PESHAWAR: Speakers at a seminar here on Thursday asked students to explore teachings of Sufi poets of the yore days for spreading the message of everlasting peace, humanism and divine love and also learn about the history of the ways and means through which those Sufi bards guided people.

The seminar on the contribution of great Persian Sufi poet Jalaluddin Mohammad Rumi was organised by the administration of history department, University of Peshawar in its main hall.

Students, faculty members, historiographers and poetry fans attended the event.

Prof Javed Iqbal, chairman of history department, said that the event was arranged with an objective to bring to light the ideology of Maulana Rumi and other Persian scholars.

After the second war was over, the Western intellectuals asked their policymakers to rebuild the intellectual foundation of the western youth on the basis of great Persian bards, he added.

Speakers say people of Pakistan and Iran draw lessons from the literary vision of Persian bards alike

The director general of Iran Cultural Centre Peshawar, Mehran Eskandaryan, who was chief guest on the occasion, said that the trio of great Sufi poets Attar, Sanai and Rumi contributed not only to Muslim Sufi thoughts but also had cast deep shadows on the entire world owing to their farsightedness and spiritual strength.

The diplomat said that youth should explore their sea of knowledge encompassed by the poetry of Rumi.

He pointed out that the people of Pakistan and Iran had always drawn lessons from the literary vision of the Persian bards alike.

“Allama Iqbal had adopted Maulana Rumi as spiritual guide and paid great tribute to his vision and teachings. Students should read poetry of Sufi poets to get spiritual guidance,” said Mr Iskandaryan.

Prof Ghayoor Hussain said on the occasion that the Masnavi (epic poem) of Maulana Rumi comprising 30,000 couplets had been rendered into several world languages and impacted mystics, literati, scholars and philosophers across the globe.

“Born in Balkh province of Afghanistan, he died in Konya after writing his popular Masnavi in Persian. He had started his career as schoolteacher and then went out in search of truth.

“He bumped onto his spiritual guide Shams Tabriz, who changed the course of his life. Rumi used ‘sun’ as a metaphor to refer to both his spiritual guide and God and stressed the point that ‘reality’ existed beyond the material world,” said Mr Hussain.

Prof Aslam Mir, an Islamic scholar, in his paper said that great Persians poets including Rumi were translated into English and other European languages.

He added that due to eliminating Persian from their syllabi, a precious asset was lost.

Prof Syed Minhajul Hasan and Prof Dr Salman Bangash also spoke at the event.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2020