Rumi

Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 1273), also called by the honorific Mawlana (Our Master), is a jurist, poet and one of the leading luminaries of Sufism. His masterpiece, the Masnavi-ye Manavi (Spiritual Couplets), is a didactic epic that is famous for his lyrics, which dives deep into the heart of the Islamic tradition with an outlook of love, tenderness, justice, compassion and God’s mercy. It widely influenced mystical thought and literature throughout the Muslim world. After his death, his disciples were organized as the Mawlawiyyah order.

By the end of the 20th century, his popularity had become a global phenomenon, with his poetry achieving a wide circulation in Western Europe and the U.S. The heart of the teachings charts how Rumi’s poetry is in reality a journey from the state of brokenness to healing, from feeling cut off and isolated from God to that of reconciliation inside our own selves and with others we hold in enmity to form a beloved community. His teachings offer participants the opportunity to go deep into love as a redemptive and transformative divine force.

Rumi’s tradition of love is one that conceives of love not as an emotion, not as a feeling, but rather as an eruption of God’s own being that brings us into this world, sustains us here, and will deliver us back home.

Commensurate with its mission, Rumi Forum takes its name from the 13th century Sufi scholar, philosopher, and poet Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi, whose reach embraced all humanity as personified by his message:

“Come, come, whoever you are.

Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving.

It doesn’t matter.

Ours is not a caravan of despair.

Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times.

Come, yet again, come, come.”