Humility is Prophetic and Divine, Arrogance is Destructive and Deceptive: The epic encounter of two mystic Sufis: Maulana Rumi and Shams Tabriz Shams Tabriz (13th Century Iranian Sufi mystic) had travelled from town to town quizzing every scholar he met. He was searching for a teacher but none had the answers he sought. His searching took Shams to Konya, the present day Turkey. In Konya he was told to meet also Rumi (13th-century Persian poet, jurist, famous Islamic scholar, theologian, and who later became Sufi mystic). One day Shams Tabriz went to meet Rumi. He saw Rumi was reading next to a large stack of books. Shams Tabriz, asked him, What are you doing? Rumi scoffingly replied, Something you cannot understand when he saw a man in ripped clothes, scuffed shoes and messy hair. On hearing this, Shams threw the stack of books into a nearby pool of water. Rumi scolded him badly. Shams Tabriz went inside the pool and rescued the books and to Rumi’s surprise they were all dry. Rumi then asked Shams, What is this? To which Shams replied, Mowlana, this is what you cannot understand. Rumi could no longer focus on his students or studies. He felt his knowledge as a scholar was superficial filled with intellectual arrogance and he found in books only concepts of God. Shams found God in everything, in simple, every day experiences, and this filled him with an ecstasy. Rumi finally said: Maulvi Hargiz Na Shud Maula-e Rum Ta Ghulaam E Shams Tabraizi Na Shud. [Trans: Maulvi (Rumi) could never have become Maula-i-Rum, if he had not devoted himself to Shams Tabrizi] Our poet Alama Iqbal has put it like this: Ilm-o-Hikmat Ka Mile Khyunkar Sooragh Kis Tarah Hath Aye Souz-o-Dard-o-Dagh? [Trans: What is the secret of knowledge and wisdom? And how to be blessed with passion and pain?] Shams then said “Intellect takes you to the door, but it doesnt take you into the house.”
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 23:05:13 +0000
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