1001 - the beautiful and damed
A
mystic of ancient times, Rumi, is delivering wisdom and inspiration to the Children of The Internet Revolution. Even though he is one of the most quoted poets in social media today, there's no doubt that Rumi would have less followers than Katy Perry if he could ever have a verified twitter account - somehow.
But what would it write on 811 years old Rumi's social media bio? “A 13th century Persian poet, Islamic scholar, theologian and Sufi mystic” as it's written in wikipedia? Best-selling poet in US? Any emojis? Or maybe, as he has summarized his life in one of his famous stories, just in three words: “Khâm. Pokhta. Sokht." Meaning "I was raw. I became cooked. I was burnt.” Umm... I am not sure if this is THE killer bio for the virtual societies of our era.
But... I am very very sure that Rumi would be THE common friend of LGBTQ and Islamic World on facebook. And since they have named their daughter after him, Beyonce and Jay-Z would definitely be Rumi's followers on instagram, like many other blue ticked users. However, his Linkedin account would probably fail if he decides to quote the line “just love and only love; my job is nothing but love” from Divan-e Shams which is one of his masterpieces.
Obviously that's not the best what-if scenario. The truth is Rumi will never know that his poems became “the crack cocain of social media.”(Waylon Lewis, 2012) Thanks God... With no wifi, trained as a theologian when he was young, he became a mystical poet after meeting his mentor Shams. Never clear if they were lover-beloved or master-apprentice but never important. You can always feel the sense of unity and the ecstasy of their companionship reflected on Rumi's poems and on the elegant meditative dance of whirling dervishes.
Or let me be your Scheherazade now and tell you a story which Rumi told me before.
A story of a man who is very very excited to meet his beloved one. Knocks on the door and shakes from head to toe when that angelic voice comes from inside, asking “who is it at the door?”. “Me, my beloved” the man answers, “it’s me here waiting to see your beautiful face, to touch your skin made of silk.” But the door is not opened. “Go away” says his beloved, “it’s not the time. Go away!” How can a voice be softer than cotton and also sharper than knife?
Full of misery, the man goes away. Days pass into weeks, weeks into months. He can not think of anything but his beloved. He can not talk about anything but his beloved. He can not feel anything but his beloved.
The man was raw, he became cooked and he was burnt.
And one day he visits his beloved’s neighborhood again. He knocks on the door, with a hope for hearing that voice one last time and so he may pass away at peace, the rest doesn’t matter. “Who is it?” asks the beloved. Ooh, this should be the voice of god. “It’s you” the man says from the bottom of his heart “the one at the door is nothing but you.”
The beloved opens the door: “If you are me, come inside then. My place is small, not enough for two.”
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Rumi is an ocean, i can not tell you everything about the ocean. As Shams taught him: “There are two ways of reaching the ultimate goal. The longer one passes through the books and the shortcut passes through love.”
Better you always take the shortcuts but here are some further Rumi readings for long-distance walkers.
Dear Vincent, When i was a little boy, i had written a line on the wall next to my bed: "29th October is the happiest day of my life.” I was 8 and that happy day was the day when I was received my very first letter. Haha... I was crazy about getting letters, writing letters, crazy about envelopes, about paper folding, the handwritings, the greetings and the salutations. Now I am not that much crazy for emails but... I still enjoy the first ones. : ) Happy that my first email to you has Rumi and Shams in it. Attached… (Of course technology has its own advantages) Sooo… Hope you’ll enjoy it… Gros bisous Ömer
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TEXT ÖMER CEYLAN
ILLUSTRATIONS VINCENT MOUSTACHE
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