Ahwal-e-Irfan in Divan-e-Shamsi Tabrezi

Stages of Spiritual Awakening in Divan-e-Shams Tabrez

By: Xaenub Mirza

Doctoral Candidate

Istanbul Aydin University- Turkey

 Dedication

This brief and borrowed ascending flight of making sky circles is dedicated to my
father: Asad, whose voice gives me bearing, and whose Singularity always guides me
home.

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Introductory Notes

This paper is an attempt in tracing the stages of ‘Irfan’ defined in Divan-e-Shams

Tabriz, discussing Rumi more as a mystic in a maze of spiritual bewilderment coming
upon ‘fana’a’ in a journey of devotion and revelation. Also, words associated closely
with esoteric Islam (irfan, ishraq, fana’a) are discussed with a line of inquiry leading into
where so much is lost in translation with their English counterparts. To add dimension
to the treatment of the stations of irfan (muqamat/ahwal), Hafiz’s stance is held against
Rumi’s, though because of the difference in their personal histories and landscape, it is
only to emphasize the scope of mystical experience. An effort is made to read the
verses/odes with a conscience to the states (ahwal) of the mystic as defined by Dhu’nun
and Al-Arabi. Words with indo-Persian, Arabic or Turkish origins are translated in
parenthesis.

____________________________________

We can safely assume that Rumi’s world was turned on its head on his encounter with
the mysterious Shams Tabriz. It is Rumi: the grand scholar, the high voice on religion,
the protégé of generations of religious sages, prophesized by Farid Attar to reach the
highest eminence when he was only a child (xvii) in his fine robes, leading a crowd of
reverent disciples who is compelled to get off his horse when Shams takes its reins in
his hand. The step down from the horse is beautifully metaphorical, as is Sham’s
question:

‘One day, as he [Shams] was seated at the gate of an inn, Rumi came by, riding on a
mule, in the midst of a crowd of students and disciples on foot. Shams arose, advanced
and took hold of the mule’s bridle, addressing Rumi in these words, 'Exchanger of the
current coins of deep meaning, who knows the Names of God! Tell me, was
Muhammad, the greater servant of God, or Bayazid Bistami?'‛ (Manaqib al-Arifin)

The question that makes him (Rumi) drop to his knees. Once the two men embrace, so
close to the ground, they choose never to rise again but in a new design of worship and

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devotion- they rise not to stand, but to whirl in the transcendental dance (sema),
launching the primordial dynamics of ‘pir’ and ‘murid’.

Rumi’s agony after that point is a reflection of the fire that has always tormented
Shams. Shams needs Rumi, to give his ideas an artistic shape, he needs Rumi to be the
one ‘companion who can bear’ him.

‚I implored God to allow me to mix with and be a companion of His friends (awliya-ye
khwod). I had a dream and was told, "We will make you a companion of a saint." I
asked, "Where is this saint?" The next night I was told in a dream, "He is in Anatolia
(Rum)." After a while, I had another dream and was told, "It's not yet time. All things
come in the fullness of time‛. (Maqalat 759-60)

Again:

‚I wanted someone of my own type to make into my qibla [the direction one faces in
prayer] and turn to, for I had grown tired of myself. Do you understand what I mean by
having grown tired of myself? Then, having turned into a qeble, he would understand
and comprehend what I am saying‛. (Maqalat 219-20)

The cloaked, bitter and bitterly resented Shams is the Socratic figure who shifts the axis
with his entrance, and marks the permanence in that shift with as dramatic a departure.
Rumi in turn, has needed Shams to ‘unlearn his learning’ (xviii), to be his guide to
‘irfan’ and to set his life to the same fire that engulfed Shamsuddin Haq- The great sun
of gnosis.

‘The story of my life can be defined in three words

I was raw, cooked and then burned.’ (Rumi)

And:

‘I burned, I burned, I burned’. (Rumi)

Again the quiet, consuming suffering in:

‘He who set the world on fire in me

And made a hundred tongues of flame speak from my mouth,

When fire raged around me holding me captive,

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I sighed: He placed his hand on my mouth’. (kulliyat e Shams Tabrezi #450)

The repetitive whirling quality of his verses is replicative of the hypnotic trance of fire
itself, rising and falling, uncontrollable, terrifying and beautiful.

‚Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames‛

Interestingly, the metaphor takes a fascinating shape of an initiation ritual at the

Mevlevi convent later. The first test of the applicant was a retreat of three days in the
kitchen, as an accepted place ‘where man was cooked’ (Erdogan, p. 40)

‘Who annihilated whom? Shams or Rumi?’ is a question which has been of interest to
scholars recently (Eshots). As satisfying as contemplating the beautiful destruction
might be, it is safe to proceed with the understanding that Rumi’s own prolific
writing(s) document his journey from a scholar to that of a lover. As annihilation (fana’a)
is the final stage of ‘irfan’, the query needs to be held off till a later part of this
discussion. The more immediate question that raises its head is why does Shamsi’s
name appear on the title page of a book that has never been attributed to him? Why do
most odes end on his name? Why does a poet who ranks with Hafiz burn with love, ‘lay
on a brow’ (xvi) of an impoverished dervish?

Among the religious-philosophical sects of the period, the doctrine that was generally
held was that man; left to his own devices will inevitably go astray. Therefore, he needed
a master to guide him in the right path. The master (from hereon, called ‘pir’) is God’s
representative, his actions, his crimes are colored by higher love, a higher wisdom that
the disciple (called ‘murid’ from hereon) cannot fully fathom till he graduates to later
stations (Arabi).

According to Murtada Mutehari, 'irfan, is concerned with ontology, and discusses God,
the world, and the human being. This aspect of 'irfan resembles theological philosophy
(falsafeh-ye ilahi), which also seeks to describe being. Like theological philosophy, 'irfan
also defines its subject, essential principles and problems, but whereas philosophy relies
solely upon rational principles for its arguments, 'irfan bases its deductions on
principles discovered through mystic experience (kashf) and then reverts to the
language of reason to explain them’ (Iranian falsefah).

Irfan is also called ‘tasawwuf’ in eastern-indo Sufism, the core of its meaning resting on
‘tawhid’ (oneness/singularity of God) and ishraq. One who arrives at this awareness is an

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‘Arif’ (urafa pl.). At its base, it is gnosis; drinking from the chalice of the Supreme
Reality:

Sharab e Lutf e khudawandra kerani neest

Wa kuz karanash numayad qasoor e jam bood

The wine of God’s grace hath no brim

If it appear to have a brim, tis the fault of the cup’ – Translation by R. A. Nicholson

At its most vague: it is spiritual wisdom and awareness. The tree as branched out
above, as in its roots below. The metaphysical chain of being, extending from one being
to the Ultimate One (Plotinus- insights later).

Separately, in varying traditions, the seven stages of Irfan have been described as:

1. Seeking
2. Love
3. Wisdom
4. Self Sufficiency
5. Monotheism (/tawhid)
6. Astonishment
7. Annihilation (fan’a)

From here on, the paper will attempt to trace these stages through the verses and odes
in Divan-e- Shams Tabriz, finding corresponding elements in the arcana of Islamic
mystical philosophy (Ishq) as experienced by Mevlevi e Ma’anawi: Jalal Uddin Rumi.

1. Seeking
Perhaps a preceding event of separation (hijr) is as important to note as the event
of acknowledging the commitment to seek. Where is the stock of this separation,
the foundation of this divide? Does the fountain consider itself separated from
earth when it is compelled to break through and pour alongside its cheek? Is it
the river that never finds its way to the sea?

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Is it the weight of having been created a form distinct and apart from the most
Ancient form? (Qaim, Qadeem, Wajud: Al- Ghazali’s litany).

bishnu az nay chun hikayat mikunad

az juda’iha shikayat mikunad
kaz nayistan ta mara bubridah’and
dar nafiram mard u zan nalidah’and
sinah khwaham sharhah sharhah az firaq
ta biguyam sharh-i dard-i ishtiyaq
har kasi ku dur mand az asl-i khwish
baz juyad ruzgar-i wasl-i khwish (Mathnawi- Vol. 1)

(Listen to the reed flute,

Its song of separation:
Ever since I was cut from the reed-bed,
Men and women have moaned from my sound.
I need a heart torn by separation,
So you may understand the pain of love’s desire.
Whoever’s been taken from his home
Always wishes to return).

Given the source of this separation, the overwhelming desire to reunite/ return
(or the process thereof: wisaal) becomes not only the wayfarer’s path but the act
of life itself. The search stems not from a question, but from an answer, an
acceptance that there is no respite but in the arms of the beloved- the only
obstruction remaining in this non-linear tangent of time is: of when, of waiting,
of persistently burning till the being is extinguished to unbeing.

In Rumi’s narrative of belonging and exile, the abstract hierarchies are given a
more concrete form: it is Shams. He seeks Shams as truth, as wine, as the sea.

Aznakeh tauba hajoor ast wa band napazeerad

Ghulooway maujay choo koohisaar wa gharsh e derya
(Let vows bind all, ye cannot bind the free

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And mountain-surging thunder of the Sea). (T. 9. 11)

Elsewhere he remarks:
Gar tu aashiq e ishqi wa ishq rah joya
Bikyer khanjar e tez wa babur kalwi e haya
Bidaan keh sidday azeem ast dar rawash namoss
If thou art love’s lover and seekest love,
Take a keen poniard and cut the throat of bashfulness.
Know that reputation is a great hindrance in the path. (3)

It is not just the act of seeking, but seeking from a place of absolute humility,
whereby you may be answered and you may very well be declined. The
flippancy with which the Beloved treats the lover is recurrent in mystical poetry.
The door may be opened, or the lover may be shunned. Under no circumstances
is the Beloved reproached, his cruelties are also his attention, his displeasure is
His will, his neglect is His grandeur. The lover’s service is to continually seek, to
implore, to plead, to stand outside the door till he is admitted inside.
Interestingly, this pattern took a more practical form in the Celebi order; the
applicant had to stand outside for as many days as the Sheikh decreed, after
which he was either allowed to enter or asked to leave.

I broke an ascetic’s door: with a prayer he banned me

Saying, ‘Go, may all thy life be without peace’
No peace, no heart is left me, on account of his prayer,
By the Friend, who thirsts for our blood- May God befriend him!
My body is like the moon which Is melting for love,
My heart like Zuhra’s lute- may its strings be broken
Look not on the moon’s waning nor on Zuhra’s broken state;
Behold the sweetness of his affliction- may it wax thousandfold! (19)

The act of punishment is welcomed as the ‘polishing of mirror’(‘If you are

irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?’- Rumi), as Hafiz in his
inimitable style remarks ‘it burned and I cried laughing - more’. Seeking is nearly
thematic in Rumi’s verse- particularly in Divan-e-Shams Tabriz which is written

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in memoriam. In a pronounced mystical sense, Shams can be considered an alias
or takhallus for Rumi. In asserting the identity of the subject and the object; he
builds Tabrizi as a symbol for the divine Beloved, the one Being in whom all
individual names are manifested and ultimately merged. He continually calls
upon this search as his reckoning, as his identity, as the only truth about his
existence (‘Do not turn me away, saying ‘go away’/ I would not exist, my beloved, if I
didn’t stand here’ #450). This yearning for completion echoes of the nearly
hermaphroditic tradition (Alloya) that the soul is torn and halved:

‘My soul is from elsewhere. I am sure of that. And I intend to end up there’.

Without the actual presence of his pir, and the doomed possibility that he may
never answer, Jalaluddin begins the process of reacting to his own demands:
‘water also seeks the thirsty’ and again, ‘what you seek is seeking you’.
Indicating the omniscient nature of a destiny he cannot escape, nor deny, but is
tormented by constantly, in a symphony of self- deconstruction so he is only
strung like a lute, crippled into playing the heart’s loudest, and most painful
song:

Man Ba Tu Cheneen sokhteh khar mann taaki

Wazz ma tu cheneen kasheeda daaman taaki
Een kaar bikaam dushmanaanam ta chand
Mann darr gham tu, tu farigh az mann taaki
How long will I keep burning in your flame?
How long will you still turn away from me?
How many friends will turn from me in shame?
How long will I be in your pain? How long will you be free of me? (#1957)

Seeking becomes the first step in this journey which organically builds itself to
the point that a complex mechanism propels its own obliteration, and in it finds
freedom.

The way of love is not a subtle argument.

The door there is devastation.

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 Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom.
How do they learn it?
They fall, and falling, they're given wings.

2. Love

Kooyand Ishq cheest bikku tark e ikhtiar

They say, ‘What is love?’, Say ‘Renunciation of will.’ (51)

The progression of irfan works in an inverse relationship with the deconstruction

of self. As self gets diminished, irfan reaches its apex. However, the stages are
not milestones on this landscape of solitary discovery- the seeker may experience
one or more stations (ahwal) simultaneously. He may also be stalled for many
years, like in the case of Hafiz (Ladinsky, p.44), till the veil lifts. Hafiz’s love
makes him laugh out in euphoric ecstasy, laughter being ‘the purest sound’, it
makes him careless:

That the saint is now continually

Tripping over Joy
And bursting out in Laughter
And saying, ‚I Surrender!‛ (9)

Rumi’s love is scalding. It makes him pensive, it makes him wise, it makes him
seek ‘more’, it makes him careful. It is in this regard, that translators often strip
the verse from its core environment: of an esoteric awakening, and fashion it to
the semblance of an all-encompassing love that is innocuous and
accommodating. Not to say that Rumi’s love is not the aforementioned, but the
orders (ehkamat) do not end there. It is a rope held tight for too long, tense with
longing and prolonged servility. It is the love that is kindled after having walked
through fire, after having yearned for release, for death, for a moment of the
beloved’s visage. It is a love that has been trodden, chastised to walk the range
between despair and hope.

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E keh behnagham e dard, rahat e jaani mera
E keh betalkhi e fikr ghunj e rawani mera
O thou who art my soul’s comfort in the season of sorrow
O thou who art my spirit’s treasure in the bitterness of dearth! (23)

Love, lends itself to a variety syntax, but ishq complicates the simplest question.
The problem compounds notably when to fit the syntax, an entire verse is
deconstructed to form only an ‘echo held inside the mountain’ (27). Love can be
translated into gradients in indo-persian-turkce subtext (pyar, mohebet, aashqui,
qurbet- indicating intimacy etc.) but ishq cannot be contained within the lexicon of
love alone to cater to all compositional requirements. It is a tumultuous,
passionate, unrestrained love that is specific in its aim.

Az shabnam ishq khaak adam gul shud

Sadd fatinda wa shor darr jahan haasil shud
Sadd nashtar ishq bar rug rooh zadind
Yak katreh az aan chakeed wa namish dil shud
The dew of love turned dust of man to mud,
From which sprang up unruly passion's horde.
Their hundred lances pierced the veins of Soul.
What we call Heart is one drop of its blood. (#521)

The Beloved is omnipresent; it is his gestures that move the world: birds sing
His glory, each petal wakes up to His grace. He is ‘yaar e be-misl’, yet most
familiar and ultimately best loved.

Az Kinaar e khuweesh yaabim her dammi man booye yaar

From the bosom of Self, I catch continually a scent of the beloved (1- 105)
And:
The scent of you will never leave my memory.
The vision of your face won’t leave my eyes.
A lifetime long I've dreamt you, night and day.
That life has passed, the dream won't go away. (#450)

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 Exodus is impossible. Though, the thought of fleeing occurs to preserve existence
(hasti) and to end the torment. The Beloved cannot be held by sight, nor can He
be borne, but He cannot be surrendered, and He cannot be disregarded.

Ro cho aatish, meh cho aatish ishq aatish her she khawish
Jaan zashtahayi e berham dar fughan ain al farar
A face like fire, wine like fire, love afire- all three desirable
The soul by reason of the mingled fires, was wailing ‘Where do I escape?’ (11-12. 105)

Hafiz:
Thine eye hath wrought my ruin, but so my love
Send it, a thousand welcomes to the woe!

It is perhaps not fair to give only a brief section to this subject in any academic
discussion. However, since it can only be inconclusively submitted for the
peculiarity of a particular inquiry, for present purposes let us only view it in the
light of irfan. For this reason, comparative and competitive analyses are not
included, lest the scope get too vast for the intended cause of exposition.

3. Wisdom
Such an ambivalent, tightly coiled love, which is neither requited nor denied,
must exalt a novice to a master. Wisdom in the poetry of Rumi has many
nuances, just like ‘tark e ikhtiyaar’ is aptly translated as ‘renunciation of will’ by
Reynold Nicholson- ‘Ikhtiyaar’ can have variations in meaning and intent, it can
be ‘choice’, it can be the right of preference, it can be freedom, it can be
abandonment of ‘self’. Similarly, wisdom appears differently in the Divan, it is at
times, called ‘aqal’, at others called ‘fehm’- but most importantly it is conventional
wisdom reversed. It is insanity that is wisdom, and ‘mujnoon’ or Zulaikha who
are the wisest of all. And what is wisdom, but the will to choose to perish at the
feet of the beloved?

Nisaar paii tu khuwaham beher dammi dil o jaan

Keh khaak bar sar e jaani keh khaakpaai e tu neest

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I desire continually to fling heart and soul at thy feet
Dust on the head of the soul which is not the dust of thy feet (39)

Wisdom then becomes an eye which perceives reason as a tether, a shackle that
must be broken to view the Beloved.

Ashtar e deewana e sar mast e man

Silsila e aqal dareedan gharift
My frenzied intoxicated soul
Began to rend reason’s tether. (295)

And then:
Aqal amad o pand aashikaan pesh girift
Dar reh banashist wa rehzanni keesh girift
Choon dar sar shaan jaigeh pand nadeed
Paai humee boseeda wa reh khaweesh girift
Reason came forward to lecture the lovers;
Like a bandit in ambush he lay.
But he saw that their heads had no room for reason,
So bowed at their feet and went on his way. (#367)

For where is reason in this relentlessly self-disparaging pursuit? Whereby the

instinct of self-preservation is compromised into a willful negation and the
journey carries you further and further away into the recesses of the Unseen.

Though you have no feet choose to journey in yourself (111)

It is wisdom to let yourself be carried away, to dirge your own

inconsequentiality, to know that your agonizing love is the only thing that makes
you existent but to want to know:

If you feel any desire for me, then say so.

If you live without love, alone, I want to know.
If your heart holds a place for me, then say so.

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 Say if it’s so, or say no, but tell me the truth. (#1582)

And so one must continually lament the Beloved’s neglect- lamenting (as
opposed to Hafiz’s laughter) being the sound of the spheres, riven and circling in
trance, bemoaning the separation from aql e qul, embodied by Shams Tabriz:

‘Tis said, the pipe and lute that charm our ears
Derive their melody from rolling spheres;
But Faith, o’erpassing speculation’s bound,
Can see what sweetens every jangled sound. (Remembered Music-Quodlibet)

4. Self Sufficiency
Even more intricate than the will to madness is the will to embrace silence. To
accept that:

Tu kun nida wa tu awazeh deh keh sultani

Turrasat lutf e jawab wa turasat ilm e sawal
Cry out and proclaim that thou art king;
Thine is the grace of answer, and thine is the knowledge of question. (119)

The danger to confuse self-reliance with resignation is immense. In fact it can be

closest to peace, or ‘tazkiah’ (muqamat of the Sufi in the course of which he
masters his ‘nafs’ /self). A contentment that the soul is no longer writhing in
torment but patiently waiting:

Makanam la makan baashid nishanam bi nishaan baashid

Na tan baashid na jaan baashid keh man az jaan e jaana nam
My place is the placeless, my trace is the traceless
Tis neither body nor soul, for I belong to the soul of the Beloved. (125)

The soul has already travelled further away from the body, from its earthly
bounds. It is no longer constrained by time and space, but is held in suspension

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between the two: somewhere between Ibn-e-Arabi’s ‘Qaf’ and the world of
material. Here the theme of ‘waiting’ takes on a more active role and the pining
becomes compulsive. In the ongoing dialogue between the two selves (one part
assuming the nature of the Beloved), a certain ‘takrar’ (confrontation) continues
to take place.

Yaan khana dar aa ee jaan yaan khana bepardazim

O Beloved, enter the house, or I will leave it (135)

In a sense of spiritual ascension by coming to own the attributes that define

wala’yah (friend of Allah), in this case particularly of ‘Al-Qayyum’ (asma e
husna- The Great Names), the seed is sown. In Ibn-e-Arabi’s ‘Journey to the Lord
Of Power’, the state of self-discipline is grasped, wherein the ascetic requires no
motivation for his litany anymore, he is the caller and the call- however:

Will your pain submit to a cure? Never.

Or desire ever leave you? Never.
The seed of patience is sown in the heart,
You say. But will it ever sprout? Never (#951)

Never in this narrative, is not a curse, but a promise, a promise which exists
outside ‘ikhtiyar’ (will). It is the only choice available when all else has been
denied or abandoned- and it is found to be ‘sufficient’.

This silences the wayfarer, as the accepted ‘language of God’ (50), for:

To be tangled, oh so briefly, in your love

Is to know disaster, close at hand and real.
Honest Mansour spoke true, as love must do,
And he was hung by the rope of his zeal. (#576)

Or as Iqbal says:
Mansoor ko hua lab e goya paiyaam e maut
Ab kya kisi kay ishq ka dawa karay koi?

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 His talking lip was death’s message to Mansoor
How can anyone claim to love another now? (Bang e Dara. 56)

5. Monotheism
From ‘Wav’ (‘Elevator of Degrees’- Ibn-e-Arabi’) to ‘Qaf’ (Footstool of Power),
the soul, hitherto a tightly wound up coil, has finally come undone and spent it’s
fragile autonomy on infinity. The tide of singularity washes over a languishing
cry, and is silenced in submission.

Khamosh kardum wa az ghair e ahl banhuftam

I hold my silence and keep the unworthy in the dark (103)

Because:
Dar jahaan e wahdat e sheh een ad’dara ghunj neest
In the world of Divine Unity is no room for Number. (105)

In this, Rumi has actualized Shams as himself. He (Rumi) is his beloved (Shams),
for he lives within him, there is no discord, no dichotomy. God is one, the
Ultimate and so is his ‘Kibriya’ (Divine Authority)- rhythmically unified over the
entire reach of time and space. ‘Alif’ is extended in the cry of ‘Hu’. The skin of
being so closely sutured with the singularity of the Beloved, that the thought of
separation, not only inconceivable to the consciousness of the lover, would
irreparably lacerate the soul- the soul that no longer has awareness outside the
‘Haqq’ (truth) of Gnosis.

The bridge between Man and God is no longer impassable (the bridge being the
‘pir’ standing in for the Apostle), there is no divide between spirit and matter-
Plotinus’s first and last link of a single chain: Absolute Unity- The highest
beauty, the Highest Thought, The Highest Good, and yet above it- so
inconceivable that it can only be expressed by negation:

Nahi hai tu toh inka’ar kaisa

Naf’fi bhi teray honay ka pata’a hai

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Why deny Your reality if You don’t exist
Negating your existence is proof of your being. (Translation is my own)

Mystics must adhere to a certain holistic code of life that comprises law, the
path and the truth (shariat, tariqat, haqiqat). Nasafi in this regard has said:

‚O Dervish! He who accepts what his Prophet has said is of the shariat, and he
who performs what his Prophet has performed if of the tariqat and he who sees
what his prophet has seen is of haqq (truth‛. *xxviii+

It is challenging to attribute the canon of ‘Unity of Being’ to Rumi because the

theological foundation of Islam, which is the source of his thought, has its main
pillar in ‘tawhid’ (Unity of God):

Say: He is Allah, Absolute Oneness (Quran 112:1)

For this, monotheism became a common denominator for all theological,

mystical and philosophical schools of Muslim thought. Principally, it means that
God transcends and is radically different from the world. Additionally, it also
means that God has attributes and acts by which He appears everywhere to the
wayfarer (arif). Both these affirmations, transcendence and anthropomorphism,
makes the Islamic worldview distinct from the pantheist one, which is based on
the flow of God in the World. It is perhaps best to assume that the ‘Unity of
Being’ (as discussed earlier tracing to Plotinus), is derivative of monotheism
(tawhid), since the unity of God in Himself is a path to unity of God with the
world:

Wherever you turn, the Face of Allah is there (Quran 2:114)

Hence, we see traces of pantheism present in the name of God ‘The Real’ (al-
haqq). According to Sufis, this name indicates that other beings are nothing but
false and imaginary. We all know the famous hadith in which God says, ‘I was a
hidden treasure, and I want to be recognized, so I created the world’. The
ambivalence between the two (monotheism and pantheism) is reflected on the

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corpus of Rumi, to the point that we are unable to decide his view since it
embodies both sides of unity, transcendence and immanence of God.

‘Where there is ruin, there is hope for treasure’ (Mathnawi)

Rumi does not sacrifice his metaphors and symbols, full of contradictions for the
sake of being in harmony with philosophical concepts and demonstrative
discourse (especially not in Divan-e-Shams Tabrez). The traces of this conflict are
not wholly obliterated, but in lofty moments, the clashing characters are swept
away in a flood of divine harmony, for it can be said for Jalaluddin ‘This is not
poetry borrowing the forms of pantheistic speculation, but pantheism assuming
to itself the faith and position which transmutes speculative thought into
religion’ ( Symonds, p. 120).

The equivocity of the notion of wahdat al wajud (unity of Being) is realized

through a chain of transformations, where the mystic (salik) moves from
monotheism to pantheism. As in the case of Rumi who sees truth in Shams ul
haqq.

Jaanam zappi e ishqat Shams ul haqq e Tabrezi

My soul in pursuit of thy love, Shams ul Haqq of Tabriz (75)
And:

Bi dolat e makhdoomi e Shams ul Haqq e Tabrezi

Ni ma tawaan deedan wa ni beher tawaan shud
Without the power of imperial of Shams ul Haqq of Tabrez
One could neither behold the moon nor become the sea. (79)

From love of One to the actualized love of another till they merge into One for
one is naught but the other.

Aan lujja bood aen e aan mauj

Aan mauj cheh bood aen e derya
What was that mass of waters? Nought but the wave.

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 What was that wave? Nought but the Sea. [xxxxix]

This is what leads to the awareness of unity of Being from immanent unity
(pantheism) to human unity with God (ittihad), and finally divine unity with man
(hulul):

Barf buddam kudakhtam ta keh zameen mirra bakhoorad

Ta humesh dood e dil shuddam ta soo e aasmaan shuddam
I was snow and melted away, so that the earth drank me up
Till I became one mist of soul and mounted to the sky. (236)

6. Astonishment
The experience of Unity of Being appears to be immersed in a hard paradox,
where he feels that the beloved is both transcendental and nearer to him at the
same time. Indeed, the lover is scattered between being jealous of his Beloved,
who urges him to say ‘no existence but Him’ (Rubaiyat, p.32), and the avidity of
being absorbed by him to say ‘nothing in this dress but God’. Therefore, we find
it difficult to overcome this aporia without annihilating the self in the Other or
‘melting’ into him without abolishing the duality among I and you. This process,
of abolition is a spiritual evolution which lifts the ‘veils’.

In an exploratory paper by Dr. Carl Ernst, he lists Ibn-e-Arabi’s ascent in 7 levels:

The Ascent:
[I-a] Unveiling of the sensory world.
[I-b] Unveiling of the imaginal world.
[I-c] Unveiling of the world of abstract meanings.
[I-1] God will show you the secrets of the mineral world
[I-2] God will show you the secrets of the vegetal world
[I-3] God will show you the secrets of the animal world.
[I-4] The Infusion of the world of life-forces into lives
[I-5+ "If you do not stop with this, He reveals to you the ‘surface signs"
[I-6] Next the light of the scattering of sparks becomes visible.
[I-7] Then the light of the ascendant stars (tauhid) and the form of universal
order

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 [I-8] The proper adab (manner) for entering into, standing in and leaving the
Divine Presence.

In Rumi’s ascent to the final negation of self, the theme of ‘return’ begins to
complete the round. Ibn al-’Arabi treats the mystical ascent-and-return in four
key places. He recounts his own mystical journey through the stars in The
Nocturnal Journey (Kitab al-Isra) written in 594. He writes in ‘The Journey to the
Lord of Power’ (Risalat-ul-anwar fima yumnah sahib al-khalwa min al-asrar, literally
"Treatise on the lights in the secrets granted one who undertakes retreat.") in 602
/ 1204. This work was also composed in Konya, Turkey. The very notion of
"journeying to God" is paradoxical. Since all is of God, any journeying is only for
our benefit -so that we can deepen our capacities to understand what always is;
so that we can recognize God’s "signs in the souls and on the horizons." (Quran
41:53). Subsequently, we can become more aware of both, the timeless
perspective of God and the time bound unfolding perspective of humans.
As T. S. Eliot’s put it: "We shall not cease from exploring and the end of all our
exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first
time" (The Waste Land).

Choonz zindan barhi baaz darr aan kard shawwi

When you escape from captivity you will return to that orb. (187)

7. Annihilation
As Juan de la Cruz suggests ‘to die spiritually so far as the senses are concerned,
during life’ is fana’a (self-annihilation). Here it is interjected that true knowledge
is only attainable by the destruction or absolute submission of self.

How wonderful is the path of Love,

Where the headless one lifts up his head (is exalted)- Hafiz

The just orbit is whole, whereby the seeker returns to himself as another. In losing
himself, in ‘buying bewilderment’ he has attained perpetuity.

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 Now the Divan is truly authored by Shams Tabrez, for other than his realization
the ‘self’ of Jalaluddin is non-existent. And because Jalaluddin does not exist, and
his cord is irrevocably tied to another, his unbeing is the hulul (immersion) of the
Highest Reality.

Az bazkeh banazdeek tawaam mi dudam

Waz ghayat amaizash tu mahjooram
Waz kassrat paidashudagi mastooram
Waz sehat basyaar chenain ranjuram
I'm so close to you that I'm far apart,
So completely merged that I'm separate,
So vastly exposed that I'm concealed,
So whole and sound that I'll never be healed. (#1121)

And:

Zeengonay keh mann be neesti kharsandam

Chandeen cheh deed bhar hasti pandam

Rozi keh ba taigh neesti bakshandam

Gareenda e mann barest keh oo man khandam.

I'm content with this way: nonexistence.

Why so much advice about existence?

The day I die by that blade, Not-To-Be,

I will laugh at whoever cries for me. (#1250)

For most part, the Divan is a flood of intoxication, ecstasy and loss. According to
Daulat Shah: ‘There was a pillar in Mawlana’s house and when he was drowned in the
ocean of love he used to take hold of that pillar and set himself turning around it.
Meanwhile, he versified and people wrote down the verses’. The superficial
consciousness sacrificed for and fused in higher consciousness. The death of one, is the

20
resurrection of the other. Consequently, these verses will not be for every ear, as the
famous quote: ‘We are known by our own kind, while the others deny us‛.

Our own kind, Dhu’l nun (245 AH) is said to have introduced the doctrine of ecstasies
(ahwal) and mystical stages (maqamat). According to Jami (Nafatahu, p. 36), Dhu’l nun is
said to be the head of this sect, being the first to interpret the symbolic ‘isharat wa ibarat
aaward’, whereas Junaid (297 AH) systemized and composed writings on the subject.
However, it is Jalaluddin Rumi who despite his genius demonstrates that ‘alif’ (The first
letter of the Arabic script, the Prime) is all you need to learn of love. That ascent is not
through learning (unlike the intellectual angle of Al-Ghazali) but is an act of grace,
propelled by a ‘descent’. The grace which ultimately makes one ‘return’ to the source of
ishq, of truth and of elemental deconstruction in dis(re)covery.

Ee dar dil mann nashisteh bagshaada darri

Jaz tu degri najwaeem wa koo degri

Baahir keh z dil daad zaaram daffai guft

Tu dafa mudda keh neest az tu guzri

You opened my heart's door, sat down inside.

Who else is there but you that I should seek?

When my love cries out, they turn away.

Don't shut me out. Beyond you there's no way. (#1726)

And:

Ta haasil dardam sabab darmaan gasht

Pastem bulandi wa kuff’r eeman gasht

Jaan o dil o tann hijab reh bood kanoon

Tann dil sha’dd wa dil jaan sha’dd wa jaan janaan gasht

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The harvest of my pain was its own peace and remedy.

As low as I had sunk, I rose, faith restored from blasphemy.

Body, heart, and soul obscured the path, until

Body melted into heart, heart in soul, and soul in love itself.

(#262, from Rumi's Kolliyaat-e Shams-e Tabrizi- Tehran)

____________________________________________

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