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Reading Rumi

Hello Poetteers,

I am the servant of the Quran
as long as I have life.
I am the dust on the path of Muhammad,
the Chosen one.
If anyone quotes anything except 
this from my sayings,
I am quit of him and outraged by these words.

- Rumi

In a previous post I mentioned the erasure of Islam in Rumi's poetry. One interpreter was Coleman Barks. Barks took out Islam and replaced it with something sexual. He oversimplified it and pleased romantic expectations. It was done to satisfy his own belief of spirituality. His interpretation was meant for a quick spiritual fix and to modernize it for the West.

He rewrote Rumi's work without knowledge of Islam and the language. This also happened to other classical Persian poets like Hafez and Omar Khayyam with Edward Fitzgerald.

Here are a couple book recommendations: 
Rumi: The Masnavi, a translation by Jawid Mojaddedi
Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam by Ahmed Saidi

Sources: Reading Rumi - Zirrar | Rumi for the New Age Soul
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