Rumi was a great religious scholar in Baghdad in the 12th century AD. He was known far and wide in the medieval world for his great scholarship and learning about Islam. Rumi lectured at the university and his lectures were extremely well attended. He was popular.
But inside, in his heart of hearts, Rumi knew that he had not discovered the great jewel. And he didn't know where to find it, or even if it was actually findable.
Enter Shams e Trabriz. Shams was a homeless wanderer. Shams was also enlightened. He was the real deal. He embodied the jewel in his being. He was free and awake.
They met and really hit it off together, the world-renowned scholar and the homeless, liberated being. They hung out together, and even though Rumi was the great scholar with the great reputation, it was Shams who was the teacher.
Rumi's pride and joy was his great book collection. Books were very rare in his day because each one had to be laboriously copied out by hand. Thus Rumi could take justifiable pride in his precious collection of scholarly religious texts. They were the basis of his great learning.
Rumi lived in a splendid apartment overlooking the Euphrates River, which ran through Baghdad. His magnificent collection of books was on shelves in that apartment.
Shams was staying with Rumi in his apartment. And one day, while Rumi was off lecturing at the university, Shams systematically threw all of Rumi's books out of the window into the river. All of them, down to the last one.
When Rumi came home he was aghast. His magnificent collection—gone! He was inconsolable for awhile.
And yet later he said that that moment was the true beginning of his spiritual journey. Because up until then he had been a scholar, filled with words and books and learning.
Now, under Shams' tutilage, began the real journey of looking within, of finding a knowing that can't be contained in words or rules or knowledge.
After a time, Rumi became liberated himself, and began his incredible stream of poetry. He is now considered by many to be the greatest spiritual poet in history, rivaled only by the Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross.
Rumi became drunk on the divine, in love with the unfathomable, and it came pouring out in his world-famous poetry, a well from which many generations have found healing water.
"How far is the unfathomable? How far is the light of the moon from the moon? How far is the taste of sugar from the tongue?"
—jim sloman, for 8/22/01
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