Rumi's Sufism Poetry inspired by Sama of song and Dance

Rumi wrote some prose works—lectures, sermons, and letters—it is Rumi’s poetry, inspired by the sama’ of song and dance, that defines his place within Sufism and world literature. The dancing and the singing are an intrinsic part of his poetry, as we pick up from this initial poem:

The song of the spheres in their revolutions
Is what men sing with lute and voice.
As we all are members of Adam,
We have heard these melodies in Paradise.
Though earth and water have cast their veil upon us,
We retain faint reminiscences of these heavenly songs;
But while we are thus shrouded by gross earthly veils,
How can the tones of the dancing spheres reach us?

The purpose of the whirling dervish, the singing and ritual dancing, is to be able to remember, to recollect, dhikr, the heavenly songs, and heavenly dances. It is a means of moving into ecstasy.