In this highly passionate quatrain, Rumi, either in real life or in an ecstatic moment of rapture and poetic imagination, confronts Shams Tabrizi by challenging him to reveal once and for all whether he loves him or not. For Rumi, Shams of Tabriz was not only a divine manifestation, but also a shining mirror through which Rumi could clearly see and appreciate God's beauty and grace. Shams Tabrizi's mysterious appearance in Maulana's life was truly Rumi's 'Epiphany Experience'.
The 'Inner awakening' which Rumi repeatedly refers to throughout his poetic works is precisely thanks to Shams Tabrizi's shattering Rumi's otherwise uneventful and mundane world, turning him from a highly respected scholar of Islamic-Jurisprudence and Muslim Preacher into a love-intoxicated and ecstatic wandering Sufi Dervish whirling around the streets of Anatolia desperately looking for his lost mystical lover.
One question still remains unanswered though: Was Rumi really looking for his mystical lover, or the Beloved [God] who actually allowed him to get burned by the enraging fires of Shams of Tabriz?
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