The essential poems of the inspirational thirteenth-century Persian philosopher, scholar and mystic The founder of the order of the Whirling Dervishes, Rumi was also a poet of transcendental power. His verse speaks with the universal voice of the human soul and brims with exuberant energy and passion. Rich in natural imagery, from flowers to birds and rivers to stars, the poems have an elemental force that has remained undiminished through the centuries. Their themes - tolerance, goodness, the experience of God, charity and awareness through love - still resonate with millions of readers around the world. Translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne

A comprehensive collection of ecstatic poetry that delights with its energy and passion, The Essential Rumi brings the vibrant, living words of famed thirteenth-century Sufi mystic Jelalludin Rumi to contemporary readers.

Born in Balkh (present-day Afghanistan), Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273) is one of the greatest Persian mystics and poets the world has known. His message of love speaks directly to the heart and transcends the limitations of language and the boundaries of time.

In the vast depths of Rumi's work the short quatrains, the Rubaiyat, are like crystals. They sparkle with the many hues of the rainbow and contain worlds inside. As we hold them iin our hands they capture us with their mystery. Transparent and clear they open doors into the wonder of inner spaces and longing. Whispers of two lovers in a crowd.

Signs of the Unseen is a collection of Rumi's lectures, discourses, conversations, and comments on various and sundry topics. Even in conversation Rumi expresses his spiritual insights in a style rich in allusion and figurative language, and often illustrated by skillful storytelling. His themes include God's beauty and beneficence as expressed through the good things of the earth; the continuum between form and substance; the here and the hereafter; the melting of individuality in the reality of God's oneness; and the centrality of love in the soul's development.

Born Jalal ad-Din Mohammed Balkhi in Persia early in the thirteenth century, the poet known as Rumi expressed the deepest feelings of the heart through his poetry. This volume consists of new translations edited by Deepak Chopra to evoke the rich mood and music of Rumi's love poems. Exalted yearning, ravishing ecstasy, and consuming desireemerge from these poems as powerfully today as they did on their creation more than 700 years ago. 'These poems reflect the deepest longings of the human heart as it searches for the divine. They celebrate love. Each poetic whisper isurgent, expressing the desire that penetrates human relationships and inspires intimacy with the self, silently nurturing an affinity for the Beloved. Both Fereydoun Kia, the translator, and I hope that you will share the experience of ravishing ecstasy that the poems of Rumi evoked in us. In this volume we have sought to capture in English thedreams, wishes, hopes, desires, and feelings of a Persian poet who continues to amaze, bewilder, confound, and teach, one thousand years after he walked on this earth' - Deepak Chopra

Discover the richness of Rumi s spiritual tradition through
facing-page commentary that brings his writings to life for you.

"This book you are now holding is a selection of what I believe are the best of Rumi s accounts of the compassionate actions, sayings, and qualities of the Prophet, which include Rumi s own inspired comments and explanations. It is my hope that you will be surprised and uplifted by the profound wisdom that Jalaluddin Rumi conveys through these stories and sayings."
from the Preface

This great Sufi poet and teacher can become a companion for your own spiritual journey.

The lyric and wisdom poetry of Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi has been an inspiration throughout the Middle East and Asia for over seven hundred years. Recently, it has also become popular in Western countries through translations and interpretive poetic versions in English. But while popular renderings have created the appreciation of Rumi the mystic, there is little understanding today of the religious and spiritual traditions from which the great mystic came. "Rumi and Islam Selections from His Stories, Poems, and Discourses" examines not the popularized Rumi of universal love but the Sufi disciple whose works express deep reverence for the Prophet Muhammad. Ibrahim Gamard focuses on Rumi s place within the Sufi tradition of Islam, as one of the greatest Muslim followers of the Prophet Muhammed, and on the Islamic foundations of his lover-Beloved mystical poetry. By probing verse by verse Rumi s spiritual teachings, Gamard provides insight into the mystical side of the Qur an and Islam, a religion that holds a deep love of God at its core.

Now you can experience the profound and uplifting wisdom of Rumi even if you have no previous knowledge of Sufism or Islam. This SkyLight Illuminations edition presents the most important of Rumi s writings, mainly from the Mathnawi, with insightful yet unobtrusive commentary that conveys how his teachings about the nature of love for God and God s love for us can increase our understanding of Islamic wisdom in the West.

This Rumi collection features selections from one of the world's great spiritual masterpieces, the "Mathnawi." The "Mathnawi" consists of six volumes of poetry in rhyme--over fifty-one thousand verses--inspired by folklore, the Qur'an, stories of saints and teachers, and sayings of Muhammed. Rendered by Rumi's premier English translators, these excerpts from the "Mathnawi" are presented in American free-verse style.

Rumi's short poems have many tones and effects: some of them are quick, joyful and whimsical; some are finely faceted abstract statements; some probe the inward space of patience and longing. Moyne and Barks translated these poems using a free-verse style, connecting these poems with those of great American spiritual poets such as Walt Whitman and Gary Snyder.