Most people who have studied Sufism know a little bit about Rumi, have heard of Rumi, have read some of Rumi’s poems – translated, of course, into English; unless you’re Turkish, then they were translated into Turkish because they were originally in Persian. But not everybody knows that Rumi found his way through a man whose name was Shams, and Shams came from Afghanistan specifically to teach Rumi. And in the Dargah, the place where Shams was, the Dargah was the place of the meeting of the Sufis, he was told that there was a great light that needed to be enflamed and that he could do it but that he would die in the process. He said he would go.
He went and then there was the meeting between Rumi and Shams, and Shams began to teach Rumi the way of Sufism. A very strong relationship developed between these two men; a bonding, a loyalty, a love for each other, a comradery towards each other. And Shams told Rumi one time, he said, “If everything was taken away from us, if the Quran was taken away from us, if the Kaaba was taken away from us, if all of the tales were taken away from us, what’s left is the love between men. And it’s in that love between men that we can find the truth.”
And this is a very important point because we have the Quran and we have the Kaaba, but with those things, one of the things we’re sometimes lacking is this love between men; the respect people should have for each other, the dignity that people should allow to each other, the kindness that people should give to each other, and the fact that we should protect each other. It’s our responsibility when something goes wrong with someone, not to run around telling people what went wrong, but to try and help them correct it. We’re here to soothe, not to irritate.
When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon Him) was in Medina and they were having trouble with the people from Mecca, someone came up to Him and said, “Pray that all the Meccans die.”
And He said, “I did not come into this world as a curse, I came here as a blessing and a mercy.”
So who are we, and what’s our place in this world? Are we mercy? Are we blessings? Or are we curses? And quite simply, if you follow your own speech, and if you follow your own actions, and if you follow your own interactions, you can quickly determine where you are…
