A page of a copy c. 1503 of the Diwan-e Shams-e Tabriz-i.
Bring all those who are led astray, out of the desert…
when Rumi was a refugee fleeing the Mongol armies
from Balkh to Istanbul and Konya
his Sufi dancing dervishes, music of the forbidden dohl drum
his poetry of kindness, was for every heart and every breath—
it worked for Islam like water, not a hammer
where the Sufi knows human weakness
and the unauthorised drum beats like a heart beats
his words offer an opening for kindness—
let us not worry so much about who we think we are—
if you are not the enemy, then we make the best of it.
in kindness Albert Einstein wrote to Marie Curie
with advice on how to handle haters,
Mark Twain wrote to Helen Keller, Frida Kahlo to Georgia O’Keeffe,
all allowing kindness, working like water—
when we hear the hate preachers where we should be hearing love,
we still have Rumi, the ultimate refugee
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Rumi (1207-17 December 1273) 13th C Persian poet, Islamic scholar and theologian, Sufi mystic. Born in Balkh, Afghanistan, buried in Konya, Turkey. When the Mongols invaded Central Asia around 1215 the family set out in caravan migrating and moving all over the area now containing Baghdad, Damascus, Mecca and finally settled in Anatolia (now Turkey) in 1228.
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Rumi, an ascetic, believed passionately in the use of music, poetry, and dance as a path for reaching God, the Divine, hence the whirling dervishes developed into a ritual form, to be of service to the whole of creation without discrimination in beliefs, races, classes and nations.
– Sandra Renew
© 2016, words, Sanda Renew; illustration is in the public domain
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