Gathering Feedback
We’re gathering some research on the impact of Rumi in peace-building. We would really appreciate your feedback:
What effect has Rumi had on the way you perceive Islam and other religions, either as a Muslim or a non-Muslim?
Get in touch below, or by email, or on our Facebook page. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts!
Rumi's Circle 
I don’t see what Molana says as religious, even-though the language and tone sometimes seems so. I believe all religions have passed their time when at one time or other had some relevance. You don’t need to be religious to be ethical. The search for truth and justice is sought by man. The fundamental teaching that all awakened individuals (to use the term if I may) have said is one thing. Reading Molana has made me see things as they are and not as I should like them to be. Some one said something about Budha’s teaching which is true of Rumi’s teaching as I read it and that is: ”Budhism and not shouldism”. I am more receptive to basic teachings of Budha minus the cultural backpack where it is practiced in different countries now that I read Molana and meditate on the content of what his teaching is. To sum up it is what Zoroast is reported to have said and more; namely ”Good thought(intent), Good or right speech(being careful what we say), Good deed”. What the world needs now more than ever is the realisation of the Unity of all life. Being instead of having, empathy with fellow beings and living up to our God given responsibility for all life forms, cultivating love and wisdom as these two go hand in hand. Not taking our thoughts and made up beliefs so seriously and actualisation that God is not serious, hard and all those mental human thought processe we think he is. We cannot say what the formless-being is but I can point out to a few things he is not and yet all religions are arrogantly saying he is. Our language is of course inadequate for articulating such matters as we think in dualistic form. In fact I think I have already said too much. Humbly I beg for forgiveness. I end by a short verse from holly scripture which is sum total of Jesus’s teaching: ”Love each other as I have loved you”.
Thank you so much Abbas, we really appreciate your sharing 🙂
Rumi has been a guiding presence for me as a Muslim. In reading and contemplating Rumi at age 19, I began to understand that “life does not flow between the shores of do and do not,” as a Sufi master once said to me. Rumi has changed the course of my life in many ways. When I started learning Persian and reading Rumi, I changed my career from medicine to the study of the Qur’an, I met my husband whose religious views are in line with my own, and I embarked on my long journey to becoming a Sufi Yoga teacher. For me, Rumi was a revelation of an Islam beyond the Islam of hand placement in prayer and how much of my head has to be wet to “count” as wudu’ (ablutions) – not that those aren’t very important things. It was just more possible for me to understand Islam more experientially in a fully fulfilling and embodied way than before.
I am not able to answer your question, because I cannot experience Mevlana Rumi separate from me. We are from the same source. I can only share the fact that -concerning religions- I am aware that we often need the shape of a religion to relate to God / the One / the Source, but if we are becoming the Self every shape will dissolve. Light is not comparable with a source. Light is everywhere.