"Aşkın Kanatları": [flying with the] Wings of Love

By Ali Pektas - Today's Zaman - Istanbul, Turkey
Friday, December 7, 2007

The year 2007, marked by UNESCO as the Year of Mevlana, has given birth to so many previously unthought-of projects and events to commemorate the great Sufi saint Mevlana Muhammad Jelaluddin Rumi on the 800th anniversary of his birth.

Only time can tell how many of these projects will be lasting and how many of them will be forgotten even before the year ends.

While the central Anatolian city of Konya, home to Mevlana's shrine, is preparing to crown the year's events with the usual annual commemoration ceremony held every year on his passing date, Dec. 17, a new album that brings out the universality of his message, and one that radiates rays from the sun of Mevlana, is out.

Mehmet Emin Ay's "Aşkın Kanatları" (Wings of Love), released under the Beyza Müzik label, is a multi-sided project and the product of fastidious work.

The album contains some original Persian lines from Mevlana's masterpiece, the "Mesnevi," as well as translations of his poems to various languages set to music composed by Mehmet Emin Ay, who also has a remarkably wide audience outside Turkey's borders.

In the album, prepared with academic rigor and support, Mevlana's poems are read in Turkish, Persian, Arabic and English in addition to Urdu, German, French and Japanese in a way befitting his universal personality.

Ay, also a theologian, says that their goal is to introduce the real Mevlana to the world, basing their project on his lines:

"I am a servant of the Quran as long as I have life in this body
and I am dust on the path of Mohammed, the Chosen One.
If anyone quotes anything other than this from my sayings,
I deplore that person, I deplore his words..."

How was 'Wings of Love' born? Did you plan it to be a work to be associated with the Year of Mevlana?
Actually, I'd composed some [music to] ... lines from the "Mesnevi" three years ago. That, too, was waiting for the right time like all the other projects.

However, when 2007 was declared the Year of Rumi we started shaping this project, earlier this year with my dear friend Mustafa Demirci.

Since love adopted wings and flew to sublime skies in Rumi's person we named the album "Wings of Love."

Before everything else, Mevlana Rumi was an extremely devoted Islamic scholar and a man of wisdom. Therefore we should acknowledge that calling him a humanist philosopher, a poet or a thinker would do great injustice to his vast knowledge and wisdom.

We should also acknowledge that what made him into the Venerable Mevlana from the scholar Muhammad Jelaluddin was first of all the Islamic knowledge and sciences and most importantly his great love for Allah and His Prophet Mohammed.

For this reason, his statement in the form of this quatrain is so important; he clearly states that he is a servant of the Quran and dust on the path of Mohammed.

Our main goal, therefore, is using the composed version of his original Persian words in this quatrain and its translated versions to let everybody know that he was a pious Muslim all his life and a very devoted follower of the prayerful daily life exemplified by the Prophet Mohammed.

You also present his words in very different languages, like Urdu and Japanese.
Not only those, but also some other Eastern and Western languages. Also, we sang the Turkish and Arabic translations of the Persian "Mesnevi" for the first time on this album.

We have also compiled his sayings on love and human education taken from his "Mesnevi," "Divan-i Kebir" and "Fîhi mâ fîh" and placed them under the title "Messages from Mevlana." This section turned out to be my favorite.

The academic structure and support in your album stand out. Have you received any support?
The fact that the institution I work in is a school of divinity helped me to receive academic support, naturally. I was particularly helped by some of my academic friends who teach Persian courses at the university to pronounce the Persian lines accurately.

In addition, thinking that it would help publicize the "Mesnevi" in the Arabic-speaking world, we had some of his poems translated into Arabic, which turned out rather nicely in terms of meter and rhyme. Also, with the translations to Western languages, my lecturer friends helped me and lent me invaluable support.

All of these elements are important with respect to making sure a project is shown the interest it deserves in time.

You are famous both as a theologian and a musician. How do you describe the space occupied by music in your life?
I accept that I'm a theologian and am proud of that. I have been at Uludağ University's School of Divinity for 23 years. I'm not a professional musician. Therefore I don't see myself as a musician and I don't think I can.

I just try to perform the music inspired to me by God's beneficence with the voice granted to me by God. However I try to perform them in the best way I can, as the Prophet once said, "God loves those who do their work in the best way."

A blessing from God
My being listened to on different continents is God's blessing to me, above all. You cannot make anybody listen to something unless they like it.

However, recalling that we produced our first work in 1988, there is a past of two decades in question.

In my opinion, people taking my Quran sets and my albums everywhere they went played a great role in the formation of an international audience.

We will, God willing, share the good deeds with those people who served my cause without knowing.

[Listen to Mehmet Emin Ay's voice http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5lPbibKpqU].