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Mulaqat with Rumi
`THE MOOLAQAT' is one of the famous works of Maulana Rumi and how much he is loved in Delhi can be gauged by the fact that there was even a restaurant named "Mulaqat", as an invitation to young couples to enjoy some intimate moments over lunch or dinner. During a visit to the Capital a not-so-young Muzaffar Ali was bustling with excitement over his new venture on the great Sufi poet and thinker at Siri Fort Auditorium. The news heartened many lovers of Rumi miles away at the shrines in the Jama Masjid and where Urdu translations of the Maulana's works are sold and read with great piety. You may find some of them near Hare-Bhara's Mazar.
Muzaffar Ali, who made the memorable film "Umrao Jaan", is busy with an equally ambitious film on Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273). Most of the film will be shot in Turkey though Rumi wrote in Persian. Fariduddin Attar, the author of such classic works as "The Parliament of Birds", was Rumi's mentor and predicted that his pupil was bound to make his mark both as a Sufi and as a poet and writer. The other great influence on his life was Hakim Sani, 12th Century Afghan mystic.
Maulana Rumi is justly famous for his "Mathnavi" of 20,000 verses, but equally famous is his "Dewan-i-Shamsi Tabrizi" of 60,000 verses. The "Mathnavi" was described by Hakim Sani, the Sufi and poet, who came long after Rumi, as the magnum opus of Persian. The six volumes that constitute it have been the delight of scholars and researchers both in India and the West, though they are an incomplete compilation as Rumi died before he could finalise them. His death was, however, not a surprise to him as he had predicted it in a poem, about going to seek the company of the Almighty.
One marvels at Rumi's insight into things spiritual and temporal. He addresses himself even to such things as the story of the man who claimed to have sighted the non-existent new moon. Haji Zaharuddin, who died 22 years ago, was very fond of quoting it whenever someone spread the rumour of the new moon having been sighted, to the relief of those observing the Ramzan fast in the beastly hot summer days of Delhi.
The story of the new moon dates back to the time of Hazrat Umar (Amit-al-Momineen) when a man exclaimed during Ramzan, "O Umar! Look, there is the new moon," Umar, who was acknowledged as a `seer of the heavens', told the man to wet his hand and rub it on his eyebrow before looking up for the moon. The man did so and cried out in disbelief that the moon had disappeared. The great king replied. "O, yes! The hair of your eyebrow curved and became transformed into a bow which had shot the arrow of speculation towards you." The moral being that even one crooked hair could lead a person astray, says researcher M.G. Gupta.
The "Mathnavi", partly composed in A.D. 1242, abounds with such stories that touch the core of the intellect and make one draw a moral from them. It also guards one against evil because "that carrion crow (Iblis or Satan) is sitting alert on the chessboard. Do now view his moves with eyes half-asleep, for he knows the devices and the moves with which he can beat down your visor" and ensnare you. One comes across fables of Sufis, the spiritual seekers, and the tempters in the form of gardeners who deceive, and the saqi who, with her subtle charms, can ply one with so much deceit that one loses consciousness in the tavern of life that is the world.
Take the example of Shah Mian who used to sit at the mazar of Kalimullah Sahib in Delhi, drunk with the wine of love. Like all seekers of truth, he was lost to the world until the woman who swept the shrine admonished him one day for being a dreamer, far removed from reality.
Shah Mian did not take it as an insult but felt that what the woman said was perhaps true. He married a widow and through her learnt the mundane realities of the world and eventually realised that he had not missed much except for the experiences of the nuptial bed which made him feel unclean. But one thing which he relished was the taste of fresh chappatis, served hot in the evening by the woman who had become his wife.
It is this sort of experience that a person like Maulana Rumi relished, for there are obligations to both heaven and earth and the one who tries to steal knowledge through a short-cut is like the snake-charmer who stole the snake of another and was bitten to death for his efforts because the snake did not recognise him as his mother. Even people like Shah Mian are deeply imbued with the "Mathnavi" though many of them have not read it but imbibed the contents just by word of mouth. For Rumi the realisation of God, the ultimate beloved, was the "Moolaqat" through ecstasy, which follows the agony of a long separation. You may not find it at a restaurant called "Mulaqat", but at the mazar of Hazrat Kalimullah Sahib, where Shah Mian found his consort at last.
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