Rumi’s Love Poems

Mawlana studied in Aleppo and Damascus for many years, and afterwards, he taught jurisprudence and religious sciences there. Apparently, Mawlana’s first encounter with Shams was in Damascus, but they also had subsequent meetings. After that (talk and absolute seclusion) in which he (lost himself and also heard what no one had heard from anyone else), Mawlana’s manner and method changed. Instead of preaching and leading prayers, he began listening to music and founded the practice of whirling and dancing, and instead of school and debate, he lent his ear to the soul-stirring melodies and heart-pleasing tunes of the reed. It is said that Shams was about 60 years old when he met Mawlana, a simple and mysterious dervish. Shams was indifferent to appearances and (had moved beyond the approval and disapproval of the short-sighted). After getting to know Shams Tabrizi and conversing with him, Mawlana became so enamored and infatuated with him that he put aside debate and teaching and spent all his time in the company of Shams Tabrizi. This attachment between Shams and Mawlana incited the jealousy of Mawlana’s disciples to the extent that they plotted Shams’s murder. There are various accounts of the success or failure of this plot, but what is important is Mawlana’s distress. After Shams’s absence, Mawlana composed the most passionate love poems. A scholar and mystic like Mawlana was knowledgeable of transmitted, rational, acquired, and discovered sciences, but someone like Shams taught him the art of living with love. This book is a selection of Mawlana’s love poems.