International Mevlana Symposiuın Papers
,.
Birleşmiş Minetler 2007 Eğitim, Bilim ve Kültür MevlAnA CelAleddin ROmi
Kurumu 800. ~um Yıl Oönümü
United Nations Educaöonal, Scientific and aoo:ı Anniversary of
Cu/tura! Organlzatlon the Birth of Rumi
Symposium organization commitlee Prof. Dr. Mahmut Erol Kılıç (President) Celil Güngör Ekrem Işın Nuri Şimşekler Tugrul İnançer
Bu kitap, 8-12 Mayıs 2007 tarihinde Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlıgı himayesinde ve Başbakanlık Tamtma Fonu'nun katkılanyla İstanbul ve Konya'da düzerılenen Uluslararası Mevhiııfı Sempozyumu bildirilerini içermektedir.
The autlıors are responsible for tlıe content of tlıe essays ..
Volume 3
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ISBN 978-605-61104-0-5
Editors Mahmut Erol Kılıç Celil Güngör Mustafa Çiçekler
Katkıda bulunanlar Bülent Katkak Muttalip Görgülü Berrin Öztürk Nazan Özer Ayla İlker Mustafa İsmet Saraç Asude Alkaylı Turgut Nadir Aksu Gülay Öztürk Kipmen YusufKat Furkan Katkak Berat Yıldız Yücel Daglı
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Rumi viewed in Bengali sufistic tradition
Mustafa Zaman Abbasi 1 Bangladesh
1. Califomia to Bangladesh
1 THANK Allah swt,the hosts of this symposium, the UNESCO, for
this lifetime opportunity to visit beautiful Turkey for the first time and pay my
respects to Mowlana Jalaluddin Rumi in Konya, where he is resting for more
than seven h undred years.It is a pilgrimage for me.And also on behalf of ı 40
million people of Bangladesh, who regard Rumi with high esteem, as his Masna
wi is read in 200000 mosques of Bangladesh. He is mo re than a great po et, one
of our pathfinders.
Mowlana can be studied from various angles by scholars assembled from
far and near. As folklorist and translator of Rumi to Bengali, spoken by 230 mil
lion I may let the audience know how his message is "spread over from Califor
nia to Bangladesh," to quote a line from Anna Maria Schimmel. I chose eight po
ets out of hundreds to prove my po int.
2. Rumi claimed by all
Rumi runs in the blood of my people. Majority who live in villages having little
or no access to literacy may not have read Masnawi or diwans, but stories and
teachings imparted in mosques and khanqas become so deep routed in their psy
che that they easily stream down to folk traditions in such a way as Mghans wo
uld like to own Jalaluddin as Balkhi and people in and west of Turkey as Ru
mi,meaning RomanAnatolia.
1016 Bengal was ruled by Muslims from Turkey and West Asia for a long ti-
me.Persian language left no less than 17000 words in Bengali spoken and writ
ten vocabulary. Qazi Nazrul Islam, the rebel poet ofBengal brought Ghazal style
of poetry in to o ur literature. He eulogized Rumi, S adi and Hafiz and brought the
breeze of Tabrez in to the lush green so il of Bengal, which was already ab o de of
a thousand rural sufi poets.
Dao shei Rumi Hafiz
Shei jami khayyam shei tabrez: : Qazi Naznıl Islam
God give us back our Rumi and Hajiz
Give us oııce more Jami Khayyam and same Tabrez.
Coming back to Anna Maria Schimmel, the adorable I over of Rumi and Is
lam,she points out in her paper "Moulana Rumi: yesterday, today and tomor
row"(Georges Leve D ella Vide conference, May 8-10, 1987), the position of Ru---._
mi in Bangladesh in this manner. "When I received the notification that I had be-
en elected to receive the Levi D ella Vide Medal and that the topic of the canfe
rence would be Mowlana Jalaluddin Rumi, I happened to be in Dhaka, Bangla
desh. Immediately, it struck me that it was an especially meaningful place in
which to receive this good hews, because it showed that Mowlana s influence ex
tends over most of the world, from California to Bangladesh:"
Rumi belonged to Balkh or Wakkas, in present day Tajikistan or he be
longed to Konya, Turkey or Persia or in the Chishtia Tariqat of Sufism in In
dia,Pakistan and Bangladesh. But as days passed clearer picture of Rumi s shi
ning heart dawned in the eyes of the W est through the scholarly works of R A
Nicholson, A J Arberry, Anna Marie Schimmel, William Chittick, Seyyed Hos
sein Nasr, Coleman Barks,Ibrahim Ganard,John Moyne, Michael Green, Philip
and Manuella Dunn,Camille and Kabir Helminski,and many more .. After re
ading' I am wind you are fire "(Schimmel, Boston, 1992 I wandered so many ti
mes in my dreams to meet the Mowlana in Konyas "al-qubbat al hadra", the
green dome. Through many readings of this masterpiece and reading of "the
Triumphal Sun(also by Schimmel), I embarked on my joumeys to world of Ru
mi.The scholars mentioned made this possible.This is the right forum for me
and others to express our grateful thanks to them. Thank you from the bottom
of our hearts.
Mustafa Zaman Abbasi Rumi viewed iıı Beııga/i sujistic traditioıı
3. Rumi is remebrance: 2007
Is it possible to remember a person, a poet, a philosopher? Yes, ifi could remem
ber what he said. Eveıy breatlı can be a remembrance of Him, of where I came
from where I will arrive at the en d of the journey.
To me, Rumi is remembrance.
To me, Rumi is living every moment, a living of joy un to giving atlıers the
joy of breath.
4. Way of Allah swt: Where Bangladesh stands
To write on Rumi is botlı difficult and easy Take any of his couplets from Dewan
or Discourses or Masnawi and one could ponder on or write a volume on eaclı one.
The name of Allalı is the sweetest. The name of the Holy Prophet Mulıam
mad (p.b.u.h) is sweeter than honey. Any couplet of Rumi is sweet and has the
capacity to enkindle a soul willing to give it a tıy. Macher tele mach bhaja, a
Bengali idi om meaning frying fish witlı o il of the fish is true of any research on
Rumi. It is a sure way to a simple man to see the way of Allah. Rumi was not a
prophet, he had a book tlıough. In words of Moulana Jami:
Manche goter ıvashf Ali janed
Nest paighambar ola dard kitab
The way of Allalı is simple. It is the straight path and the surest. Prerequ
isite isa simple soul. You want to go? Come along. This is the way. No crooked
ness on the way.lf you like Rumis poetıy, it is outer garb, rhymes, imageıy, me
ter rhytlım are only outside tlıings. Soul of Rumis poetıy is the Quran.
My treatise may not be like otlıers, more inward looking than outward. If
you want to know what I mean, you will come witlı me to a mosque in rural
haor area of Sunamganj where you cannot see anytlıing but water and the
small mosque or on bank of the river Padma in Sureswar mela or in mangro
ve forest of the Sunderbans or in the remote maiz bhandar darbar,on a moon
lit night or in a soaked Asarh monsoon. The hundreds and tlıousands of souls
assembled here on urs melas are frantically searching tlıeir lost abode from
1 O 18 where they have been displaced. These dances are different. W ith long bambo
os in hand, the disciples dance whole night and only sound heard is Hu Huhu
meaning Allahu. This resembles refrains of a azan based on a Uzbekistan me
lody Maqam. No where in the world I have seen such exotic movements by
thousand participants.The beauty of this scenario lies further in the acceptabi
lity of all faiths in same platform, the Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims all in one
forum. I do not recall any other place in the world where this sufi view of life
has gained so much momentum.
5. Sohbat e Shaikh: Sohbat e Rumi
Being neither an Emre, (Yunus Emre), spending forty years in devoted seclusion,
nor a darbesh ina chilla for forty days,(like some present here today incognito),I
did not have the opportunity to have meditation in a cave for forty years in ili
malayan mountains with the sadhu'S;'though bom in that area.
But only a week of Sohbat(company) with Rumi one can be awakened .. Ta
wajjub.' or gaze by the Shaiklı scene changes dramatically. It is happening even
today. W e may endeavour our own way. When my paper is read, even if one so
ul is awakened, my job will be done.
When I leave this platform, you may not see me again. Hundreds of folk
poets who m I met in seven decades of living in the fo lk festivals Melas, as they
are called, recited profoundly meaningful Marfati, Murshedi, . Sureshawari and
Fakirali songs with accompaniment of dotara and sometimes sarinda (an instru
ment of West Asian descent) and violin. 1
Tlıese are nothing but Rumi in Bengali., Rumi is not mentioned anywhere.
It is Allah swt saying in Quran sung by Rumi with all the stories and anecdotes
which are not in Quran.
Rumi says, I am not the author, I am the pen. Whatever he realized, mused
upon, penned through, were from the Source. We sometimes run after picture
presentations, sugarcoated short cut presentations, poeticity, real thing is breeze
1 Mela or folk festivals of Bangladesh: A thesis published by Bongladesh Shilpakala Academy Journal, 1981 by the same writer.
Mustafa Zaman Abbasi Rumi viewed in Bengali sujistic tradition
coming from Him. When I am in weekly Khanqah, I listen to the Shaikh, I get
recharged. One who has not sat with the Shaikh and enjoyed his Sohbat,he is
with outwardly Rumi only. To quote Rumi here:
Ek zamane sohbat ba aulia
Behtaraz sad sala tabat beria
One who witnessed the whirling darbesh dance, has seen only the incre
dible whirling, the dresses, the beautiful cap, the music, but could he enter the
dance? Often not, that's my guess. The 'tourist' thing has the outward Rumi.
The inside thing is the Suhbat e Rumi. Only one Nazr (gaze),in my case" Nazr
e imam" (my Shaikh), is enough. Sixty years of devoted prayers and negation
is only one nazr. Forty years of Imre and forty days of fajr prayer is one deep
tawajjuh. The surest way to get a living man is to catch him alive and the su
rest way get to a dead man is also catch him alive i.e. to catch whatever was
lively in him.
6. Eight out of eight hundred
Fasdnation with Sufi spirituality of professional scholars as well as public has
heightened to such an extent to produce breatlıtaking studies in the west.2 Eight
out of araund 800 sufi poets has been chosen to trace linkage with Rumi.
ı. Shitalong Shah Fakir [1Ş00-1889]
2. Fakir Lalon Shah [1774-1890]
3. Hasan R<Ua [1855:-1922]
4. Jalaluddin Khan [1894-1972]
5. Abdul Halim Bayati [1930-2007]
6. Qazi Nazrul Islam [1898-1976]
7. Mansur ali [1855-1985]
8. Panju shah[1851-1914]
2 The Munshidin of Egypt: Their world and their song 1989/Sufısm, Mystics and saints in Modern Egypt 1995:Valerie J Hoffman.
1 020 In translating and presenting these songs, mostly folk, I attempt to convey
my deep adıniration and involvement. These are poetries resembling the colored
landscape with paddy fields oven like em b ro idered quilt, like the clouds of vari
ous shades in the mansoo n sky, the bamboo flute of lost love under a kadam tree,
suddenly flashes with the inner meaning of lost flutes inner cry as heard in Ru
mi. The folksongs of great rivers like The Padma, the Meghna, and the Jamuna
merging with age long tears, sorrow and the melancholia of the Bengali people
are the finest expressions of their spirituality hitherto unknown to any in the
West. 'Gitanjali' was a translation of 23 poems sent by W B Yeats and his friends
to the Nobel Commitlee to fetch a Nobel Prize for literature for Tagore in
1941.Schimnıel glanced ona 17th century mystic, namely Hajj Muhamnıad in his
book named Nurnama, the "book of light", in which problems of wahdat al wa
jud and wahdat aslı shuhad and different types of light mysticism has been bro
ught fortlı (Mystical dimensions of Islam :A.Schimnıel pp 401).Bangladesh is a
lush green beautiful country. Do visit us before tourists start arrive as in Turkey.
7. Shitalong Shah Fakir: Mad As M AD
The ever presence of Allah in all creations, as in Ibnul Arabi and Rumi appear in
every fo lk po et of Bengal. The work by William Chittick on Ibnul Ara bi and Ru
mi in Sufi Path of Wisdom and The self disclosure of Go d is amazing indeed. But
no less interesting Wahdatul wajud is seen with a newer perspective in this be
autiful work of Shotalong Shah Fakir, a mystic poet of Sylhet, who composed
araund 1000 songs.As he sang these he was in tran ce He fainted as the songs
were composed.
Tuba: Jantar Darakhte Bajey
(Shitalong Shah realises that every creature, birds and plants are pronouncing
Tasbilı' of Allah swt. He dreamt of a wonder tree in paradise. This is a tree na
med Tuba or touba meaning repentance whose leaves and branches replay the
sounds of the instruments. The tree is on fire of Music. Taking inspiration from
flute of Rumi and daneing darvesh, he writes:
Mustafa Zaman Abbasi Rumi vieıved iıı Beııgali sıifistic traditioıı
The instrument is now played on the tree.
This tree taking shape of tuba
Look at its branches, you might hear
Music, its music in the tree
Tuba sways along with Pavan (winds)
But always in Tala 'tital tital tal tal Ranga Ranga'
Music is on the body of the tree
The celestial world dances
It is bewildering.
Dance style is that of Natabar (meaning Nataraj}
Music on body of tree
Tubas music has tu n es in keeping witlı mo ad of passing winds
The tu n es having many tunıings, up s and down
I can hear Music all araund the tree
Parrat sings in a rejoicing mood
'Bulbul bulbul guZguZ guZguZ subul bulbul'
In every branch on the body of the tree
The violiıı sings too: susun cum chum,charchahchar'
Sitar sings':kinkina nang tarang tarang'
Tabla sounds'tal talatal chulak didang dang'
Rabab plays its departing melodies
Ruba is music
Shitalong Fakir says: O Rab! the tree
Totally submerged in submission unto you
The Tuba is ashiq and dewana for you.
8. Abdul Halim Bayati: Sarinda man Jost in Murshidi
Rumis messages are for the ordinary. It is, simple, from beginning to the end,
never complicated as sameone would like to relate it now. In Masnawi we fo
und him to be a great story teller. In the same traditions there are hundr~ds
of Bayati (from the Russian word 'hayat 'meaning storyteller) in Bangladesh
who have been addressing millions of rural population with simple stories. I
have come across performers of 'bichar'songs.The Bichar is evaualation or
1 022 judging between two extremes like Marefat and Shariat, like W ar and Pea ce
and so on.
Alıdul Halim Bayati is one of such bayatis I met. He plays on the sarinda
(a middle eastem musical instrument).Most of his songs are Marfati,Murshedi
and of Bichar origin of b.igh spiritual value b.itherto unknown to the West.Tlıe
song which I transiate below, is from his published book from Bengali Academy,
Dhaka. It has 1000 songs. He was 77 before he died last month.
Marfati
Jaiya Dub Diyo
Go, catch and dip into a man of your choice, the murshid'
Yours and his s elf would merge and combine in to one
.He does not possess lıands as such,
Neitlıer tongue to speak
Does not have ears to listen, He is formless.
Give a fonn to the fonnless -
Place a mercury on the back of the mirror and meditate
Eiglıt rooms and fourteen stories in a human body
Purchance one opens the hidden room, therein
unseen picture, the boundless energy jlowiııg
The entire celestial world is going raund this.
Listen to the guru,
souls jounıey will un i te the jive atmas
This body, the abode of million traııferrred lig h ts
Among million lotus bloamed there
Eııdeavour your best to catch your Murshid,
Oh Halim ! go with one jlower only.
Main theme of Rumis plıilosopb.ical doctrine is Union with God. Rumi of
ten refers to the following hadith qudsi: Neither My eartb. nor my heavens con
tain Me, but I an contained in the heart of My faithful servant. In the following
passages he comments on this theme:
I gazed into my own heart
Tlıere I saw Him; He was nowhere else (diwan, p73)
Mustafa Zaman Abbasi Rumi vieıved iıı Beııgali sufistic traditioıı
O heart! we have searched from end to end:I sa w in thee naught
Save the beloved
Call me not in.fidel, O heart, if I say"Thou thyself art He" (Diwan, p250)
Here the understanding becomes silent or (else] it leads into error, as the
heart is with Him, or indeed the heart is He {I,3489)
Daman u geer jutar be ghuma
Tarahi aaaz ajte aklzer zam
(Go, turn to Allabs shades, i.e. the pirs who show you to dean your soul)
Andri wadi maru be ein dalil
La uhebbul afeli go clıun kizalil
(To go up to the destination, you need someone to guide.Do not go for
Temporal go for the tiner, the spiritual.)
9. Jalal Uddin Khan: Exponent of Bhatiali from Brahmaputra
Jalaluddin Khan a famous Bhatiali singer and mystic from Brahmaputra river ha
sin in Mymensingh, composed 2500 folksongs, some of which survived in pub
lished form namely," Jalal geetika samagra" with 1200 Bhatiali and Murshidi
songs, one is more beautiful than the other. Rumis reference is: search. As we
open a computer it asks us to search.3
The same eanıing and search for Him is to be seen in this beautiful soııg.
Talash korga age tara
W1ıat are you meditating on?
Search .first when you are still here.
W1ıen you are deeply in meditation (namaz},
Your body is purity
W1ıen bird inside call you to come in
3 Rumi went in search of Shamsuddin to Damascus in va in. When he search ed within his own soul and heard voice of Divine he exelamation was : Why should 1 search? 1 am the same as he is.His essence speaks through me".
1 024 The components of the body, khak bad ıvill van is h
Atasiz ıvill be bunıt and ruh (saul) on outer space
You are a pilgrim
Kııoıv hearts kaaba first
A lucrative place indeed on your Jıeart riverbed
Six madina already exist, ıvhy do you go far?
Open your eyes and ıvatch aııgels already prostratiııg
Jalal gives good ııeıvs, ıvater of abehayat
Is inside, feıv do knoıv
Sipping sharaban tahura, go to your etemal home
Just one Namaz (prayer)one Roza(fasting) suffices an Adam son.
1 O. l-l asan Raja, a zamindar turned mystic
Hasan Raja, a landlord and poet -mystic from Surma river valley of Sylhet was
first mentioned by Rabidranath Tagore,the greatest poet of Bengal In his karna
la lecture in Paris, he mentioned about his high spirituality. Hasan Raja is pro
bably the most popular sufi poet of Bengal. He left his landed zamindari in the
call of His Lord.
Hasan Rajae Koi
Hasan raja says.ıvlıo am I?
In and outside
maııifest the ınerciful.
Marketplace of world my lo ve is annihilated
Save you, nothing remains
The torments of love left ıne ıveary
I aııı now surrounded by my ıveary frieııds
I am You, you are me
I am in constaııt fear of losing You.
I am totally ıııad
eııgaged iıı daııce
As if caught by ıvild fire.
Mustafa Zaman Abbasi Rumi vieıved iıı Beııgali sıifistic traditioız
11. Qazi Nazrul lslam, an Asheq e Rasul
Qazi Nazrul Islam, national poet of Bangladesh, is known to Turkish people as
his works including poem on Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, is translated into Turkish
language.4
He wrote 400 Islamic songs and hamd o naat of the finest quality. These
were sung by my father Abbasuddin Ahmed (who had 700 records).In the falla
wing ghazal is depicted the sufi trend of his thought after Rumi.
Alımeder Oi Minzer Parda
When cu rta in of Mi m is raised from Ahmed
Lo! My cherished heart!
Wlıat do you see?
The all embracing Allah.
Once you knoıv, mad you
becoıne everything to the prophets do you sacrifice then
Beauty of this ki nd m ade a m ad man of Hallaj
He left life saying
Anal huq, I am the trutlı
You ıvill certainly knoıv Him
Once you knoıv your oıvn self
Look at oıvn mirror
Reflection of His N oor
12. Mansur Shah, a mystic in Mela
Hope is to awaken in myself that dormant awareness that God does not have to
remain dormant. As when we go to the movie we find ourselves absorbed in a
novel, living alongside the fictional characters, laughing and weeping with the
se, so can we pray in a vital present fashion. This is what we leamt from dil hu-
4 Kazı Nazrul islam gözüyle Kemal Pasha, in Turkish published by Ministry of Foreign Affairs, external publicity, Wing, Bangladesh, April 2006.
1 026 juri prayer of Rumi As beautifully expressed by Mansur S halı of Udibari Kush
. tia. Whlle shooting a program for the Bangladesh television, on the bank of a ri
ver, I found hundreds of thousands of followers of Mansur Shah chanting his
songs in a urs mela.He knew Arabic and Persian too and left behind few books.A
few lines from his book (Muktir Alo. No festival in Bangladesh is complete wit
hout the spiritual songs of Mansur Shah.
Para Namaz Man Del Hujure
Prayer to be from inside, otherwise not acceptable
dont you knoıv the sahih hadith
ıvhich reads la salata illa be hujri qalab
if mistaken,bad luck for him
see in Sura Maun ıvhy a musalli has to go to hell
Iabadar zikre deldar fekre khana(rumi)Che hasil e namaje panjegana
Mansur says namaj begets Noor and
Tlıroıvs out your ıvorldly ıvorries.
13. Panju Shah, the shade of Rumi
When reading" discourses "many a times, Rumi came in front of me and asked
abruptly.
Do you really have lman (faith) to ask such questions? .He emphasized that
faith is mo re important than the rest and the soul of prayer mo re im portant than
the prayer. It is true, desire to pray is important than prayer because prayer can
be sustained and put to good meaning only by desire to pray.
Panju Shah, the famous mystic from Jhenida, Jessore had an intimate study
of Rumi. He wrote in one of his poems:
Masnabi kalam para (read the kalam in masnavi)
Apon muqam dhoro (Search your oıvn station)
Tabe bujhbi tar lila (Then only understand His manifestations)
Mustafa Zaman Abbasi Rumi viewed iıı Beııgali sııjistic traditioıı
14. Fakir Laon Shah, great baul poet
Fakir Lalon shah, the great Baul poet, recognized contributions of
Rumi and in one his songs ıve get:
Tafsir Hussaini lar Nam
Tai dlıure Masnavi kalanı
Ved islıarai likhe tamam
Lalon bale nai nijey
translation
Lalon has not said these
Its from Masnavis kalam
Written in parables only.
A famous song of Fakir Lalon Sh ah: Barir kache arshi nagar
I have not seen Him even for a day:
Near my home there is mirror -city
And my neiglıbor dıvells in it.
All araund the village is fathomless water:
The ıvater is boundless.
And tlıere is no boat to take me across i yeanı to see Him,
{but) hoıv s hall get to that hamlet? Wlıat slıall I say about this Neighbor of mine?
He has no hands, no feet, no shoulders. No head.
One moment He is above the void:
The next moment He is afloat in the water,
If my Neighbor ıvould but touch me, all the pains of deatlı ıvould go aıvay.
He and Lalon are here indeed,
But ıve remain countless miles apart.
Translation Brother James
Bengali is a beautiful language, a perfect abode of Masnavi. Bengali has
many translations of Masnavi. The rhyme translation edited by Maniruddin
Yusuf, 1966. A masterpeice:
Shuno lo shajani! Eki go kahini shunaye bansher banslıi
Fariade tai flıatia pariche boralı o bedanaraslıi. Kadian berai jlıar jedin more
anilo kari
Aınar bidhur slıur-murchane murchaye naronari
1 028 15. Conclusion
Rumi s popularity from Bangladesh to California based on his universal appeal
to all faiths is, stili on the surface level. Opposite of love i. e. hatred mn supreme
on big brothers mind. Poor Rumi lovers araund the world watch helplessly born
hing and killing of innocents and weep in silence in their prayer rags from
Thailand, through India to Konya. All prayers will be answered on right time.
That is the promise. 5
5 "O you who believe ı Take care of your own selves. If you fallaw the guidance and forbid what is wrong, No hurt can come to you from those who are in error. The return of you is to Allah.Then He will info rm you about all that which you used to do."
Mustafa Zaman Abbasi Rumi vieıved iıı Beııgali szifistic traditioıı