Insightful newsletter of Drishtikone: Issue #129 - The Real Bigoted and Racist Moulana Rumi
(Photo by bantersnaps on Unsplash)
“Once the soul awakens, the search begins and you can never go back. From then on, you are inflamed with a special longing that will never again let you linger in the lowlands of complacency and partial fulfillment. The eternal makes you urgent. You are loath to let compromise or the threat of danger hold you back from striving toward the summit of fulfillment.” ― John O'Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
Recently a friend posted a quote purportedly from St. Augustine on a Social media platform. I commented that he was actually a scoundrel who led the persecution and destruction of the so-called Pagans (a word by which Christians derided the people with spiritual ways in Europe - Greeks, and Romans). She suggested that that may be true, but the words were beautiful. We left it at that.
Words - however beautiful and profound - have no bearing on the Truth. In fact, Truth cannot be contained or described by any words. What can be described in words, is Untruth. Not Truth.
“I have the best words,” said Trump once in his usual triumphant manner. It was a silly remark and it really meant nothing. He isn’t known for profundity, so his remark was taken to be as facetious as it is.
However, many people in cultures that had been taken over by the scourge of fanaticism brought upon by monotheistic belief systems tried to gloat in a true Trumpian manner, albeit in poetry.
And, somehow people gave them a halo to go along with that.
Words, misleading words, and unscrupulous minds have messed this world up. They have created illusionary apparitions that they posit as spiritual pathways. Those who aren’t discerning enough, simply go along and end up in a worse place than they started from.
Intent and the energy that creates any words is critical in what those words carry with them. Whether they can push one to liberty or further entangle in misery.
The world of pseudo-spirituality is littered with the corpses of those who got entangled in beautiful but meaningless words and never found the strength or the energy to walk the path instead.
We had earlier discussed the bigotry of a sanitized psychopath named Amir Khusrau (you can listen to it later in the newsletter). Today we will wipe the gold dust off of another turd and bigot named Moulana Rumi.
what happened to Disha Salian?
The whole SSR and the linked Disha Salian case has proliferated many conspiracy theorists and many “experts.” Some may have useful information and even analysis but most are not very credible. But a few things are coming out:
Disha Salian was gang-raped and then murdered. She did not die from jumping.
While she was being raped, her fiance Rohan Rai was witnessing it. Or made to witness it.
Most of the people from that party are not available for comments
Now, some are saying that the party was actually on the night of June 7th and 8th. That is why Rhea packed her bags on June 8th and left from SSR’s place. Also, the folks who came to clean up the computers in Sushant’s place also came on the evening of the 8th. By then, Disha was already dead. That is why all these actions became necessary. Now, it makes sense logically, but is it true? That needs more proof.
The closest channel which comes to any kind of credibility on this issue says this.
the REAL Moulana Rumi
We had discussed earlier in our writings in the archives of this newsletter on how Amir Khusrau was actually a bigot who rejoiced in seeing massacres of the Hindus. That he is considered to be the poster-boy of religious harmony is a joke played on the Hindus to further humiliate them! Listen to our podcast episode - Why was Amir Khusrau so mad at Alauddin Khilji?
Let us today look at another global Sufi stalwart - RUMI.
His claim to Spiritual super-stardom is a book titled 'The Essential Rumi' written by Coleman Barks who has made his career peddling Rumi 'translations.'
Interesting thing is that Coleman has almost no knowledge of Islam or Sufism. He cannot read or understand Persian (academically or in the traditional sense).
He has sold over half a million books making millions from the so-called translation of Rumi’s writings.
Omid Safi, a Persian expert on Rumi and a professor of Islamic studies at Duke University, says something very interesting on his website.
For us, he is a zenith of Islamic spirituality, the unveiler of the beauty of the Qur’an, the offspring of the soul of the Prophet Muhammad, and the definitive voice of the path of Radical Love. (Source)
His pet-peeve is that Barks and others even before him have tried to wipe out Islam from Rumi’s writings and make him “Secular”, which he most certainly was not.
The fraud by Coleman Barks is astonishingly blatant. Why it has not been called out by any of the Persian readers is beyond one! It’s not as if his Masnavi was a secret document. Rumi is an essential text in Iran for many. How did they never call out this fraud in his name?
Probably they are inflicted with the “digestion” disease that Hinduism is in India.
Persianpoetics clarifies the whole issue very painstakingly.
For a long time, my favorite quote from Rumi was the one about the “field of wrong and right doing”. Well, it turns out, the original Persian verse is nowhere as spiritual. It is talking about people who though may not be kafir, but aren’t in Islam - those gnostics or spiritually inclined people will finally prostrate (fall into Islam).
No field, no ideas, or right/wrongdoing. Simply about those not yet Muslim, becoming one.
There are many who would like to attribute enlightenment to Maulana Rumi, but he was firmly entrenched in the world of beliefs and religion with a fanatical mindset to follow and not question anything that may be against the very fundamentals of spirituality in the scripture of his choice. Persianpoetics site Rumi Was Muslim translates this verse from Quatrain 1330.
But that just shows that Rumi was a Muslim, even if his quotes were not necessarily as profound as the world has been fooled into believing. That ain’t anything bad. Is it?
Well, to understand that, we need to go further.
Rumi was not just fanatically religious, but also bigoted. He repeatedly referred to Hindus as ugly, black, and evil omen.
This comes out clearly in Annmarie Schimmel’s The Triumphal Sun (Persian Studies Series): A Study of the Works of Jalaloddin Rumi. (Source)
He not just compared a Hindu to “an unclean dog”, which assumes significance when you consider that Rumi was quite a literal and presumably fanatic Muslim. In Islam, a dog is considered to be “naajis” which means religiously unclean.
As per the Shafi'ischool of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence - the following are naajis:
wine and other spirituous drinks, dogs, swine, dead animals that were not ritually slaughtered, blood, excrements, and the milk of animals whose meat Muslims are not allowed to eat. (Weinsinck, A.J. "Nadjis". In P.J. Bearman; Th. Bianquis; C.E. Bosworth; E. van Donzel; W.P. Heinrichs (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam)
What does coming in contact with naajis stuff mean for a Muslim? He/she cannot do any religious duty unless one is purified.
That is what the so-called enlightened Moulana Rumi considered a Hindu to be. Naajis.
He continues on in his works with his racist rants. (Source)
Rumi was not just satisfied in calling Hindus akin to unclean dogs, but - quite like Amir Khusrau, he too wanted the Hindus in Hindustan to be massacred and destroyed in “Turkish style.” (Note - when you go to the video section in today’s newsletter, you will get an idea into that barbarism as well). (Source)
Rumi’s Masnavi is full of his vitriol and hatred for the Hindus.
Masnavi, Book1, Verse2765:
Masnavi, Book1, Verse2198:
He was not just not enlightened or even spiritual by any stretch of the imagination - the man, Rumi, was a freaking racist bigot!!
nota bene
Intelligence probing Turkey’s J&K NGO: Indian intelligence agencies have started running security checks on Turkey-linked charities that have suddenly become active in Jammu and Kashmir over the last year after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivered a strident speech at the United Nations General Assembly last year that mirrored Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s pitch on Kashmir, people familiar with the matter said. A national security planner said the intelligence probe also covers the role of individuals connected to the nonprofits with close links with Turkey and prepare a comprehensive report on their activities, overt and otherwise. (Source)
Quad checkmates China’s Malacca Alternative: In a major blow to China, Thailand has claimed that many countries including India, the US, as well as Australia, have shown interest in building the proposed Kra Canal in the Southern part of the country. China has been eyeing to construct a 120-kilometer mega canal cutting through the isthmus of Kra in Thailand. It would help Beijing in solving the 'Malacca Dilemma' as it opens the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean, bypassing the Strait of Malacca. Thai Nation Power Party MP Songklod Thipparat, who chairs the parliament's group that studies the project's feasibility, said that countries such as India, Australia, the US, and of course China are willing to support Thailand on the project, Khaosod English, a Thai newspaper, reported. "They want to sign a memorandum of understanding with us," Songklod said in an interview. "Foreign embassies have contacted us to get the latest status on the project." (Source)
Kolkata Fashion Designer found dead: The Kolkata Police on Friday initiated a probe into the death of renowned fashion designer Sharbari Dutta. Dutta, 63, was found dead in the bathroom of her residence on Broad Street in south Kolkata on Thursday evening. A case of unnatural death was registered and the body sent for postmortem examination, a senior police officer said. (Source)
Facebook spying on Instagram Users via cameras: Facebook Inc. is again being sued for allegedly spying on Instagram users, this time through the unauthorized use of their mobile phone cameras. The lawsuit springs from media reports in July that the photo-sharing app appeared to be accessing iPhone cameras even when they weren’t actively being used. Facebook denied the reports and blamed a bug, which it said it was correcting, for triggering what it described as false notifications that Instagram was accessing iPhone cameras. (Source)
Greeks and Turks - a history of Islamic genocides of Greeks
The Greeks and Turks are very close to war and certain at loggerheads. IN mid-August a Greek frigate collided with a Turkish warship.
NATO members Greece and Turkey have ratcheted up tensions in recent weeks over access to natural resources in the Mediterranean, causing yet another fracture in the western military alliance.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron has extended his hand to the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and also sent a French naval warship and fighter jets to help Greece out.
What is the History of these two nations? Well, the Turks have been ruthless and extremist in their history. They have committed multiple genocides of Greeks and Armenians.
From 1900 to 1923, various Turkish regimes killed from 3,500,000 to over 4,300,000 Armenians, Greeks, Nestorians, and other Christians. (Source)
The Genocide of the Greeks is a painful part of the history in that country.
According to the Greek Genocide Resource Center, “it included massacres, forced deportations and death marches, summary expulsions, boycotts, rape, forced conversion to Islam, conscription into labor battalions, arbitrary executions and destruction of Christian Orthodox cultural, historical and religious monuments. It is likely that the victim toll of the Greek Genocide was somewhere in the vicinity of 1-1.5 million.” (Source)
That is why I thought it might be a good idea to share something informative on the relations of Greeks and Turks and their history. So here it is.
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