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In The Mirror of Creation: A Muslim Mystic's View of the Individual in the Cosmos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2014

John Renard
John Renard*
Affiliation:
Saint Louis University
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Abstract

In the encyclopedic poetry of one of Islam's most prominent mystics, Jalāl ad-Dīn Rūmī (1207-73), one can discover a great deal about the main lines of classical Islamic cosmology and psychology. Conceiving of all of creation as a mirror with two sides, both of which have their reflective values, Rūmī describes both the macrocosm and the microcosm as theaters of divine revelation. In the end, one must come to know God's reflection in the intimacy of the solitary heart; but the cosmos will do for a start. Through his classic understandings of space, time, causality, the evolution of consciousness, and the attractive power of like beings in creation, Rūmī tells of Creation's potential for making known the Creator. And in his images of body, spirit, intellect, and heart, the poet limns the outlines of the essentially human. In the process, he proceeds from macrocosm to microcosm and back; for just as the heart of the individual is the locus of God's reflection in the person, His prophets are as Heart to the Body of the cosmos, in their function of revealing the divine presence and word.

Type
Articles
Information
Horizons , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , Fall 1985 , pp. 311 - 327
Copyright
Copyright © The College Theology Society 1985

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References

1 Hereafter all textual references will occur in footnotes. Citations from Rūmī's works will be made as follows: Mathnawi (Nicholson edition; London: Luzae, 1925–1940)Google Scholar by Book and verse, e.g., IV: 2710; H refers to Heading in text above line number cited. Fíhi Mā Fíhi (Arberry's, Translation as Discourses of Rumi, New York: Samuel Weiser, 1972;Google Scholar and Furuzanfar's Persian edition, Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1338/1959) by Arberry page/Furuzanfar page, e.g., F 35/27. Diwan-i Shams (Furuzanfar's edition in one volume, Tehran: University of Tehran, 1351/1970)Google Scholar by Poem and verse, e.g., D 2714:12. Rubaiyat indicated as, e.g., R643. Maktubat (Persian edition of Jamshidpur, Y. and Amin, G., Tehran: Bungah-l Matbu'antiyya-yi-Payan-dah, 1335/1956)Google Scholar by Letter/page number, e.g., M 67/148. Translations from the Mathnawi are those of R. A. Nicholson. In order to minimize the number of notes, I have tried to collect wherever possible all references to material mentioned in a single paragraph into one note at the end of that paragraph.

2 D 3426:1-3. The Hadith Qudsi “I was a hidden treasure …” occurs also in F 184/176, 186/179; see also Furuzanfar's, B.Ahadith-i Mathnawi (Tehran: University of Tehran, 1955), number 70Google Scholar (hereafter referred to as, e.g., AM 70).

3 IV:H. 1592-1635; quotation from V:H. 2786.

4 II:1276, IV:3083; III:1733, IV:3654-61, F 112/100, 194/185; AM 223, 436. F 69/57, III:1008ff, D 166:10.

5 I:H.3948, III:4551, V:H.3591ff, VI:3475; AM 705.

6 II:1300; IV:818; D 478:4.

7 D 532:8-9; I:2122; III:1011-12; IV:3532-6; V:H. 3591; F 231/224.

8 Seed-plot hadith in F 60/48; AM 338. F 32/20; II:994ff.

9 F 51/39. IV:100-14, F 92/80; VI:3640. D 451:7; hadith in I:927, M 32/88, 9:55, 89:180, 105:210, and III:220; AM 21.

10 I:866, III:2988. III:3209-11. I:610.

11 IV:3708-10, quoting hadith related to Mc'raj; also in I:128; AM 3.

12 F 235/228. F 215/207, 120/109. F 151/154.

13 F 70/58-9.

14 IV:2381; I:843-6, III:2514-5. F 233/225, II:1303.

15 F 149-50/140-1.

16 I:1144-8; also II:1000-2.

17 F 200/191; D 26:1, 887:4.

18 Rūmī's contemporary Ibn al-'Arabi departed from the Ash'arite position with his critique of atomism on the grounds that it overlooks the existence of the Reality that underlies the accidents and ends up in self-contradictory claims that accidents do not subsist individually but do subsist when gathered together. See Izutsu, T., A Comparative Study of the Key Philosophical Concepts of Sufism and Taoism (Tokyo: Keio University, 1966–1967) 1:197–207.Google Scholar

19 Quote from F 205-6/197. Preceding paragraph based on F 88-90/76-8, IV:H. 1497-1532.

20 Nicholson's, Selected Poems from the Divani Shamsi Tabriz (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1952), poem number 36.Google Scholar

21 IV:553-4.

22 F 32/20; see also Nicholson (n. 20), poem 12—a poem quite likely written by Rūmī's son Sultan Walad.

23 III:3901-6; IV:H. 3637-67.

24 III:4159ff. Miracle here translates karamat, F 129/118.

25 III:4190-5; grape image also in F 229/222.

26 VI:2900-5. Also (for items in following sentences of this paragraph) II:308-9, VI:523, 1894-5.

27 IV:H.521-4, II:970-3. IV:810-11. VI.1935-6.

28 F 149-140; also F 170-5/166.

29 F 207/199. F 186-7/179. Quotation from F 108/200, and similar imagery also in D 304:11 and 771:9.

30 IV:401-4; III:H.2900ff. V:2795-6.

31 D 455:3; I:377-80, 84-6; I:472-3. After an excellent summary of Rūmī's thought on this matter, Hakim, K. writes: “At the end freedom and determinism are synthesized. Life starts with determinism at the lower plane, develops to the capacity of free choice in man in order to rise to a higher determinism again, where man makes a free offer of his freedom. So determinism is of two kinds, forced compulsion and free compulsion…” (The Metaphysics of Rūmī [Lahore: Institute of Islamic Culture, 1965], p. 79).Google Scholar

32 V: 1542-54.

33 F 27/14. See also F 197/187; I:1957-9.

34 F 195-6/187. F 68/56 for second set of images (eye).

35 IV:889-896. F 228/221. F 166/148.

36 II:455; V:1900. V:2591. IV:3031-2. VI:1404. II:3140; F 238/230. F 165/157. II:1361, 3219, 3253. F 29/16; II:3310.

37 II:20-1; III:2690. I:2051. III:2548, 3197; II:1252-3.

38 Quote re: ring and cup from F 75/64; also F 208/200 alluding to the story of Joseph's hiding a gold cup in Benjamin's sack. VI:1625-34; F 133/123.

39 I:2051-2. III:3973. I:1548-9; II:2266-71. IV.-409-10. II:3310. III:3689; V:167.

40 III:3584-5; I:1064-7. II:3252; VI:686ff.

41 II:1358ff; IV:1407ff. IV:1421.

42 II:1364. II:3220-9. VI:1294ff; IV:1318.

43 VI:2041-3; I:3459-60; V:1365; II:2734.

44 II:72-3. F 195/187; I:3158ff, 3665-6.

45 VI:3072-7; hadīth qudsī in AM 63.

46 F 174/165, 200/190; III:1641-5, 4259; AM 13. I:1010-7, 3461.

47 D 188:4-5, in Arberry's, A. J. translation, Mystical Poems of Rūmī (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968)Google Scholar, selection number 22.

48 I:3575-8, 2710-4; VI:1024.

49 II:3233-8, 45-6. II:610-11. VI:812. III:4314-17; I:3164.

50 F 177/168; also V:1065-7.