Whirling Dervishes By Love

Divine love and its meanings and levels is a holy speech in Persian language and also in Islamic mysticism. The prevailing vision for the expression of this holy word is a vision of love and unity.

Undoubtedly, Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi is one of the great Muslim mystics and educated in the school of Sufism. Not only was he well acquainted with the mystical tendencies before him, but he was also acquainted with the views and opinions of philosophers, theologians, and those with jurisprudential and interpretive views. His familiarity with the verses and anecdotes of the Prophet, as well as his knowledge of Islamic history and anecdotes, is well evident from his collection of poems and quotations. The influence of the ruins and poems of this educated poet and mystic can be seen not only on Iranian art and literature, but also on the world.

Many artists, including poets, writers and even painters, are inspired and praised by him in their works.

One of the artists who has been greatly influenced by this great poet and his art and mysticism is Yalda Dousti, a young Iranian painter and designer. Her fascination with Rumi began at a time when she became acquainted with mystical concepts through a friend. According to her, familiarity with mysticism and theology at that time meant finding treasure by her needy, and thirsty soul to yalda which has been watered by the light of divine concepts.

She also explains that one day I was immersed in the mystical world and surrounded by the works of this wise ascetic. I suddenly started listening to a song by an artist who had used Rumi's lyrics for the song, and suddenly a spark ignited in me and I started sketching for a specific drawing, which the sketch lasted for about 3or 4second and the whole painting took two days long non-stop. In fact, the inspiration was such that I even forgot to eat and sleep. The painting is by pastel on a foam board (kind of modeling cardboard), while the pastel itself often uses on its cardboard; but coincidentally The occurrence of this event with the holidays in Iran and the volume of emotions that somehow made me join and swallow with it, robbed me of the power of patience and procrastination. So, this caused me to depict my idea by using any means at my disposal.

After finishing her work, she shared a picture of her painting on her social media (Instagram), which you can see below, and asked her friends and followers to each choose a name for her work, including one of her friends, who he also was familiar with philosophy and mysticism, he states that Yalda's painting reminds him of a story by Shams Tabrizi called the agate ring.

In this anecdote, the caliph forbids the people from Gnostic dancing or what we know as whirling dervishes. This ruling causes a dervish to suffer from a lot of inner pain and nostalgia for praying with his only lover (God), then he goes to the doctor, but the doctor cannot recognize his inner complexity due to outward signs. And finally, when that inner gland causes the death of the dervish the doctor, after his autopsy confronted with a blood clot, which in the story has been compared to an agate gem. Then the doctor took this pricey gem to the market for sale, and the agate gem after Many turns reach the caliph, and he turns it into a ring for himself, but when the caliph secretly went dancing and whirling against his order, suddenly the agate of the ring makes his clothes bloody and causes him to learn his lesson of Reach himself.

In Rumis' poem, agate is often a symbol of mysticism and faith that is rooted in the heart, and on the other hand, our heart is like a gland of blood in our body, which is the same knot and inner knot of every person who is compared to bright, red and roaring agate in the story. And this knot will untie, and our heart will beat truly again, only when the divine love flows into it. Then we begin to beat with The lord and Be United with his true himself and God, like the moment of birth when God breathed his spirit into his body.