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The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi

William C. Chittick,

Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi

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Mar 11, 2014 Tim rated it it was amazing

Shelves: islam, islam-sufism, islam-sufi-masters, islam-rumi

Past often appropriated quotes from Rumi, it was this book along with the Mathanawi that truly introduced me to Rumi a few years ago. A spiritual mentor had taken me through part of the Mathnawi, plus the writings of Chittick, which in turn opened me to the teachings of Ibn Al-Arabi, and the foundation of my view of Islam comes from that background.

I remember this mentor instructing me in the Islamic view of the transcendent God, which is always bigger than we can imagine but at the same time c Past often appropriated quotes from Rumi, it was this book along with the Mathanawi that truly introduced me to Rumi a few years ago. A spiritual mentor had taken me through part of the Mathnawi, plus the writings of Chittick, which in turn opened me to the teachings of Ibn Al-Arabi, and the foundation of my view of Islam comes from that background.

I remember this mentor instructing me in the Islamic view of the transcendent God, which is always bigger than we can imagine but at the same time closer than we can imagine. Rumi, Ibn Al-Arabi and other Sufis use the Attributes of God to gain a vision, then immediately discard that vision as being Real/not real in the formula of the Shahadah itself: God/not-god. Coming from a Christian background, this most struck me in the conception of “God is Love”. It is true that God is Love, and God encompasses all of love yet God is also beyond Love. Once we try to “box God in”, the concept eludes us and Sufis will tell us that any firm conception of God can border on idolatry if dogmatically insisted upon. This in itself is a beautiful commentary on the universality of Islam, and the vast room there is in the faith for inclusion. Yet it also comments on the danger of making any statement at all on the Divine. Throughout Rumi, there is the constant play on duality: “Things become manifest through their opposites. But since God has no opposite, He remains hidden.” (49)

There are several key outlines which Chittick uses to present Rumi in this work, the majority of which is a translation of Rumi’s own words, set up by Chittick’s background commentary. First is Rumi’s division of Sufism or the path in general, which Chittick defines as:
1. Proper knowledge or Theory
2. Proper works or practice
3. Attainment to God or spiritual psychology

Chittick sees Rumi’s hierarchy of the spirit as follows:
1. Animal
2. Human
3. Angelic
4. Muhammaden or Universal Man – Sainthood

Through all of this, it is important to remember the interplay between form (surat) and meaning (ma’na). Everything we can comprehend is a manifestation of the divine, but is necessarily form, and therefore is not divine at the same time. Meaning is beyond form, but must assume a form to be conceptualized/understood. This is analogous to annihilation/subsistence in Sufi teaching. To truly “know” God, we must eliminate all remnants of our own self. Anything less than that leaves an element of form, which is not God, and not full actualization. “Come without analogy! Then you will hear words without analogy. After all, you are an analogy of yourself; you are not this. Your bodily person is your shadow.” (276)

“That Oneness is on the other side of descriptions and states. Nothing but duality enters speech’s playing field.” (275) Rumi has functioned as the most acceptable saint of Islam in the West through “speaking” in this language of nondualism. But in the end, Islam, like any genuine spiritual path, serves only to lead us to the attainment of ultimate truth. It is the Essence which is the goal of the Sufi. The path only functions as a means to that end.
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Apr 22, 2023 Sagheer Afzal rated it it was amazing

Rumi is a much quoted and often poorly understood poet. Although works of Coleman Bark have popularised Rumi to the Western world, they have done a disservice to Rumi by ignoring the philosophy underpinning his poetry.

Rumi was not just a sage spouting pithy aphorisms he was a mystic who used the medium of poetry to expound his insights, and his theosophy is broader and more accesible than that of Ibn Arabi. He doesn't proselytize but insteads ask the reader to view himself no longer as a physic ...more

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