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The Forbidden Rumi: The Suppressed Poems of Rumi on Love, Heresy, and Intoxication Paperback – 14 Feb. 2006
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length176 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherInner Traditions
- Publication date14 Feb. 2006
- Dimensions22.61 x 14.99 x 1.52 cm
- ISBN-101594771154
- ISBN-13978-1594771156
Product description
Review
"It takes a great deal of courage to read The Forbidden Rumi as it may press a lot of buttons, not only about your own pathway to God, but your views and prejudices about love, religion, heresy and Islam.
"All of Rumi’s poems have enjoined us to release the rules and open our hearts to our inner treasure of love, but these most controversial poems cut to the bone.
"This final book of Rumi’s poems is a must-read for any serious student of spiritual ecstasy. They pose questions that make us wonder and re-evaluate our views about a religion that is portrayed as governed by extremists. They reveal a hidden face of Islam that may surprise even moderate Islamists.
"Most importantly, these poems reveal that Islam too has always had a mystical, transcendent element that is its purest gift." ― Lesley Crossingham, New Dawn, Mar-Apr 2007
From the Back Cover
About the Author
Will Johnson is the founder and director of the Institute for Embodiment Training, which combines Western somatic psychotherapy with Eastern meditation practices. He is the author of several books, including Breathing through the Whole Body, The Posture of Meditation, and The Spiritual Practices of Rumi. He lives in British Columbia.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
What a story! You finally meet someone in whose presence you are transported to God. You immediately go off together, hand in hand, and shut yourself off from the world behind the closed doors of your retreat room. Over the weeks and months to follow, you dissolve into each other through simply sitting in each other’s presence, gazing raptly at each other. (When God sits down before you, where else would you want to look?) When you emerge from your retreat, you are fundamentally different from the person who entered it so many months before. The only sane thing to do after an event like this is to live happily ever after, yes? But it wasn’t like that.
Rumi may have entered into retreat with Shams as a kind of devout shepherd, looking after his flock of followers, but he emerged as a hungry wolf, exhorting people to drop their pretenses, move beyond their rigid adherence to the outward forms of religion, and enter instead into a direct experience of God.
Rumi wanted the townspeople of Konya to recognize Shams as he had come to know and see him: as a direct conduit to the divine. For Rumi, Shams was a funnel that led to God. Exposed to the heat of Shams’ presence, Rumi would simply melt, and the mixture of the two souls would take both into the consciousness of union. This is what true religion is all about, and Rumi fully expected his former followers to leap into the divine fire with him.
Their response instead was to react mostly with criticism and outrage to the perceived heresy of two souls merging into the one God. For the orthodox mind, it is accepted that the founder of the religion would have had a direct encounter with the energies of God, but not, evidently, anyone else. The negativity around the companionship between Rumi and Shams grew so large that Shams had no choice but to leave, and Rumi fell apart with grief.
Songs to Shams, Songs to God 7
He began to write letters to Shams, begging him to return, and dispatched them to different parts of the Islamic world in the hopes that one of them might eventually be received. More than a year passed before he heard anything back. Yes, Shams would return.
The two great friends immediately plunged back into retreat, and a new round of dissolving and merging of souls began. The reactions of the townspeople continued much the same as before. This time, when Shams left, he was set upon like a hated predator and murdered.
The complete Divan-i-Kebir is considered to contain all the spontaneous utterances that Rumi ever made concerning his interaction with Shams. Some of the poems read like open letters to Shams. Some read like a historical recounting of their time together. Some of them praise Shams as God’s representative on Earth, while others rail in anguish at the cruelty of his teasing and the petulance of his departures.
Is Rumi addressing Shams alone in these poems? Or is he directly addressing God? The lines become blurred.
Songs to Shams, Songs to God 8
I was dead, but came back to life.
I was the cry, but I became the smile.
Love came and turned me
into everlasting glory.
Here’s how it happened:
He said to me, “You don’t belong in this house.
You’re not nearly crazy enough.”
I went and became raving mad
and bound myself in chains.
He said to me, “You’re not drunk. Get lost.
You’re not from this land.”
I went and got pie-eyed drunk
and filled my life with music and dance.
He said to me, “You’ve never annihilated yourself
so music and dance can’t touch you.”
I passed out of myself right in front of him
and fell to the ground.
He said to me, “You’re a sensible, learned man,
full of reflections and opinions.”
I became a silly fool and cut myself off from people.
Songs to Shams, Songs to God 9
He said to me, “You’re a candle,
the light to these people.”
I gave them all up.
I became smoke and spread myself around.
He said to me, “You’re the sheikh, the head,
the one who walks at the front, the guide.”
I told him that I’m neither sheikh nor guide.
I am the follower of your order.
He said to me, “You have arms and wings.
I don’t give anything to you.”
I told him that I desire his wings so that
I can cut mine.
His glory then spoke to me and said,
“Don’t give up now. You’re almost there.
I’ll soon grant you the favor you seek and come to you.”
And so he said to me, “O old love of mine,
Don’t ever get out from under my arm.”
And I said, “Yes,”and I stayed there.
Songs to Shams, Songs to God 10
I Came Back to You
Come, O sweet-lipped beauty,
Drink this haram wine*
if you have the nerve.
If you have a heart like the sea,
pick up the wine that reveals
what being human is really about.
I came back to you
because I couldn’t find the kind and decent things
I found in you anywhere else.
*Haram: Religiously forbidden.
Product details
- Publisher : Inner Traditions; Translation edition (14 Feb. 2006)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 176 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1594771154
- ISBN-13 : 978-1594771156
- Dimensions : 22.61 x 14.99 x 1.52 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 1,064,360 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 561 in Sufism
- 1,389 in Inspirational & Religious Poetry (Books)
- 3,503 in Course in Miracles (Books)
- Customer reviews:
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- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 November 2013For everyone who has a living master, this is a gem. to see one masters love towards his master. also great in advise to followers, and support to the humanity. it contains so much love, if you are living at this lane you will see it. little sad about the usa way of always starting with the "I" at places, there are better ways to start a line that lets the reader see him self, rather than the "I" of someone else. also, don't care about the politics the translators do have, if you have a living master, one don't need this speculation. rumi is the big brother of sheakspear!
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 February 2016Super
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 January 2016good
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 September 2009This is one of my favorite Rumi collections. The poems are passionate and meaningful, and provide comfort to anyone who identifies with the confusion that life brings. This is one in my collection i can pick up and read whenever I need some inspiration from the great master. A real gem of a book for all Rumi lovers. The translations are also well done, and I prefer these to those of Coleman Banks
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 July 2011Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book for someone who's just starting to get into Rumi. The translations aren't particularily poetic and fail to capture some of the ecstasy and magic other translators do--they are very straightforward, bland and include some jarringly modern words (liberal use of "crazy", "belly button", "son of a bitch" and some other very modern American terms). On a more positive note, this isn't as extensive as with Coleman Barks's modernised reinterpretations and the translations seem to be closer to the original text. It's just that the English renditions are fairly bland and simple, which waters down the poetic strength of the originals. You need a poet to translate poetry and a comedian to translate jokes, and Ergin and Johnson seem amateurs rather than poets. However accurate a job Ergin and Johnson have done, the end result doesn't carry the full gut-punching power inherent in the original poems. The translators also spend quite some time going on about how heretical and ecstatic and powerful the material is, when there's hardly more heresy or intoxication here than you'd find in any other Rumi collections--if you're looking for some hitherto hidden, dangerous, powerful material, you will be disappointed. I could think of half a dozen Rumi collections that had similar material, with equal amounts of poetry that'd be considered heretical to fundamentalists (in both 13th century Anatolia and in the 21st century). So don't be fooled--this particular collection, despite its title and its commentaries, isn't as radical as it claims to be.
All in all, the collection includes a couple of gems, but even then I get the feeling that other translators would've rendered the basic messages more beautifully. Seekers of such beauty should go for collections translated/rendered by Maryam Mafi and Azima Melita Kolin (my favourite Rumi translators of all time), Jonathan Star or Shahram Shiva. Even the rather bland and matter-of-fact Helminskis do a better job when it comes to overall style. I'd only recommend this book if you're a serious Rumi collector and want to get your hands on as many of his poems as possible.
Top reviews from other countries
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in the United States on 7 January 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Quick Service
Quick shipment. Received as described.
- Pavitra R.Reviewed in India on 6 January 2014
5.0 out of 5 stars best of Rumi
The best of Rumi's books! Some of the poems are hard to understand, some are just brilliant, all in all I think it's the most interesting part of his work..
- RossReviewed in the United States on 2 December 2017
5.0 out of 5 stars Ross
A book for all who seek more ,those who understand crazy wisdom and aren't afraid to plunge whole heartedly for their ultimate passion: Truth!
- Dr ArtReviewed in the United States on 21 August 2013
4.0 out of 5 stars Rumi
Mystical writings about the nature of reality--breaks open the whole western paradigm relaying to duality. It's time for a new paradigm, and this book will help.
- Sharron CReviewed in the United States on 28 November 2012
5.0 out of 5 stars I'm a Rumi fan.
I'm a Rumi fan so I'd recommend this to anyone though the poetry is less scandalous than the title would lead you to believe.