A bit about the Islamic mystics (Sufis) Shams and Rumi

Sufism is a mystical branch of Islam. I think the most famous Sufi in the West is Rumi. Much less is known about his irascible, irreverent teacher, Shams. If those two men were not aware of and connected to God, then perhaps God did not exist when they lived?

Poetic Outlaws 

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,

there is a field. I'll meet you there.When the soul lies down in that grass,

the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, even the phrase each other

doesn't make any sense.

~ Rumi

Sloan Bashinsky

Rumi wrote this, too

Chickpea to Cook

A chickpea leaps almost over the rim of the pot


where it’s being boiled.

“Why are you doing this to me?”

The cook knocks him down with the ladle.

“Don’t you try to jump out.

You think I’m torturing you.


I’m giving you flavor,


so you can mix with spices and rice


and be the lovely vitality of a human being.

Remember when you drank rain in the garden.


That was for this.”

Grace first. Sexual pleasure,


then a boiling new life begins,


and the Friend has something good to eat.

Eventually the chickpea


will say to the cook,


“Boil me some more.


Hit me with the skimming spoon.


I can’t do this by myself.


I’m like an elephant that dreams of gardens


back in Hindustan and doesn’t pay attention


to his driver. You’re my cook, my driver,


my way into existence. I love your cooking.”

The cook says,


“I was once like you,


fresh from the ground. Then I boiled in time,


and boiled in the body, two fierce boilings.

My animal soul grew powerful.


I controlled it with practices,


and boiled some more, and boiled


once beyond that,


and became your teacher.” 

 

The Order of Pen

R.V. Stiltskin 

 

I am The End
and The Beginning,

I am The Way,
The Truth
and The Life,

I am The Light,
I am The Sun,

I am not my hair,
I am not my skin,
I am the soul that lives within,
like a shadow, I am and I am not.

My voice.

A symbol of death
I am to many,

In some legends,
I am " the creator"..

For you, I am life.
my nature is to love,
As it is yours. 

 

I am still with you.
Look for me
Listen to me
I am the echo of your heart,
I give your spirit vision.

You heard me today.
Embrace me
You will glow,
You will shine,
You will blaze forth.

Lucifer

R.V. StiltskinAuthor

 

 

Sloan Bashinsky

R.V. Stiltskin this Shams was Rumi’s teacher, yes?

 

R.V. StiltskinAuthor

Sloan Bashinsky yes. Shams was Rumi's shadow .

Sloan Bashinsky

R.V. Stiltskin you sure about that?

R.V. StiltskinAuthor

Sloan Bashinsky Yes.

Sloan Bashinsky

According to all I've read about Rumi and Shams, Shams helped Rumi "hugely" awaken parts of himself he did not yet know existed, or had lost, thrown away. But it took a while for that to happen. Perhaps Shams was the cook in Rumi's iconic poem, The Chickpea?

Sloan Bashinsky

Many years ago, I heard a story that caused me to wonder if it might be about Shams?

A small village out in the countryside received news that a dervish was headed their way. Now it was a great honor to be visited by a dervish, and the townspeople spruced up their village and made arrangements for a feast in hoonor of their visitor. On the day the deverish was to arrive, the townspeople donned the best of their modest clothing and went out to the edge of their village to greet their visitor. By and by, they saw someone walking toward them on the dirt road that went through their village. As the traveler neared, they saw he was an old, beared, stooped over man, dressed roughly and in need of bathing. He silently walked through them toward the community well in the town center, where a donkey was tethered to a post. The visitor bent over over and spoke into the donkey’s ear a while. Then, the visitor straightened up and walked out the other end of the town.  

From Wikipedia:

 

According to Sipah Salar, a devotee and intimate friend of Rumi who spent forty days with him, Shams was the son of the Imam Ala al-Din. In a work entitled Manāqib al-'arifīn (Eulogies of the Gnostics), Aflaki names a certain 'Ali as the father of Shams-i Tabrīzī and his grandfather as Malikdad. Apparently basing his calculations on Haji Bektash Veli's Maqālāt (Conversations), Aflaki suggests that Shams arrived in Konya at the age of sixty years. However, various scholars have questioned Aflaki's reliability.^[3] 

 

Shams received his education in Tabriz and was a disciple of Baba Kamal al-Din Jumdi. Before meeting Rumi, he apparently traveled from place to place weaving baskets and selling girdles for a living.^[4]Despite his occupation as a weaver, Shams received the epithet of "the embroiderer" (zarduz) in various biographical accounts including that of the Persian historian Dawlatshah Samarqandi. This however, is not the occupation listed by Haji Bektash Veli in the Maqālat and was rather the epithet given to the Ismaili Imam Shams al-din Muhammad, who worked as an embroiderer while living in anonymity in Tabriz. The transference of the epithet to the biography of Rumi's mentor suggests that this Imam's biography must have been known to Shams-i Tabrīzī's biographers. The specificities of how this transference occurred, however, are not yet known.^[3] 

 

Shams' first encounter with Rumi

On 15 November 1244, a man in a black suit from head to toe came to the famous inn of Sugar Merchants of Konya. His name was Shams Tabrizi. He was claiming to be a travelling merchant. As it was said in Haji Bektash Veli's book, "Makalat", he was looking for something which he was going to find in Konya. Eventually he found Rumi riding a horse. 

 

One day Rumi was reading next to a large stack of books. Shams Tabriz, passing by, asked him, "What are you doing?" Rumi scoffingly replied, "Something you cannot understand." (This is knowledge that cannot be understood by the unlearned.) On hearing this, Shams threw the stack of books into a nearby pool of water. Rumi hastily rescued the books and to his surprise they were all dry. Rumi then asked Shams, "What is this?" To which Shams replied, "Mowlana, this is what you cannot understand." (This is knowledge that cannot be understood by the learned.) 

 

A second version of the tale has Shams passing by Rumi who again is reading a book. Rumi regards him as an uneducated stranger. Shams asks Rumi what he is doing, to which Rumi replies, "Something that you do not understand!" At that moment, the books suddenly catch fire and Rumi asks Shams to explain what happened. His reply was, "Something you do not understand."^[5] 

 

Another version of the first encounter is this: In the marketplace of Konya, amid the cotton stalls, sugar vendors, and vegetable stands, Rumi rode through the street, surrounded by his students. Shams caught hold of the reins of his donkey and rudely challenged the master with two questions. "Who was the greater mystic, Bayazid [a Sufi saint] or Muhammad?” Shams demanded. "What a strange question! Muhammad is greater than all the saints," Rumi replied. "So, why is it then that Muhammad said to God, 'I didn't know you as I should have,' while Bayazid proclaimed, 'Glory be to me! How exalted is my Glory! [that is, he claimed the station of God himself]?" Rumi explained that Muhammad was the greater of the two, because Bayazid could be filled to capacity by a single experience of divine blessings. He lost himself completely and was filled with God. 

 

Muhammad's capacity was unlimited and could never be filled. His desire was endless, and he was always thirsty. With every moment he came closer to God, and then regretted his former distant state. For that reason he said, "I have never known you as I should have". It is recorded that after this exchange of words, Rumi felt a window open at the top of his head and saw smoke rise to heaven. He cried out, fell to the ground, and lost consciousness for one hour. Shams, upon hearing these answers, realized that he was face to face with the object of his longing, the one he had prayed God to send him. When Rumi awoke, he took Shams's hand, and the two of them returned to Rumi's school together on foot. 

 

After several years with Rumi in Konya, Shams left and settled in Khoy. As the years passed, Rumi attributed more and more of his own poetry to Shams as a sign of love for his departed friend and master. In Rumi's poetry Shams becomes a guide of Allah's (Creator) love for mankind; Shams was a sun ("Shams" means "Sun" in Arabic) shining the Light of Sun as guide for the right path dispelling darkness in Rumi's heart, mind, and body on earth. The source of Shams' teachings was the knowledge of Ali ibn Abu Talib, who is also called the father of sufism.^[6][7]

sloanbashinsky/@yahoo.com