It is undeniable that Rumi was a Muslim scholar and took Islam seriously. Nonetheless, the depth of his spiritual vision extended beyond narrow understanding sectarian concerns. One quatrain reads:
|
در راه طلب عاقل و دیوانه یکی است در شیوهی عشق خویش و بیگانه یکی است آن را که شراب وصل جانان دادند در مذهب او کعبه و بتخانه یکی است |
On the seeker's path, the wise and crazed are one. In the way of love, kin and strangers are one. The one who they gave the wine of the beloved's union, in his path, the Kaaba and house of idols are one.[79] |
| —Quatrain 305 |
According to the Quran, Muhammad is a mercy sent by God.[80] In regards to this, Rumi states:
"The Light of Muhammad does not abandon a Zoroastrian or Jew in the world. May the shade of his good fortune shine upon everyone! He brings all of those who are led astray into the Way out of the desert."[81]
Rumi, however, asserts the supremacy of Islam by stating:
"The Light of Muhammad has become a thousand branches (of knowledge), a thousand, so that both this world and the next have been seized from end to end. If Muhammad rips the veil open from a single such branch, thousands of monks and priests will tear the string of false belief from around their waists."[82]
Many of Rumi's poems suggest the importance of outward religious observance and the primacy of the Qur'an.[83]
Flee to God's Qur'an, take refuge in it there with the spirits of the prophets merge. The Book conveys the prophets' circumstances those fish of the pure sea of Majesty.[84]
Rumi states:
I am the servant of the Qur'an as long as I have life. I am the dust on the path of Muhammad, the Chosen one. If anyone quotes anything except this from my sayings, I am quit of him and outraged by these words.[85]
Rumi also states:
I "sewed" my two eyes shut from [desires for] this world and the next – this I learned from Muhammad.[86]
On the first page of the Masnavi, Rumi states:
"Hadha kitâbu 'l- mathnawîy wa huwa uSûlu uSûli uSûli 'd-dîn wa kashshâfu 'l-qur'ân." "This is the book of the Masnavi, and it is the roots of the roots of the roots of the (Islamic) Religion and it is the Explainer of the Qur'ân."[87]
Hadi Sabzavari, one of Iran's most important 19th-century philosophers, makes the following connection between the Masnavi and Islam, in the introduction to his philosophical commentary on the book:
It is a commentary on the versified exegesis [of the Qur’ān] and its occult mystery, since all of it [all of the Mathnawī] is, as you will see, an elucidation of the clear verses [of the Qur’ān], a clarification of prophetic utterances, a glimmer of the light of the luminous Qur’ān, and burning embers irradiating their rays from its shining lamp. As respects to hunting through the treasure-trove of the Qur’ān, one can find in it [the Mathnawī] all [the Qur’ān's] ancient philosophical wisdom; it [the Mathnawī] is all entirely eloquent philosophy. In truth, the pearly verse of the poem combines the Canon Law of Islam (sharīʿa) with the Sufi Path (ṭarīqa) and the Divine Reality (ḥaqīqa); the author's [Rūmī] achievement belongs to God in his bringing together of the Law (sharīʿa), the Path, and the Truth in a way that includes critical intellect, profound thought, a brilliant natural temperament, and integrity of character that is endowed with power, insight, inspiration, and illumination.[88]
Seyyed Hossein Nasr states:
One of the greatest living authorities on Rûmî in Persia today, Hâdî Hâ'irî, has shown in an unpublished work that some 6,000 verses of the Dîwân and the Mathnawî are practically direct translations of Qur'ânic verses into Persian poetry.[89]
Rumi states in his Dīwān:
The Sufi is hanging on to Muhammad, like Abu Bakr.[90]
