Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi

Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi or Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi {{ref|Translit}} ?????? ???? ????? ???? ???? (September 30, 1207–December 17, 1273 CE) (also known as Mawlawi or Mawlana, meaning our guide or our lord in Arabic and Persian, or Mevlana meaning our guide in Turkish) was a Persian Muslim jurist, theologian, poet and Sufi mystic, who was born in Balkh (then a city of the Greater Khorasan province of Persia (Iran), now part of Afghanistan) and died in Konya (in present-day Turkey, then within the Seljuk Empire's territory). His birth place and native tongue points towards a Persian heritage. He also wrote his poetry in Persian, and is read widely in Iran and Afghanistan where the language is spoken. Yet, he is adored to such a degree that citizens of the modern Turkey, Pakistan, and India sometimes consider him one of their own.

Teachings of Rumi

The general theme of his thoughts, like that of the other mystic and Sufi poets of the Persian literature, is essentially about the concept of Tawheed (unity) and union with his beloved (the primal root) from which/whom he has been cut and fallen aloof, and his longing and desire for reunity.

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:I am (only) the house of your beloved,

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:not the beloved (herself):

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:true love is for the treasure,

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:not for the coffer (that contains it).

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:The (real) beloved is that one who is unique,

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:who is your beginning and end.

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:When you find him,

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:you will not remain in expectation(of anything else):

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:he is both the manifest and also the mystery.

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:He is the lord of states of feeling,

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:not dependent on any state;

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:month and year are slaves to that Moon.

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:When he bids the "state,"

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:it does his bidding;

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:when he wills,he makes body (become) spirit.

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:Mathnawi III, 1417-1424

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