If you could wish into existence one existential truth...

[dawud]

http://www.dar-al-masnavi.org/n-I-0001.html

Listen to the reed (flute), how it is complaining! It is telling
about separations,

(Saying), "Ever since I was severed from the reed field, men
and women have lamented in (the presence of) my shrill cries.

(But) I want a heart (which is) torn, torn from separation, so that
I may explain the pain of yearning."

1 be-sh'naw în nay chûn shikâyat mê-kon-ad
az jodâ'îy-hâ hikâyat mê-kon-ad

k-az nayestân tâ ma-râ be-b'rîda-and
dar nafîr-am mard-o zan nâlîda-and

3 sîna khwâh-am sharHa sharHa az firâq
tâ be-gôy-am sharH-é dard-é ishtiyâq

Who also wrote:
"I am the servant of the Qur’an
While I am still alive.

I am the dust on the path of Muhammad,
the Chosen One."

(Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi)

[Ultra Swain]

eep-awk-ork-ah-ah (That means I love you)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suafkk2vWNI

[nowonmai]

Who also wrote:
"I am the servant of the Qur’an
While I am still alive.

I am the dust on the path of Muhammad,
the Chosen One."

So he's saying he wants to get up Muhammad's hooter then? Dust is generally quite annoying after all. What a crap poet, he should have got out more.

[Sri Lanky]

At least Rumi drank booze at one point....going against the conventions of his culture.

[Penta]

Commonplace among Sufis. I don't know if it was obligatory.

[michelle in alaska]

paging Jung.

[dawud]

Commonplace among Sufis. I don't know if it was obligatory.

commonplace to use a metaphor of drinking:
Excerpts from "Love is the Wine: Tales of a Sufi Master in America"

The gifts of God often come to you from the hands of other human beings, through God's servants. And so, Divine love also expresses itself between human beings.

The sheikhs are the pourers of the wine and the dervish is the glass. Love is the wine. By the hand of the wine pourer, the glass -- the dervish -- is filled. This is the short way. Love could be offered to one by other hands. This is the short way.

see also:
http://sufi-london-meditation.blogspot. ... -wine.html

or see[url=http://www.globalwebpost.com/farooqm/study_res/rumi/intro_star.html]
Dr. Farooq's Study Resource Page - an introduction to Rumi by Jonathan Star[/url]

Sufi poetry is filled with metaphors, the most striking of which revolve around wine, taverns, and drunkenness. In this symbolic language of love, "wine" represents the divine love that intoxicates the soul; "getting drunk" means losing oneself in that love; the "cup" refers to one's body and mind; and the Saaqi (the Cupbearer, the Maiden who pours the wine) is the grace- bestowing aspect of God that fills the soul's empty cup with the wine of love. The Sufis even have a word for "hangover" which suggests the lingering effects of love.

or just look at all the links here: [urlhttp://www.google.ca/search?num=20&hl=en&safe=off&q=sufi+saki+metaphor+wine+love&btnG=Search&meta=]Google Search for "sufi saki metaphor wine love"[/url]

[dawud]

Commonplace among Sufis. I don't know if it was obligatory.

sorry, edited:

or see http://www.globalwebpost.com/farooqm/st ... _star.html
Dr. Farooq's Study Resource Page - an introduction to Rumi by Jonathan Star

Sufi poetry is filled with metaphors, the most striking of which revolve around wine, taverns, and drunkenness. In this symbolic language of love, "wine" represents the divine love that intoxicates the soul; "getting drunk" means losing oneself in that love; the "cup" refers to one's body and mind; and the Saaqi (the Cupbearer, the Maiden who pours the wine) is the grace- bestowing aspect of God that fills the soul's empty cup with the wine of love. The Sufis even have a word for "hangover" which suggests the lingering effects of love.

or just look at all the links here: Google Search for "sufi saki metaphor wine love"

[Sri Lanky]

I remember about six years back....my girlfriend at the time and myself getting really fucking high and whirling around to bhangra.

I can't believe I actually did that....but it seemed like the thing to do....at the time.

[redharen]

Commonplace among Sufis. I don't know if it was obligatory.

commonplace to use a metaphor of drinking:

But Penta's right, they really do drink. Not all of them, not all the time, but many of them understand the prohibition to be against drunkenness, not alcohol.

[dawud]

I hang around with Sufis quite a bit, I don't know any who justify drinking (in fact, very few who drink even mildly and still consider themselves muslims, most of those are just lapsed or non-practising) - I will note though that of the muslims (Sufis included) who drink and fornicate, I've yet to meet one who will eat pork... so that's generally seen as the most offensive.

Shar'iah-compliance may vary in N.America, but I'm familiar with the Shadhili, Tijani, Halveti-Jerrahi, Naqshbandi and the Haba'ib... even Bawa Muhaiyadeen's fellowship is out there, but while they tend not to pray and are way ecumenical, they strongly discourage intoxication.

Rumi does comment in one of his poems: "If people could control their emotions when drunk, then wine wouldn't have been prohibited."