Hz. Mawlana's love of the Prophet(phub)

Şefik Can

Rumi has a special place in his heart for the Prophet of Islam because he proposed a high level of ethics for humanity, such as freeing slaves and taking care of the poor. Historically speaking, there is no historical personality like Muhammad who brought freedom to the slaves and the lower classes. Therefore, not only Muslim saints but philoso­phers like Thomas Carlyle and the German poet Goethe have fallen in love with Prophet Muhammad because of his service to humanity throughout his life. In their books, they have expressed their reverence for Prophet Muhammad. Very recently, Michael Hart has written a book about the hundred most influential his­torical personalities and ranked Muhammad number one.

Throughout the history of Islam, Muslim scholars and poets have expressed their love for the Prophet of Islam. These poems and writings have constituted a tremendous amount of literature about the love of the Prophet in Islamic literature. Rumi is one of the prominent Islamic mystics and poets, who wrote on the same subject. When he writes about the Prophet, his poetry receives an excitement and warmness because the poem involved in the love of the Prophet is illuminated by his light. For example, in the following poem, he speaks of the love of God, and he immediately jumps to the love and remem­brance of the Prophet.

We hear all the time the voice of divine love from right and left.
With the influence of this voice we are ascending to the heavens.
Who has the capacity of watching us?
Before coming to this world we were in heaven.
We were friends of the angels.
There is our real homeland, and we will return to it.

How distant are the pure pearl of the divine and the dirty world of the soil. Without thinking of your honor, you came to this lower world. Pick up your properties and tie up your bur­den. This place is not ours. We have to migrate.

The young chance is our friend. Sacrificing the soul is our job. And the head of our caravan is Mustafa, the Prophet, of whom the whole universe is proud.

Mustafa, peace and blessings be upon him, is so high a being that the moon did not dare to see his face and split.
The fragrance of the wind of this spring comes from his blessed hair. The shining of our imagination comes from his beauty' which reminds us of the newly rising sun.

In these poems, Rumi remembers the Prophet and his love. He speaks of the Prophet sometimes with the name of Ahmad and sometimes with the name of Muhammad and sometimes with the name of Mustafa. These are honorable names of the Prophet. As well known, every saint in Islam has his own way and focus on specific things. As far as Rumi's way is concerned, love, love of God, and love of humanity because of their mani­festation of God's love are all emphasized. Because of Rumi's great love for humanity, he tolerated the mistakes of people. Therefore, one has to consider Rumi's love for the Prophet from this perspective. The well-known title of Prophet Muhammad is Habib (of) Allah or the Beloved of God. The Prophet is the ide­al model of all human beings. Therefore, his love for the Prophet is based on this principle. In his famous poem, Rumi says:

I am the servant of the Qur'an as long as I live. And I am the soil where the foot of Muhammad stepped.

With this Rumi expresses his deep love for Muhammad. Therefore, Rumi can be considered one of the great poets who emphasized the love of the Prophet in his poems. In some of his poems, he dedicates the entire ghazal to the Prophet. These are called na't in which the attributes of Muhammad are narrated. In some cases, Rumi, while speaking about various things, sud­denly refers to the love of the Prophet. For example, while speaking of the relationship between the heart and love, Rumi refers to Prophet Muhammad and his great Companion Abu Bakr, Rumi says:

Heart and love have become friends, like Ahmad and Abu Bakr became friends in the cave. These two friends' names were di­ferent, but their spirits was one.

In another poem, Rumi expresses Prophet Muhammad's light, as the light enlightening the whole world.

The light of Muhammad has become distributed in millions of pieces and has encompassed the whole world.
The Prophet was like the lightening of that light.
When it strikes, all veils of unbelief are torn, and thousands of monks are influenced by Muhammad and run toward him.

In another poem, Rumi speaks of unbelief in the light of Prophet Muhammad.

When Muhammad's light came, unbelief put on its black clothes.
When the period of the eternal kingdom came, the unbe­lievers hit the drum to prevent death.
The whole face of the earth had become green. The heavens envied the earth and tore its sleeve. The moon had become split. The earth received life and became alive.

Last night, there was a big commotion among the stars because a peerless star had descended to the earth.

Rumi speaks of the love of the Prophet in his monumental work, the Mesnevi. He says the following:

If the face of Muhammad is reflected on a wall, the heart of the wall will become alive.
The wall, through his blessed reflection, will have such great happiness that even the wall will be rescued from hypocrisy.
It was a shame for the wall to have two faces while the pious and the pure had only one.

In another poem, Rumi speaks of Prophet Muhammad's intercession in this world and in the other world.

The honorable Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, is the intercessor in this world and the other.
This world is the world of religion and the other world is the world of paradise.
He shows them the way in this world, and in the other world, he shows them his moonlike face.
Muhammad's secret and evident prayer was to say:
"O my Lord, show my followers the right path. In fact, they don't know. "
With his blessed breath, the doors of the two worlds were opened.
His prayer had been accepted in both.
No one like him has come to the world, and no one like him will come.

According to Rumi, as indicated in one of his poems, all Muhammad's words came from the ocean of reality. He says:

His words totally are pearls from the ocean of reality

Because his heart was united with the ocean of truth.

In another part of his Mesnevi, Rumi narrates miracles of Muhammad in several of his poems with great enthusiasm.

It has been narrated from Anas, son of Malik, that a certain per­son became his guest.
He (that person) related that after the meal Anas saw that the table napkin (was) yellow in hue,
Dirty and stained; and said, "O maid-servant, throw it into the oven at once. "
Thereupon the intelligent (maid) threw it into the oven, which was full of fire.
All the guests were astounded thereat: they were in expec­tation of (seeing) the smoke of the (burning) napkin.
After a short time she took it out of the oven, clean and white and purged of that filth.
The party said, "O venerable Companion, how didn't it burn, and how too did it become cleansed?"
He replied, "Because Mustafa (Muhammad) often rubbed his hands and lips on this napkin. "
O heart afraid of the fire and torment (of Hell), draw nigh unto such a hand and lip as that!
Since it (the Prophet's blessing) bestowed such honour upon a lifeless object, what things will it reveal to the soul of the lover!
Inasmuch as he (the Prophet) made the clods of the Ka'ba the qibla, do you, O soul, be (as) the dust of holy men in (your) war {against the flesh).
Afterwards they said to the maid-servant, "Witt not you tell (us) your own feelings about all this?
Why did you (so) quickly cast it (into the oven) at his behest? I suppose he was acquainted with the secrets, (But) why did you, mistress, throw such a precious napkin into the fire?"
She answered, "I have confidence in the generous: I do not despair at their bounty.
What a piece of cloth? If he bid me (myself) go without regret into the very essence of the fire,
I, from perfect confidence (in him), will fall in: I have great hope of them that are devoted to God.
I will throw myself, not (only) this napkin, because of my confidence in every generous one who knows the mystery"
O brother, apply thy self to this elixir: the faith of a man must not be less than the faith of a woman.
The heart of a man that is less than a woman is the heart that is less (in worth) than the belly.

Rumi in a poem in his Divan-i Kabir, speaks of the influence of the Prophet of Islam on his Companions and how they were amazed by his personality and teachings."

In another poem from his Divan, Rumi speaks of the light that Muhammad brought to humanity, and how people that were bewildered in the darkness of disbelief came to life with the light brought by Muhammad.

In another poem from his Divan, Rumi speaks of the light that Muhammad brought to humanity, and how people that were bewildered in the darkness of unbelief came to life with the light brought by Muhammad.

In another poem, again in his Divan, Rumi speaks of Islam that Muhammad revealed to humanity and the strength that remained in this religion even after centuries.

In the Mesnevi, Rumi speaks of the Prophet of Islam and the Qur'an, which have remained unchanged as a promise of God.

This displays the strength of Islam and its Prophet, according to Rumi.

Resource: Fundamentals of Rumi's Thought : A Mevlevi Sufi Perspective by Sefik Can.