Helminski, Kabir 1947- (Edmund Helminski, Kabir Edmund Helminski)

PERSONAL:

Born July 1, 1947; married; wife's name Camille. Education: Wesleyan University, B.A.; Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, M.A.; trained in the Mevlevi tradition under Shaikh Suleyman Loras. Religion: Sufi Muslim.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Santa Cruz, CA. Office—303 Potrero St., Santa Cruz, CA 95060.

CAREER:

Named a Shaikh in the Mevlevi Order of Sufis, 1990; Threshold Society (nonprofit education foundation), Aptos, CA, cofounding director; Threshold Books (publisher), director, 1980-99; Book Foundation, Watsonville, CA, currently codirector.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Honorary Ph.D., Selcuk University.

WRITINGS:

(Translator) Jalâluddin Rumi, The Ruins of the Heart: Selected Lyric Poetry of Jalâluddin Rumi, Threshold Books (Putney, VT), 1981.

(Translator, with Refik Algan) Yunus Emre, The Drop That Became the Sea: Lyric Poems of Yunus Emre, Threshold Books (Putney, VT), 1989.

Rumi—Daylight: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance, Threshold Books (Putney, VT), 1990.

Living Presence: A Sufi Way to Mindfulness and the Essential Self, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Perigee Books (New York, NY), 1992.

(Translator) Jalâluddin Rumi, Love Is a Stranger: Selected Lyric Poetry of Jalâluddin Rumi, Threshold Books (Putney, VT), 1993.

(Translator and selector, with wife, Camille Helminski) Jalâluddin Rumi, Jewels of Remembrance: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance: Containing 365 Selections from the Wisdom of … Rumi, Threshold Books (Putney, VT), 1996.

(Editor and selector) Jalâluddin Rumi, The Rumi Collection: An Anthology of Translations of Mevlâna Jalâluddin Rumi, Threshold Books (Brattleboro, VT), 1998.

The Knowing Heart: A Sufi Path of Transformation, Shambhala (Boston, MA), 1999.

(Editor) Jalâluddin Rumi, The Pocket Rumi Reader, Shambhala (Boston, MA), 2001.

(Selector) The Book of Revelations: Selections from the Holy Qur'än with Interpretations by Muhammad Asad, Yusuf Ali, and Others, Book Foundation (Watsonville, CA), 2005.

(With Hesham A. Hassaballa) The Beliefnet Guide to Islam, Three Leaves Press/Doubleday (New York, NY), 2006.

(With Ghazi Bin Muhammad) The Book of Language: Exploring the Spiritual Vocabulary of Isläm, Book Foundation (Watsonville, CA), 2006.

(Translator, with Ahmad Rezwani) Mevlâna Jalâluddin Rumi, Love's Ripening: Rumi on the Heart's Journey, Shambhala Publications (Boston, MA), 2008.

(Translator, with Camille Helminski and Refik Algan) Rumi's Sun: The Teachings of Shams of Tabriz, Morning Light Press, 2008.

Helminski's books have been translated into German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Turkish, and Indonesian.

SIDELIGHTS:

A Sufi Muslim who has been made a Shaikh in the Mevlevi Order, Kabir Helminski has devoted himself to educating people about this mystic branch of Islam. Along with his wife, Camille, he founded the nonprofit Threshold Society, which provides services in spiritual psychology and education in Sufism, and he has published works on Sufism and its literature through Threshold Books, among other publishers. As an editor and translator, he is well known for making the poetry of Jalâluddin Rumi, founder of the Mevlevi order, known to English-speaking audiences. In an interview with Beliefnet Web site contributor Rhonda Roumani, Helminski explained how Sufism fits into Islamic tradition: "In Islam, there is the level of Shari'ah, or religious law. The Shari'ah governs our outer actions and behaviors. Sufism has more to do with the inner understanding of those outer practices and the quality of consciousness that we bring to those practices through the development of our inner spiritual capacity, particularly through consciousness and love."

Critics of the collections that Helminski has translated and selected from Rumi's writings have been highly appreciative of these offerings. For instance, Jewels of Remembrance: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance: Containing 365 Selections from the Wisdom of … Rumi, which Helminski compiled with his wife, Camille, is a selection of 365 verses, one for each day of the year, taken from the Mathnawi, a work by Rumi that is considered comparable to a Qu'ran for Sufis. "The Helminskis treat this masterwork as a teaching tool and inspirational resource that keeps on going and giving," related reviewers Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat on the Spirituality and Practice Web site. A Publishers Weekly contributor praised the "sparkling collection" for offering "new insights" for "Rumi enthusiasts."

Some of Helminski's books aim to introduce people to the ways of Islam and, in particular, Sufism. In The Knowing Heart: A Sufi Path of Transformation, the author offers what Library Journal contributor Graham Christian called one of the "best beginner's guide" to Sufism available in English. The work describes a number of aspects of the religion, including the belief that everyday life is sacred, the role of the teacher, the nature of the living word, and the seven levels of the self. Spirituality and Practice reviewers Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat considered the book an "exquisite overview of Sufism."

In a more general work that addresses Islam as a whole, Helminski collaborated with columnist and physician Hesham A. Hassaballa to write The Beliefnet Guide to Islam. This is a work meant to clear up the misconceptions that many Westerners have about Muslims in a time when there is much fear about extremist Islamists. The authors write about the prophet Muhammad; relate many of his famous sayings, or Hadith, as they are called; provide quotes from the Qu'ran; and address what they feel are Westerners' uninformed ideas about Islamic culture's attitudes concerning the role of women, jihad (holy war), and the use of violence (they emphasize that Muhammad stressed the use of force only for defense). One point that they make in particular is that it is important to understand the historical context in which the Qu'ran was written in order to truly appreciate it. While a Publishers Weekly contributor considered the book merely a "workmanlike and incomplete introduction to Islam" that offers more quotations than explications, other reviewers were more impressed. Booklist contributor Ray Olson held that the text "ranks toward the top" of books about Islam for a non-Muslim audi- ence, and C. Brian Smith concluded in Library Journal that it makes for a "welcome additions to public and academic libraries."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 15, 2006, Ray Olson, review of The Beliefnet Guide to Islam, p. 22.

Library Journal, September 1, 1992, Marilyn E. Schafer, review of Living Presence: A Sufi Way to Mindfulness and the Essential Self, p. 180; May 1, 1999, Graham Christian, review of The Knowing Heart: A Sufi Path of Transformation, p. 86; February 1, 2006, C. Brian Smith, review of The Beliefnet Guide to Islam, p. 82.

Parabola, August, 1999, review of The Knowing Heart, p. 102; fall, 1999, Erik S. Ohlander, review of The Knowing Heart.

Publishers Weekly, May 13, 1996, review of Jewels of Remembrance: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance: Containing 365 Selections from the Wisdom of … Rumi, p. 68; December 12, 2005, review of The Beliefnet Guide to Islam, p. 60.

ONLINE

Afghan Magazine Online,http://www.afghanmagazine.com/ (July 1, 1999), Zaheda Ghani, review of Love Is a Stranger: Selected Lyric Poetry of Jalâluddin Rumi.

Beliefnet,http://www.beliefnet.com/ (February 6, 2008), Rhonda Roumani, "The Sufi-Rumi Connection," interview with Kabir Helminski; Jesse Kornbluth, "Transformation in the Ring," interview with Kabir Helminski.

Book Foundation Web site,http://www.thebook.org/ (February 6, 2008), brief biography of Kabir Helminski.

Omega Institute Web site,http://www.eomega.org/ (February 6, 2008), brief biography of Kabir Helminski.

One Nation Web site,http://www.onenationforall.org/ (February 6, 2008), biography of Kabir Helminski.

Spirituality and Practice,http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/ (February 6, 2008), Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, "Living Spiritual Teachers Project: Kabir Helminski," biography of Kabir Helminski, and reviews of Jewels of Remembrance and The Knowing Heart.

Threshold Society Web site,http://www.sufism.org/ (February 6, 2008), biography of Kabir Helminski.