Passionate poet and mystic Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi was born in what is now Afghanistan (1207–1273). In 1220, he and his family fled the Mongol invasion to Turkey.

“The only lasting beauty is the beauty of the heart,” he said. Rumi’s philosophy bridges cultures and speaks timeless truth.

Legend tells of a meeting with the mystic Shams ed-Din Tabrizi that changed his life forever. “Love is the energizing elixir of the universe,” he taught.

Music and movement were sacred for Rumi. He founded the dancing dervishes, a mystical brotherhood still active today. His shrine in Konya, Turkey, remains a place of pilgrimage.

Rumi’s legacy is love. “Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you truly love,” he wrote with the fire of divine longing.