Course Details

We all have heard of Rumi’s lovely poems, yet this course is an opportunity to delve deep into Rumi’s masterpiece and explore some of his main mystical teachings concerning the obstacles on the path of self-knowledge and how one can remove them using both one’s own strength and God’s grace.

In order to get his profound messages on self-knowledge across to his readers, Rumi used stories and anecdotes drawing from sacred history. The course will journey through five main stories within Masnavi’s volume 1, selected by the facilitators, with the aim to give students the knowledge and wisdom on how to travel, from their lower self (nafs-e-ammareh) to self at-peace (nafs-e-mutmaeneh) and true freedom.

Weekly readings will be sent up to a week in advance of each session. Each session will start with a short introduction to the text by one of the facilitators followed by reading and then discussion. The first session will start 15 mins earlier at 18:45 GMT to allow time for participants to introduce themselves.

Course structure:

The course is divided into 5 weekly sessions every Monday from October 30th – November 27th 2023.

Themes/titles:
Week 1: The King and the Maiden
Week 2: The Arab of the Desert and his Wife
Week 3: The Caliph ‘Umar and the Ambassador of Rome
Week 4: The contention between the Romans and the Chinese artists
Week 5: The Merchant and the Parrot

Course facilitators:

Ali Saeedi has been teaching the Masnavi in Farsi for nearly 15 years at Colet House (The Study Society) in London, UK. Since the Covid-19 lockdown, the classes have been on Zoom. Ali has also written poetry books and articles on Sufism in Farsi. He is a painter and calligrapher and works with several museums in the UK.

Sam Fardghassemi is a psychology researcher and has been studying the Masnavi with Ali Saeedi for the past four years. He has also been a student of Beshara for nearly four years. Sam recently joined the Beshara Trust as a Trustee to support its aims and objectives to make the knowledge of the unity of being more widely known to people.