Religion of love

Rumi wrote, "My heart is a field of tulips that can't be touched with age." He seems to apprecicate the unconditioned, which the Buddhists strive for. 

Rumi wrote: 

A fool believes the love of a bear is true, 

Yet his love is anger and his anger is love.

Rumi wrote: "Oh brother, you are nothing but your thoughts, the rest of you is merely skin and bones," seemingly echoing the yogacara school of Buddhism.

Rumi's Secret by Brad Gooch is a wonderful book that explains Rumi within the context of the times, the context of Islam and Sufism. 

The Times review by Azadeh Moaveni (Gift Article) of his book suggests he's not Iranian, so perhaps he can't really get Rumi, but I think if you're Iranian that criticism flows off your lips easily, but without specifics or what the vague statement really means. But I think Azadeh Moaveni actually has a point:

"Many contemporary translations of Rumi strip the Persian, Arabic and Quranic references out of his verse, or simply ignore the vast bulk of the “Masnavi” dealing with hard Islamic theology."

Gooch has sentences like this: “A respite from the Mongol threat was promised by their first defeat—by the Egyptians at the battle of Ayn Jalut in Syria in 1260—shifting the Muslim power base from Baghdad to Cairo. Yet for the Parvane, machinations became more elaborate, as he engaged in a perilous game of playing the Egyptian Mamluks against the Mongols.”

The sentence is evocative of a past I can dimly imagine. 

From the time Rumi was born, his family was migrating west, away from the incursions of Hulegu Khan and the Mongolian empire. The sack of Baghdad ends the golden age of Islam. 

Do I have to become a scholar of Islam to appreciate Rumi's poetic voice? I appreciate him loosing the strictures of Islam, in favor of a universal love. I appreciate him bucking tradition. I think I could sink into the study of Islam to better appreciate what he's doing. I'm not a Muslim. I'm a Buddhist. 

Who is the great Buddhist philosopher of love?

Buddhism appreciates rapture but doesn't have a deity of rapture like Dionysus, so I borrow from the ancient Greeks. 

The Brahma-viharas are the sublime abodes, and consist of universal loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity. Seems somewhat related to love.

Amitabha represents love.

The symbol śrīvatsa represents love, the endless knot:

Rāgarāja turns lust into spiritual awakening.

Feels like Buddhism is more specific, and doesn't need to emphasize love to smash small mindedness.

Rumi wasn't all love, all the time. One time his wife went to a rival sect of Sufi, the Rafa'i (Refaiyya in Gooch) performance, and had jealous anger (p. 275-6 Gooch).