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Rumi's Spiritual Milieu
What do we need to know to receive the knowledge that Rumi offers us?
First of all, it needs to be understood that Rumi's tradition is not an "Eastern" tradition. It is neither of the East
nor of the West, but something in between. Rumi's mother-tongue was Persian, an Indo-European language strongly influenced
by Semitic (Arabic) vocabulary, something like French with a smattering of Hebrew.
Furthermore, the Islamic tradition, which shaped him, acknowledges that only one religion has been given to mankind through
countless prophets, or messengers, who have come to every people on earth bearing this knowledge of Spirit. God is the subtle
source of all life, Whose essence cannot be described or compared to anything, but Who can be known through the spiritual
qualities that are manifest in the world and in the human heart. It is a deeply mystical tradition, on the one hand, with
a strong and clear emphasis on human dignity and social justice, on the other.
Islam is understood as a continuation of the Judeo-Christian or Abrahamic tradition, honoring the Hebrew prophets, as
well as Jesus and Mary. Muslims, however, are very sensitive to the issue of attributing divinity to a human being, which
they see as the primary error of Christianity. although Jesus is called the in the Qur'an "the Spirit of God," it would
be thought a blasphemy to identify any human being exclusively as God. Muhammad is viewed as the last of those human prophets
who brought the message of God's love.
In Rumi's world, the Islamic way of life had established a high level of spiritual awareness among the general population.
The average person would be someone who performed regular ablutions and prayed five times a day, fasted from food and drink
during the daylight hours for at least one month a year, and closely followed a code which emphasized the continual remembrance
of God, intention, integrity, generosity, and respect for all life. Although the Mathnawi can appeal to us on many
levels, it assumes a rather high level of spiritual awareness as a starting point and extends to the very highest levels of
spiritual understanding.
The unenlightened human state is one of "faithlessness" in which an individual lives in slavery to the false self and
the desires of the materials world. The spiritual practices which Rumi would have known were aimed at transforming the compulsiveness
of the false self and attaining Islam or "Submission" to a higher order of reality. Without this submission the real self
is enslaved to the ego and lives in a state of internal conflict due to the contradictory impulses of the ego. The enslaved
ego is cut off from the heart, the chief organ for perceiving reality, and cannot receive the spiritual guidance and nourishment
which the heart provides.
Overcoming this enslavement and false separation leads to the realization and development of our true humanity. spiritual
maturity is the realization that the self is a reflection of the Divine. God is the Beloved or Friend, the transpersonal identity.
Love of God leads to the lover forgetting himself in the love of the Beloved.
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