What did Rumi even mean by “Ishq”?
What did Rumi even mean by ishq and what was he hinting at? Well, I’m here to answer that. Before we completely focus on the works of Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī {جلالالدین محمد رومی}, let’s look at ishq normally. That’ll help establish an excellent base for us. Next, I’ll go for some more general ideas of his teachings while finally completing the main purpose of this answer. So here we go!
Maulana Rūm wrote in multiple languages ranging from Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and Greek but of course, his main works are in the former two. Fitting for ishq is originally an Arabic word. The Persian ‘ešq {عشق} translates into love and/or passion. However, its general implication has always been a romantic emotion. Nothing more, nothing less. When used in typical teenage slang or informal conversations it almost always refers to either infatuation or physical/intense attraction.
The Arabic ʕišq {عِشْق} which is the source, mostly translates into strong passionate love all the while bearing hallmarks of lust. Hell, it’s characterized by the overtone of excessive love mainly of the romantic variety. And that’s the core difference between the two. In Persian, the idea of excessive and even borderline crazy love is lacking while Arabic tends to focus on it.
There are two more {main} variants of the Arabic term. The first is ʕašiqa {عَشِقَ} which means to fall in love, to adore, and/or to love excessively. While ʕaššaqa {عَشَّقَ} translates to “to join” or “to connect”. South Levantine Arabic also has a similar term derived from it called ʕišiʔ {عشق} which can either mean “to fall in love” or “to absorb a smell” depending on the context. Urdu borrowed it to form its version: iśq {عِشْق} spelled in Hindi as इश्क़. Literal meanings happen to be love while figuratively it can mean passion. Now there’s a slight difference you must understand.
Urdu deploys the terms pyār {پیار} and muḥabbat {محبت} to denote all forms of love which varies based on the context and person or relationship being addressed. Arabic does the same with ḥabb {حبّ} meaning love and maḥabbe {محبّة} meaning love and/or affection. In traditional usage, ishq is always differentiated from these terms and its meaning is taken as either lust, infatuation, or intense love. Love that blinds you, love that leaves you in wait. Love that doesn’t require it to be reciprocated.
All of these originate from the Arabic root ʕ-š-q {ع ش ق}; a term that generally has the implication of coupling with something weighty. But in that sense, it has been associated with being grabbed by passion and infatuation. From all of this, the question arises why would Rumi even use this term then especially if it bears such intense connotations?
Let me explain using an Urdu example. When we study poems — which are generally either ghazal {غزل} basically amatory poems or odes and nazm {نظم} — we always learn about two lenses or forms of ishq; ishq-e-majazi {عشقِ مجازی} which is directed towards worldly love and desire {i.e. to a partner or person you love romantically} and ishq-e-haqiqi {عشقِ حقیقی} which is love directed towards the Divine i.e. Allah Ta’ala. The former translates to “virtual love” and the latter to “true love”. The reason as to why ishq is used is self-explanatory. It denotes intensity and excess. As I said it is the form of love and passion that wants everything from you. Which is what Rumi hints at. Regardless, of whichever dimension he invokes it in; be it platonic, ouranic, sexual, romantic, or familial, he always uses it to show intensity.
Now with that out of the way, the second layer in this “tri-layer sandwich” is general discussions about Rumi and his works. Alongside Muḥyī al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn al-ʿArabī al-Ḥātimī al-Ṭāʾī Ibn al-ʿArabī {أبو عبد الله محـمـد بن العربي الطائي الحاتمي} or simply Ibn ‘Arabi, Rumi’s the most renowned Sufi Saint out there. Of course, he’s more Eastern being born in the Blakh Province of Afghanistan while Ibn ‘Arabi is Western being born in Murcia in Andalus {then-Muslim Spain}. And the fact that Rumi is revered by many non-Sufi Muslims {also called Orthodox Muslims by the Sufis} while Ibn ‘Arabi is a far more controversial figure, but that’s straying off topic.
Rumi’s primary focus was on tawhid i.e. the eternal and indivisible oneness of Allah عَزَّ وَجَلَّ. There was nothing else he wanted to talk about. Apart from traditional dhikr one of his most profound teachings included negating the thought of one’s own existence. To find utter solace in the remembering of the Divine Lord جَلَّ جَلَالَهُ. That’s the general gist of it all. His focus was the union with Allah تَبَارَكَ وَتَعَالَىٰ and in the removal of desires.
All of this can easily be understood by looking at what his followers established: the Mevlevi Order or Mawlawiyya.These are the people you may know as Sufis who whirl around as a form of meditation practicing Sama or Sema. This samāʿ {سَمَاع} is somewhat of a mystical journey where a person in his desire to seek the Perfect One سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَىٰ he pursues the truth, and grows through love. Through his growth, he begins to understand the fact that ego is destruction and is not required and as such abandons it. Through this act of abandonment, he finds the truth while simultaneously arriving at the Perfect. Afterward, the seeker returns home having matured and realizing that the goal of life is love. Love without discrimination, love that leads only to the service of the whole of creation and the eternal dhikr.
With that done, let’s finally address the elephant in the room. What is that love; that ishq Rumi spoke so much about? Well in his own words, it is “that flame which, when it blazes up, burns away everything except the Everlasting Beloved.” To him, there was only one form of ishq which I believe I mentioned as true love before. There was nothing else. You needed nothing more than that. He promptly said that it was never anything like reason or logic. It was special. It was always meant to be mystical.
Reason says, “I will beguile him with the tongue;”
Love says, “Be silent. I will beguile him with the soul.”Source: “Mystical Poems of Rumi 2” A. J. Arberry, The University of Chicago Press, 1991
You can read all of those poems here. His focus was ever stuck on the soul and love. Love so powerful, so intense, so inhumanely crazy that not even Reason can reason with it. Not even the soul, not even the heart itself can contain it. Love so powerful that what it seeks cannot be sought in any other manner. It is a pathway to Rumi. It is the way to what Ibn ‘Arabi called “the Real”, and to what Rumi himself refers to as “the Perfect”. It is a pathway to Allah Ta’ala.
In his own teachings, ishq is so powerful that it cares not about barriers. Your love to the Lord of the ‘Ālamīn {S.W.T} needs to be so potent that in its compelling towards serving all of creation, you discriminate against no one. You help all. Be they of a different race, culture, religion, ethnicity, class, or caste. Whatsoever it is your true purpose is to love them. Why? For Allah Ta’ala created them. And your ishq is far too strong that you love everything there is concerning the True Lord {S.W.T} including every created being.
The lover’s cause is separate from all other causes
Love is the astrolabe of God’s mysteries.Source: Masnavi
در راه طلب عاقل و دیوانه یکی است
در شیوهی عشق خویش و بیگانه یکی است
آن را که شراب وصل جانان دادند
در مذهب او کعبه و بتخانه یکی استOn the seeker’s path, the wise and crazed are one.
In the way of love, kin and strangers are one.
The one who they gave the wine of the beloved’s union,
in his path, the Kaaba and house of idols are one.Source: Quatrain 305
This message was always there according to Rumi. It was ever present in the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ. No matter who you are that love and light shall never abandon you. Interestingly, Rumi at times conflated love with light in the sense that whenever he talked about light as in “light of Islam”, “light of the Qur’an”, and “light of the Prophet {ﷺ}” he almost always meant love. And not just any love. Love so holy that it seized everyone, captivated every being.
“The Light of Muhammad does not abandon a Zoroastrian or Jew in the world. May the shade of his good fortune shine upon everyone! He brings all of those who are led astray into the Way out of the desert.”
“The Light of Muhammad has become a thousand branches (of knowledge), a thousand, so that both this world and the next have been seized from end to end. If Muhammad rips the veil open from a single such branch, thousands of monks and priests will tear the string of false belief from around their waists.”
Source: Each of these are individual and separate works of his taken from the book “Rumi and Islam”
While I’m not a huge fan of drama serials, especially Pakistani ones, I remember watching an episode of the drama Tere Bin {Without You} with my mom, and one line stuck with me. The female lead was questioning or I guess talking about ishq with the male lead and the male promptly replied with something along the lines of “….that which you can easily achieve is not ishq….there is only wait in ishq.” Or something like that. You’ll see it appear in at least half of the late series flashbacks. Which are a lot. But the thing is this idea was ardently also expressed by Rumi. In that, his true love was more so of an ideal in the sense that he believed not even he had reached it.
To him, it worked similarly to how the following hadith al-qudsi worked for Ibn ‘Arabi: ‘I was a hidden treasure; I loved to be known (or: know) and I created the world’. It even works for Rumi’s idea. His teachings taught that the Light of Divine Love was everywhere wanting to be known for that is how love is i.e. the {human} being longs to love or know the Perfect. And in its journey, it waits and reflects. Annihilating the self and understanding true love, casting aside all that is virtual. Through this love, even death was a step closer to that what the seeker sought.
از جمادی مُردم و نامی شدم
وز نما مُردم به حیوان برزدم
مُردم از حیوانی و آدم شدم
پس چه ترسم کی ز مردن کم شدم؟
حملهٔ دیگر بمیرم از بشر
تا برآرم از ملائک بال و پر
وز ملک هم بایدم جستن ز جو
کل شیء هالک الا وجهه
بار دیگر از ملک پران شوم
آنچ اندر وهم ناید آن شوم
پس عدم گردم عدم چون ارغنون
گویدم که انا الیه راجعونI died to the mineral state and became a plant,
I died to the vegetal state and reached animality,
I died to the animal state and became a man,
Then what should I fear? I have never become less from dying.
At the next charge (forward) I will die to human nature,
So that I may lift up (my) head and wings (and soar) among the angels,
And I must (also) jump from the river of (the state of) the angel,
Everything perishes except His Face,
Once again I will become sacrificed from (the state of) the angel,
I will become that which cannot come into the imagination,
Then I will become non-existent; non-existence says to me (in tones) like an organ,
Truly, to Him is our return.Source: Masnavi
If I wanted to make more sense of it for non-Muslims know that to die for the sake of Allah Ta’ala is the greatest reward a man can ask for. Dying for the sake of one’s love and dying to fully grasp and comprehend that love, to fulfill all of its requirements technically is a form of shahadat or martyrdom. And in Islam, a shaheed or martyr is never thought of as dead. As is mentioned in the Qur’an {Surah Al-Imran, 3:169}: “But do not think of those that have been slain in God’s cause a dead. Nay, they are alive! With their Sustainer have they their sustenance,”. This was also stated by the Saifullah {Sword of Allah Ta’ala} Hazrat Khalid bin Waleed {R.A}: “I bring you men who desire death as ardently as you desire life.”
Rumi made it clear that there was no fear of death and no hesitation in love. To him, it was so intense that it left a permanent and everlasting impression on others. His epitaph does read: “When we are dead, seek not our tomb in the earth, but find it in the hearts of men.” The thing is this was his concept of universal love. It was simple, intrinsic, and not complex or convoluted as Ibn ‘Arabi’s ideas. It was just love; love that infuses the world and molds it.
پارسی گو گرچه تازی خوشتر است — عشق را خود صد زبان دیگر است
Say it in Persian although in Arabic sounds better — Love, however, has its own many other dialects
That’s what he said. Here’s another one:
Come, come, whoever you are,
Wanderer, idolater, worshiper of fire,
Come even though you have broken your vows a thousand times,
Come, and come yet again.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
And in another instance:
This is love: to fly to heaven, every moment to rend a hundred veils;
At first instance, to break away from breath — first step, to renounce feet;
To disregard this world, to see only that which you yourself have seen6 .
I said, “Heart, congratulations on entering the circle of lovers,
“On gazing beyond the range of the eye, on running into the alley of the breasts.”
Whence came this breath, O heart? Whence came this throbbing, O heart?
Bird, speak the tongue of birds: I can heed your cipher!
The heart said, “I was in the factory whilst the home of water and clay was abaking.
“I was flying from the workshop whilst the workshop was being created.
“When I could no more resist, they dragged me; how shall I
tell the manner of that dragging?”Source: “Mystical Poems of Rumi 1”, A.J. Arberry, The University of Chicago Press, 1968
Sweetly parading you go my soul of soul, go not without me;
life of your friends, enter not the garden without me.
Sky, revolve not without me; moon, shine not without me;
earth travel not without me, and time, go not without me.
With you this world is joyous, and with you that world is joyous;
in this world dwell not without me, and to that world depart not without me.
Vision, know not without me, and tongue, recite not without
me; glance behold not without me, and soul, go not without me.
The night through the moon’s light sees its face white; I am
light, you are my moon, go not to heaven without me.
The thorn is secure from the fire in the shelter of the roses
face: you are the rose, I your thorn; go not into the rose garden without me.
I run in the curve of your mallet when your eye is with me;
even so gaze upon me, drive not without me, go not without me.
When, joy, you are companion of the king, drink not without
me; when, watchman, you go to the kings roof, go not without me.
Alas for him who goes on this road without your sign; since
you, O signless one, are my sign, go not without me.
Alas for him who goes on the road without my knowledge;
you are the knowledge of the road for me; O road-knower, go not without me.
Others call you love, I call you the king of love; O you who are
higher than the imagination of this and that, go not without me.Source: “Mystical Poems of Rumi 2” A. J. Arberry, The University of Chicago Press, 1991
I might have just spammed some poems in the end but I think they’re best left by themselves. For nobody can describe Rumi better than Rumi. I really hope this helped. Have a nice day! And remember do spread that love!
