This was stated by speakers at a seminar organised for marking the week of the 736th death anniversary of great Muslim scholar and Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi by Rumi Forum in collaboration with the Punjab University Centre for South Asian Studies on Thursday, December 17, 2009.
Rumi Forum Chairman Harun Köken and Rumi Forum Academic and Media Co-ordinator Suat Erguvan were the keynote speakers while PU Acting Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Jamil Anwar presided over the ceremony.
Speaking on the occasion, Rumi Forum Chairman Harun Köken said Rumi believed that great people's graves were not built in ground, but in the hearts of wise men. Köken emphasised that the legacy of Jalaluddin Rumi thus was not for his lifetime but lasted for many centuries until this date. Rumi Forum Chairman in his speech also reiterated the need for keeping alive Rumi's message of love, tolerance and reconciliation drawn from the very spirit of Islam through various exclusive convenes, and said that Rumi Forum would enhance collaboration with the PU and a photographic exhibition of the Sacred Trusts, which are originally kept in Topkapi Museum, Istanbul would be organised in the PU.
Rumi Forum's Academic and Media Co-ordinator Suat Erguvan, in his presentation titled 'From the 'Historical' Rumi to the 'Contemporary' Ones,' said that Rumi's teachings could help resolve the problems faced by Pakistan today. Highlighting the importance of tapping human potential, and developing rhetoric into practice by positively promoting the human element, Erguvan introduced Turkish scholar and writer M Fethullah Gülen and his positive influence, emphasising his wide, encompassing approach of Islam that draws comparisons between the life and works of Jalaluddin Rumi and the world-wide voluntary civic movement encouraged by Muhammad Fethullah Gülen.
It has been shared in the seminar that Rumi's words found a voice in Fethullah Gülen and Gülen epitome for the truths of Rumi's message of love and service to God and love and service to one another, which leads many social scientists to term Gülen as a modern-day Rumi.
Dr Naeem Mushtaq of Islamabad Club in his paper presentation drew attention to the universality of Rumi's message in connection with the universality of the religion of Islam and highlighting the essence of inter-religious dialogue, he amended a number of misinterpreted issues. Mentioning that in the West, Rumi as a poet is tackled intellectually, Dr Mushtaq stressed that Jalaluddin Rumi is engaged spiritually by Muslims.
In his concluding remarks, PU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Jamil Anwar said that they were glad to make history by organising the first-ever function to commemorate the Shab e Arus of Jalaluddin Rumi in the history of the Punjab University. Anwar, along with the faculty of the CSAS, appreciated the living example of the volunteer civic movement encouraged by Fethullah Gülen and emphasised the need to apply the teachings of Rumi for establishing peace and prosperity in Pakistan.-PR