Whirling Dervishes at the Sydney Town Hall

On December 17th, 1273 AD, a universal genius, one of the greatest servants of humanity, founder of the Mevlevi Sufi Brotherhood poet Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi died at Konya. He was a philosopher and mystic of Islam. His doctrine advocates unlimited tolerance, positive reasoning, goodness and charity, awareness through love. To him and to his disciples all religions are more or less good, as all are roads leading to the truth. Looking with the same eye on Muslim, Jew and Christian alike, his peaceful and tolerant teaching has reached men of all sects and creeds. Rumi was laid to rest beside his father and over his remains a splendid shrine was erected. The 13th century Mevlana mausoleum with its mosque, dance hall, dervish living quarters and school, and tombs of various leading adherents of the Mevlevi order continue to this day to draw pilgrims from all parts of the Muslim world as well as from the non-Muslim world.

The Mevlana annual festival is held every year in Konya starting at the beginning of December. It lasts two weeks and its culminating point is the 17th December called Sheb-i Arus meaning 'Nuptial Night'. The night of his death is called thus, because of the union of Mevlana with God. In other words, the opening quotation above is a wedding invitation to all. This festival attracts vast crowds of every race, colour and creed, from all around the world. This annual festival is very different from many other periodic commemorations of venerated saints, since it provides a unique opportunity for outsiders as well as natives to see this esoteric rite, a visual manifestation of Sufi mysticism in its own setting, and also since the rite is the means of love to God, drawing man nearer to the Almighty, stimulating simultaneously an emotional approach to reality and an emotional attachment to God.

Mevlana believed the day of death to be a day of rebirth. Death would take him to his beloved; that is, the God. With this believe he was referring to the day of death as "Şeb-i Arus" which means wedding day or the bridal night and willed his friends not to cry and wail after him.