Listen: Commentary on the Spiritual Couplets of Mevlana Rumi

by Kenan Rifai, Victoria Rowe Holbrook (Translation)

An exceptional contribution to the understanding of a key figure in Islamic mysticism, this book offers a 20th century commentary—by the eminent Sufi and spiritual guide Kenan Rifai—on Jalal ad-Din Rumi’s 13th-century Spiritual Couplets , or Masnavi . Symbolically connecting the long poem to Qur’anic passages, hadiths, and other poems by Sufi masters, this enlightening reference answers the most tortuous of problems and guides one to comprehend the meaning of life. A rigorous translation of Rumi’s original work is also included.

Genres: Islam

560 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2011

Reviews

[Luqdah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kenan Rifa's commentary on Rumi’s Masnavi left me wondering how far he had come personally with divesting himself from the blemishes of the nafs that plague the human spirit. For example, he seems to have no qualms about expressing his racism toward Indians and Africans. He cites Rumi's portrayal of Luqman as an enslaved person, which the Quran never states Luqman’s ethnicity nor his status as an enslaved person or free. (Page 463)
Rifa says, “Luqman was despised both by his master and his master’s other slave. This reason for this was his pathetic physique and very dark skin. Luqman was an Ethiopian and the slave of a Damascene Arab.”
Nowhere even in the Masnavi does Rumi infer Luqman's race not his physical attributes as being ugly. He only says he is “ dark-skinned as the night.”