Rumis Daughter

So I started Rumi’s Daughter right after I finished reading Princess by Jean Sasson (in case you missed the review, here it is) and it took me almost 2 weeks to finish it because I wanted to UNDERSTAND it. Kimya was brought by Rumi (adopted) for the cause of teaching and she.
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What happened during their private sessions? Why was their private sessions so secure where no one was ever allowed? Why was Rumi so affected by those private meetings that he would leave the world of law and teaching and become a genius poet instead? Why would Rumi hold such a high regard for a wandering homeless dervish, nicknamed the Bird?

Rumi refers to the process of Soul Evolution as being cooked. The idea is just as meals can't be ready to be consumed until they're well cooked, a soul is not ready for ascension until it's also cooked. Cooking of the soul refers to maturity of the spirit which is achieved by life experiences but specially by learning of universal mysteries and the truth about soul's imprisonment on this planet.

From the dust of the earth to a human being, there are a thousand steps. I have been with you through these steps, I have held your hand and walked by your side. And I will be with you as you move beyond this human form and soar to the highest heavens. The process of Soul Evolution is about maturity of the soul and its readiness for ascension off this dark planet. You transform from that of a child soul needing boundaries and reward and punishment control methods to a mature soul that no longer requires any limitations. This is true with our bodies too. As children we require all sorts of control methods and reward and punishment tactics to prevent us from electrocuting ourselves, drowning, walk in front of traffic, drinking cleaning products or jump from balconies and so on.

In essence as a child these boundaries protect us from ourselves. But as healthy adults, not only do we no longer require such overseeing, but we then assume the role of the protector for other children. There are a few things to consider before we continue. The process of Soul Evolution or ascension is a slow process and could take at the very least several lifetimes with best of candidates. Hence the term slow cooking that Rumi uses also meant to suggest long process.

Furthermore, many so-called spiritual masters are just repeaters of low-grade information with no special gifts. As the West witnessed with the shenanigans of the corrupt Hindu gurus who almost all fell from grace in the past few decades, the term master is thrown around casually.

It's often meant to suggest "master manipulator. Almost all these so called repeaters of low-grade information have two things in mind, hunger for growing their number of followers by any means necessary and increasing their wealth and power. Keep in mind just because someone teaches about meditation that doesn't make them spiritual master, they are simply repeating available information.

He kept his increasing wealth 99 Rolls Royce cars and his erotic parties fully open to the public. He also tried to poison a whole town in Oregon just to take full control of it. Now that's an honest "guru. So, if you were to take a moment and analyze Shams you'd discover that he is truly one of the only real mystical masters of all time. Shams was in his 60s when he met Rumi.

That's a full lifetime. If he wanted wealth or large following he could have accomplished that by then. But his whole life was only about being true to himself and being genuine to the mission of ascension. He was also holder of secrets of ancient mystery schools, including the famed Egyptian school Thath. Yes, Shams was the real deal. So, here we have two absolutely genuine, once in an eon bright, untarnished spirits coming together. The meeting of Shams and Rumi doesn't happen every century nor every millennium, it happens once every spiritual cycle about 12, years. So instead of a slow cooker, Shams put Rumi in a microwave oven.

Instead of several life times, the process of ascension was sped up to a mere several years. Rumi not only clearly understood this, but he did his absolute best to make sure no mystic ever forgot what happened between them.

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Here are some nitty-gritty facts about these two. Shams drank, Rumi did not. Their companionship, although short lived, was about transmission of power and high secret knowledge and it was never physical. Think about it, why else would Rumi offer him a wife if they were physically involved? Shams' powers grew while he was with Rumi. Rumi saw mysterious he never thought possible. I would tell you about their experiences but they are so magnificent and so far removed from our reality that they would fall into the zone of Sci-Fi.

However, their meetings were not just about discourse, they were experiential. Meaning Shams was able to bestow direct experiences to Rumi, rather than just discussing them in theory. These direct experiences also included manifestation of imagery and beings from other times and dimensions. I'll keep the more juicy details for my talks and workshops. It's no wonder that years later we're still discussing, with great passion and interest, the mystery of Shams and Rumi. For any serious mystical students reading this, these two are on a short list of real genuine articles in the whole history of spirituality.

Major artistic movements, form, mature and grow in clusters of time and region. Without exception all major, global, highly creative and intensely demanding artistic movements are a product of a very specific cultural vibration set within a particular time and geography. The Persian classical poetry movement is not an exception and follows this natural flow quite precisely. When an artistic movement is formed, a whole universe of activity starts to buzz around it.

Enthusiast groups are formed and special viewing areas or performance halls are built. A system of training and education also shapes to support these movements; meaning as the artform grows so does the understanding and appreciation of it. And the training structure allows the young to aspire to become the next big players within these creative fields. However, only three of which are globally recognized: Rumi, Hafez and Omar Khayyam. These movies represent the very popular aspect of American culture.

Since the English-speaking world appreciates Persian classical poetry through translations, the personality of these literary giants and the unique style of each poet is often ignored or morphed together to form an endless stream of brilliant verse. However, their work in the original Persian language is quite unique.

Rumi’s Daughter by Muriel Maufroy: Book Review – A Little Something by Arsh Azim

Hafez , who is undoubtedly the most popular of all the Persian classic poets in his homeland of Iran, is the true Persian word-meister. He has an immense grasp of the language, with a very distinct fluid style, that is often embellished with great care. However, Hafez translations in English are often indistinguishable from Rumi, and this is of course expected when any great literary work is read through translation and interpretation. Nevertheless, the beauty, grandeur, majesty, poetic craft and wisdom of these great beings come through not only in the original Persian language but in the English translations as well.

It's impossible today to imagine how popular poetry was at the time of Rumi. It was the pop music of its time. The only massively popular art form really. Since local singers would put to music the verses of popular poets, their poems were both recited and sung all day and all night long. History remembers tyrants, prophets and poets. Famous sculptors and painters didn't emerge until years after Rumi, during the Italian Renaissance. Tyrants were kings and rulers with distinct bloodlines or bloodthirsty military types who took lands by force. And the world only has a handful of popular prophets.

So those two positions were near impossible to attain for highly gifted and charismatic individuals like Rumi. But to become a grandmaster poet, if you had the poetic chops, was a wide-open field. Rumi is one of the most famous personalities in the world but he wouldn't have become known had he not chosen poetry as his weapon of choice. I would argue that poetry actually chose him; since he never considered himself a poet even though he became the greatest.

Rumi's unique style of poetry became all the rage at the time. He blended romantic imagery of classical Persian poetry that features a beautiful female companion, a cup of wine, a flower garden, moon lit night and candles burning with quotes from the 3 Abrahamic religious books plus mystical references, direct emotional expressions, issues involving maturity and growth of the soul and even anecdotes about daily life. Rumi was the most famous personality in the region and his fame and unique poetic style had already spread 3, miles away to India during his lifetime.

He was a superstar while he was alive and he has been admired, loved and cherished in the East ever since and in the West and globally since the s. In the early days when I had just started translating Rumi I became aware of what I thought then were strange similarities between Rumi lyrics and the American blues. How could it be, I thought, how could lyrics from an year old Persian poet have anything in common with songs from a 20th Century American phenomena?

Despite my initial disbelief I found similarities in four major themes that run through these two genres: Heartache, Drunkenness, Disagreeable Lover and Aloneness. Standard blues lyrics routinely talk about looking for a fix for this heartache. In fact just like the classic Persian poets, a blues performer considers having the blues a real privilege.

There is a saying, that if you don't have the blues, you aint got nothing. Rumi of course routinely exclaimed proudly how the pain of love was exclusive to him. In fact in my Rumi translation of his poem "Go Back To Sleep," he is shunning all those who aren't fortunate enough to be suffering from this heartache. He is commanding them to go back to sleep, which means remain in darkness of ignorance and give up your desire for growth and evolution. Just like in the American blues, this heartache was also paramount for Rumi. Love is best when mixed with anguish. In our town, we won't call you a Lover if you escape the pain.

Also like many of Rumi's poems a blues singer is often singing about being drunk, or is getting drunk, or just woke up with a hangover. I have lost the earth, the moon, and the sky. Don't put another cup of wine in my hand, pour it in my mouth, for I have lost the way to my mouth.

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So far we have covered the core theme of heartache or the blues, and the concept of drunkenness in both genres. And here's the next point of similarity: In the famous Billie Holiday's song "Fine and Mellow" she sings: And here's one from Rumi. Your cruel heart is weary of me already. You have left me alone, yet your sorrow remains. Truly your sorrow is more faithful than you are.

Here, Rumi's sorrow is of course heartache or having the blues. Also similar to the line "love will make you drink and gamble," complaining about the heartless lover ruining one's good name, is routine in Rumi poetry. They are alone for various reasons: And this issue of aloneness is rampant in both Persian classical poetry and blues lyrics.

So these similarities over the years made me aware about a connection between Rumi and the blues, in fact I used to perform a song called Rumi Blues with blues music and rhythms, honoring the connection without actually fully understanding the reason. The article exposed the missing link for me, that blues is an African American experience.

And African American of course denotes origin from Africa and this is where things get interesting. The Persian classical poets, specially Rumi, where immensely popular in the East. In fact Rumi has been a giant in the East ever since the 13th Century. And the Persian classical metaphors for heartache, drunkenness, disagreeable lover, and aloneness were well established all through the region from the Mediterranean Sea to India, North, West and East Africa and the Moorish Spain.

The African slaves, who were familiar with the imagery and metaphors of Persian classical poetry, brought these ideas with them to the US and gradually through generations as English became their native tongue learned to express them in the New World. Hence this African American experience inspired by Rumi and other Persian classical poets became the source for today's popular music. So next time you hear a young crooner tearing his or her heart out in a modern love song, you have Rumi to thank for. The short answer is no.

Rumi’s Daughter by Muriel Maufroy: Book Review

Rumi was a professor, a theologian and a scholar for most of his life. He was nearly 40 when he met the wild dervish named Shams who transformed his life.


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Until then he led a quiet, disciplined life of an orthodox religious figure from an elite family who was an incredibly popular university professor. Going back eight hundred years and the life expectancy not being so great, 40 by the standard of the time was considered mature age.

So, in essence his life should have remained the same for the remainder of his days, had he not met and embraced Shams. Let's look at what it means to be called a Sufi. To be a Sufi, is the same as belonging to any cult or sect or small religious or spiritual group that has a structure and a system of hierarchy. There is the master at the top, then officers below him and then the disciples. The master, whether it's a small Christian cult in the Midwest of the US, or an ultra-orthodox Hasidic community in Jerusalem, or a small Sufi sect in Egypt, or a Guru in an ashram in a village in India, has complete and total control over the group.

His or her word is considered a command and is obeyed by all the disciples blindly. Unless the organization has grown very large to include multiple locations, no new student can join the group until deemed worthy by the master. Also, joining such groups means adhering to strict rituals and routine practices formulated by that cult. Keep in mind that Sufism is a relative newcomer in the region that dates back many thousands of years and is rich with culture, spirituality, mysticism and the desire to explore the mysteries of humanity and the universe.

Being a mystic in Mideast doesn't necessitate in being a Sufi. For examples many dervishes in Iran trace their heritage back to at least 5, years and would clearly distinguish themselves from Sufism, which is only a several hundred year old tradition. Based on the above, Rumi certainly was not a Sufi. He didn't belong to any such sect neither did he pay homage to any particular master--short of Shams, who was not a Sufi and had no other followers.

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Lastly Rumi knew Shams for only a couple of years before Shams was killed in the hands of Rumi's youngest son. Rumi was a universal soul appearing as a Persian mystic poet, with an incredibly brilliant mind, who lived by his own code. Many years after he passed away, the order of Whirling Dervishes was formed in his honor and that often confuses people as though he was part of such a sect. Rumi for All Seasons. Who is the real Rumi? Was he religious, or a progressive thinker, or a hip spiritualist believing in the occult, or was he a scholar or a professor?

The correct answer is all of the above. Due to his incredibly long and prolific creative life he has covered every topic imaginable from erotica to deeply philosophical, hence he has become a projection of the reader's own mind. For example Rumi talks about God in some of his poems and then dismisses him in many others. His prime message is that God is found in your own heart. He recited hundreds of poems where he mentions that he would set fire to Kaaba and any temple or church, because God is not found there.

He then encourages the reader to look into his or her own heart instead. Due to the fact that Rumi recited poetry for about 25 years and 70, verses, he has covered every morsel of emotion, thought, idea and topic.

Rumi's Daughter

Therefore, he can't be pinned in one statement. Also because of the long duration of his creative expression he changed his mind often. Hence, you have poems where he praises God and then poems where he outright destroys any such concept. In years of popularity, Rumi has become a mirror projecting what the reader imagines. An orthodox or a religious reader, or a university professor, or a New Age type, or an advanced progressive thinker, all embrace Rumi as one of their own.

Rumi was Gloriously Blasphemous. Years ago I was in touch with a well-produced cultural magazine in Saudi Arabia. But as soon as they heard that I'd like to submit articles on Rumi, they said they couldn't mention Rumi in Saudi Arabia because he is considered blasphemous and his poetry is not allowed there. Rumi, like all true masters of art of self-realization, was totally original. He was insanely gifted both creatively and mystically in addition he was wealthy, socially and culturally influential, had massive political power and was the most famous personality in the region during his lifetime and beyond.

It's impossible today to imagine how popular poetry was at that time. Since local singers would put to music the verses of popular poets, their poems were both recited and sung. Historically speaking almost all creative types had to cater to a patron to survive and to be allowed to work and display their art. Be it the Vatican, the Medici family or various major landowners, the nobility and courts of kings. And with patronage always comes censorship, because ultimately you are producing and altering your work for the patron's approval.

Rumi was the complete exception. The emir or sultan of the region at the time, part of Kayqubad dynasty, was one of his students. So in essence Rumi was above the king, hence above the military and certainly above the big mosque and all the clerics. This, in addition to his own independent lifestyle, gave him enormous power to express himself without any reservation.

He also became the head of his tribe at the age of 24, upon the passing of his father, so he didn't even had to submit to a paternal authority like most young men of his time. Rumi was totally his own man. An utterly brilliant artist and a true genius who after the death of his mentor Shams became unstoppable. Although historically and still today in Middle East the clerics or mullahs would immediately execute blasphemous people however no cleric dared to censor Rumi's work. So the result is not just one or two lines but hundreds of Rumi poems that are openly anti-religion and pro self-empowerment.

I have several examples of Rumi's blasphemous poems in the "Rumi Poetry" section of this website. You can view here: Two such poems are below. Don't look for Him in every direction, for He is in my soul. I am the Sultan. I would be lying. If I said that there is someone who is my sultan.

Turning me into an idol worshiper while I am seated at Kaaba. Discover new books on Goodreads. Sign in with Facebook Sign in options. Muriel Maufroy Goodreads Author.


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