Salaam and Greetings of Peace:
Throughout his long life – he lived to be about 80 years old – Baha al-Din Valad, the father of Jalal al-Din Rumi, was both a Sufi mystic, though he did not belong to any particular Order, and a Koran scholar and teacher. And for much of his lifelong spiritual quest, he kept a journal, the Ma’aref, in which he noted his spiritual progress and much more. Here is a small but poignant excerpt on what he had to say about the Holy Koran to which he devoted his life.
“Always busy yourself with the word of the Koran, and know that the meaning of the whole world is in that one word of the Koran.”
“I have followed the entire Koran and found that the gist of every verse and story is this:
O servant, cut yourself off from all but Me, for that which you attain through others, you will attain through me without obligation to anyone else. And that which you will attain through Me, you will attain through no one else. You who follow Me, follow Me more closely.”
“Prayer is joining with God and alms is joining with God and fasting is joining with God.” These are the means of joining with God, and every joining brings with it joy, just as sitting next to a beloved brings joy and resting your head on her shoulder brings joy. Whether you read from the beginning of the Koran or from the end of the Koran, the Koran says this:
O you who are sundered from Me, join Me, for He who is separated from the Living One is of the dead.”
– Baha al-Din Valad, the father of Rumi, in his spiritual journal, the Ma’aref (from Franklin D. Lewis’s magnificent scholarly study, Rumi: Past and Present, East and West – The Life, Teachings and Poetry of Jalal al-Din Rumi)
Ya Haqq!
Note: I have used the English spelling of Koran, instead of the perhaps more phonetically accurate Qu’ran, only because that is the way Professor Lewis spelled it in the book.
Darvish
Rumi’s Father Baha al-Din on Reading the Koran
April 15, 2012Salaam and Greetings of Peace:
Throughout his long life – he lived to be about 80 years old – Baha al-Din Valad, the father of Jalal al-Din Rumi, was both a Sufi mystic, though he did not belong to any particular Order, and a Koran scholar and teacher. And for much of his lifelong spiritual quest, he kept a journal, the Ma’aref, in which he noted his spiritual progress and much more. Here is a small but poignant excerpt on what he had to say about the Holy Koran to which he devoted his life.
“Always busy yourself with the word of the Koran, and know that the meaning of the whole world is in that one word of the Koran.”
“I have followed the entire Koran and found that the gist of every verse and story is this:
O servant, cut yourself off from all but Me, for that which you attain through others, you will attain through me without obligation to anyone else. And that which you will attain through Me, you will attain through no one else. You who follow Me, follow Me more closely.”
“Prayer is joining with God and alms is joining with God and fasting is joining with God.” These are the means of joining with God, and every joining brings with it joy, just as sitting next to a beloved brings joy and resting your head on her shoulder brings joy. Whether you read from the beginning of the Koran or from the end of the Koran, the Koran says this:
O you who are sundered from Me, join Me, for He who is separated from the Living One is of the dead.”
– Baha al-Din Valad, the father of Rumi, in his spiritual journal, the Ma’aref (from Franklin D. Lewis’s magnificent scholarly study, Rumi: Past and Present, East and West – The Life, Teachings and Poetry of Jalal al-Din Rumi)
Ya Haqq!
Note: I have used the English spelling of Koran, instead of the perhaps more phonetically accurate Qu’ran, only because that is the way Professor Lewis spelled it in the book.