Love in Rumi’s poems is often mislaid against simplistic modern conventions

Rumi, the poet philosopher whose extraordinary poems extolled his love for Allah, alas loses magic in translation, losing the true meaning of his text. Writer Elias Khoury describes his frustration with the English word for love, ‘I use at least fifteen Arabic words to describe the levels of love.

You can formulate in language and make language very rich and nuanced.’ In translation, one has to be prepared to lose twenty to thirty per cent of the intended meaning.

Thus, love in Rumi’s poems is often mislaid against simplistic modern conventions: rendering an erudite scholar into a drunken, lovelorn wanderer. Thus missing the point that Rumi’s love was the source of the truth of his everyday life. The love that Rumi longed for and probably achieved was Sev.

Sev is a Turkish word used to express the indefatigable love we have for our parents, our children, and for our God. A soul satisfying love, that lasts beyond death and stays with us in the next world.

Rarely do we hear of Sev in this world between a man and a woman. A unique case of that perfect love can, however, be found in the biography of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.

Reading about the love between him and his wife Khadijah, one is amazed and almost helpless with admiration. Their strength, loyalty, and their joint struggle epitomises an ideal that many of us long for. For the past fourteen centuries this powerful love story has been a model for those who are searching for Sev. Finding it is like searching for a diamond in a bag of coal.

Ironically, while reading about the US domestic war on terror’s latest victim Tarek Mehanna, I found a story of love with a Sev twist-the story of Danny and Tamekia.

Danny caught Tamekia’s eye while they were in school. She probably didn’t know it, but this boy would be her one and only true love. These two high school sweethearts’ love blossomed into marriage, children, and a lifetime of experiences that resembled a movie.

Danny embraced Islam and his wife, followed suit. Lack of opportunities at home had them trekking across the country to find stable work, which didn’t happen. Instead he got a better offer to work in Egypt. They packed their belongings and were off.

America, once the land of freedom, has become a dangerous place if you are Muslim. One new weapon in the Muslim community is the Cooperating Witness. CW’s are spies who look like you, dress like you, but once they get your confidence, it’s bam! You are in chains.

One minute it’s smiles and salams, then next, the SWAT team is busting down your door. It can be that quick. On October 29 this year, Luqman Abdullah was killed by the FBI in Dearborn, Michigan. Also, the recent arrests of Najibullah Zazi and Tarek Mehanna (who is supposed to be connected to Maldonado, although it’s not clear exactly how or why when you follow all the details), the convictions of the founders of the Holy Land Charity and call for investigation of the Muslims’ rights organisations, CAIR, signals a scary turn in the way Muslims are now perceived in my country.

These days when Muslims leave the US, they are refugees looking for a place to live without a fear of persecution. After living in Egypt for a while, the Maldonados decided to make another Hijira (migration), to live under Islamic law in Somalia. Husband and wife and their budding brood set off. Shortly their arrival, Ethiopia invaded Somalia, ripping up the calm lull in decades of chaos.

Now imagine yourself in their shoes. Can’t? Let Somali rapper K’naan help: You never know a single day without a big commotion. It can’t be healthy to live with such a steep emotion.

We can’t even imagine a young American family with their babies in the middle of airstrikes. Everyone begins to evacuate. Bombs fall, people lose each other. Many of the men that Danny travelled with were killed in an ambush. He and the rest of the survivors wandered without recourse to water in the jungle, Finally they found their way to a town where they felt safe, only to be arrested, blindfolded, handcuffed, put on a plane and taken to Kenya.

Danny sensing that one of his fellow prisoners was an American woman, asked desperately for news of his family. ‘Do you know my family? Are they okay?’ he said.

In a dark, dirty, and damp prison cell one of the other prisoners told him that his beloved wife Umm Musa and his children were scattered and lost. Reading this twenty-something’s description of these events, I can’t help but be selfishly thankful for my own sons being safe and sound.

I’m sure that it was love that helped him survive. Love for Islam and his family. His wife, Umm Musa, died from malaria, en route to safety. Their son, Musa at the time was about 9 years. Distraught over his mother’s sickness, he wandered into the jungle and got lost on the Somali-Kenya border (but was later found in Kenya). Danny’s daughters aged 4 and 7 months, were miraculously also found amongst some Somali refugees. Umm Musa lies buried in an unmarked grave along the road near the border. Subhan Allah.

Allah is the best of planners because somehow in all that madness, Danny and his children ended up all together, albeit in a prison cell without adequate food and water. One of his companions turned out to be a CW and implicated Danny as a member of Al-Qaeda.

As a result, he is now serving 10 years in prison for attempting to join a terrorist training camp and wanting to fight Americans in a foreign state. This is both sad and insane; who takes their wife and kids with them on a jihad? From his prison cell he writes verses lamenting the loss of his beloved:

Can you hug me?

Before I awake in pain

To clanking chains

Crying while I say your name?

Eyes are flooded

Yet, I can see the dawn

Now that she is gone...

I awake...

The story of Danny Maldonado and his family is one of love, endurance, and miracles. This is also, a story of putting our trust in Allah. This is Sev, the kind of love that Rumi was talking about.