Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207-1273) was a 13th century Sufi poet in Persia, who went on to write thousands of verses of Persian and Arabic poetry.
Rumi believed that the universe and everything in it is an endless flow of life, in which God is an eternal presence.
Man, as part of the universe, is also a part of this continuum, and Rumi seeks to explain our place within it.
“Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form”
Rumi
Man, he believes, is a link between the past and the future in a continual process of life, death, and rebirth – not as a cycle, but in a progression from one form to another stretching into eternity.
Death and decay are inevitable and part of this endless flow of life, but as something ceases to exist in one form, it is reborn in another.
Because of this continual cycle, we should have no fear of death, nor should we grieve a loss.
In order to ensure our growth from one form to another, however, we should strive for spiritual growth and an understanding of the divine-human relationship.
Rumi believes that this understanding comes from emotion rather than from reason – emotion enhanced by music, song, and dance, as well as a strong message of love.
Things Will Return to You Again
Rumi suggests that we must not be upset if we lose something. The thing we lost will return to us but in a different form.
Love, friendship, our loved ones, our treasured possessions, a job. They can, and in most cases will be lost. But that’s not to say that we will never feel friendship or love ever again.
Whilst the pain of a break-up may be difficult, it doesn’t mean that you won’t find love again. This is all part of the endless cycle moving from one form to another.
“I died as a mineral and became a plant,
rumi
I died as a plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was Man”
We are all on the continuum of life, death, and rebirth, and there’s nothing we can do about it, so why fear or get angry with something we cannot control?
Can we allow ourselves to let go of grief and loss and know that nothing is ever lost, for we will receive it in another form in the future?
In my opinion, this way of thinking may be easier said than done and more of an ideal to strive towards. Music, song, and dance may be the last thing we want to do when we lose a loved one.
None the less, it seems a nice way to be able to find peace. It’s a philosophy that could help alleviate our own potential pain and suffering that with things that we may not be able to control.
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Ben Caufield 