Require confirmation of authenticity of quote attributed to Rumi

[Rumz]

Hi All, 

I have come across the following quote attributed to Rumi but am unable to ascertain which lines from the Mathnavi have been translated 

“By loving wisdom does the soul know Life

What has it got to do with senseless strife?

Of the Hindu, Muslim, Christian Turk? “

This quote has been mentioned in a published book with no source mentioned in the bibliography. Hence I have doubt if it is from Mevlana Rumi’s original text?

Thanks and Regards,

R

[Ibrahim]

This verse is not an authentic verse by Rumi. It has ben several centuries since European scholars developed the belief that Islam was incapable of producing a mysticism of its own, and so imported mysticism from other traditions, and also the belief that Rumi was a universal mystic who viewed differences between religions as unimportant. In reality, Rumi was a very God-centered Sufi Muslim who, I believe, knew little more about other religions than what he learned in religious colleges [madrasas]. Please see my article, "Three Fake Rumi Poems":

http://dar-al-masnavi.org/three.fake.rumi.verses.pdf

Ibrahim

[Safa Kamdideh]

Salam,

I found the origins of this quote. It is from the 1947 book "The Essential Unity of All Religions" by Bhagavan Das and fortunately the original Farsi is also mentioned in the book. The quote is the 56th line of the Second book of Masnavi. Here's the original Farsi, and Nicholson's translation:

روح با علمست و با عقلست یار
روح را با تازی و ترکی چه کار

The Spirit is associated (endued) with knowledge and reason.
What has the Spirit to do with Arabic and Turkish?

In this section of Masnavi, Rumi is describing the goal of the Sufi, which is experiencing the divine unity of God with the guidance of a Sheikh or spiritual master. Through various examples he explains how one's spirit takes different shapes and forms in this our physical reality; rendering our five senses and rationality incapable of comprehending it in its entirety. So, trying to understand the 'Spirit' through discourse and debate becomes a futile endeavour and one can only 'experience' this unity of the spirit through Soluk or the Sufi path. And even then, it will still be an utterly subjective knowledge and can never be rendered into an objective form like language. And it is here that Rumi says the Spirit is close in nature to knowledge and mind and can not be affiliated with languages such as Arabic or Turkish.

As you can see, the translator has failed to remain faithful to the original form and message of the quote. In fact, if the original Farsi was not mentioned in the book it would be impossible to associate these lines together! Thus I conclude by agreeing with Ibrahim that this quote should not be considered an authentic verse by Rumi.

Warm Regards,
Safa