rumi’s reunion with him, another companion was
found, Saladin Zarkub, the goldsmith. Saladin became the Friend to whom Rumi addressed his poems, not so fierily as to Shams, but with quiet tenderness. When
Saladin died, Husam Chelebi, Rumi’s scribe and favourite student, assumed this role. Rumi claimed that Husam was the source, the one who understood the vast, secret
order of the Mathnawi, that great work that shifts so fantastically from theory to folklore to jokes to ecstatic poetry. For the last twelve years of his life, Rumi dictated
the six volumes of this master-work to Husam. He died on December 17, 1273.