ADAB FOR A PEACEFUL WORLD: A Study of Jalaluddin Rumi’s Concept of Sufism

Rumi’s spiritual teaching is slightly different from others in a way that his devotional concepts put greater emphasis on ethics. Rumi believes that spirituality tightly relates to ethics, without which one neither could attain nor be able to stay in spiritual perfection. To sail to God, one should implement some ethical values best covered by the frame to love and to renunciate. To love entails loving God and His creatures, while to renunciate indicates the detachment from worldly desires. Putting these two into an application, one will be able to attain the union with the Sublime Being (fana’). However for Rumi, one could be said to reach spiritual perfection only after he returned from self-mortification and gained spiritual wisdom that allows him to share universal love for the rest of human lives (baqa’).

Introduction

I am drunk with the wine of the Wine-maker

My body drunk with the Beloved

I am not the only one who’s drunk, what’s more,

This wine has intoxicated many others before!

When I passed the tavern I could see

The wine-maker, the judge, the sermonizer-drunk!

This pure wine has been tasted by the pure in spirit

Junaid and Shibli and Attar were drunk with it,

This is the wine that Mansur drank

And with the words of Truth got drunk!

With the spirit of Shamsuddin Tabriz I,

too, dance in the Bazar, drunk!

Rumi is not the only Sufi who drowned into intoxication with the Beloved, instead, there were several prominent Sufis whose immersion within the substance of God precedented him. In his poetry, he frequently mentioned older Sufis such as Junaid, Shibli, Attar, Mansur and Shamsuddin to share the same vision of Sufism which is the attainment of self-mortification or annihilation (fana>’). In spite of similar experience of intoxication, I argue that Rumi’s concept of mysticism is different from others with respect to the concept of spiritual perfection attainment. In this paper, I propose to frame his concept, saying that his devotional concepts put greater emphasis on adab that firstly, it is a prerequisite for attaining the state of spiritual perfection (fana>’), and secondly, it is the achievement of spiritual attainment.

To make the discussion flows structurally, I propose several steps to look at Rumi’s concept of Sufism. I begin the discussion by providing some historical background of Rumi’s life. Then I am to give an overview of his poetry. The next theme is the main discussion about Rumi’s concept of Sufism, and the last one will be a conclusion where I will also address some influences of Rumi’s concept of Sufism to society.

Rumi and the message of love

Unlike other Sufis whose souls were glowing within themselves, Rumi’s soul invites many people to celebrate the highness of spirituality that creates a balance relationship vertically to God (h{abl min al-Alla>h) and horizontally to society (h{abl min al-na>s).

Rumi’s devotional concept that puts greater emphasis on adab as a means to reach the Beloved and as an indication of attainment of spiritual perfection is very important in building a better relationship not only between a spiritual wayfarer and God but also between a spiritual wayfarer and his fellows human and non-human beings. Adab that entails knowing the limit or knowing the self-control and loving other beings gives room for being in harmony with the entire article in the cosmos.

Indeed, to attain such a state where all we see is God and love is not easy. As part of human life whose desires and lusts are overflowing, we tend to put ourselves first before others. Hence, it is not surprising that the world is often in chaos because many of us are undisciplined, meaning that we do not have self-control. The expediency of spiritual perfection then is not for at all rewards of heaven, but indeed, for harmonious life among beings.

Rumi was and is successfully attractive to many people from various backgrounds who are amazed by such an impressive soul whose spirituality reassures those who dream for peace. Considering the promising attainment that Rumi offered, many people all over the world turned into his religious teaching, which is the religion of all, the religion of love.30 Peter H. Cunz mentioned ‘the Europeans’ request to comprehend the message of Mawlana, whose soul and thinking was molded by Islam, without a corset of some dogmatic interpretation is a legitimate demand’. Indeed, it is fascinating to know that such modern communities whose civilization be built upon reason and secularization are thirsty of spirituality and demand for translating the works of Rumi and conducting the Sufi spiritual exercise.31 The demand of many western communities to translate Rumi’s theories of love into some practical ways is a mark of the great poet whose love to his Beloved keeps sparkling and resonates with those who are willing to gain spirituality.