Staff Reporter
True to its tradition of celebrating artists, writers, poets and other iconic figures of our rich culture and heritage, chaayekhana is commemorating the life and work of Maulana Rumi this week at their location in F-6 supermarket by having a talk on Rumi titled Maulana Rumi’s pearls of love by Humaira Masihuddin. If you have visited chaayekhana these past few days, you would have gotten this distinct vibe that you were Konya with the whirling derveshs twirling from the ceilings and the waiters in the quintessential red rumi hats. We spoke to the people at chaayekhana who say that the primary objective of such talks and events is to connect, or rather re-connect our people to our cultural heritage. They do these events on a regular basis where they celebrate stalwarts like Faiz, Ghalib, Yousafi Sahab, Iqbal etc. This week it is all about Maulana Rumi, to coincide with his seven hundred and forty sixth death anniversary.
But isn’t Rumi part of Turkish heritage I asked? Why Rumi? Maulana Jalal al- Din Rumi is one of the most influential Islamic mystics of all times. It is no surprise that even seven hundred years after his death; he remains to be the best selling poet in North America. Not Turkey, not Pakistan, not Indonesia or Malaysia, but North America. His poetry reflects the teachings of Islam and his opinions on various matters such as faith, prayer, love, free will etc. Occasionally, commentators dissociate Rumi poetry’s from Islam but the fact is that Rumi’s entire writings are inspired from the Quran and sayings of Prophet (PBUH) and represent the essence of Islam. So a person who’s writings reverberates with so many different people of different heritage deserves to be revered and celebrated and that is why chaayekhana feels his message of love and tolerance needs to be relayed and amplified especially in these current times.
