Rumi - Masnavi of Rumi: VOLUME TWO Books Four, Five & Six

Jalal-ud-dinRumi was born in 1207 in Balkh. This city was then in the Persian province ofKhorasan but is now in Afghanistan. Balkh was a prominent city at that time andhis family had a tradition of service there in both legal and religiousoffices. Despite this he moved when about eleven with his family away fromBalkh so as to avoid the warlike Mongols. They travelled to Baghdad, to Meccaon pilgrimage, to Damascus and eventually settled near Konya, Turkey.

On the road to Anatolia, Jalal-ud-din andhis father had encountered one of the most famous mystic Persian poets, Faridad-din Attar, in the city of Nishapur. Attar immediately recognised the boysspiritual status. He saw Baha-ud-din, walking ahead of his son and said, Herecomes a sea followed by an ocean. He gave Jalal-ud-din his Illahi-nama, Book of God. This meetinghad a deep impact on Rumis thoughts, which became the inspiration for hismasterpiece Masnavi.

Baha-ud-din became the head of a madrassa (religious college) and when hedied Rumi succeeded him at the age of twenty-five. He married and had two sons.One of Baha-ud-dins students, Syed Burhan-ud-din, continued to train Rumi inthe religious and mystical doctrines of Rumis father. For nine years, Rumipracticed Sufism as a disciple of Burhan-ud-din until Burhan-ud-din died in1240. During this period Rumi travelled to Damascus and is said to have spentfour years there. While there he first caught a glimpse of the Qutub (Perfect Master) Shams-e Tabrizclothed in his black-felt cap. Shams called out to him but he turned away andmixed in with the crowd in the market. On returning to Konya Rumi fasted forthree consecutive periods of forty days under the guidance of Burhan-ud-din. Hepronounced that he had taught Rumi all he could of all sciences, human andspiritual.

In 1244 theperfected dervish Shams-e Tabriz arrived in Konya. This great Spiritual Master,a basket-maker by trade had travelled much in search of other great souls. He wentto an inn in Konya under the disguise of a merchant where he began fasting onand off. One day as he sat near the inns gate Rumi rode up on a mule followedby a large crowd of his many students and disciples on foot. Shams stood thenwalked over to him and took hold of the mules bridle and halted the animal andafter paying due reverence to the great teacher asked Rumi the followingquestion, Was Mohammed the greater servant of God, or Bayzid of Bistam?

Rumi answered, Incomparably, Mohammedwas the greater the greatest of all the prophets and saints!

Shams then asked, Why is it then thatMohammed said, We havent known You God as You should rightly be known whileBayzid declared, Glory be to me! How very great is my glory!?

With this Shams had revealed his state ofbeing Qutub or Perfect Master toRumi.

Rumi fainted. On recovering consciousnesshe asked Shams to come home with him where they were closeted together forweeks and then months and then years in spiritual communication. Four yearslater on the night of the fifth of December 1248, as Rumi and Shams weretalking, Shams was called to the back door. He went out, never to be seenagain. It is believed that he was murdered with the help of one of Rumis sons,Allaedin Rumis students and followers had become frustrated and jealous withShams taking up all the time of their teacher.

Rumi's love and his great longing forShams, whom he went searching for in Damascus and elsewhere, found expressionin music, dance, songs and poems in his collection of poems/songs or Divan which he named after his Master Divan of Shams-e Tabriz. This vast workincluded thousands of ghazals andother poetic forms and nearly two thousand rubaiswhich he would compose for many years, before he became a God-realisedPerfect Master himself, and also afterwards.

FORMS IN WHICHRUMI COMPOSED POETRY

Rubai

Most scholars of Persian Poetry agree that the rubai is the most ancient Persianpoetic form that is original to this language. All other classical formsincluding the ghazal, qasida, masnavietc., they say originated in Arabic literature and the metres employed in themwere in Arabic poetry in the beginning. The ruba'iis a poem of four lines in which usually the first, second and fourth linesrhyme and sometimes with the radif(refrain) after the rhyme words sometimes all four rhyme. It is composed inmetres called rubai metres. Each ruba'i is a separate poem in itself andshould not be regarded as a part of a long poem as was created by FitzGeraldwhen he translated those he attributed to Omar Khayyam.

The rubai (as its nameimplies) is two couplets (beyts) inlength, or four lines (misra) asstated above. The rubai is differentin metre from all those used in Arabic poetry that preceded it. How was thismetre invented? The accepted story of Rudaki (d. 941 A.D.) creating this new metre of the hazaj group which is essential to the rubai is as follows: one New Years Festival he happened to bestrolling in a garden where some children played with nuts and one threw awalnut along a groove in a stick and it jumped out then rolled back againcreating a sound and the children shouted with delight in imitation, Ghaltan ghaltan hami ravad ta bun-i gau,(Ball, ball, surprising hills to end of a brave try). Rudaki immediatelyrecognised in the lines metre a new invention and by the repetition four timesof the rhyme he had quickly createdthe rubai and is considered thefirst master of this form and the father of classical Persian Poetry.

Shams-e Qais writing two hundred years later about this moment of poetichistory and the effect of this new form on the population said the followingThis new poetic form fascinated all classes, rich and poor, ascetic anddrunken outsider(rend), all wanted toparticipate in it the sinful and the good both loved it; those who were soignorant they couldnt make out the difference between poetry and prose beganto dance to it; those with dead hearts who couldnt tell the difference betweena donkey braying and reeds wailing and were a thousand miles away fromlistening to a lutes strumming, offered up their souls for a rubai. Many a young girl cloisteredaway, out of passion for the song of a rubaibroke down the doors and their chastitys walls; many matrons from love for a rubai let loose the braids of theirself-restraint.

The rubai should be eloquent,spontaneous and ingenious. In the rubaithe first three lines serve as an introduction to the fourth that should besublime, subtle or pithy and clever. As can be seen from the quote by Shams-eQais above the