What is the gender of God / Allah as ‘the Beloved’ in the poetry of Rumi and other Sufi Divine Love Poets? Why is Rumi’s poetry an inseparable part of the Pashtun Sunni Muslim Afghani culture of the ‘dancing boys’? Why are such boys interpreted as the Divine Love-object in the Sufi Love Poetry that has been gender-altered in translation for the ‘Western’ editions? What is the difference between God / Allah as the finite soul-self’s ‘Purusha’ Lover in the Judeo-Catholic and Eastern Indic and Buddhist traditions, and God as the Beautiful ‘Dancing Boy’ Beloved in the Sufi Islamic traditions?
In all of the other primally-related Bhakti (Divine Love) traditions, the Jiva-Atma or finite soul-self, is feminine. Jiva in Sanskrit is Heva (Eve) in Biblical Hebrew and was the ‘BA (B=V in common linguistic sound shifting) finite soul of the Afro-Egyptians, which was significantly depicted as a small bird. Birds, especially doves, which mate for life, were ancient symbols for the relationship between the finite spirit-soul or self and the Supreme Self or God.
In the Eastern ‘Vedic’ tradition of the Divine Lover and His Beloved, the Supreme or Param Atman (Holy Spirit), is the Masculine Purusha Lover of the finite Feminine Jiva-Atma. In the story, the Jiva-Atma becomes distracted and ‘falls’ into the temporary but real ‘material world’. The Lovers, ATUM / ADON / ATEN / ATMAN and BA / HEVA / EVE / JIVA are described as two Love Birds situated in a mystical tree. The Feminine (Receiver, Prakriti) finite Jiva-soul of the pair becomes momentarily distracted by tasting the fruit of the mystical ‘Tree of Knowledge’, and forgets Her Divine Purusha (Masculine, Giver) Lover, God. In Her forgetful condition of Illusion / Maya, She, the Jiva-soul ‘falls’ into mortal ‘matter’ and becomes ‘lost’ to Herself and to Her God, in her ‘fallen’ state.
Consequently, God, in his form as an ‘Avatara’, crosses-over into the ‘material world’, descending into the Saha world of birth, death, disease and old age, to find and Rescue His Beloved! This universal theme of the Divine or semi-divine Hero’s descent into matter, or the realm of the dead, to Find and Save His Beloved, is all related to the same primal ‘Bridal Mysticism’ Revelation.
This same separation of forgetfulness is the ‘fall‘ that is described in the Biblical tradition of the ‘original sin‘ story of ‘Adam and Eve’. In Jewish and Catholic Hermetic and Kaballistic mysticism, the Adam and Eve story is about this Separation of Eve as ‘the Mother of All Living’, the Feminine Jiva-Shakti, (Hebrew Shekinah), from Her Lord, Adon-Yahu or God as the universal ‘First Adam” (Purusha) or Adam Kadmon.
This Biblical ‘Adam and Eve’ Bridal Mysticism or Hieros Gamos Revelation of the Supreme Lord ELI-YAHU-ADON, HERU-AUSU-ATUM / ADON / ATEN and His Beloved ‘BA (HEBA / HEVA / JIVA) in Egypt, was part of the Rhodian Heliopolitan Greek tradition too. It can be traced through its Greco-Roman manifestations through their persistent Greek association with ‘HEBE’, the ‘Consort’ of Hera-Cles. HEBE was also KORE, the Supreme KORE, ‘Beloved’ of the Supreme KOUROS HELIOS (KRISHNA KISHORA) of Rhodes. In Rome, HEBE / HEVA / EVE was JUNO-JUVENTAS, the Romans’ RHODA-KORE! JUVENTAS is the Latin cognate of SRIMATI RADHA-RANI’s important Holy Name RADHA-NAVA-YAUVANI! She is the ever-new (Nava) Virginal Maiden, Youth or Juvenile / Yauvani! SRI KRISHNA NAVA YAUVANA and RADHARANI is NAVA YAUVANI. The original forms of Rome’s JUPITER and JUNO are their JUVENALIS and JUVENTAS forms. These are the religious cognates of ZEUS KOUROS and RHODA-KORE, or ZEUS NYMPHOS AND HERA-NYMPHIA.
As the Virginal cup-bearer of ZEUS, or JUPITER JUVENALIS (KRISHNA NAVA YAUVANA), HEBE was associated with JUVENTA, the YAUVANI (Juvenile) KORE or NYMPHIA form of JUNO. So we can follow the following important correlations…
RHODA of Rhodes is also RADHA, the Mystical Rose,
NYMPHIA (Lotus and Virgin), PADMA, SRI, NARAYANI,
ASTERIA, ISHTAR, (Star), ASTRAYA, TARA,
KORE (HARE, Virgin), HERA (not of late mythology),
Biblical Semitic NAARI (NARI like KORE ‘Virgin’),
HEKATE (Triple Form of All SHAKTIS,
Maiden Virgin, Mother and Hag or Crone or Spirit-Grandmother),
SEKHET, SHEKINAH, SHAKTI,
Afro-Egyptian ‘BA, HEBE, HEVA, EVE, JIVA,
JUVENTA, RADHA-YAUVANI (YAUVAN Juvenile, Young),
BASILEIA (Queen, Name of TULASI MAHA-RANI, HOLY BASIL)
BASILEA is also VASUDHA (VASUDEVI)
as Latin REGINA, RAJANI, RANI (QUEEN),
Hebrew MARIAM, is Latin JUNO-MARINA,
see PADMA as NARAYANI, and NARI, NAARI,
ESSE, ISHISH, ISIS, ASHERAH, ISHVARI, ISHI,
CORONIS, HARINI, HALIA (HELIA) ETC.
The great classicist, Prof. Jane Harrison identified three forms of the Supreme God, Meghistos Kouros of the Minoan tradition Cretan “Hymn to the Greatest Kouros”. These 3 forms were the:
- Minoan Zeus-Kouros form, which I have traced to the Cultus of Kouros Helios of Rhodes,
- The ‘Solar’ Helios form of Surya Narayana, as worshiped all over prehistoric Egypt, &
- The original incarnate [Bal-Yahu] hero Hera-Cles form, not to be confused with the many later and corrupted ‘mythological’ forms of the Greco-Roman Hercules-Heracles that slew his wife and children and was thus sentenced to perform his famous ’12 labors’.
Correctly identifying Greco-Roman and other names with their correct Masculine and Feminine suffixes. These name elements are actually the names of GOD and ESSE Themselves. The standard is there in various languages, although the actual Purusha and Prakriti element of the Holy Name may differ. Compare the mystical name of Purusha at the end of KRISHNA’s or VISHNU’s Holy Names! He is the Masculine Being-Who-Is, -A, -YA, -AH, etc. He is the -YAHU, etc. in Hebrew Holy Names, the -OS (for AUSU / YAHU / WASU) OSIRIS on the end of Greek Masculine by-names of HELIOS / APOLLO and ZEUS. In Rome, the Masculine by-names of JUPITER end in the -US element. In Egypt, compare the NOME GOD names of AUSU (OSIRIS) that include his -AUSU names. His city-protector patron names like PER- AUSU / POLIEUS / PURUSHA like His Roman, Greek, Jewish Hebrew and Sanskrit Holy Names identify Him as the Supreme Masculine / PURUSHA ‘Being Who Is’.
In the parallel way, the Feminine name element identifies Prakriti Shakti across the languages and traditions. So in the Mediterranean we see M. DIOS and F. DEA, M. BASILEOS and F. BASILEA. In Sanskrit we see M. DEVA and F. DEVI.
In this picture of APOLLO and His Nine Muses, the Muses are Feminine ‘Expansions’ of the Supreme ‘NYMPHIA’, RHODA-KORE of Rhodes. KOUROS and KORE are the first / origin of the Rhodian Greek ‘Gods and Goddesses’. Scholars, like Jane Harrison, concluded that the KOUROS (KISHORA JUVENILE) from of ZEUS, worshiped on Crete, was the actual ‘origin of All of the Gods’. That being the fact, then RHODA-KORE would have to be the origin of all the KORAE, NYMPHS. NAIADS, HORAE, HOURS / HOURIS, MUSES etc.
Studying the origins of this primal ‘Bridal Mysticism’ Revelation is is clear that intrinsic to its theology is the doctrine that the infinite Atman God is the metaphysically Masculine ‘Giver’ or Lover and the finite Jiva soul-self is the Feminine Receiving or Beloved.
In the 1960s, when I was studying with some American Sufis who were attending Wayne State University in Detroit Michigan, there seemed to be some strange contradictions in their many English readings of the Sufi Love Poetry of the Afghan-born Rumi and other Sufi Love-Poets. It seemed that the gender of Allah / God as the Divine Lover or Beloved was at times confounded. The answers to my questions about this were never explained to me until I traveled throughout Sri Lanka, India and Nepal in 1982. As I sought-out different kinds of Sunni, Shia, Ishmaelite and Sufi Muslims to study, my Sufi teachers explained to me that the gender of God / Allah in the English translations of Rumi and other Sufi poets’ love poetry was usually changed, and that the changes were not always consistent.
What is spiritually wrong with Afghanistan, the land of Rumi and Sufism?
I had questions about the ‘Bhaca Bazi’ (Afghan and Pakistan Sunni Sufi) recitation of Rumi’s ‘homoerotic‘ love poetry, which was all dedicated to his Sufi master shams, during their Bazi ‘dancing boy’ rituals. All of the Sufi teachers that I questioned explained to me that the reason that some ‘mainstream’ Muslims considered Sufis to be blasphemers and killed or persecuted Sufis, was that they were homosexuals that worshiped Allah / God as a beautiful prepubescent (Kouros, Juvenalis, Nymphos) boy.
Worshiping God / Allah as the original beautiful boy is in keeping with the core ‘Bridal Mysticism’ of the other Bhakti Traditions, but there is a huge difference in the Tamasic Bazi ‘boy play’ related traditions of the Sufis. In those traditions, as in present day Afghanistan and elsewhere, it is imagined that adult men will be rewarded with the sexual services of ‘beautiful young virgin boys like pearls’ in Paradise!
Moreover, while on earth, they may sexually exploit such pre-pubescent young boys, while religiously thinking of them as representing Allah / God as “The Beloved”! Thus such Tamasic ‘Sufis’ recite and sing the erotic divine love poetry of Rumi and other Sufi saints, during their ‘sacred’ Bazi ‘dancing boy’ rituals. The expert or ‘professional’ Bazi boys become the most prized musicians and dancers, who are proficient in singing and dancing the ‘homoerotic’ Sama love hymns and dances of Rumi and the other Sufi poets.
Consensual sex between adult males is considered ‘homosexual’ under Islamic Sharia Law, and is punishable by a tortured and horrific public death. So being castrated before before puberty creates a class of non-men ‘boys‘ that Muslim men can legally (and religiously) have sex with, thus many Bazi ‘dancing boys‘ are castrati, who will always remain Beardless (Kouroi) Hairless and therefore ‘Sharia’ legal to have sexual intercourse with.
This practice of ‘dancing boys‘ in Islam, is not only a Persian or Afghani Islamic tradition. In Egyptian and other Sufi traditions of Islam, it is not only the Beautiful Young Female ‘Houris’ (Korae, Gopis) dancing the Raqs (Rasa) circle dance of Paradise, to entertain Muslim men by making them think of their paradisiacal ‘reward‘ of 72 virgins from Allah. It is also the ‘beautiful boys like pearls‘ that dress-up in opulent women’s clothes to perform the sacred dances for their adult men owners or patrons.
Thus the antiquity and universality of this Tamasic tradition of old men exploiting young boys for sex, can be traced back in Islam to the pre-M*hammaden Islamic cultures of Egypt and Arabia too. Also important to understand concerning the degraded Tamasic forms of Sufism, is that these are usually Mayavadi and iconoclastic or impersonalist.
Ultimately their original or highest ‘Allah’ is impersonal, and they have no real ‘Self’. Thus the highest ‘personal’ experience that they can have is in a ‘celestial’ paradise, where they can enjoy the ‘heavenly delights’, of limitless sex with virgin girls and boys, and endless feasting on all kinds of rare or even previously forbidden food and drink.
In the Original Divine Love Revelation, the Lover, God, and His Beloved, the individual soul-self, are both ‘Same Age’ Virginal ‘Teenagers’. They are both Kishora the long-haired, beardless and body-hairless Kouros and Kore. The social order and customs derived from their worship together never fostered any kind of hairy old men having sex with young boys or girls! Krishna and Radha are the Nava Yauvana Juvenile enjoyers of the Rasa Dance! Their Kouroi and Korae (Gopa and Gopi) ‘Expansions’ dance with them. No adult or older men can invade the Moonlit ‘Garden’ Paradise of their Sweet Kouru-aulos (Carol Chorus) Circle-Flute Dance! Krishna is the Purusha Enjoyer of His Adi Shakti! No adult male Purusha is ever the ‘enjoyer‘ of Krishna! So the Tamasic Sufi idea that in Paradise any adult male can ‘enjoy’ God / Allah as ‘the (receiving) beloved‘ is completely heterodoxical to the Original Divine Love Revelation and all of the related Bhakti Traditions.
So, this is what everyone needs to know about the Afghani Pashtun Muslim culture, and how its Sufi Islamic ‘Divine Love’ Mysticism profoundly deviates from all of the other primal-origin related ancient Divine Love / Bridal Mysticism / Sacred Marriage or Hieros Gamos traditions. In general, the grossly Tamasic Muslim tradition of imagining that adult men, or even old men, will be rewarded by God / Allah, by enjoying sex with very young girls and boys in Paradise, is not compatible with any other of the primally related Divine Love Traditions.
The real-world consequences of this wide-spread Islamic belief system are tragic. Most Muslims believe that when their ‘prophet’ was over 50 years old, he had sex with his favorite 9 years old ‘wife’. Thus, as Allah’s most perfect man, his example, derived from the Quran, the Haditha, and the Judicial History of Fatwas, is used in both Sunni and Shia sex and gender related Sharia Law. This is why, when the Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran, he changed the legal marriage age for girls from 18 (under the Shah) to 9 years of age. The legal marriage are for girls in most forms of Islamic Sharia Law is 9 or after the first menses. A girl, no matter how young, is considered a marriageable woman, if she has had her first menstrual period. In most of today’s Western civilization, the Muslim adult men’s sexual exploitation of young girls and boys would be considered the crime of pedophilia. But in Sunni or Shia Tamasic Sufi Islam, if such sex abuse is carried-out ‘religiously’ as Sharia-approved child marriage, or as harmless and even religious ‘play’ with hairless cross-dressing ‘dancing boys’, then it may be protected.
References to the wide spread Islamic tradition of ‘Dancing Boys’
Pashtun saying: “Women are for babies and boys are for pleasure.”
Bacha Bazi See also
Islam portal
Afghanistan portal
Pakistan portal- Child sexual abuse
- Human rights in Afghanistan
- Bacha posh (Persian: بچه پوش), cross-dressing a daughter as a boy for increased social freedom in Afghanistan
- The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan (2010 documentary)
- Khawal (Arabic: خول), cross-dressed male dancers in pre-20th century Egypt
- Köçek, cross-dressed male dancers in Ottoman Turkey
- Ubayd Zakani (Persian: عبید زاکانی), a 14th-century Persian poet
Šabe Arūs (شب عروس) (Persian meaning “nuptial night”), the night of Rumi’s union with God
RUMI The Homoerotic Sufi Saint – JSTOR literature by contextualizing Rumi’s poetry to his spiritual guide Shams- … became a recognized and beloved expert in Islamic law, also known as a.
Collected Works Archive of Bhakti Ananda Goswami 
