Dar Al-Ahlia release Arabic version of Rumi poetry

CAIRO – 17 October 2017: A collection of spiritual poems by famous poet Jalaluddin Rumi called "the Forbidden Rumi" has been translated to Arabic for the first time and released by Dar Al-Ahlia publishing house on Tuesday.

Translated by Lama Sekhneny and designed by poet Zoher Abu Shayeb, the collection of poems revolves around love, heresy, and intoxication, according to a recent interview with Dar Al-Ahlia.

The collection is divided into three parts including poems about the sun, god, advice, and punishments, accompanied with brief introductions written by Will Johnson.

This Divan of Rumi presents his most heretical and free-form poems; it also includes introductions about the 13th century context and modern interpretation.

Rumi exerted efforts to rephrase the percepts of formal religion and argue that a complete personal dissolving into the larger energies of God could please the heart. Rumi’s followers compiled 44,000 verses into 23 volumes into a Divan, according to a statement by Goodreads.