Tina and Rumi- Turning around the world!

25 October, 2005 by moulana

I'm no Sufi but I recognise great poetry and love the Arts. So when I met Tina at an Islamic Arts festival I felt enthralled for her works that reflect the power of the most read poet today- Rumi. Imagine attending her premiere film on our own Moulana Jalalludin Rumi, viewed by people of various faiths in Toronto- all feeling ecstatic about the Love this faqir evoked centuries ago- we began loving the thing Rumi loved when we made love with his words- Barks said! Read on....

Tina and Rumi- Turning around the world!

Sometimes in order to help He makes us cry.

Happy the eye that sheds tears for His sake.

Fortunate the heart that burns for His sake.

Laughter always follows tears.

Blessed are those who understand.

Life blossoms wherever water flows.

Where tears are shed divine mercy is shown.

Spiritual Ecstasy is a natural high. No one thinks it has to do with Faith and Poetry. Tina Petrova has made that connection- a few years ago, when she drove off a cliff and right into the lap of Persian 13th century poet Rumi. Today she has accomplished more than just a Rumi Festival of Peace in 1999 in Toronto, with noted Rumi translator Coleman Barks.

Rumi-Turning Ecstatic is a brand new film that premiered last Tuesday 27th Sept at Regent Cinema Toronto- to a sold out crowd, on this noted Muslim’s ascetic life and the unique axis he created around adherents of all faiths and cultures.

The film is a remarkable documentary, with timely passages, and mystical sensations of Sufi music, set against the backdrop of Tina traveling from the cliff of death to the pillow of Divine love. When asked what has she gained from this film’s experience (an actress herself) she claimed, with a dancing light in her eyes, “I’ve learned humbleness”.

Today Rumi has been such a successful poet in the West that many websites and books have dedicated themselves to his study. There were over 50 pieces on sale and display at the premise, including, the Mevlevi Order representative in the West, Kabir Helminski’s translations of his poems.

Mr. Kabir is a convert to Sufism and fell in love with Rumi in his quest for Oriental spirituality. Contemplatives or those involved in interdisciplinary traditions

this astute lover of Rumi commented, when asked if the emerging principle of

Interfaith practices should move beyond mere academics and enter the realm of metaphysics, that Interfaith activity is not a path! Interfaith activity is an honoring of God’s guidance in many paths, as stated in Q 49:13 - and only those who have reached completion could initiate a Path- Tariqa.

As a matter of fact Tina’s Saint and this Muslims’ Imam is more widely read than Shakespeare, in the West and this is so for the last 2 decades!

The most wonderful element of this film is that it works as an elixir to world peace – it features some of the world’s religions interpreted in Rumi verses of oneness of humanity. The word maslak, routinely featured in his 35000 verses of Mathnawi Sharif, is so wide and ambiguous that any school of thought, sect or creed polemically reads into its definition. As Hafiza Assadzada solemnly sang it directly in Rumi’s Dari dialect, opening the event, we can only contend with this struggled translation.

Unless I have the face of the heart towards thee,

I deem prayer unworthy to be reckoned as prayer

If I turned my face to the qibla, it was for love of thine;

Otherwise, I am weary of both prayer and qibla….”

Tina’s search for Rumi, seen in a dream but made into flesh took her to a Rumi disciple in the faraway plains of Mid West America, as much as it flew her into the realms of love and mystical philosophies – she met UN Award Winning Architect Nader Khalili and Andrew Harvey, both acclaimed environmental activists for global peace and awareness. As Rabbi Chiam Yoseph Ben Leizar said: a voice of love that comes from the sons of Ishmael – and as Galiha Lonis said, being an ardent reader of Rumi works herself: she couldn’t miss the near experience of his ecstatic poems! This film is an ample example of the power of the human mind, as Tina transferred a dream into reality.

Visionary Media Inc produced this film and Radiant Media Inc.and is truly a project of Unity in Diversity- produced by Vision TV In Canada.

Now available to the general public, anyone could contact her for screenings in

their community, university class or study group anywhere in the world.

www.rumi-turningecstatic.com

Tina has brainstormed a gift to Humanity she calls “ World Rumi Day” where she invites peoples of all faiths and backgrounds- all over the planet, to show the film on the day this Muslim saint met his Beloved and lifted the final veil- His Wedding Day, or day of death. The first annual Rumi day, celebrating a Muslim Icon of Peace and Tolerance, and a true representative of Interfaith Unity, will be held Dec. 17th. 2005. Inshallah and continued as an annual tradition.

I think Muslims all over the world have a true gift for their media PR here, even though the teachings and writings of Sufism may not coincide with orthodox Islam fully.

This film will be aired 10 pm 18th January 2006 on Vision TV, whose Executive Producer, Alberta Nokes exclaims, as a partner of this project, that it’s a “resonance of inclusivity within Islam and people are looking for this even more than Rumi could imagine!”

www.hujja.org