What do you think?
Rate this book
Rumi
Rumi, a 13th-century mystic, is the acknowledged master of Sufi philosophy, an Islamic mystical movement rejecting ritual and seeking a return to primitive simplicity. His purpose was not to convince people of the truth by argument, but rather to show them how to encounter the truth themselves. His favorite method of philosophical discourse was story-telling.
Paperback
Published January 1, 1998
1 person is currently reading
39 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 17, 2025
“From time to time heartache ambushes you, attacking your sense of joy. Do not worry: it is preparing you for deeper happiness. Heartache sweeps away the false joys that had obsessed you, and compels you to seek solace in the only true source of joy - God herself. It shakes the yellow leaves from your spiritual tree, so fresh green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the old roots of happiness, so that new roots can push downwards, deep into the soil of ecstasy. Heartache extracts many things from the heart, so that far better things can take their place.”
We’ve a small collection of Sufi poets in our library and I decided as the world goes to hell I should read them, so I picked up this small volume as it was easy to carry and could thus be read in awkward breaks of time (waiting in lines, etc). But it was not the selection of inspiring, deep sigh Rumi I’d hoped for, in fact some of it was quite didactic. I did learn some of his fascinating backstory, though.
Born in Afghanistan, Rumi was forced from home with his father, a traditional Islamic religious teacher, into a peripatetic life by Genghis Khan’s Mongol invaders. The hordes murdered Rumi’s mother when he was 12. This sent the two of them off on their peregrinations.
First Iran - where Rumi received a book of poetry from Attar which deeply moved him. Poetry from Iran, of course! No place loves and reveres their poets like Iran. Then to Baghdad (Iraq) which they found uncomfortably opulent and so quickly moved on to Saudi Arabia, Syria, then Armenia where they temporarily settled and Rumi married. He became a teacher, eventually earning an invitation to teach at the royal court in Rum (present day Konya) in Turkey. Both Rumi and his father chose Rum as their home and, for Rumi it became his name.
For years Rumi was a “regular” Islamic scholar and spiritual teacher only distinguished by his sharp intellect and the depth of his religious learning. But in 1244 an eccentric Sufi named Shams arrived in Rum and radically changed how Rumi thought. Rumi invited Shams to live with him and gave up teaching. His students were beyond pissed. They threatened Shams and chased him out of town. Shams decided to run away to Damascus.
Rumi was very distraught by this turn of events and sent his eldest son to Damascus to bring Shams back to Rum which he did. But by now leading town figures in Rum were suspicious and threatened to arrest Shams, so this time, when he left he made sure he couldn’t be found.
Nonetheless, even without the physical presence of his mystifying, whacky friend Rumi was never to return to his former self; his previous arid doctrines of orthodox theology were gone. Shams had changed Rumi’s mind forever.
“The sober lecturer had become the ecstatic mystic.”
Rumi was now singing and whirling and dancing - frenzied with joy.
His old students were simply appalled and left.
But others came.
You know the rest of the story: Rumi formed a new Sufi brotherhood, the Mevlevis, with their distinctive dances: the Whirling Dervishes, he sang love songs to God, and became the Rumi we love.
"Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment"
We’ve a small collection of Sufi poets in our library and I decided as the world goes to hell I should read them, so I picked up this small volume as it was easy to carry and could thus be read in awkward breaks of time (waiting in lines, etc). But it was not the selection of inspiring, deep sigh Rumi I’d hoped for, in fact some of it was quite didactic. I did learn some of his fascinating backstory, though.
Born in Afghanistan, Rumi was forced from home with his father, a traditional Islamic religious teacher, into a peripatetic life by Genghis Khan’s Mongol invaders. The hordes murdered Rumi’s mother when he was 12. This sent the two of them off on their peregrinations.
First Iran - where Rumi received a book of poetry from Attar which deeply moved him. Poetry from Iran, of course! No place loves and reveres their poets like Iran. Then to Baghdad (Iraq) which they found uncomfortably opulent and so quickly moved on to Saudi Arabia, Syria, then Armenia where they temporarily settled and Rumi married. He became a teacher, eventually earning an invitation to teach at the royal court in Rum (present day Konya) in Turkey. Both Rumi and his father chose Rum as their home and, for Rumi it became his name.
For years Rumi was a “regular” Islamic scholar and spiritual teacher only distinguished by his sharp intellect and the depth of his religious learning. But in 1244 an eccentric Sufi named Shams arrived in Rum and radically changed how Rumi thought. Rumi invited Shams to live with him and gave up teaching. His students were beyond pissed. They threatened Shams and chased him out of town. Shams decided to run away to Damascus.
Rumi was very distraught by this turn of events and sent his eldest son to Damascus to bring Shams back to Rum which he did. But by now leading town figures in Rum were suspicious and threatened to arrest Shams, so this time, when he left he made sure he couldn’t be found.
Nonetheless, even without the physical presence of his mystifying, whacky friend Rumi was never to return to his former self; his previous arid doctrines of orthodox theology were gone. Shams had changed Rumi’s mind forever.
“The sober lecturer had become the ecstatic mystic.”
Rumi was now singing and whirling and dancing - frenzied with joy.
His old students were simply appalled and left.
But others came.
You know the rest of the story: Rumi formed a new Sufi brotherhood, the Mevlevis, with their distinctive dances: the Whirling Dervishes, he sang love songs to God, and became the Rumi we love.
"Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment"
Displaying 1 of 1 review