‘Iranian poet Rumi represents spiritual message of Islam to the West’

TEHRAN,Sept.25(MNA) -- The University of Malaya (UM) in Kuala Lumpur hosted a one-day international conference on the theme of “Rumi: Past and Present, East and West” on September 22 attended by several cultural officials from Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran.

Speaking at the conference, director of the Iranian Academy of Persian Language and Literature Qolam-Ali Haddad-Adel said that the Iranian mystic and poet Molana Jalal ad-Din Rumi (1207-1273) represents the spiritual message of Islam to the West.

None of us can claim Molana belongs to his country, but we should know that Molana belongs to all humankind in the world and we should help unite all individuals who believe in the thoughts of Molana, he said.

We Iranians along with the Afghan and Tajik peoples are proud to speak the same language that Molana did and are able to easily understand his poetry, he added.

Haddad-Adel, who is also the head of the Cultural Committee of the Iranian Majlis, added that today, the world needs to listen to Molana’s message (of peace) more than any other time.

Molana believed that this world was not created in vain and it posses a spirit that we need to discover, he said.

The conference was organized by Iran’s cultural office in Malaysia and the Center for Dialogue among Civilizations.