tazkiyyah
22-05-2005, 10:59 AM
How could Rumi be considered an upright Sunni when he allowed people to stay disbelievers and become Sufis, saying "Come! Come again! Whoever, whatever you may be, come! Heathen, idolatrous or fire worshipper, come!
Answer from an online interview with Mevlevi Sheikh Sefik Can
This quatrain does not belong to Mevlana, and this is already known by everyone. The library official at the dergah, the Mevlevi dervish lodge, the late Necati Bey, had seen this quatrain written in old calligraphy on a sheet. Without searching for the its origin, he spread the rumor everywhere that it was a Mevlana quatrain. Whereas, this quatrain is introduced as belonging to someone else in an anthology called "Harabat," that was prepared by Ziya Pasha. I saw that in another handwritten quatrain as well; nevertheless, because Mevlana has many quatrains like this one, and even some more enthusiastic ones, it might also be accepted as a Mevlana quatrain. This is not very important. The main problem is about those who are unaware of the spirit of this quatrain and take it on the surface, in addition to those who created this situation.
"Come! Come again! Whoever, whatever you may be, come!
Heathen, idolatrous or fire worshipper, come!
Even if you deny your oaths a hundred times, come!
Our door is the door of hope, come! Come like you are!"
Our door is the door of hope, come! Come like you are!"
This specifically signifies the holy Qur'an's verse "Say: 'O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah. for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.'" (Zumer, 53) and all Qur'anic verses including God's words "O ye people" as a whole. It does not matter how sinful a person is, if he/she sincerely repents and asks God for forgiveness, he/she will be cleansed of their sins. Now Mevlana means: "O human, your heart full of idols. Even if it is full of worldly idols and every side of you is stigmatized with earthbound and corporeal filth, do not fall into despair. Come to our dergah, take the ax of love and faith and break the idols inside you. If you drink alcohol, come and discipline your nafs, ego, at our dergah, hit that bottle on a stone, and then drink the sacred wine. Come and cleanse yourself with the water of the truth in our hands, get purified from your filth and become clean."
He does not say "Come, our dergah is available for everything. Do the things that people outside do not accept in our dergah, and will we welcome it." Yet, people misinterpret that. Constantly reading this quatrain had negative effects on people. They recognized Mevlana in other ways. Mevlana has been perceived as a materialist, who believes in the eternity of the world and rejects the other world as well as believing that the soul dies together with the body. Or he was perceived as if he was of another sect, meshrep or on another path.
It is as if Mevlana tolerates and accepts everything that Allah does not accept and the prophet does not find appropriate. Is such a thing possible?
Mevlana wrote: "I am the slave of the Qur'an for as long as I am living. I am dust on the path of Muhammad, the Chosen One." In one of his hadiths, our Prophet Mohammed says that if people repent and ask God for forgiveness, but yet commit the same sin again, they would become more sinful. If you deny your oaths a hundred times and this is perceived as insignificant, then is this appropriate in Islamic belief?
Those, who are unaware of the spirit and the pith of this verse, and take it only as a face value, would definitely recognize Mevlana wrongly. Didn't Mevlana say anything else? Why doesn't someone read the quatrain, in which he says
"I am the slave of the Qur'an for as long as I am living. I am dust on the path of Muhammad, the Chosen One."?
Doesn't this describe Mevlana? To understand the other quatrain, one has to think deeply. Because no one can bear that, it seems suitable to everyone's path. I would like to mention an experience of mine that affected me very much. I was in Konya years ago; two foreigners were asking a Konya resident how to go Mevlana's tomb. The man from Konya first asked. " From where did you come here?" before he gave them the address. They told him where they came from. The man got a little bit angry and asked: "Look here, didn't you have anything to do so that you came here to see that man?" If that person had heard Mevlana's words, "I am the slave of the Qur'an for as long as I am living. I am dust on the path of Muhammad, the Chosen One," he would not have behaved that way….
Answer from an online interview with Mevlevi Sheikh Sefik Can
This quatrain does not belong to Mevlana, and this is already known by everyone. The library official at the dergah, the Mevlevi dervish lodge, the late Necati Bey, had seen this quatrain written in old calligraphy on a sheet. Without searching for the its origin, he spread the rumor everywhere that it was a Mevlana quatrain. Whereas, this quatrain is introduced as belonging to someone else in an anthology called "Harabat," that was prepared by Ziya Pasha. I saw that in another handwritten quatrain as well; nevertheless, because Mevlana has many quatrains like this one, and even some more enthusiastic ones, it might also be accepted as a Mevlana quatrain. This is not very important. The main problem is about those who are unaware of the spirit of this quatrain and take it on the surface, in addition to those who created this situation.
"Come! Come again! Whoever, whatever you may be, come!
Heathen, idolatrous or fire worshipper, come!
Even if you deny your oaths a hundred times, come!
Our door is the door of hope, come! Come like you are!"
Our door is the door of hope, come! Come like you are!"
This specifically signifies the holy Qur'an's verse "Say: 'O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah. for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.'" (Zumer, 53) and all Qur'anic verses including God's words "O ye people" as a whole. It does not matter how sinful a person is, if he/she sincerely repents and asks God for forgiveness, he/she will be cleansed of their sins. Now Mevlana means: "O human, your heart full of idols. Even if it is full of worldly idols and every side of you is stigmatized with earthbound and corporeal filth, do not fall into despair. Come to our dergah, take the ax of love and faith and break the idols inside you. If you drink alcohol, come and discipline your nafs, ego, at our dergah, hit that bottle on a stone, and then drink the sacred wine. Come and cleanse yourself with the water of the truth in our hands, get purified from your filth and become clean."
He does not say "Come, our dergah is available for everything. Do the things that people outside do not accept in our dergah, and will we welcome it." Yet, people misinterpret that. Constantly reading this quatrain had negative effects on people. They recognized Mevlana in other ways. Mevlana has been perceived as a materialist, who believes in the eternity of the world and rejects the other world as well as believing that the soul dies together with the body. Or he was perceived as if he was of another sect, meshrep or on another path.
It is as if Mevlana tolerates and accepts everything that Allah does not accept and the prophet does not find appropriate. Is such a thing possible?
Mevlana wrote: "I am the slave of the Qur'an for as long as I am living. I am dust on the path of Muhammad, the Chosen One." In one of his hadiths, our Prophet Mohammed says that if people repent and ask God for forgiveness, but yet commit the same sin again, they would become more sinful. If you deny your oaths a hundred times and this is perceived as insignificant, then is this appropriate in Islamic belief?
Those, who are unaware of the spirit and the pith of this verse, and take it only as a face value, would definitely recognize Mevlana wrongly. Didn't Mevlana say anything else? Why doesn't someone read the quatrain, in which he says
"I am the slave of the Qur'an for as long as I am living. I am dust on the path of Muhammad, the Chosen One."?
Doesn't this describe Mevlana? To understand the other quatrain, one has to think deeply. Because no one can bear that, it seems suitable to everyone's path. I would like to mention an experience of mine that affected me very much. I was in Konya years ago; two foreigners were asking a Konya resident how to go Mevlana's tomb. The man from Konya first asked. " From where did you come here?" before he gave them the address. They told him where they came from. The man got a little bit angry and asked: "Look here, didn't you have anything to do so that you came here to see that man?" If that person had heard Mevlana's words, "I am the slave of the Qur'an for as long as I am living. I am dust on the path of Muhammad, the Chosen One," he would not have behaved that way….