A
Brief Look at Mevlana Rumi’s Views on Women
by the late Dr. Celaleddin Bakir Celebi
Dr. Celaleddin Bakir
Celebi, the 21st
grandson of
Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi died on 13 April,
1996 in
Istanbul,
Turkey. He had spent the latter years of his
life to teach Mevlana and his toughts to diverse
audiences around the world.
For this extensive work and research on Mevlana,
Selcuk
University at
Konya gave him an honorary doctorate degree.
Dr. Celaleddin Celebi (1926 - 1996) was the 32rd
Celebi.
After his death, his son,
Faruk Hemdem
Celebi became the 33th
Celebi.
According to early beliefs, the sky was called
male and the earth female. As rain from the sky
watered the land, the seeds of the fertile earth
sprouted and bore fruit. With its generous
gifts, the earth earned the name of mother. It
thus became Mother Earth. According to the
beliefs of the People of the Book, those are
Jews, Christians and Muslims, Adam was created
from clay and Eve from his rib. These were the
only people who ever came into being without a
mother or father, responding to God’s command:
Be! Since the beginning of creation,
woman has been the first to entice men to sin,
thus causing their expulsion from Heaven. In
some versions of the story, (1)
woman is the creature who caused the sacrificial
fight between Cain and Abel, thus also becoming
the cause of the world’s first murder.From the
beginning of time woman has been considered the
instrument of the Devil to trick people into
sin. As it says in the Mesnevi of Mevlana
Celaleddin Rumi (2):
The evil
Satan said to God: "You who give everyone
their sustenance, I ask you an effective
trap for my hunting."
God showed
him gold, silver and herds of horses and
said, "You can fool the people with these."
Satan said,
"very well," but parted with his big lips
hanging like orange pulp.
God then
provided him with gold, pearls and precious
metals and said, "Take these traps as well,
you accursed creature."
The devil
replied, "O you mighty provider. Give me
more than this." God gave him pastry and
sweets, good wine and silk material.
The devil
said, "You almighty, come to my help. I need
more than that in order to ensnare them with
palm fronds. Thus your brave ones will break
those ties with this trap, with these
strings of ambition; those of yours who are
trustworthy will be distinguished from those
who are not. O you Sultan of the Highest
Throne, I want a trap that is strong enough
to fool people and send them spinning down
headfirst."
God put
forth wine and gypsy dancers and Satan
smiled half-heartedly to show he was only
partially satisfied.
But when God
showed him the beauty of women, which melts
away men’s wisdom and patience, Satan
snapped his fingers and began to dance for
joy. "Give, Give!" he said, "now I have
found what I wanted." When he saw those
seductive eyes that made men confused and
indecisive, those beautiful faces that
scorched the heart like incense, the beauty
spots, the eyebrows, the ruby lips, it was
as if God was manifest from behind a thin
lace curtain. Seeing all these, the Devil
danced with joy.
We thus see Satan dance with
joy because he possesses the most effective
weapon and trap in creation. Yet we also observe
numerous occasions in which women, through their
sensitivity and intelligence, can render these
weapons ineffective and disappoint the devil
when it cannot entrap people it wants to put to
the test. For instance, it was women who saved
Moses from the evil intentions of the Pharaoh,
and it was women (Mary and Hatice) who before
all others believed and had faith in the
prophecies of Jesus and Mohammed. In spite of
all the skill and efforts of Satan, then (with
the exception of Adam) women have borne and
raised all the Prophets and believed in them.
They upset Satan’s plans, and refused to become
his instrument. According to the traditions of
the Prophet Mohammed:
- "Heaven is under the feet
of mothers" (3).
- "The good among you are
those that are most useful to their
families, and amongst you I am the most
useful to my family. Those who are
magnanimous hold women high, treat them with
respect. Only those who are lowly treat them
harshly and belittle them" (4).
- "The world is material,
but the most useful of worldly material is a
pure and good woman" (5).
- "It is just that, "Women
are half of men." (6)
Dear listeners, according to
this last hadith, if a woman is considered half
of man, the man is also half of the woman. It
follows that man and women are equal. But they
are equal in a spiritual way. They are equal as
people. On the other hand, women need to be
protected because they ensure the perpetuation
of the human race and their creative superiority
it makes them physically and psychologically
vulnerable. If this distinction is a weakness,
what a magnificent, what a beautiful weakness.
Probably to explain the vulnerability arising
from this creative superiority, the Koran states
that men are superior to women in many ways.
Through their property they provide for women
(7). In this passage, the word "men" is used to
refer to people who have achieved maturity and
reached the stage of trustworthiness, even if
they were actually women. We generally find
women depicted as the symbol of emotion and
feeling, and men as representing the mind. One
cannot deny that the special nature attributed
to woman also makes her more attractive.
Recent technological
researches have established that in many sports,
women are weaker than men as a result of women’s
special physical structure. Yet since the
beginning of creation can one think of any event
which has taken place independent of the actual
role of woman? Among many examples we might
cite, even in the animal kingdom, the baby
running to its mother in the herd, the male
fighting to the death for its mate.As for us,
the first woman we think about is our mother,
the devoted, self-denying being that held and
protected us in her body and in her bosom for
months, fed and took care of us for years the
one in whom we sought protection, the one who
would defend and protect us from birth to death,
even at the risk of her own life. Our mother!
Our first love on earth. The one who loves us,
who toils for us without expecting any
recompense, but at times the love to whom we
cause pain and heartache.
Our woman! The mother of our
children! Like our mother, destined to live her
life in devotion, the life partner of happy or
troubled days. The beloved who generously endows
all she has, her being and her possessions, to
home and family, our mates, our life partners!My
dear friends, Turkish custom and tradition have
from immortal time recognized woman with special
respect and special position. It is my view that
it was the influence of this tradition that
caused the savior of our country, the immortal
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and his colleagues to
establish women’s rights in the early years of
the Turkish Republic, long before many other
countries that claim to be civilized. We can
trace this tradition from the Turks of Central
Asia to the present among Turkoman tribes.
In harmony with this
tradition, which has been since adopted by many
other countries in our day, the woman who has
the same rights as men, while in competition
with him in all areas, still takes her place as
the lady of her house next to her man on good
and bad days, for better, for worse, sharing his
joys and sorrows providing him support and
manifesting the affection special to her nature.
My dear listeners, when we
turn more specifically to our topic Mevlana
Celaleddin, we find that his father, Bahaeddin
Veled, owed his being the greatest scholar of
his time to his mother. At the age of two, when
his father died, his mother, daughter of
Alaeddin Muhammad Harzemshah, ruler of Horasan,
took him by the hand to the library of his
father, Huseyin el Hatibi. "It is for these
works that I was given in marriage to your
father," she said. "By reading these works he
gained worldly and spiritual knowledge, and
gained his exceptional place in the Islamic
world. " By these words, she lit the first spark
that led her son Bahaeddin Veled, to later gain
the title as the "Sultan of the learned men."
(Ulema)
This event has been accepted
as a tradition in the family of Hazreti Mevlana
Celaleddin Rum" and has resulted for centuries
in the recognition of the special worth in
women. Undoubtedly in the upbringing of Hazreti
Mevlana, aside from the influence of his father
and his environment, Mu’mine Hatun, the "Mother
of Mevlana," played a very influential role. Hz.
Mevlana was not married to two women at the same
time. He married Kerra Hatun after the death of
his first wife Gevher Hatun.
Throughout his life, he gave
lessons to women, conversed with them, attended
gatherings organized by them and permitted them,
as a part of Turkish tradition, to hold their
own SEMA celebrations and ceremonies among
themselves. After him, this practice, which had
became customary, was carried on for a long
time. It spread even into villages, where women
participated in SEMA ceremonies along with men.
Historically, in various
places in Turkey, such as in Konya, Kutahya,
Tokat we encounter many ladies who have held the
position of Mevlevi Caliph or Sheik (8).
In more recent times, however, due to changing
conditions, in the Semazens of Mevlevi tekke’s,
when the SEMA ceremony was observed, women have
usually performed the SEMA in a special section
behind a lattice.
Over the centuries, in the
school of Mevlana, great thinkers, musicians,
poets and matchless artists have been trained.
Along with the men who developed the benefit of
Mevlana’s knowledge and guidance, we observe the
presence of many women who were similarly
influenced. According to him "male female"
differences exist only in this world. Since
there is no form in the spiritual world, there
is no distinction (9).
In his works, Hz. Mevlana
considered woman primarily as a person. In his
works he discussed male- female relationships,
enlightening the public. He addressed himself to
women regardless of the good or bad reputation
they had in society. In Eflaki Dede’s
"Menakib-il Arifin," we observe this admonish
and educative view very clearly:
In the Kerevansarai of
Sahip Ishvehan there admonition was living a
very beautiful prostitute having as capital
many slaves at her disposal. One day as the
Master was passing by; this woman threw her
self with humility to the very feet of the
Master. She cried and asked to be pardoned.
Then the Master shouted three times "Rabia!
Rabia! Rabia!" In the meantime, the other
prostitutes having been informed, came over
and threw themselves to the feet of the
Master who said: "What great wrestlers! What
great wrestlers, they are! How can you
understand the uprightness of women who are
chaste and regarded as honest in society? If
you don’t show tolerance to this women, who
struggle against the lust and concuspicenes
of men?" One of the important person of that
time heard this and protested against, by
saying that it is not suitable to a great
man like Mevlana to be interested in and
compliment prostitutes in brothels, like
this. When the Master was acknowledged about
this, his reply was: "These women act
exactly like they are and show their colours
clearly. If you are man be like they are and
show your real interior colour without
duality and hypocrisy. If not your works
will be absurd and nonsensical" For the sake
of being a chosen member for Paradise, these
beautiful women together with Rabia, were
penitent, they released their slave girls,
donated their belongings to poor people.
Rabia herself lived her life as a
respectable disciple of Mevlana (10).
Again in the "Fihi ma fih," (11)
Hz. Mevlana points out that if a woman has an
element of corruption in her nature, she will
certainly find a way of bringing this out in her
actions. To illustrate that secrecy arouses
curiosity, Hz. Mevlana uses the example of a
city where the streets are full of loaves of
bread, and even the dogs refrain from eating
them. But if there were a loaf that is wrapped
and hidden, it would attract everyone’s
attention.
Thus, Hz. Mevlana says, "What
is woman, what is the world? Whether you say
something or not, whatever is, is. It will not
desist from what it does. It gets even worse as
you give warning of it, such as the interest of
the populace in the loaf of bread that you hide
under your arm, under your sleeve, where the
attraction will go beyond all bounds. This is
because people go after what is forbidden. So
long as you command woman to hide, the desire to
show herself off increases. The more a woman
hides, the more the people desire to see her. In
this case your position excites the desire of
both parties. Then you consider this the
righteous way, where as this is complete defeat
in itself. If it is in nature of woman not to do
evil, whether you say do or don’t she will
follow her good nature, clean essence and behave
accordingly. If, on the contrary, her nature is
corrupt she will follow her own path. In truth
to say please don’t do this or that, don’t
expose yourself, increases desires and serves no
other purpose."
Dear listeners, Mevlana valued
freedom very highly. Thus he said: "So long I
have my bowl of ayran (a drink made with yogurt)
I do not contemplate anyone’s honey. Even if
having no sustenance twists my ear with a
warning of death, I will not exchange freedom
with servitude."
On this topic as well, Mevlana
makes no distinction between man and woman, he
informs us that "in each person’s body is hidden
a world of freedom." (12)
This means that compulsion is against human
nature. A woman who has strong instincts knows
how to behave according to the person. She can
be open with some, while covering with those who
have bad intentions. Mevlana says the mind has
to provide guidance, the soul follows. Virtue
cannot be protected by covering under pressure,
or just by covering. In the Mesnevi, Mevlana
says, "people with heart will not be able to
withstand woman and will be defeated by woman."
(13).
"When you mention woman, there must be a man.
When you mention a judge, you need someone to be
judged." (14). Yet, again in the Mesnevi, he
indicates that men seem superior to women, but
shows with concrete examples, occasions when
women are victorious over men.
Our Mevlana defines woman as
one of the great manifestations of the Highest
Creator, the most perfect example of God’s
creative power on earth. His aphorism, "Woman is
light of God, not just the beloved. It is as if
she is creative, not be created," reflects the
value he attaches to woman.
Dear listeners, what we share
with all humanity is that we are each born of
mothers, Our nation, the Turkish people, in
appreciation of this eternal law, have named our
beautiful land ‘Ana-dolu’ (full of mother). We
are the only nation that names its land mother
and proclaims that it is loved like a mother.
The name Anadolu reflects and symbolizes the
sublime, indivisible and integral view of the
land and the unswerving devotion it commands of
us.
The Prophet says, "Heaven is
under the feet of mothers." By loving this land
as a mother, as a beloved, by protecting it, our
nation not only possesses a heaven but will
inherit heaven in the spiritual world. In all
Holy Books it is said, that at the beginning of
the creation Eve was created from a part of
Adam’s body. But woman continues her being,
without separation from man, as a mother of all
humanity. So as a result of this Divine
equilibrium (balance), man and woman complete
each other and form an undivided and unified
whole. According to us, woman who is the course
of our existence is a monument to generosity,
affection and love.
NOTES:
- Ibni Kesir: Vol. 2, P: 41-43 (Kurtubi:
Fethul Kadir, Cain and Abel, Nesefi: Medarik,
Cain and Abel
- Mesnevi: Vol.5, Vers. 942-956
- Cami' S: Vol.1, P: 122
- Cami' S: Vol.2, P: 9
- Cami' S: Vol.2, P: 14
- Cami' S: Vol.1, P: 85
- Kur. Ker.: Nisa Sura 4, A. 34
- Eflaki: Tome 1 and 2 + Golpinarli
many...
- Divan K: Fir.V.4, Gazel 1943. Gšlp.V.4,
G. CXLII
- Eflaki: Tome 1, part 536
- Fihi ma fih: Part 20
- Fihi ma fih: Part 23
- Mesnevi: Vol.1, Vers. 2433
- Fihi ma fih: Part 37
- Mesnevi: Vol.1, Vers. 2437
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