Rumi: Sufi poet and mystical inspired by homosexual love

Article of Kitretredge Cherry published on the blog Jesus in Love (USA) on September 30, 2013, freely translated by Silvia Lanzi

Rumi is a Persian and mystical Sufi poet of the thirteenth centuries whose love for another man has inspired some of the most beautiful poems in the world and led to the creation of a new religious order, the rotating dervings. His birthday is September 30th. Rumi writes about the presence of the sacred in daily experiences with a sensual beauty and a profound spiritual intuition. His poetry is admired all over the world and, in America, is one of the best known poets. One of his most cited poems begins like this:

If anyone asked you
How is the perfect satisfaction
of all your sexual desires,
raise your face, and of ', As.

Rumi's homoeroticism is hidden in full sight. It is known that his poems have been inspired by love for another man, but the queer implications are rarely discussed. There is no evidence that Rumi and his beloved Shams of Tabriz have had a sexual relationship, but the intensity of their love is undeniable.

Rumi was born on September 30, 1207 in Afghanistan, then part of the Persian Empire. His father was a Muslim scholar and mystical who, when Rumi was a child, ran away with his family in Roman Anatolia (today's Türkiye) to escape the Mongolian invasion. The poet lived here most of his life and used it as part of the name he had chosen, which meant "Roman". His full name is Jalal Ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi.

His father died when Rumi was twenty -five years old and he inherited the place of teacher in a madrassa (Islamic school). He continued to study the Shariah (Islamic law) making his Fatwas known (legal opinions) and keeping sermons in local mosques. Rumi also practiced the bases of mysticism Sufi in a community of the dervisci, Muslim asceties similar to the Christian beggar friars.

On November 25, 1244 Rumi met the man who would change his life: a wandering dervish named Shams of Tabriz (Shams-and-Tabrizi or Shams al-Din Muhammad), who came from the city of Tabriz in today's Azerbaijan Iranian. It is said that he had traveled throughout the Middle East asking Allah to help him find a friend who could "endure" his company. The voice of a vision brought him where Rumi lived.

Rumi, a respected scholar on Trentino, was returning home from school riding a mule, when he was approached by a man older than him in censious clothes. It was Shams who grabbed the bridle and began a theological debate with him. Some say that Rumi was so overwhelmed as to pass out by falling from his mule.

Rumi and Shams soon became inseparable. Months passed together, lost in a sort of mystical and ecstatic communion known as "sobhet" - speaking and looking at each other so deeply that, in the end, words no longer needed. They ignored every human need and also the students of Rumi, who became jealous. Because of this, a conflict arose and Shams suddenly disappeared - as he suddenly arrived.

The solitude of Rumi for their separation led him to do what he is still known for today: he poured his soul into poetry and in the mystical rotating dances of the spirit.

In the end Rumi discovered that Shams had gone to Damascus and wrote letters to pray him to return. Legends tell about their dramatic meeting. The two essays fell to each other. Previously they had been a disciple and teacher, but now they loved each other. A story says that "nobody knew who the lover was and who was the beloved". Both men married women, but continued their intense relationship, immersed in a mystical communion. Again he flared up jealousy and some men conspirate to get rid of Shams.

One winter evening, while he was with Rumi, Shams heard knocking on the back on the back and went to open. He disappeared and nobody saw him anymore. Some think he was killed.

Rumi was deeply saddened. He looked for his friend in vain and lost in rotating late dances. One of his poems gives us an idea of ​​his emotions:

Dance when you are squared,
Dance, if you have torn your bandages by Dosso.
Dance in the middle of the battle.
Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you are perfectly free.

Rumi Danzò, cried and wrote poems until the pressure gave him a new awareness that he made him write: "The wound is the place from which the light enters". His soul merged with his beloved. They became one: Rumi, Shams and God. He wrote:

Why should I look for it? I myself are the same as him.
His essence speaks through me.
I searched for myself.

After this step, a deep poetry flocked to Rumi. Many writings attributed them to Shams. His classic corpus is a vast collection of poems entitled "Shams' works by Tabriz". The Turkish government refused to subsidize the translation of the last volume, which was finally published in 2006 with the title of The Forbidden Rumi: The SuppredSed Poems of Rumi on Love, Heresy, and Intaxication. It had been forbidden both for its homoerotic content, and because it promoted the "blasphemy" who, to experience God, had to go beyond religion.

Rumi lived, but above all he loved, again, dedicating poems to other men he loved. His second great love was the goldsmith Saladin Zarkub. After the death of Saladin, it was his secretary Husan Cheleb who became his beloved companion for the rest of his life. Rumi died of illness at sixty -six years of age on December 17, 1273. Immediately after his followers they founded the Mevlevi order, known as the order of the rotating decks, precisely with the dance that made for devotion to God.
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This post is part of the GLBT Saint Series of Kittredge Cherry and his Jesus in Love Blog where they are presented, on the most appropriate dates of the year, saints, martyrs, mystics, heroes, divinities and religious figures of special interest for the LGBT community and his supporters.

Original text:Rumi: poet and sufi mystic inspired by same-sex love