Alongside the law, there ran a very different current of Islamic thinking and expression known as Sufism. The Sufis, sometimes called the “friends of God,” were the mystics of Islam, those for whom the direct, personal, and intoxicating experience of Divine Presence was of far greater importance than the laws, regulations, and judgments of the sharia (see pp. 448–50). Organized in hundreds of separate orders, or “brotherhoods,” the Sufis constituted one of the transregional networks that linked the far-flung domains of the Islamic world. Often they were the missionaries of Islam, introducing the faith to Anatolia, India, Central Asia, and elsewhere.

Among the most prominent exemplars of Sufi sensibility was Rumi (1207–1273), born in what is now Afghanistan and raised in a Persian cultural tradition. Rumi’s family later migrated to Anatolia, and Rumi lived most of his adult life in the city of Konya, where he is buried. There he wrote extensively, including a six-volume work of rhymed couplets known as the Mathnawi. Following Rumi’s death, his son established the Mevlevi Sufi order, based on Rumi’s teachings and known in the West as the “whirling dervishes,” on account of the turning dances that became a part of their practice.

Rumi’s poetry has remained a sublime expression of the mystical dimension of Islamic spiritual seeking and has provided inspiration and direction for millions, both within and beyond the Islamic world. In the early twenty-first century, Rumi was the best-selling poet in the United States. The selections that follow provide a brief sample of the Sufi approach to religious life.

Inscription in Rumi’s Tomb

Thirteenth Century

Come, come, whoever you are,

Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.

It doesn’t matter.

Ours is not a caravan of despair.

Come, even if you have broken your vow a thousand times,

Come, yet again, come, come.

RUMI

Poem

Thirteenth Century

I searched for God among the Christians and on the Cross and therein I found Him not.

I went into the ancient temples of idolatry; no trace of Him was there.

I entered the mountain cave of Hira and then went as far as Qandhar but God I found not. . . .

Then I directed my search to the Kaaba, the resort of old and young; God was not there even.

Turning to philosophy I inquired about him from ibn Sina but found Him not within his range. . . .

Finally, I looked into my own heart and there I saw Him; He was nowhere else.

RUMI

Mathnawi

Thirteenth Century

Whether one moves slowly or with speed

the one who is a seeker will be a finder.

Always seek with your whole self,

for the search is an excellent guide on the way.

Though you are lame and limping,

though your figure is bent and clumsy,

always creep towards the One. Make that One your quest.

By speech and by silence and by fragrance,

catch the scent of the king everywhere.

Listen, open a window to God

and begin to delight yourself

by gazing upon Him through the opening.

The business of love is to make that window in the heart . . .

Gaze incessantly on the face of the Beloved!

Listen, this is in your power, my friend.