THE SUFIS

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"Believers, Jews, Christians, and Sabaeans -- whoever believes in God and the Last Day and does what is right -- shall be rewarded by their Lord; they have nothing to fear or to regret."  Qur'an 2:62







                                                   W A H H A B I   W A T C H






CIP WahhabiWatch is a continuing, Friday feature produced by the Center for Islamic Pluralism.  It exposes and comments on the activities of the “Wahhabi lobby” presently dominating Islam in America – specifically:



 the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR),
 the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA),
 the Muslim Students Association of the U.S. and Canada (MSA),
 the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA),
 the Muslim American Society (MAS),
 the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC),
 the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC),
 the Arab American Institute (AAI).
Note: In the past, it was common to exempt ADC and AAI from listing as “Wahhabi Lobby” groups because of their secular and ethnic, rather than religious nature.  In addition, they have been led by prominent Christian and leftist/atheist Arab advocates including James Zogby and Hussein Ibish.  However, because both groups have been assiduous in defending Saudi Arabia, the global center of Wahhabism, as well as in promoting contempt for American norms of democratic discourse, their inclusion is logical and justified.



Center for Islamic Pluralism


http://www.islamicpluralism.org/wahhabiwatch/ww2005.htm

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                                IRAN'S SUFI BEAT LURES DERVISHES AND UPTOWN GIRLS




Sept. 21, 2005, Daily Times (Reuters)





By Christian Oliver

The Sufis' mystical path to God through dance and music does not go down well with some of the most senior religious figures in Iran


TEHRAN: Venerable white-bearded dervishes and high-heeled girls with garish lipstick found rare common ground before dawn on Tuesday, celebrating an Iranian holiday with the mystical chants of the Sufis.

Sufi Muslim spirituality is largely tolerated under Iran's strict Islamic laws, although senior religious figures occasionally call for a clampdown on its rites.

Under an almost full moon, several hundred Iranians came to celebrate the birthday of the 'Mahdi' at the Zahir-od-dowleh  cemetery in northern Tehran, a dervish hub where many writers and artists are buried.

The Mahdi is a key figure of Shi'ite Islam, a descendant of the Prophet Mohammad whose messianic return is eagerly awaited after his disappearance in the ninth century.

Some visitors to the graveyard lost themselves in the chanted mystical verses of classical Persian poets such as Rumi and Hafez and nodded along with the plaintive melody of flutes and dull drumbeat of giant 'daf' tambourines.

Others had come for free pastries and to gossip. “This is the music that brings people and God together,” said daf player Mohammad. “Our music has saved invalids from the brink of death after their doctors had written them off.”

However, the Sufis' mystical path to God through dance and music does not go down well with some of the most senior religious figures in the country.

“The deviant Sufi sect is a danger for Islam,” Ayatollah Hossein Nouri-Hamedani was quoted as saying in the official Iran newspaper on Monday, calling for a crackdown on dervish groups in the central province of Qom.

Ersatz dervishes: The Mahdi's birthday party was also failing to please some seasoned aficionados of the Sufi circuit.

Zahir-od-dowleh has developed a reputation as a hangout for affluent north Tehran hippies attracted by the tomb of Forough Farrokhzadeh, an iconic poetess killed in a car crash in 1967 when she was only 32. “These are not real dervishes,” said one grey-bearded man leaning against a car, fingering his prayer beads.

His companion, Aliakbar Narian, complained there was not even room for the entranced dance of the whirling dervishes, made famous in the Turkish city of Konya.

Long-distance truck driver Narian flipped open the photo gallery on his mobile phone and showed off snapshots of some Sufi masters he had visited recently elsewhere in Tehran.

“These are real Sufis, men with beards down to their midriffs,” he said.

“This is Mahboub Ali Shah who has walked seven times to Kerbala,” he said, referring to Shi'ite holy city in Iraq.

“This is Hassan Esmaili, a great dervish but also an Iranian Kung Fu champion,” he added.

It is unclear whether Sufism is picking up more followers, because Iranians are usually secretive about unorthodox religious practices. Even increasingly popular reading groups for the Sufi poet Rumi can be tight-lipped about activities which could be seen as being at odds with the established religious order.
------



**Zahir al-Dawlah (after whom the cemetery in the
article was named) was the well-known Qajar courtier and disciple of
the famous Ni'matullahi poet Safi Ali Shah, of the Safa'iyah or Safi 'Ali Shahi branch of
the Ni'matullahi order. (See *Kings of Love* by Pourjavady and Wilson,
pp. 252-53.) For a picture of this cemetery (which may be next to or even on the grounds of the Safi 'Ali Shah khaniqah in Tehran) click on the link to the picture.
Note that the Ni'matullahi symbol of the two crossed axes (tabarzin) upon which
is hung a begging bowl (kashkul) can just barely be seen (if you know
what you are looking for) in a white ceramic tile (?) inlaid over the
gate to the right of center. (Added by 'Abd al-Haqq)


http://sufinews.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_archive.html

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                            World community should condemn suppression of Dervishes in Iran   




     
Wednesday, 15 February 2006 
The clerical regime’s suppressive State Security Forces (SSF) crushed a demonstration by thousands of Nematollahi dervishes and the people in the holy city of Qom (in central Iran). The action led to extensive clashes between the people and the security forces in various neighborhoods in the city. Qom shut down as Monday’s demonstrations and clashes continued into Tuesday.

 

The demonstration erupted in protest to the seizure of a religious center of the Nematollahi dervishes by the clerical regime as the protestors attempted to take the center back. More than 3,000 dervishes converged on the city on Monday and began a protest action to take back the center. The regime’s agents cut-off water, gas and electricity to the building and built a wall in front of it.

The SSF brought in its special strike unit (anti-riot forces) to control the unrest. Water cannons were also on the scene to disperse the crowds. The head of Qom’ SSF, an IRGC commander named Sajjadi, personally rushed to the scene and commanded the crackdown. The Nematollahi dervishes and a large number of Qom residents that had joined them clashed with SSF units and shouted anti-regime slogans and threw stones and bricks to fend them off.

The clerical regime countered on Tuesday by mobilizing bands of vigilantes that roamed the streets shouting “death to Monafegh” [Mojahedin] in an attempt to keep the demonstrators off the streets. The vigilantes numbered over 2,000 and shouted “Qom is not for Monafeghin.”

The SSF arrested more than 500 dervish protesters and their families in yesterday’s clashes and transferred them to an unknown location. There is de facto martial law in Qom and many stores and shopping centers are closed.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, called on all human rights advocates to condemn the brutal suppression of the Nematollahi dervishes and the systematic violation of the rights of religious minorities in Iran.

“The anti-human clerical regime has stepped up the violation of human rights, while exporting Islamic fundamentalism, sponsoring terrorism and pursuing nuclear weapons, in an attempt to rescue its disgraceful rule from demise. Hundreds of Tehran transit workers have been imprisoned for over two weeks,” Mrs. Rajavi said

Mrs. Rajavi underlined the spirit of tolerance, coexistence and fraternity that the Iranian nation has enjoyed in its long history, and called on all compatriots in Qom, in particular the youths, to rise in defense of the dervishes who are facing dual persecution by the religious dictatorship ruling Iran.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 15, 2006 


http://www.maryam-rajavi.com/content/view/324/67/

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I went to the Kurdish province of Western Iran in search of Sufis. The Sufis are a mystical order of Islam that could once have been found all over the Muslim world. They have rapidly diminished in the modern age, however, and it’s only in the more remote areas that their practices still survive.

But whereas the Sufism i’d encountered through the poetry of the old masters centered around ecstatic devotion to God, the Kurdish Sufis seemed more set on miraculous circus tricks.

“As clear as I see you, Tom, I watched one man have his head cut off with a sword and replaced with no harm done!” A professor in Esfahan told me.

Even on the bus journey there, the driver had proudly shown me the scar from where he’d had a sword driven through his waist in a ceremony the year before.

The family I stayed with provided me with a guide to the city in the shape of their nephew, Fahrzad. He and I made our way across town by means of shared taxis. These vehicles follow a set route through the streets but make absolutely no effort to let anybody know which way they were going.

Consequently one had to hover on the edge of the traffic shout questions through the drivers’ windows and then squeeze in quick before anyone else could get there first. The front seat was reserved for women so that they might ride but still preserve their modesty. In the center of town there was a statue of a devout believer with his arms raised aloft in the rapture of love for Allah. It set the mood for the sufi ceremony we were due to attend that evening.

We arrived in one of the oldest neighborhoods of the city and entered a maze of narrow streets and alleys shrouded in mist. We weaved our way through the night to the house of Fahrzad’s grandmother and I was careful not to lose sight of my guide.

His grandmother was a dervish and I recognized the word from the Sufi stories I’d read. It usually referred to one advanced in the study and practice of Sufism. But Fahrzad told me that it also meant ‘one who has nothing’, ie one who lives a pure and simple life valuing nothing except the presence of God. Maybe the two things were not so different.

We walked up to the building where the ceremony was to be held. Carpets covered the floor and the green flag of Islam hung in the corner to be kissed by all who entered. The preacher eyed me with curiosity as i entered but continued his discourse about the miracle of pregnancy to a small group of men. Some of them had long, flowing hair which they curled up in a hat like a Rastafarian.

After the first round of tea had been served an old man picked up a wooden ring bound with leather called a daf. His bony fingers tapped out a rhythm while he began to sing sutras from the Qur’an. His voice was raspy like that of a goat but so full of passion. Every time he mentioned the name of Mohammed all present murmured, ‘may peace be upon him.’

The old man was soon joined by two of his students and they began a vigorous beat that had every head in the place swaying. Then at the height of the recital each tossed his daf into the air and caught it with a thunderous clap that seemed to shake the walls of the building.

After the ceremony I could find few words to express what i’d seen and felt. The song still resonated within me and i didn’t need to know what the words meant to appreciate their beauty. Fahrzad told me it made him feel like crying for joy.

The next morning we climbed up the mountain while it was still dark so that we might watch the sun rise. It was Friday, the day of prayer and so everyone was on holiday. The young people were the swiftest of foot and so had gathered up there first by a small spring. It was one of the few occasions they had to escape the watchful eyes of their elders and they reveled in the taste of freedom. Hell, there were even boys talking to girls.

I was the first foreigner many had ever met but with a few days of beard on my cheeks I looked Iranian enough that I didn’t receive too much attention. No one expected to see a foreigner in these parts either so i was saved from answering the twenty questions that drive every long-term traveller insane.

Fahrzad told me that the Sufi ceremonies with swords that I’d heard about only took place in the wintertime. But he did manage to get hold of an amateur video of a session that had taken place the previous year.

The camera rolls. There are dafs being played to encourage the opening of the spirit and men in circles roll their heads and chant to Allah. Once everyone is sufficiently intoxicated with the presence of God, the rituals begin. Swords are driven through waists, needles through cheeks and one man even had spikes hammered into his head. All with no blood and no apparent pain on the faces of these ordinary people.

Okay, there are performers in the West who can also eat light bulbs and pierce parts of their body but the protagonists here were simple bus drivers, teachers and farmers. None of them had any experience of this kind of thing and no one was getting paid to do it.

Still, I didn’t really see the point of it all. Perhaps it was a powerful demonstration of the power of God to strengthen belief. But it all seemed a little extreme to me and i wasn’t very moved to test my faith with a sword through the waist.

I stuck with the stories and the poetry.


http://www.roadjunky.com/article/581/iran-sufis-dervishes-in-kurdistan

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The Sema
The dance of the Whirling Dervishes consists of seven parts. Pictured here is the fifth part of the Sema, the whirling. This part of the ceremony consists of a series of salutes testify to his appearance to God's unity.

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PERFORMANCES IN THE UNITED STATES

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                                                        Bestseller in the West





In recent years, popularized versions of Rumi's poetry have made his name well known in the West. In 2004, book sales prompted Publishers Weekly to describe him as "the most popular poet in America in the last decade." After more than 700 years of influence in the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, scholars caution that Western fame has diluted the meaning of Rumi's words and their connection to his Islamic tradition.

In the preface to Rumi and the Whirling Dervishes, scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr provides a comparison: "It is as if Dante were to be translated very approximately into Arabic and presented as a 'universal poet,' which he of course is, but without any reference to Christianity, without which Dante would not be Dante. The same truth holds for Rumi, who represents one of the greatest flowerings of Islamic spirituality, a tradition whose roots are sunk deeply in the Koran and whose prototype is to be found in the Prophet of Islam."


http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/rumi/particulars.shtml

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(01:27–01:48) Music Element
"Aksak Semai"
from Sufi Music of Turkey,
performed by Kudsi and Suleyman Erguner




(01:38) Recitation of a Line about Love
"Wherever you are, whatever you do, be in love."

Fatemeh Keshavarz translated this poetic line from Rumi's discourses. In the West, Rumi is better known for his poetry. But, his son and several other followers recorded his conversations and lectures as works of prose, which includes the Fihi ma Fihi (literally translated as It Is What It Is).

(02:08–04:31) Music Element
"The Multiples of One"
from Awakening,
performed by Joseph Curiale




(02:14) The Poet Known As…
To many Westerners, the poet Mohammad Jalal al-Din al-Balkhi al-Rumi is more commonly known as Rumi. Scholarly works on Rumi provide a vast array of permutations of his name, which can be confusing. As Franklin Lewis says in Rumi: Past and Present, East and West, "The full complement of names and titles pertaining to [Rumi] would need a small caravan to carry it."

According to Lewis, Rumi's birth name was Mohammad, after his father and the most important prophet in Islam. At an early age, his father also called him Jalal al-Din — a title meaning "the splendor of the faith" — which was common for religious scholars in the medieval Islamic world. The terms al-Balkhi al-Rumi are toponyms (referring to geographical places): al-Balkhi refers to his family's origins in Balkh, one of the major cultural centers of Central Asia (in present-day Afghanistan) in the 13th century. Many scholars believe, however, that Rumi did not live in Balkh itself but in a smaller town nearby named Vakhsh in what is now the country of Tajikistan.

When he moved to Anatolia (present-day Turkey), he became known as al-Rumi (literally, "from Rome"), as Anatolia was considered an extension of Rome from an Islamic perspective. Lewis says other historic people who were born in, or associated with, Anatolia are also known as Rumi. As Keshavarz noted in her conversation with Krista, the poet is not generally called Rumi in the Middle East or Central Asia. In her native country of Iran, he is commonly referred to as Mowlana — meaning "Our Master," — the Arabic title that became recognized as a proper name exclusive to Rumi within a few generations of his death. The Turkish pronunciation is Mevlana.

Rumi referred to himself in much humbler terms, as Lewis writes, at the beginning of the Masnavi: "This meek servant, dependent on the mercy of the Almighty God, Mohammad, the son of Mohammad, the son of al-Hosayn al-Balkhi."

(2:52) A Vast Body of Poetry and Writings
Rumi's best-known poetic works include the Masnavi, or Mathnawi — a six-volume poem in rhyming couplets so revered that it is commonly referred to as the "Qur'an in Persian" — and the Divan, or Diwan, with over 35,000 verses, mostly ghazals, describing mystical states and illustrating various points of Sufi doctrine. The collection of his discourses known as Fihi Ma Fihi ("It Is What It Is") is considered by some scholars to be an abbreviated prose companion to the Masnavi ("It is," meaning his collected discourses, "what it is," meaning the Masnavi).

In Reading Mystical Lyric, Keshavarz describes the tone of the Masnavi as didactic and distinct. "[Rumi] intends to remain visible as does a lighthouse in a stormy sea, so that travelers will not lose their way…. Nothing obscures this ultimate homiletic purpose." In the Divan, Keshavarz continues, he "abandons his narrative style and didactic tone in favor of visual articulation through imagery" and has a "deeply paradoxical mode of expression."

(3:27) Krista Quotes a Line from Rumi
Krista cites two lines from "A Great Wagon" — a poem found in Rumi's Divan, based on Coleman Barks' translation in The Essential Rumi. You can listen to and read along with the recitation, along with other poems by Rumi, on our "Poetry and Perplexity" page:

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there.
We also feature the stories of fellow audience members' personal encounters with Rumi and his poetry. The range of touch points is vast: from how Rumi helped one listener better understand the geography of Azerbaijan to a couple's struggle in their relationship and learning how to truly love.

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3:40) Rumi's Islamic Tradition of Sufism
Sufism is the mystical tradition of Islam that originated in the seventh century after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. The spiritual movement originated as an expression against increasing worldliness in the expanding Muslim community. There are many Sufi orders or paths (tariqa) in which a follower pledges his allegiance to a sheikh. Sufis aspire to a special intimacy with God and the eternal in this earthly existence rather than only in the afterlife.


http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/rumi/particulars.shtml
In the Speaking of Faith program "The Spirit of Islam," Islamic scholar Omid Safi describes his own understanding and experience of Sufi tradition. Learn more about this form of Islamic mysticism where the pursuit of spiritual truth is the quest.

(04:30–04:57) Music Element
"Naghme"
from Suite Rastpanjgah - Naghde Sufi,
performed by Ostad Mahmoud Zoufonoun





 
Video Performance: "The Musicality of Rumi"
View a January 27, 2007 performance of Fatemeh Keshavarz and the Liän Ensemble at a Stanford University event celebrating Rumi's 800th birthday.
(04:37) Often Sets Rumi's Words to Music
Fatemeh Keshavarz co-founded the Persian Poetry Circle of North America and periodically performs her translations of Rumi's poetry to the music of the Liän Ensemble.

(05:50) "Playing Is Very Serious"
In Reading Mystical Lyric, Keshavarz elaborates on how playing is very serious for Rumi:

Of course the profoundly moral and spiritual purposes that infuse all of Rumi's poetry, including the Divan, are serious in that they are central to his poetic creation. Yet the universe, as he sees it, is imaginatively designed and prudently run by God. In it there is room for everything…. In this setting poetry occasionally has the childlike opportunity to find a chance for play. This playfulness is by no means incompatible with seriousness. Indeed…it becomes a key device that enhances the poetic impact of the discourse in which the "spiritual" has a prominent part.
Keshavarz then elaborates on playfulness in Rumi's poetry, offering an excerpt from the Divan:
[The] distinction between Rumi and many of his contemporary fellow poets is.in Rumi's ability to make his poetry an embodiment of his life, yet not take it so seriously as to be overwhelmed by its grandeur. The fun and sense of play persist, even in illustrating matters as grave as the confusion of destiny:

I am drunk and you are drunk, who is going to take us home?
I told you a hundred times drink a cup or two less.

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06:21) Ghazal About Beautiful Birds
Ghazals are odes, usually eight to 12 lines in length, with the theme of love running through them. They are the primary poetic format of Rumi's Divan and express "flashes of ideas as they come." Keshavarz refers to a ghazal by Rumi titled "Dervish at the Door" (the following translation Coleman Barks):

A dervish knocked at a house
to ask for a piece of dry bread,
or moist, it didn't matter.

"This is not a bakery," said the owner.

"Might you have a bit of gristle then?"

"Does this look like a butchershop?"

"A little flour?"

"Do you hear a grinding stone?"

"Some water?"

"This is not a well."

Whatever the dervish asked for,
the man made some tired joke
and refused to give him anything.

Finally the dervish ran in the house,
lifted his robe, and squatted
as though to take a s***.

"Hey, hey!"

"Quiet, you sad man. A deserted place
is a fine spot to relieve oneself,
and since there's no living thing here,
or means of living, it needs fertilizing."

The dervish began his own list
of questions and answers.

"What kind of bird are you? Not a falcon,
trained for the royal hand. Not a peacock,
painted with everyone's eyes. Not a parrot,
that talks for sugar cubes. Not a nightingale,
that sings like someone in love.

Not a hoopoe bringing messages to Solomon,
or a stork that builds on a cliffside.

What exactly do you do?
You are no known species.

You haggle and make jokes
to keep what you own for yourself.

You have forgotten the One
who doesn't care about ownership,
who doesn't try to turn a profit
from every human exchange.




(08:23) Keshavarz Quote of Rumi Poem
"Love whether of this kind or that kind,
Shall ultimately guide us to the king."

Keshavarz quotes from Book One of the Masnavi to illustrate how, for Rumi, love is multifaceted. She writes: "Instead of promoting the view that one has to transcend the human level to experience the mystical, Rumi tended to see the mystical as just an aspect of the human experience. With characteristic boldness he crossed the borderline between the spiritual and the carnal to emphasize that the two were indeed one and the same, a view he expressed directly in his didactic Masnavi."

Here is an extended excerpt of the same section of the Masnavi as translated by Rutgers University professor Jawid Mojaddedi in Rumi: The Masnavi, Book One:

Being a lover means your heart must ache,

No sickness hurts as much as when hearts break, The lover's ailment's totally unique,
Love is the astrolabe of all we seek,

Whether you feel divine or earthy love,

Ultimately we're destined for above.

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(08:36–09:55) Music Element
"Buruq Al-Hayy (Lights from the Dwelling Places)"
from La Voie De L'Extase,
performed by Noureddine Khourshid & The Dervishes of Damas





 
(08:59) The Mevlevi Order and the Whirling Dervishes
As a teacher and religious scholar, Rumi led a group of disciples that became formally known as the Mevlevi Order after his death in 1273. Biographer Franklin Lewis credits Rumi's son, Sultan Valad, with achieving and maintaining the formal structure that allowed the order to thrive beyond Konya, Turkey. The Mevlevi Order dominated the spiritual life of Turkey and many other parts of the Ottoman Empire into the early 20th century. It also served as a thriving environment for poetry and music.





In 1925, with the overthrow of the Ottoman Empire, Kemal Ataturk banned the order reportedly out of fear that their religious roots would lead them to revolt against the new secular government. The following copy of the 1925 law banning is taken from Shems Friedlander's book, Rumi and the Whirling Dervishes:
LAW 677

WHICH PROHIBITS AND ABOLISHES THE PROFESSION OF TOMB-KEEPING, THE ASSIGNING OF MYSTICAL NAMES, AND THE OPENING OF TEKKES (DERVISH LODGES), ZAVIYES (CENTRAL DERVISH LODGES), AND TOMBS.
13 December 1925 (1341 H.)


Clause 1. All the tekkes (dervish lodges) and zaviyes (central dervish lodges) in the Turkish republic, either in the form of wakf (religious foundations) or under the personal property right of its sheikh or established in any other way, are closed. The right of property and possession of their owners continue. Those used as mosques and mescits (small mosques) may be retained as such.

All of the orders using descriptions as sheikh, dervish, disciple, dedelik (a kind of sheikh of an order), chelebilik (title of the leader of the Mevlevi order), seyyitlik (a descendent of the Prophet Muhammad), bablik (elder of a religious order, a kind of craft), ufurukchuluk (a person who claims to cure by means of the breath), divining, and giving written charms in order to make someone reach their desire: service to these titles, and the wearing of dervish costume, are prohibited. The tombs of the sultans, the tombs of the dervish orders are closed, and the profession of tomb-keeping is abolished. Those who open the closed tekkes (dervish lodges) or zaviyes (central dervish lodges), or the tombs, and those who re-establish them or those who give temporary places to the orders or people who are called by any of the mystical names mentioned above or those who serve them, will be sentenced to at least three months in prison and will be fined at least fifty Turkish liras.

Clause 2. This law is effective immediately.

Clause 3. The cabinet is charged with its implementation.

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Despite this ban, the Mevlevis remain an active Sufi order in and beyond Turkey, though it is still restricted from promoting itself as a living spiritual practice. "There is no Sufi order in Islam," the Islamic scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr opines, "in which both music and dance, considered sacred activities that draw the soul to God, have been so elaborately formulated as in the Mevlevi Order." Celebi, the title given to the Mevlevi leaders, include descendants of Rumi to this day.

The Mevlevis are commonly known as the Whirling Dervishes, especially in the West, because of the distinctive dance they perform to music as a central ritual of the order. Dervish is the Turkish form of the Persian word darwish — literally, "the sill of the door" — that describes a Sufi who is "one at the door to enlightenment."

The hagiography of Rumi and the ritual of whirling varies in its description of when and how he began the practice. Some sources refer to accounts of Shams of Tabriz, the wandering mystic who became Rumi's beloved companion, teaching the practice to him; others describe Rumi as innovating it. In Rumi and the Whirling Dervishes, Shams Friedlander describes instances of Rumi's whirling, including one related to Rumi's bereavement of the death of his former master and teacher, Shams: "Mevlana refused to see anyone. He confined himself to his house and would often whirl around one of the architectural poles in his garden."


http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/rumi/particulars.shtml

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Another story attributes the whirling experience as the beginning of the Mevlevi Order:
One day, as he walked by the goldbeater's shop, he heard the hammers of the apprentices pounding the rough streets of gold into beautiful objects. With each step he repeated the name of God; and now with the sound of the hammers beating the gold, all he heard was "Allah, Allah."

"Allah, Allah" became every sound he heard, and he began to whirl in ecstasy in the middle of the street. He unfolded his arms, like a fledgling bird, clasped his robe, tilted his head back, and whirled, whirled, whirled to the sound of "Allah" that came forth from his heart and the very wind he created by his movement.

I see the waters which spring from their sources,
The branches of trees which dance like penitents,
The leaves which clap their hands like minstrels.

That was the beginning of the Mevlevi Order of Sufis. … With the continuing outpouring of verse coming from Mevlana, the task of copying it down was given to his friend and disciple Husamuddin Hasan.
Friedlander says that at Hasan's home near Konya, "Rumi would often whirl in the garden, his arms close to his body, holding his robe. His nature was filled with kindness, and so he allowed his disciples to embrace him gently as he turned and, for a short time, turn with him."

Whirling, or sema dancing, represents a mystical journey. In this journey the seeker symbolically turns towards the truth, grows through love, abandons the ego, finds the truth, and arrives at a state of perfection. The seeker then returns from this spiritual journey with greater maturity, so as to love and to be of service to the whole of creation without discrimination.

The banning of the dervish orders in Turkey in 1925 included the Sema ceremonies. In 1953, the mayor of Konya allowed the ceremony to be publicly performed as long as it was construed as a celebration of a great Turkish poet and not a religious ritual. Since that time, the Turkish government continues to relax restrictions on performances, recognizing the draw for tourists. Visitors flock to Konya and the Mevlevi Museum every December to commemorate Rumi and to see the Whirling Dervishes. The Sema ceremony is performed in many parts of the world by the Mevlevis and other whirling dervish groups. (Watch a brief video clip of a sema ceremony.)

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09:53–10:33) Music Element
"Rufi'at Astâ Al-Bayn (The Veils of Distance Have Been Lifted)"
from La Voie De L'Extase,
performed by Noureddine Khourshid & The Dervishes of Damas




(14:47–15:10) Music Element
"Pishdaramad"
from Suite Rastpanjgah - Naghde Sufi,
performed by Ostad Mahmoud Zoufonoun




(14:45) Reading of Ghazal "Like This"
The reading of Keshavarz's translation of the ghazal titled "Like This" (accompanied in Persian by Soleyman Vaseghi) first appeared in Rumi's Divan. Keshavarz says this poem illustrates Rumi's ability to mold the physical and the spiritual in his verse:

"It is, of course, not uncommon for mystical verse to make use of love imagery, but often the tone is vague and vividly erotic details are avoided. Rumi is aware of this tradition. In his poem, he preserves sensuality precisely because he wishes it to be understood in ordinary human terms rather than in a vague and generalized fashion. … Through sharpening the sensual edge and then giving it a distinct share in the spiritual cosmos, Rumi abolishes the imaginary boundary between the two and creates his specific brand of mystical lyricism."

(16:11–16:35) Music Element
"Pishdaramad"
from Suite Rastpanjgah - Naghde Sufi,
performed by Ostad Mahmoud Zoufonoun




(17:24–19:53) Music Element
"Tales from the Ney"
from Sufi Music of Turkey,
performed by Kudsi and Suleyman Erguner




(18:24) Reading of "The Song of the Reed"
"The Song of the Reed" opens the Masnavi, and its lines are the only couplets considered to be directly written by Rumi. A ney is one of the oldest forms of a flute, dating back to 2500 BCE. Traditional neys are made from a plant reed and are often used to accompany readings of Rumi's poetry.

His disciple Husamuddin Hasan served as Rumi's scribe as well as his inspiration for the poem. The text itself refers to their system of production (excerpted from Rumi: The Masnavi, Book One, translated by Jawid Mojaddedi):

"Hosamoddin, please fetch a sheet or two

And write about the guide what I tell you;

Although you're frail, lack strength and energy,

Without the sun there is no light for me,

Though you've become the lamp and glass my friend,

You lead the hearts which follow the thread's end:

You hold the thread's end, from which you won't part;

Your bounty gave the pearls strung round my heart!"

[Bianca]

(22:17) Krista's Quote of Rumi
Krista recites a selected passage from Coleman Barks' translation from Book Five of Rumi's Masnavi, titled "A Basket of Fresh Bread":

Stay bewildered in God,

and only that.

Those of you who are scattered,

simplify your worrying lives. There is one
righteousness: Water the fruit trees,
and don't water the thorns. Be generous
to what nurtures the spirit and God's luminous
reason-light. Don't honor what causes
dysentery and knotted-up tumors.

Don't feed both sides of yourself equally.
The spirit and the body carry different loads
and require different attentions.


Too often

we put saddlebags on Jesus and let the donkey
run loose in the pasture.

Don't make the body do

what the spirit does best, and don't put a big load
on the spirit that the body could carry easily.




(24:02–25:55) Music Element
"Improvisation"
from Light and Fire,
performed by the Liän Ensemble




(24:28) Reading of Rumi's "The Promise"
Keshavarz recites her translation of a ghazal, "The Promise," from Rumi's Divan. She read this ghazal to the music of the Liän Ensemble at a Rumi celebration at Stanford University in January 2007. The Liän Ensemble is a group of virtuoso performers and composers whose compositions fuse mystical Persian musical heritage with the contemporary sensibilities of postmodern jazz.

Listen to the complete ghazal read by Fatemeh Keshavarz in English and Persian, as well as Persian readings by two Liän Ensemble performers, Houman Pourmehdi and Soleyman Vaseghi.


http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/rumi/particulars.shtml