Children’s book author Omid Arabian believes ancient ideas about interconnectedness can help today’s kids feel safe and empowered amid challenging times. Featuring illustrations by the Iranian-American artist Shilla Shakoori, Arabian’s new picture book, You Are Everything (Triangle Square Books for Young Readers, out now), draws on a 13-verse poem by the mystical medieval poet Rumi.
Arabian, who has written two other Rumi-based books for children, first discovered the poet in his 20s, after having arrived in America as a refugee from Iran at age 11 and spending years “assimilating into American culture,” he recalls. It was through the mystical medieval poets Rumi as well as Hafez that he started to reconnect with his cultural heritage. He found meaning and power in those works, and following deep study, Arabian, 56, began teaching classes in Los Angeles about Persian mysticism in Farsi and English. Ten years ago, he launched The YOUniversal Center, a nonprofit offering courses on mysticism to adults and children.
As he began to explore how children could connect the “big and abstract ideas” in Rumi’s poetry, he initially recalls being “very apprehensive.” But as he talked with his youngest students (and their parents), he recognized a connection: “The language of poetry is the language of imagery, and the language of children has a lot of imagery in it,” he says.
Rumi, whose full name was Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, “composed” and “recited” thousands of poems, says Arabian. He refers to Rumi as “a Persian mystic” rather than a Sufi Muslim or even an Iranian poet, because “Persian is a bigger category” than those religious or national descriptors, with a history that counts its years in the thousands.
Rumi’s poems are nameless, Arabian explains. “Rumi did not assign titles to his poems, and any title one would see will have been dreamed up by somebody else, perhaps a translator or similar.” The lyrical poem that inspired You Are Everything starts with a spiritual concept—that “there is something eternal and infinite in this universe, and that entity is what becomes each of us,” says Arabian.
For children who are learning how to relate to other people, this is a powerful concept. “If I know that you and I are the same being in a different form, then I would never, ever do anything that would remotely cause harm to you,” Arabian says.
“You became the oceans, the mountains, the deserts, the forest, rocks and flowers, animals and people,” reads a page in the book, “And you got to do what each of those does.”
In this time of global violence and upset, he hopes the book is a lesson on peace. “What gives me a sense of peace is compassion,” Arabian says. “Recognizing that everyone, no matter what color, shape, size, religion, or nationality, is also a version of me—that is the foundation for ultimate peace. I know it feels like we’re a long way from that, but for me, that is a very deep understanding and belief that that is the way to peace.”
Ruth Weiner, publisher of Triangle Square who edited You Are Everything, notes that the spiritual message in the book is universal. “It's very powerful, maybe even radical, what Omid and Shilla have created here,” she says. “I don't know of any other book for kids that explores the mystical interconnectedness of everything in such an accessible and loving way.”
It’s message of mindful and compassionate presence could also be a balm for unstable times, she adds. “Hopefully it will very gently give readers permission to just be in a world where they are constantly asked to do.”
Looking ahead, Arabian plans to write more titles for kids. “It is going to be a lifelong quest to dive deeper and deeper into everything that Rumi has gifted us,” he says.
Holly Lebowitz Rossi is a freelance writer and coauthor of “The Yoga Effect: A Proven Program for Depression and Anxiety.”
