How do Baha'is view Rumi?

[Rainbow Mage]

I was reading that Shoghi Effendi stated that Baha'ullah had really admired the Sufi poet Rumi. How do Baha'is view Rumi? As a reformer of Islam? Don't Baha'is believe there are manifestations, prophets, and reformers, all of which are seperate?

 

[fenrisx]

I was reading that Shoghi Effendi stated that Baha'ullah had really admired the Sufi poet Rumi. How do Baha'is view Rumi? As a reformer of Islam? Don't Baha'is believe there are manifestations, prophets, and reformers, all of which are seperate?

On an interesting note, Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan (founder of the Sufi order I belong to) is supposed to have met the Babuhullah I believe. Bahias feel free to correct me if I am in fact in error.

 

[arthra]

Baha'u'llah did not meet Hazrat Inayat Khan as He passed away in 1892 in the Holy Land...and Hazrat Inayat Khan was then what five years old being born in 1887.

Apparently Hazrat Inayat Khan met Abdul-Baha in Paris around 1911 or so according to a search on google..

but as to Rumi.. there are quotes from well known Persian poets such as Hafiz, Saadi, Attar and Rumi scattered in the Writings of Baha'u'llah.. An example can be found in a book written by Abdul-Baha:

A story regarding Ustad Isma'il:

At one time, Bahá'u'lláh had written down an ode of Rumi's for him, and had told him to turn his face toward the Báb and sing the words, set to a melody. And so as he wandered through the long dark nights, Ustad would sing these lines:

I am lost, O Love, possessed and dazed,
Love's fool am I, in all the earth.
They call me first among the crazed,
Though I once came first for wit and worth.
O Love, who sellest me this wine, [1]
O Love, for whom I burn and bleed,
Love, for whom I cry and pine --
Thou the Piper, I the reed.

[1 This wine, Rumi says elsewhere, comes from the jar of "Yea verily." That is, it symbolizes the Primal Covenant established between God and man on the day of "Am I not your Lord?" On that day, the Creator summoned posterity out of the loins of Adam and said to the generations unborn, "Am I not your Lord?" Whereupon they answered, "Yea, verily, Thou art." Cf. Qur'án 7:171.] 31

If Thou wishest me to live,
Through me blow Thy holy breath.
The touch of Jesus Thou wilt give
To me, who've lain an age in death.
Thou, both End and Origin,
Thou without and Thou within --
From every eye Thou hidest well,
And yet in every eye dost dwell.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Memorials of the Faithful, p. 30)

Other than being regarded as an important poet and mystic though I don't know that Baha'is have any special deference for Rumi or other well known poets. Quoting these poets was quite common in the circles where Baha'u'llah could be found.

The Manifestations of God is a fairly unique Baha'i perspective and included Zoroaster, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, the Bab and Baha'u'llah...

See:

The Eternal Quest for God: Chapter 6

 

[fenrisx]

My mistake, he had so I've read met a prominent bahai however. thanks much for the clarification.

 

[InvestigateTruth]

Rumi had a mystical view. For example, he used "Wine" in his poetry as symbol of "love of God" or "divine guidance".

The Baha'i teachings are overall mystical. Sufism is also mystical. But many Sufi’s (as far as I know) believe in being detached from worldly activities. While, Baha'u'llah emphasized on being active, and doing things that are useful for ourselves and everyone else.

Also, there is an Islamic hadith from Muhammad, saying something like:
My Ummah will last half a Day, if it is not truthful, or it will last a Day, if it is truthful.

We know from Quran a Day is 1000 years.
The Baha'i belief is that it lasted 1000 years. And I heard from a Baha'i, it was because of Rumi who had a positive effect.

The Baha'i faith started exactly 1000 years after Islam.

 

[InvestigateTruth]

Don't Baha'is believe there are manifestations, prophets, and reformers, all of which are seperate?

The Baha'i scriptures has likened the Manifestations of God as the Sun, as the Source of light, which are the major prophets, such as Moses, Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Muhammad, The Bab and Baha'u'llah.

There are also other Minor prophets, which are likened to the moon, as they get their light of knowledge from the Manifestation (the Sun). Example; Aaron.

There are also stars, that while, the Sun and the Moon may not be in the world, God raise them to be the light of guidance. In this view, I think of Rumi as a star.

 

[BruceDLimber]

The Baha'i faith started exactly 1000 years after Islam.

More accurately, the Baha'i Era (specifically, the Babi Faith) began 1,000 years after the disappearance of the Twelfth Imam.

Peace,

Bruce