Islam’s own antidote to Daesh: the Masnavi of Rumi as basic reading for Muslims

For seven centuries the poetry of Mowlānā Jalāloddin Balkhi Rumi was a central part of the literary and oral canon for Muslims all over the Islamic world. The Masnavi offers an antidote to the ‘law-enforced’ Islam of fundamentalism of the 21st century. But familiarity with Rumi’s work among Muslims has declined.