In generosity and helping others, be like the river. In compassion and grace, be like the sun. In concealing others' faults, be like the night. In anger and fury, be like the dead. In modesty and humility, be like the soil. In tolerance, be like the ocean. Either appear as you are or be as you appear.
Mevlana Jalaladdin Rumi, described as "the greatest mystical poet of the world" by the renowned authority on mystical eastern literature Andrew Harvey, was commemorated on the occasion of the 735th anniversary of his death in ceremonies across Turkey in 2008. What made this year's commemoration more meaningful was that it was attended by the crown prince of Dubai, Sheikh Al Maktoum. Finding renewed inspiration around the call of Mevlana presents an opportunity for the Islamic world, which has in recent years been associated only with terrorism by the West. Mevlana famously spells out endless tolerance to all, and it would be hoped that these words should permeate across all borders today:
Come, come again, whoever you are, come! Heathen, fire worshipper or idolatrous, come! Come even if you broke your penitence a hundred times, Ours is the portal of hope, come as you are.
In fact, Mevlana's life contains many messages that merit attention and carries great relevance, even today. Mevlana (1207- 1273) was born in Belh city in the Horasan region, part of Afghanistan. He described his life as a journey seeking purification of the soul from bad habits through Sufism and summarized the process of finding knowledge on this journey the words: "I was raw, became done, and then was burned".
Mevlana's father, Sultânü'I-Ulemâ Bahaeddin Veled, was the emir of Belh, but was forced to leave the city because of the oncoming Mongol invasion. This is how the long journey of the young Mevlana began.
Nisabur was the first stop. From there, the family went to Baghdad, then to Mecca (Ka'be), the gathering and pilgrimage place for all Muslims, via Kufe, the holy city of the Shiites in Iraq. Baghdad was destined to be the next stop of the Mongol barbarians that Mevlana had barely escaped.
Damascus was the next stop after Mecca, after which the family reached their final destination: Anatolia. A significant part of Anatolia was under the control of the Seljuk Sultanate, with the city of Konya as the capital. Konya was rich in significant works of art and was crowded with scientists and artists. This was the golden age of Seljuk rule and was at the height of civilization. Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad invited Sultânü'I-Ulemâ Bahaeddin Veled and his son to settle in Konya.
Bahaeddin Veled accepted the sultan's invitation and on May 3, 1228, came to Konya with his family and friends. Sultan Alaeddin greeted the family with a fabulous ceremony and assigned Altunapa (Iplikcii) Madrasah as the residence of the family. Sultânü'I-Ulemâ died in Konya on January 12, 1231, and the rose garden of the Seljuk Palace was chosen as his resting place. .
After the death of Sultânü'I-Ulemâ, his pupils and followers gathered around Mevlana. Throughout his 42 years of teaching at the madras, Mevlana invited people to practice tolerance towards one another. When he died, he left behind an incredible philosophy and thousands of believers.
According to Mevlana, death does not mean extinction; rather, it is a wedding day, a ceremony for reunion. He was a philosopher who sought truth through love. His message rings with truth and tolerance. He said "whoever you are in the past, this should not push you into desperation, as long as you repent, that is to say that the door is open to you if you would like to come here and not return who you were in the past". But we should not understand the words "whoever you are, come" to mean that a person cannot and should not change for the better. In this sense, his approach is dialectic.
The commemoration of Mevlana's death is named as "seb-i aruz", which means wedding night. Death for Mevlana meant meeting the loved one, and for him, this meant God. He is commemorated with spectacular shows of ‘semazen' (whirling dervishes) at the heart of Turkey in Konya. ‘Sema' is the ritual for cleansing the soul to reach true knowledge. One hand, pointed to the sky, represents eternity, while other hands points to the land. Whirling around themselves, dervishes cleanse their soul under this divine mystery.
Just as Europeans turn to Shakespeare, Goethe, Mozart, Plato to fuel progress, eastern philosophy turns its face to Fuzuli, Farabi, Yunus Emre and Mevlana. Both Mevlana and Goethe expressed the same essential principle, when the former said, "Man is the mirror of man" and the latter said that man knows himself only inasmuch as he knows others. In Mevlana's philosophy hatred and animosity blinds the eye, and is teachings are like a ray of hope for those who try to shape the world with guns and bombs. Those who discriminate against people who have a different religion, language and ethnicity, should not deny the understanding that sees theses differences as riches. Today, those who are trying to connect Islam with terrorism and spread Islamofobia, should turn once again, or maybe for the first time, to Mevlana.
Mevlana's Sufism and humanism based on love and tolerance stands rigidly against those who want to vilify Islam via terror or transform Islam into a regime of oppression.
Throughout his life, Mevlana never abided with the conventional rules that were peculiar to religious orders and never established rules for membership of his own. For example, there were neither a membership ceremony nor did he choose to separate his sect with a different clothing code like other sects did at the time. The only known practice for new followers was the ceremony of clipping a small amount of their hair, beard, mustache and eyebrow. Those, who were granted the status of caliph were dressed with the ‘ferec' -a large sleeved, open jacket without a collar
Mevlana's teachings later became the foundation for the order of the Mevlevi, ‘Mevlevilik', established by his son Sultan Walad after Mevlana's death. The ultimate goal of Sufism is to enable the individual to reach his inner self and Truth. In order to reach the truth, the individual does not need to resort to practices that go against human nature. Suffering is not the main artery that reaches truth; the real pathway is unlimited tolerance, kindness, charity and of course, reason.