Then you see the “One without a beginning” from “the One without a beginning” and the subtlety of the ayat “He sees the eyes” (Surah Anam VI:103) is also an indication of this. The subtle points of the Qur’an, “They love God, and God loves them” (Surah Maida V:54) are indications of the effect of this love. Something reaches you from the Kadim, the Eternal One. But you bring prayers to Him, because that Court that is without any need likes your prayers and wishes and you, due to those prayers, can escape these events and find safety. What is it worth to bring cumins to Kirman? Who will it make happy? What will it cost? There is such a great palace there, one without prayers or wishes He does not expect anything from anybody. It is the soul, but what is it when you have placed the soul underneath your arm? It is that power that is within you, by means of which you move and attain liberation. Where can the one who is “created afterwards” find the one who has no beginning? How can he understand Him? Where is the soul and the great God that has created everything? The Truth is the Kadim, the Ancient One He is the being who has no beginning. May God not deprive us of his abundant blessings. This book was gathered from the words of the beloved Mevlana Shamsuddin Tabrizi, the Sultan of those who have attained. I begin in the name of God, the infinitely Compassionate and Merciful, and I ask His help. The book destroys the stereotypes that have been set up by the secondary literature, and it gives access to a far more fascinating and vivid personality than we have any right to expect from what hagiographers and scholars have written.Selections from The Conversations ( Maqalat)
Shams appears as raucous and sober, outspoken and subtle, harsh and gentle, learned and irreverent, and above all as an embodiment of the living presence of God. For the first time in Western sources we are given access to him without the intermediary of Rumi and the myth-makers. The net result is an exciting and readable book that brings Shams to life. He provides notes and a glossary, which will go a long way toward helping readers decipher the more obscure passages. Chittick has translated about two-thirds of the Discourses into English and arranged them in a manner that clarifies their meaning and context. The book that he published, called Maqalat-i Shams-i Tabrizi, “The Discourses of Shams-i Tabrizi”, provides us with an extraordinary picture of an awe-inspiring personality. Fifteen years ago an Iranian scholar completed the long process of collating and editing the manuscripts. These were never put into final form, but they were preserved and sometimes copied by later generations, ending up in various libraries scattered around Turkey. When Rumi and Shams sat and talked, one or more members of the circle took notes. It makes available for the first time in any European language first-hand accounts of Shams that have never been studied by Western scholars. Me and Rumi represents a true milestone in the study of this enigmatic figure. Modern scholarship has made little headway in explaining who Shams was or how he was able to play such a decisive role in Rumi’s life, though a good number of theories have been advanced. Over the centuries Shams became a trope of Persian, Turkish, and Urdu literatures. Everyone interested in Rumi’s poetry has been curious about him, and beginning with Rumi’s own son and other hagiographers, a great deal of legend was built up. Very little is known about the historical Shams-indeed, some have even doubted that he was a real person. Rumi immortalized Shams’s name by constantly celebrating him in his poetry as the embodiment of the divine beloved. It was Rumi’s longing for the lost Shams that transformed him into one of the world’s greatest poets. Three years after Shams’s appearance out of nowhere, he abruptly vanished, never to be seen again. Rumi had been a sober scholar, teaching law and theology to a small circle of students, but the coming of Shams turned him into a devotee of music, dance, and poetry. Practically every collection of his poetry provides a thumbnail biography, highlighting his encounter with Shams-i Tabrizi, the wandering mystic who became Rumi’s beloved companion. Now that Rumi has become one of the best-selling poets in North America, interest in his life and times has increased dramatically.