ALL Sufis trace their spiritual source to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The excessive veneration, love and light (Nur) of the Prophet is a remarkable characteristic and central theme of Sufi thought and thinking. Holy Quran refers to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as a shining lamp (Sirajun Munir) Another verse reads, “There came to you from God a light and a clear book.” (Sura 5:15)

Rumi is known as the offspring of the soul of the Prophet. Attar and Rumi call him ‘Nabi al Umi’ maternal Prophet. He is the Prophet that loves you more than your mother. Attar narrates a story, “A woman is carrying her child by the river in gushing water and at one point she slips and baby falls in the river. She looks at the child with agony, as she doesn’t know how to swim. The same stream is actually heading towards a stone mill. If the child doesn’t drown, he is going to get crushed under the stone mill. She jumps and manages to rescue the child and finds herself on the shore utterly distraught. She takes her breast and puts it in the mouth of the baby and suckles her.” Here Attar switches from the narrative of women and child to Nabi al Umi, the Muslim community addressing the Prophet, “Ya Rasul Allah, we are drowning in the ocean of sin, suckle us and nourish us from the breast of kindness, of compassion, of generosity.” This is a tender loving maternal relationship,........

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