Ep289: Mystic Poetry of Rumi - Professor William Rory Dickson
Dr. William Rory Dickson is an associate professor of Islamic Religion and Culture at The University of Winnipeg and author of “Dissolving into Being: The Wisdom of Sufi Philosophy”.
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Professor Dickson takes a deep dive into the life and works of Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (1207-1273 AD), a 13th century Sufi poet whose works have become famous all around the world.
Professor Dickson recounts the fascinating life of Rūmī, including his flight from Mongol invasion, his education in Islamic law, his life-changing encounter with the wild, mystical dervish Shams-i Tabrīzī, and his far-reaching legacy in Asia and beyond.
Professor Dickson also explains the anti-Rūmī movements within modern Islam, challenges criticism of Coleman Barks’ popular renderings of Rūmī’s verse, and explores the controversial Sufi metaphors of intoxication by wine and passionate desire to describe the practitioner’s relationship with God.
00:00 - Intro
01:25 - The life of Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī
03:39 - Neither universalist nor orthodox
05:09 - Rūmī, sharī’ah law, and radical Islam
07:08 - The range of Sufi expression over history
07:56 - The wandering dervishes
08:42 - Rūmī’s life-changing encounter with the radical dervish Shams-i Tabrīzī
09:56 - 3 stages of self-annihilation through love
11:14 - Shams-i Tabrīzī’s illicit alcohol use
13:36 - Rūmī’s spiritual poetry
16:13 - Rūmī’s explicit invectives
17:07 - Rūmī’s mystic father
19:08 - Mongol domination of Central Asia and Rūmī’s flight
21:29 - Rūmī’s colourful insults
22:52 - Challenging empty, orthodox religious forms
26:51 - Lack of nuance in the Rūmī wars
29:22 - Rūmī’s two major legacies
31:37 - The role of Sufi orders in different cultural contexts
33:48 - The anti-Sufis and a radical forgetting of Rūmī within Islam
35:37 - Coleman Barks and the Rūmī wars
37:23 - Criticism of Coleman Barks
39:06 - Coleman Barks was a Sufi
39:50 - Coleman Barks as an entry point
41:21 - The conundrum of translated literature
43:46 - How to communicate across cultures without losing the essence
45:12 - Rory’s enjoyment of Chogyam Trungpa
46:27 - Passionate desire and intoxication on wine
48:30 - Pre-Islamic Arab poetry, “gangster rap”
49:33 - Passionate love poetry
50:55 - Romantic streak in Arab culture
51:53 - Influence of Persian culture on Muslim mystic metaphors
52:46 - Sufism’s Neo-Platonism
55:50 - Remembering the One and Tantric practice
56:59 - Integrating the sensual and the spiritual
59:18 - Appreciation of pleasure as a vehicle to God
01:00:07 - Sufi sexuality and the paths of Jesus vs Mohammad
01:05:28 - Scandalous to orthodox Islam
01:07:48 - Knowing God directly
01:09:53 - Categorising God vs Sufi gnosis
01:11:18 - Executed Sufi master
01:11:54 - Is Sufism inappropriate?
01:13:26 - Wine in Sufism and Islam
01:17:39 - Love is brutal
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Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James