Mawln: Contemplating LOVE with Rumi

The phrase, 'Divine Love, ' is tautological. 'God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God and God in them' (cf. 1 Jn. 4:8,16). Few have appreciated the ecstatic depths of the truth that 'God is love' more than Mawln Jall al-Dn al-Rm. Like his spiritual mentor, Shams al-Dn of Tabrz, Rumi saw the whole of creation as a loving extension of, and participation in, the incomparable Source of Divine Love. I pray that the reader will discover in these selections from the poetry of Rumi, and in the accompanying meditations and prayers, an immediate experience of Divine Love that religion often occludes.