A Teacher of Benevolence

Today's Zaman - Istanbul, Turkey
Tuesday, September 11, 2007

UNESCO has been organizing, since the beginning of the year, a large number of events in honor of 2007, the Year of Rumi, declared to mark the 800th birth anniversary of Mevlana Muhammad Jelaluddin Rumi.

The most recent of these events took place on Sunday in Tajikistan, a neighbor of Afghanistan where the great Sufi saint, known as the Pole of Lovers of God in Sufism, was born in the city of Balkh.

At the international conference held in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe, Mevlana Rumi’s teachings based on love, peace and loving tolerance were once again discussed and voiced by intellectuals from different religions.

At the conference attended by nearly 100 academics from 27 countries including Turkey, the United States, Russia, Iran, Austria, Germany, Azerbaijan, France, Egypt, India and Japan, it was strongly emphasized that the teachings of the great Sufi saint were of vital importance in the resolution of the problems stemming from prejudices, lack of information and ignorance at a time the world was in utmost need of tolerance and love among religions and civilizations.

The opening speech of the conference, entitled “Mevlana and Intercivilizational Dialogue” and organized in cooperation with the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan (ASRT), the Platform of Dialogue Eurasia and Şelale Educational Institutions, was delivered by the president of Tajikistan, Imamali Rahman.

“He was born in Balkh, lived in Konya but belongs to the entire world,” Rahman said and stated that many conflicts of the day could be resolved through his inspirational love.

Professor Rastislav Ribakov, the president of the Russian Institute of Orientalism and the current holder of Dialogue Eurasia’s rotating presidency, called Mevlana “a teacher of benevolence.”

Mevlana wrote centuries ago the prescription for a happy life according to which people should live, Ribakov said, and stressed that humanity had to benefit from the works of the great Sufi saint in order for love, peace and respect to prevail in the world.

In the final declaration of the conference, it was stated that the whole of humanity needs the teachings of Rumi in order to resolve intercultural problems, that humanity has to benefit from his ideas to help establish a stronger world peace, that his advice about understanding and knowing the world while claiming one’s own identity and values are the most consistent attitude in comparison to some activities in the Islamic world that establish themselves in the center and that are based on not having a distinctive identity.

Mevlana Rumi’s teachings don’t belong only to the academic and mystic world; they should be introduced to the world at large, said the declaration.

[picture: Women embroider cloth in a workshop in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
Online Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
http://www.britannica.com/eb/art-67331>.].