Rumi: A one_love Case Study

This story describes the speech President Obama gave today at Cairo University. He makes a strong argument against violent resistance about halfway through, and I think his answer to my questions about violent activism is pretty clear: "violence is a dead-end." More on this still to come. 

Obama addressed the crowd using themes that the NPR story describes as Kennedy-esque, recognizing this quote: "the interests we share as human beings are far more powerful than the forces that drive us apart."

However, this quote reminded me of another person: the 13th century Sufi poet, Rumi. 

(Photo by L.E. MacDonald)

I wanted to do a case study of Rumi, an historical figure whom I think embodies the message I want to explore in this blog. Specifically, I wanted to describe and elaborate on Rumi's teachings of universalism in religion. I did quite a bit of research on Rumi in my Islam class, and I wanted to share it. 

First, a description of Rumi's message of universality stems from the Qur'an itself. In vers 256 of the second sura, it says: "There is no compulsion in religion." Rumi justifies this belief by arguing that God is ever-present. He wrote in his Masnavi, “When we praise a person or an object, we really praise God. As the praiseworthy is one, all religions are one religion.” This somehow implies that the cause of religious conflict lies in ignorance.  Rumi himself said, “If there was a man of esoteric knowledge, a man of a hundred languages, there wouldn’t be any disagreement.”

The resonance of Rumi’s universal teachings of love and transcendence into a common humanity is proven by the fact that, although he was born in Persia more than 800 years ago, he is the most widely read poet in America today. Paradoxically, this popularity comes at a time when the American mainstream media has seemed to contrive everything Muslim as everything bad.  Perhaps Rumi's arguments are compelling to a wide modern audience because we are experiencing turmoil just as his contemporaries experienced turmoil in the 13th century. 

The continuing timelessness and penetrating influence of Rumi’s teachings of love and common humanity attests to the modern world’s realization that humanity is nearing a choice between engaging in what Samuel Huntington called the “clash of civilizations,” or, a compassionate dialogue. 

The modern world’s recognition of and devotion to a poet who taught the simplistic truths of love, understanding and common humanity, has built a bridge upon which “the East” and “the West” may meet in compassionate and understanding dialogue; the “civilizations” described by Huntington no longer exist. Instead, the colors of our perceived differences may bleed together in the waters underneath that bridge, until, as Rumi so beautifully articulated, we will realize we are all interconnected.