Mevlana Jalaladdin Rumi (1207-73) was a poet and a scholar, a Sufi mystic, a learned theologian, and a foe of false certitudes in constant search for the ineffable meaning of life. This meaning, he was convinced, could be found in the divine that dwells in every humanbeing. But our humanity, Rumi believed, has become sadly alienated- it is like "the reed estranged from its bed"- and poetry's purpose is to remind us of what we have lost and to help us retrieve it.

 

This kind of life-restoring poetry, along with the music and dancing that accompanies it, is the very opposite of religious dogma, and is opposed to all fundamentalisms. Its message is love and unity.