The influence of Muslim
literature in the United States has grown stronger
By Jonathan Curiel, Chronicle
Staff Writer
America's best-selling poet
is not Billy Collins, whose folksy, humorous work won
him two terms as U.S. poet laureate. It's not Robert Frost,
the four-time Pulitzer Prize winner whose reading at John
F. Kennedy's 1961 inauguration is still studied by students.
("The land was ours before we were the land's ...") And
it's not Edgar Allan Poe, whose "The Raven" has been called
"the best-known poem in the Western Hemisphere." If you
want to meet the most popular poet in the United States,
you must board a plane and fly to Konya, Turkey, where
you'll find the mausoleum of Jalal al-Din Muhammad Balkhi,
who is better known by his Westernized name, Rumi. Born
in the early 13th century in what is now Afghanistan,
Rumi was a Muslim religious leader whose name in Arabic
means "greatness of faith." Thanks to the faith of Rumi's
US fans, his books have sold more than 500,000 copies
in the past 10 years.
Khalid
Faruqi, son of Salahuddin Faruqi and Sabiha Faruqi
of Florrisant, Missouri, married Ruba Khalid,
daughter of late Muhammad Arshad and Ghizala Tabassum
in Lahore on January 11,2005. Picture shows the
bride and the bridegroom with the groom ’s
parents
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Rumi calendars, Rumi CDs,
Rumi posters, Rumi T-shirts, even Rumi coffee mugs have
also found a market in the United States. Madonna, Demi
Moore, Goldie Hawn, Martin Sheen, Debra Winger and Rosa
Parks are among the big names who have publicly proclaimed
Rumi's greatness as a poet. Americans' fascination with
Rumi is just one way in which Muslim literature and writing,
from "A Thousand and One Nights" to the Qur’an, has influenced
readers in this country seeking heightened spiritual awareness,
approaches to the dilemmas and mysteries of life, or just
a good read. An ironic fallout of Sept. 11 has been an
even greater interest in Islamic writing -- not just among
university students and general readers, but in the American
military. Lt. Gen. John Vines, who takes over command
of US ground forces in Iraq this month, has required his
top officers to read several books on Muslim culture,
including "Islam for Dummies" (which has a chapter on
the Qur’an) and "Islam: A Short History." Rumi's poetry
refers often to God, but many of his poems aren't overtly
religious. Rather, they could be classified as "spiritual"
or "soulful." Rumi tells stories of people wrestling with
problems. He uses metaphors and aphorisms to guide lovers
together again, or to explain the bonds of friendship,
or to teach the quality of patience… (Courtesy San Francisco
Chronicle)
