The Story of Rumi’s Father

As-Salāmu ‘Alaykum wa Raḥmatullāhi wa Barakātuh. A‘ūdhu Billāhi Minash-shayṭāni r-rajīm. Bismillāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm. Wa ṣ-Salātu wa s-Salāmu ‘alá Rasūlinā Muḥammadin Sayyidi l-Awwalīna wa l-Akhirīn. Madad yā RasūlAllāh, Madad yā Sādāti Aṣḥābi Rasūlillāh, Madad yā Mashāyikhinā, Dastūr Mawlana Sheikh Abdullāh al-Fā’iz ad-Dāghistāni, Sheikh Muḥammad Nāẓim al-Ḥaqqānī. Madad. Ṭarīqatunā aṣ-Suḥbah wa l-Khayru fi l-Jam‘iyyah.

All the time, these good Ulama have an enemy from these not good Ulama, being jealous of them and wanting to kill them. They lie and say something not good to make people against them.

One of them was the father of Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi, Bahāuddīn Walad; a big Sheikh. He was in Balkh. There was a Sultan who was happy with him. He had a hundred thousand people coming to him. His ancestor, his grand grandfather was Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. Their family name was Al Khatib. His grandfather’s name is Ahmad Al Khatib and his father’s name is Hussein Al Khatib. He [Hussein] was the son in law of a Sultan. The Sultan gave him his daughter; he married his daughter. The Sultan was asking his Wazīr, “What do you think about my daughter? Who must marry her?” The Wazīr said, “You must marry her to one good ‘Alim, a sincere good ‘Alim.” He said, “Whom do you think?” The Wazīr said, “I’m thinking of Hussein Al Khatib.” The Sultan was happy and said, “I was thinking about him also.” And he [Hussein] married the Sultan’s daughter. But after 2 years, he passed away. Sheikh Bahāuddīn Walad was 2 years old when his father passed away. His mother was, of course, very religious and a very good lady. She had a very valuable library. Every time she took her boy to the library she said, “Look, this is your father’s precious thing. He was reading them all the time. You must learn and read, and to be good like your father, to continue his way.” She said, “Many Ulama asked for these books, but I didn’t even give them one book from these. They are only for you. I kept them for you. To learn, you must read them.” He was happy and said, “Yes Mama.”

For Ulama, books are a very valuable thing. We cut [the story] a little bit to say something here. Mawlana Sheikh Nazim, my Father, was generous. When something came at night time, he would distribute it before morning. Mehmet Nazim was there. He wasn’t leaving anything. “Give this. Give that. Give that.” Not leaving anything. But for books, he was never giving one.

So when Bahāuddīn Walad grew up and began to learn, he was very clever, extremely clever. He read all these books. His teacher was astonished and said that he is perfect. He knew all the Ulum Zahiri/Knowledge of the Apparent. And for Ulum Batini/Unseen Knowledge, for Tariqah and Ma’rifatu Allah, Sheikh Najmuddin Kubrawi was his Sheikh. He reached the highest station. Many people were coming to him, hundreds and thousands maybe. They were all the time coming to listen to his Sohbets, to listen to his knowledge and to take Barakah from him. After that, he was making more Riyadah (discipline of the ego), more Forty (seclusion), more praying, training his ego and his self. He was making Mujahadah (fighting the ego) too much.

So once, Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam appeared to 300 from Ulama and Mashayikh in his area. He told them, “Go and tell Sheikh Bahāuddīn Walad that he is Amiru l-Ulama. Tell him this and tell him to put this in his signature.” When they came to him – before they told him, he said, “Oh you are coming to [tell] this good tidings from Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. Insha’Allah we will do this.” When people heard this also, they started coming more and more; ten thousand, [after] ten thousand people started coming to him. They were saying all together, “Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam is saying this for you. You are our Sultan. You must be Sultan. We are helping you. We depend on you. Do you accept to be our Sultan?” He said, “No. I’m not doing for Dunya, I’m doing for Mawla, not for Sultan. We don’t want Sultan, we want Akhirah. Allah ﷻ gave us this thing, not to think for Sultanate or for Dunya.” His mother also married him to a daughter of a Sultan, mother of Sayyidina Jalaluddin Rumi. His mother is also from Sultans. She married her son to a Sultan’s daughter named Mu’minah, mother of Sayyidina Jalaluddin Rumi.

All the time, people were coming; hundreds, fifty thousand, hundreds of thousands were all the time there. So these people got jealous, these Ulama Su’/bad scholars. The Sultan loved and respected Sheikh Bahāuddīn Walad. But these people were jealous. They went to the Sultan and told him, “Look, he has hundreds of thousands of people. They are coming to him. They are around him. They are accepting him. This will be dangerous for you. You must do something about this.” When Sheikh Bahāa’ heard this he said, “Okay. I will insha’Allah leave this country”, because the Sultan said that there’s no place for two Sultans. Sheikh Bahāa’ wasn’t happy with this and said, “Okay. We will insha’Allah leave this country, and we will go on another way. But when we leave, it will be not good for the country.” When the Sultan heard this, he knew that he made a big mistake. He said, “Oh what have I done!” And he said that he apologizes from the Sheikh, asking for forgiveness. He said, “O Sheikh forgive me. Don’t go, stay here.” But

the Sheikh said, “No, I’m going. We don’t want people to think that, but it’s not good.” So he was collecting his things to go, and these bad people were all selling their houses. He didn’t give permission to people but he said, “After praying, we will say goodbye to you. Continue in what we taught you, be patient and Tawakkalu ‘ala Allah/ rely on Allah.” Then he went by his family and some Murids, maybe forty people or fifty people, were traveling towards Baghdad.

On the way, every place he went through, people and Ulama were greeting him and hosting him. It was like this until he reached Baghdad. In that time, all of this land was of Muslim countries, Ahlu s-Sunnah wal Jama’ah countries, Tariqah countries. They respect and love this. But of course inside also, there were people with not good belief. They had bad belief. But the majority and the governor of the Sultan all loved Ahlu Tariqah and Ahlu s-Sunnah wal Jama’ah. In Baghdad, there was Sheikh Suhrawardi. He met him and he was happy with him. He asked him to be a guest for them. But Sheikh Bahāuddīn Walad said, “Our people are too much, they learn in Madrassah in Baghdad.”

At that time, Sheikh Jalaluddin Rumi was young. He saw one dream. He said, “I saw a dream that one old man with a white beard gave me a flower with six petals.” He saw this and told his father. His father said, “It means that you will make a book with six volumes.” This is the Tafsir/interpretation of this dream. These six volumes are the Mathnawi. He wrote them. And after that, he has to give it to Sheikh Sahlawani. After that, they went to Hajj, to Hijaz. They made Hajj, and he visited Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam. He was crying day and night happy to be in this blessed place. He was intending to stay there but Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam said, “You have another thing” and told him to go.

From there, he went to Damascus, Sham. From Sham, he went to Konya; but not inside Konya. There’s a city called Karaman. There’s a village there where he settled. He was giving lessons, Sohbets, Nasiha/Advice to people. The governor of this area loves Awliyau’Llah. So when he saw him, he was fond of him. Wherever he was going, he wasn’t leaving him. His name was Musa Pasha. He was with him all the time.

So again these jealous people went to the Sultan. This Sultan was Alauddin Kayqubad, a big Sultan of the Seljuk Dynasty. The Sultan wanted to know because he loves this Pasha, so he sent after him. He has been in this Dergah for 7 years, not looking for Sultan or other people. So the Sultan sent a letter to him, “Come, I want to ask you something. Come to me.” The Pasha went to the Sheikh and told

him, “The Sultan called me for this matter I think. What should I do?” The Sheikh said, “Go, don’t worry. Tell the truth.”

The Sultan asked Musa Pasha, “We didn’t see you for 7 years. Where have you been? What have you been doing? You are not coming.” The Pasha told him, “I am with Sheikh Bahāuddīn Walad”, and he told him about his miracles, about his good things and what he saw from him. So the Sultan was angry with him and said, “Why didn’t you tell me before about this!” He sent a letter to the Sheikh apologizing from him, and invited him to Konya. The Sheikh said, “Okay. To accept a Mu’min’s invitation is the order of Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam, so we insha’Allah will go.”

He moved to Konya slowly slowly. But before he arrived, maybe halfway, the Sultan came to meet him. When he saw the Sheikh, he came down from the horse carriage, walked to the Sheikh and kissed his hand. He apologized again for not hearing about him, and they went to Konya. When they arrived to a place, he said, “I’m smelling here my grand grandchildren will give knowledge and ‘Ilim.” In that time, the Sultan said, “This [here] is for you.” In this place now there’s a Dergah and a mosque; until now it’s in this place in Konya. He was happy with him.

And when it was the time when the Sheikh was ill, the Sultan heard this and went to him. He said, “O Sheikh! I give you my Sultanate. You are my king and I will be serving you.” The Sheikh said, “Thank you. This is for you, because my illness, I will go to Akhirah. So I don’t need this. You do this for people. I’m going and you will be coming after me later. Insha’Allah we will be in Jannah together.” After 3 days, he passed away. The Sultan was very sad. He did many charity for his Sheikh and made good things for him. But he was happy that he had good tidings from the Sheikh that he will be with him in Jannah.

This is important: to be with good people. When some people say bad things about good people, do not believe these things. You must ask. It says in Surat Al-Hujraat also:, “In jā’akum fāsiqun binabain fatabayyanū”, “If there comes to you a disobedient one with information, investigate” (Qur’ān 49:06). What happened for the first Sultan? The Mongols finished all this country. After the Sheikh left, some years later, the Mongols came; Hulagu and Genghis Khan. They finished all of it. Because the Sheikh was not happy with what happened and he even forgave him, but this happened with this country. When they break something they cannot fix it. For this, this came as a Bala’/affliction for them.

Awliyau’Llah are a protection for people who love them and respect them. This is not only when they are alive. Maybe when they are alive, they [some people] don’t know them. But who respect their Qubur, their Maqams, this is important also. Because Rahmah/Mercy from heaven is sent by Allah ﷻ to these Maqams, their places. So coming a lot also protects insha’Allah.

Ulama Su’/the bad scholars don’t like this. They say, “This is Shirk. It’s not good.” These are the same Ulama we spoke about before in this story. In every time, they have bad belief, not right belief and they make you to be in trouble. Prophet salla Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam says, “Who visits my grave, he will be guaranteed my intercession.” And he ﷺ also says that who goes to the grave of his father and mother on the day of Friday, Jum’ah and reads Yasin, Allah ﷻ blesses him.

Masha’Allah here, there are many Awliyau’Llah and hundreds of thousands of Shaheeds who fought against the enemy of Islam. All of this is insha’Allah Barakah for you. Allah ﷻ bless them. Allah ﷻ make their Maqams higher, and insha’Allah protect us from shaytan.

Wa min Allah at-Tawfiq. Al-Fatiha.

Mawlana Sheikh Muhammad Adil ar-Rabbani 24 October 2022/ 28 Rabih al-Awwal 1444 Mata le Resort – Sabang, Jakarta; Indonesia