February 2020: Metaphoric World of Rumi’s Teaching

مرا حق از می عشق آفریده‌ست

The Truth* had created me out of the wine of love.

~Rumi

Source: Ghazal #683

*Truth (Haq) is one of the names of God, in Sufism. 

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Reflection on the Quote:

A message from Dr. Fariba Enteshari, Founder & Executive Director:

Many verses of Rumi’s poetry evolve around the recurring theme that in truth our essence is made of love!

Your reaction might be, really? It is hard to believe that in a world that is collapsing inside out because of the problems that the human race alone has created. 

In Rumi’s teachings, we collectively as the “crown of creation” have the ability of saying yes or no to who we are! As long as we are in this world, we are carriers of the divine breath so our essence is the spirit and therefore we have the ability to act on our spiritual domain. We also have the ability to ignore what we are made of and deny  the rights of creatures. Trees and animals were not given the choices we have been given. Therefore, we alone are able to abuse and misuse our environment.

Being born as human and the crown of creation comes with an understanding of our responsibilities. The most supreme responsibility we have is to connect and understand our relationship to our Origin. Every other connection we have to others and the world evolves around understanding who we are in essence. 

We are made out of matter and spirit. The tavern is the metaphor for where we are crushed with skin and bones into a process of becoming the wine of love—drinkable and enjoyable wine that can usher our essence to this world. Once we have understood our vocation, we can choose to put our attention on what is important to us.  Choosing the tavern willingly, we can be stripped away from all the pretense in life and practice the essential texture of who we are.

In Rumi’s school of love, he is teaching us that the world is like a tavern that transforms sour and sweet grapes into the wine of love, only if we choose it. 

~Dr. Fariba Enteshari