Quote from Listen! Commentary on the Spiritual Couplets of Rumi

Listen: Commentary on the Spiritual Couplets of Mevlana Rumi

Kenan Rifai, translated from the Turkish by Victoria Rowe Holbrook

Fons Vitae, Louisville, Kentucky, 2011.  536 pages.

"The Masnavi is the interpretation of the Qur'an wherein Rumi explains his own Reality (Haqiqa), that is, the haqiqa of the Completed Human Being.

It begins with 'Listen from the Nay (reed flute).' The reed flute is the symbol of the Prophet Muhammad and his spiritual descendants who do not speak from themselves. They only relate the reality (haqiqa) of Allah by reflecting it from their non-existent Beings."

from the Preface by Cemalnur Sargut

"Listen to this reed flute as it tells its tales complaining of separations as it wails:
'Since they cut my stalk away from the reed bed my outcry has made men and women lament.
I seek a breast that is torn to shreds by loss so that I may explicate the pain of want.
Everyone who's far from his own origin seeks to be united with it once again..."

Rumi,  p. 1

"Mevlana Jalal al-Din Rumi begins his Spiritual Couplets with the word 'Listen!' This opening appears not to conform to traditions of Islamic civilization-era religious literature. Works of Islamic religion and Islamic literature begin with the name of God, as do the verse narrative Garibname (Book of the Stranger) by Asik Pasa, Felekname (Book of the Heavens) by Gulshri and the Mevlid (Nativity) by Suleyman Celebi, some of the earliest important works of our religious literature in Anatolia. The first of these begins with the verse: 'Let us recite the name of God first of all'  the same beginning is found in the Felekname: 'Let us begin speech with "In the Name of God." Let us make entreaty with the name of God.'  And again as the first verse of Suleyman Celebi's Mevlid: 'Let us mention the name of God first of all.'

It is worthy to note that the Spiritual Couplets does not begin in this way. Perhaps the poet was free thinking, and took pleasure in having his 'rising verse' be however it came to him. It may also be that Mevlana thought everything said with love of God has the sanctity of the besmele formula, 'In the Name of God.'

At the same time, Spiritual Couplets specialists have sought other reasons why Mevlana began with the with "Listen" (bisnaw) instead of with besmele. They conclude that the word bisnaw may hold the place of the besmele because they both begin with the letter B. . . Hazret Ali indicated this by saying: 'Whatever is in the Koran is in the Fatiha (first chapter), and whatever is in the Fatiha is in the besmele, and whatever is in the besmele is in the letter B.' He continued 'Whatever is in the letter B is in the dot under the (Arabic) letter. I am the dot under the letter B. . . .'

The second important word in this first verse is 'reed.' The reed pen is dipped in ink for writing, and the reed flute is an esteemed musical instrument. But the reed is also a symbol of the spiritually arrived (erenler). . ."

commentary of Kenan Rifai,  pages 1-2

A weighty tome to be sure at 10 inches tall and 536 pages, but for those with an interest in the deep meanings and allusions in Rumi's poetry, the translation of volume one of Rumi's Mathnavi along with the commentary by 20th century Sufi Kenan Rifai is a worthwhile and approachable venture.

Other excellent options in our library include the recent translation of the first four (of six) volumes of the Masnavi published by Oxford University Press, and of course, our gold standard: The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi by William C. Chittick.


-- quote and comments submitted by Jennifer Knight

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