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 ..

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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