Rumi-nations

    The book of Rumi's poems I have (201-400) starts with an introduction that reviews the author A.J. Berry's life. In it, there is mention of a Renard Alleyne Nicholson, an "eminent authority on Islamic mysticism." He is described as "a very shy and retiring man" so naturally, I'd be desperate to be friends with him if I was a young man at the time. I always think "shy and retiring men" are closeted though, so perhaps I'm making snap judgments. ANYWAY there's a poem by him on xi, which the author presents as an example of the influence Rumi had on this man's way of thinking. I won't quote the entire piece, but some specific stanzas jumped out at me:

        "Deep in our hearts the Light of Heaven is shining/ Upon a soundless Sea without a shore./ Oh, happy they who found it in resigning/ The images of all that men adore." 

    I began this book yesterday evening after the blog post in which I made my metaphor about holding on to a whale in the middle of a vast sea, and feeling that if I let go I would drown but also understanding that if the whale decided it wanted to dive, I too would go down with it. Faith, I believe, is knowing the whale won't drag you down, the whale being this force much mightier than yourself. 

    "Like Harut and Marut, that Angel-pair/ Who deemed themselves the purest of the pure." 

I didn't know who these two characters were, so here's what Wiki tells me:

Harut and Marut (Arabic: هَارُوْت وَمَارُوْت, romanized: Hārūt wa-Mārūt) are two angels mentioned in Quran 2:102, who are said to have been located in Babylon.^[1][2] According to some narratives, those two angels were in the time of Idris. The Quran indicates that they were a trial for the people and through them the people were tested with sorcery. The story itself parallels a Jewish legend about the fallen angels Shemḥazaī, ʿUzza, and ʿAzaʾel. The names Hārūt and Mārūt appear to be etymologically related to those of Haurvatat and Ameretat, two Zoroastrian archangels.^[3] 

There's more digging I would like to do to find out more about these two who were referenced in regards to "Blind eyes, to dote on shadows of things fair/ Only at last to curse their fatal lure."

The poem goes on to state:

"Love, Love alone can kill what seemed so dead,/ The frozen snake of passion. Love alone,/ By tearful prayer and fiery longing fed,/ Reveals a knowledge schools have never known."

"God's lovers learn from Him the secret ways/ Of Providence, the universal plan."

The word Providence jumped out at me, considering my recent stay in that city. The poem continues with this stanza:

"There are degrees of heavenly light in souls;/ Prophets and Saints have shown the paths they trod,/ Its starting points and stages, halts and goals,/ All leading to the single end in God."

A neat stanza, both in terms of "hey that's neat!" and in the sense of being tidy with the rhyming end words of souls, trod, goals, God. The final stanza reads:

"Love will not let his faithful servants tire,/ Immortal Beauty draws them on and on/ From glory unto glory drawing nigher/ At each remove and loving to be drawn./ When Truth shines out words fail and nothing tell;/ Now hear the Voice within your hearts. Farewell." 

This poem by Nicholson is compared to one by Al-Hallaj (or Mansour Hallaj, who was crucified in 922) in which a stanza is quoted on xii:

    "Now stands no more between the Truth and me/ Or reasoned demonstration,/ Or proof or revelation;/ Now, brightly blazing full, Truth's luminary,/ That drives out of sight/ Each flickering, lesser light."

    This is from the Qur'an:

    "God is the light of heavens and the earth;/ the likeness of His Light is as a niche/ wherin is a lamp/ (the lamp in a glass,/ the glass as it were a glittering star)/ kindled be a Blessed Tree,/ an olive that is neither of the East nor of the West/ whose oil well-nigh would shine, even if no fire touched it./ Light upon Light,/ God guides to His Light whom He will." 

    That is from An-nur, verse 35. I'm not sure if I'm referencing the Qu'ran correctly here. 

     From this collection of Rumi's work, so far Poem 208 stands out as particularly resonant for me:

    "Every day I bear a burden, and I bear this calamity for a purpose:/ I bear the discomfort of cold and December's snow in hope of spring./ Before the fattener-up of all who are lean, I drag this so emaciated body."

    This part strikes me as relevant to my situation because I did stop eating before I left Virginia and I have become more emaciated than I would like. I am slowly starting to gain weight again. The poem continues:

    "Though they expel me from two hundred cities, I bear if rot he sake of the love of a prince;/ Though my shop and house be laid waste, I bear it in fidelity to a tulip bed./ God's love is a very strong fortress; I carry my soul's baggage inside a fortress."

     Here I am, travelling around the United States, and I've visited 5 cities so far (including the one I am now, Pittsburgh) and I am carrying my baggage around--both physical and spiritual/emotional. The poem ends:

    "He said, "Will you bear this sorrow till the Resurrection?"/ Yes, Friend, I bear it. I bear it./ My breast is the Cave and Shams-e Tabrizi is the Companion of the Cave."

    First, I didn't know there was a correlating "Resurrection" in Islamic belief, but more to the point--the words, "I bear it. I bear it" are what I must tell myself as I continue my journey into the west. There will be times when I must bear my sorrow--and perhaps I will have to do so until the end of my time on Earth. But having a "Companion of the Cave" will be important--I must find that person, or recognize that I have found them already.