The Cross in Rūmī’s Maṯnawī
Abstract
:1. The Cross in the Qur’ān
And for their saying, ‘We have killed the Christ, Jesus, the son of Mary, the Messenger of God.’ In fact, they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but šubbiha to them. Indeed, those who differ about him are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it, except the following of assumptions. Certainly, they did not kill him. Rather, God raised him up to Himself. God is Mighty and Wise.(Q 4, 157–58)
They want to extinguish God’s Light with their mouths, but God refuses except to complete His Light, even though the disbelievers dislike it.(Q 9, 32)
[God] made the word of those who disbelieved the lowest, while the Word of God is the Highest. God is Mighty and Wise.(Q 9, 40)2
2. Denying the Cross
See the ignorance of the Christian appealing for protection to the Lord who was suspended [on the Cross]!Since, according to his [the Christian’s] belief, He was crucified by the Jews, how then can He [Jesus] protect him?Inasmuch as the heart of that King [Jesus] bleeds on account of them [the Christians], how should there be [for them] the inviolable defense of while you are among them?[M 2, 1401–1403]6
I only told them what You commanded me: that you shall worship God, my Lord and your Lord. And I was a witness over them while I was among them; but when tawaffaytanī [You has caused me to die], you became the Watcher over them, You are Witness over everything.(Q 5, 117) (emphasis is mine)
A certain Amīr cunningly shadows Jesus: Jesus hides himself in the house.He [the Amīr] enters in order that he may wear the crown: because of his likeness to Jesus he himself becomes the crown of the gibbet [dār].“Oh, do not hang me: I am not Jesus, I am the Amīr, and I am well-disposed to the Jews.”“Hang him on the gibbet,” “with all speed, for he is Jesus: seeking to escape from our hands by personating another.”[M 6, 4367–4370]
3. Meditating the Cross
Forsaking Jesus, you have fostered the donkey: of necessity, like the donkey, you are outside of the curtain.Knowledge and gnosis are the fortune of Jesus; they are not the fortune of the donkey, O you asinine one!You listen to the moaning of the donkey, and pity comes over you; then you, know not [that] the donkey commands you to be asinine.Have pity on Jesus and have no pity on the donkey: do not make the [carnal] nature lord over your intellect.Let the nature weep sore and bitterly: do not take from it and pay the debt of the soul.[M 2, 1850–1854]
Your heart is roasted by the fire of these unrighteous men, [yet] all your appeal has been, “Guide my people!”You are a mine of aloes-wood: if they set you afire, they will fill this world with otto10 of roses and sweet basil.You are not that aloes-wood that is diminished by the fire: you are not that spirit that is made captive by grief.Aloes-wood burns, the mine of aloes-wood is far from burning: how should the wind assail the source of light?Oh, it is from you the heavens have purity; oh, your unkindness is better than kindness,Because if an unkindness come from the wise it is better than the kindness of the ignorant.The Prophet said, “Enmity [proceeding] from wisdom is better than the love that comes from a fool.”11[M 2, 1871–1877]
- The prayer attributed to Jesus, “Guide my people,” is similar to the prayer mentioned in Luke’s Gospel: “When they reached the place called the Skull, there they crucified him and the two criminals, one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing,” (Lk 23, 34, the cursive is added). Similar phrasing is found in a prophetic tradition, ḥadīṯ, in which Muḥammad attributed the words to an unnamed prophet: “It was narrated that ʿAbd Allāh [b. Masʿūd] said: It is as if I can see the Messenger of God, telling [or imitating] the story of one of the prophets who was beaten by his people, and he wiped the blood from his face and said: “Lord forgive my people, for they do not know [what they are doing]” (Muslim 2007, K. al-ğihād, ḥadīṯ 1792, vol. 5, p. 99).
- The dichotomies of unkindness/kindness and wise-wisdom/ignorant-fool mentioned by Rūmī are comparable to Paul’s discourse on the Cross as wisdom, scandal, and folly: “Since in the wisdom of God the world was unable to recognize God through wisdom, it was God’s own pleasure to save believers through the folly of the gospel. While the Jews demand miracles and the Greeks look for wisdom, we are preaching a crucified Christ: to the Jews an obstacle they cannot get over, to the gentiles foolishness, but to those who have been called, whether they are Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is both the power of God and the wisdom of God. God’s folly is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength” (I Cor 1, 21–25).
Your Resurrection declares what is the secret of death: the fruits declare what is the secret of the leaves.[M 2, 1825]
4. Challenging Public Opinion
The mother of Yaḥyā, before disburdening herself [of him], said in secret to Mary,“I see with certainty, within you is a King who is possessed of firm purpose and is an Apostle endowed with knowledge.When I happened to meet you, my burden at once bowed in worship.This embryo bowed in worship to that embryo, so that pain arose in my body from its bowing.”Mary said, “I also felt within me a bowing performed by this babe in the womb.”[M 2, 3602–3606]
The foolish say, “Cancel this tale, because it is false and erroneous.Mary in [her] pregnancy was not joined by any one: she did not return from without the town.Until that woman of sweet address was delivered outside of the town, she indeed came not into it.When she had given birth to him, she then took him up in her lap and carried him to her kinsfolk.Where did the mother of Yaḥyā see her to speak these words to her about what had happened?”[M 2, 3607–3611]
So she conceived him, and secluded herself with him in a remote place.(Q 19, 22)
The labor-pains came upon her, by the trunk of a palm-tree. She said, “I wish I had died before this, and been completely forgotten.” Whereupon he called her from beneath her: “Do not worry; your Lord has placed a stream beneath you. And shake the trunk of the palm-tree towards you, and it will drop ripe dates by you.”(Q 19, 23–25)
Then she came to her people, carrying him. They said, “O Mary, you have done something terrible.”(Q 19, 27)
Let him [the objector] know that to one who receives ideas all that is absent in the world is present.To Mary, the mother of Yaḥyā would appear present, though she was far from her sight.[M 2, 3612–3613]
One may see a friend [even] with eyes shut, when one has made the skin a lattice.And if she saw her neither from without nor from within, take the meaning of the story, O imbecile!Not like him who had heard fables, and like š stuck to the shape of them,So that he would say, “How should Kalīla, having no language, hear words from Dimna who had no power of expression?”[M 2, 3614–3617]
O brother, the story is like a measure: the real meaning in it resembles grain.The man of intelligence will take the grain of meaning: he will not pay any regard to the measure, [even] if it is removed.Listen to what passes between the rose and the nightingale, though in that case there is no overt speech.[M 2, 3622–3624]
Listen also to what passes between the moth and the candle, and pick out the meaning, O worshipful one.Albeit there is no speech, there is the inmost soul of speech. Come, fly aloft, do not fly low, like the owl.[M 2, 3625–3626]
5. Jesus and Ḥusayn
A stranger, a poet, arrived from the road on the Day of ‘Āšūrā and heard that lamentation.He left the city and resolved in that direction: he set out to investigate [the cause of] those shrill cries.He went along, asking many questions in his search, “What is this sorrow? Whose death has occasioned this mourning?It must be a great personage who has died: such a concourse is no small affair.Inform me of his name and titles, for I am a stranger and you belong to the town.What are his name and profession and character? [Tell me] in order that I may compose an elegy on his gracious qualities.I will make an elegy—for I am a poet—that I may carry away from here some provision and morsels of food.”“Eh,” said one [of them], “are you mad? You are not a Šīʿī; you are an enemy of the [Prophet’s] Family.Don’t you know that the Day of ‘Āšūrā is [a day of] mourning for a single soul that is more excellent than a generation?How should this anguish be lightly esteemed by the true believer? Love for the earring is in proportion to love for the ear.In the true believer’s view the mourning for that pure spirit is more celebrated than a hundred Floods of Noah.”[M 6, 782–792]
“Yes,” said he; “but where is the epoch of Yazīd?15 When did this grievous tragedy occur? How late has [the news of] it arrived here!The eyes of the blind have seen that loss, the ears of the deaf have heard that story.Have you been asleep till now, that [only] now you have rent your garments in mourning?Then, O sleepers mourn for yourselves, for this heavy slumber is an evil death.A royal spirit escaped from a prison: why should we rend our garments and how should we gnaw our hands?Since they were monarchs of the religion, it was the hour of joy when they broke their bonds.They sped towards the pavilion of empire; they cast off their fetters and chains.It is the day of kingship and pride and sovereignty, if you have an atom of knowledge of them.And if you have not knowledge, go, weep for yourself, for you are disbelieving in the removal and in the assembly at the Last Judgement.Mourn for your corrupt heart and religion, for it [your heart] sees nothing but this old earth.Or if it is seeing, why is it not brave and supporting [others] and self-sacrificing and fully contented?In your countenance where is the happiness of the wine of religion? If you have beheld the Ocean, where is the bounteous hand?He that has beheld the River does not grudge water, especially he that has beheld that Sea and [those] Clouds.”[M 6, 793–805]
6. Jesus and Ḥallāğ
It so happened to Ḏū al-Nūn the Egyptian that a new agitation and madness was born within him.His agitation became so great that salt from it was reaching hearts up to above the sky.Beware, O salty soil, do not put your agitation beside the agitation of the holy lords.The people could not endure his madness: his fire was carrying off their beards.When [that] fire fell on the beards of the vulgar, they bound him and put him in a prison.There is no possibility of pulling back this rein, though the vulgar be distressed by this way.These kings have seen [themselves in] danger of their lives from the vulgar; for this multitude are blind, and the kings [are] without mark.When authority is in the hands of profligates, Ḏū al-Nūn is inevitably in prison.The great king rides alone! Such unique pearl in the hands of children!What pearl? The Sea hidden in a drop; a Sun concealed in a mote.A Sun showed itself as a mote, and little by little uncovered its face.All motes vanished in it; the world became intoxicated by it and [then] became sober.When the pen is in the hand of a traitor, unquestionably Manṣūr is on a gibbet [dār].When this affair belongs to the foolish, the necessary consequence is [that] they kill the prophets.[Q 3, 112]
Through folly the people who had lost the way said to the prophets, “Lo, we augur ill from you.”[Q 36, 18], [M 2, 1386–1400]
7. Mario-Christo-Logy
Who is the mawlā [saint]? He that sets you free and removes the fetters of servitude from your feet.Since prophethood is the guide to freedom, freedom is bestowed on true believers by the prophets.Rejoice, O community of true believers: show yourselves to be “free” as the cypress and the lily;But do you, like the gay-colored garden, at every moment give unspoken thanks to the Water.The cypresses and the green orchard mutely thank the water and show gratitude for the justice of Spring:Clad in robes and trailing their skirts, drunken and dancing and jubilant and scattering perfume;Every part impregnated by royal spring, their bodies as caskets filled with pearly fruit;[Like] Maries, having no husband, yet big with a Christ; silent ones, wordless and devoid of articulate expression,“Our Moon has shone brightly without speech: every tongue has derived its speech from our beauty.”The speech of Jesus is from the beauty of Mary; the speech of Adam is a ray of the Breath.In order that from thanksgiving, O men of trust, increase may accrue; then other plants are amidst the herbage.Here the reverse is, he that is content shall be abased; in this case, he that covets shall be exalted.Do not go so much into the sack of your fleshly soul; do not be forgetful of your purchasers.[M 6, 4540–4552]
In traditional interpretations, “glory,” “splendor,” “luminosity” and “shine,” connected with sun and fire, were considered the primary meanings of the term farr(ah), xᵛarənah. Semantic developments and etymologically secondary meanings related to prosperity, (good) fortune, and (kingly) majesty were also recognized… In Buddhist Sogdian and Khotanese the word signified the “position of a Buddha”… and it passed into Tokharian with this meaning, derived from the original sense of “dignity” or “high position.
[God:] When I have fashioned him [Adam] and breathed My Spirit into him, bow down before him (Q 15, 29). See also (Q 32, 9).
Remember the one who guarded her chastity [Mary]. We breathed into her from Our Spirit and made her and her son a sign for the worlds (Q 21, 91). See also (Q 66, 12).
The Universal Soul came into contact with the partial soul, and the [latter] soul received from it a pearl and put it into its bosom.Through that touch on its bosom the soul became pregnant, like Mary, with a heart-beguiling Christ,20Not the Christ who is on land and water, the Christ who is beyond measuring.So when the soul has been impregnated by the Soul of soul, by such a soul the world is impregnated.Then the world gives birth to another world, and displays to this congregated people a place of congregation.Though I should speak and recount till the Resurrection, I lack the power to describe this resurrection.These sayings, indeed, are really an “O Lord”; the words are the lure for the breath of a sweet-lipped One.How, then, should he fail? How should he be silent, inasmuch as “Here am I” is coming in response to his “O Lord”?It is a “Here am I” that you cannot hear, but can taste from head to foot.[M 2, 1183–1191]
I died to the inorganic state and became endowed with growth, and [then] I died to [vegetable] growth and attained to the animal.I died from animality and became Adam: why, then, should I fear? When have I become less by dying?At the next remove I shall die to man, that I may soar and lift up my head amongst the angels;And I must escape even from the angel: everything is perishing except His Face.[Q 55, 26–27]
Once more I shall be sacrificed and die to the angel: I shall become that which enters not into the imagination.Then I shall become non-existence: non-existence says to me, as an organ, Verily, unto Him shall we return.[Q 2, 156], [M 3, 3901–3906]
8. Rūmī’s Christian Milieu
Konya, the ancient Iconium, had been the scene of Christian life since the first abortive attempts of St. Paul at converting its inhabitants (Acts 14); it later became a Christian town, probably influenced by its proximity to Cappadocia, the stronghold of medieval monastic Christianity and native place of some of the greatest of the mystically inclined early Christian theologians (Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianz, St. Basil the Great etc.) The cave monasteries of Göreme were inhabited till the late Middle Ages. Small Greek settlements with their churches were flourishing in the neighborhood of Konya till the end of World War I.
God forbid! By no means! Rather I say Mowlānā is God-fashioner (khodā-sāz).
Likewise, Akhī Aḥmad, who was one of the esteemed men of the time, one day said to ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn: “I have read a donkey-load (kharvār) of books and in them I have found no authorization for the samāʿ and I have not heard of any such permission. What proof have you [to justify] bringing forth this innovation?’ ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn replied: ‘Akhī read in the manner of a donkey (kharvār). That’s why he doesn’t know. Praise be to God that we have read in the manner of Jesus and attained its secret’.
When they brought forth Mowlānā’s [Rūmī’s] corpse, all the great and small bared their heads. Absolutely all the men, women, and children were present and they raised a tumult which resembled the tumult of the great Resurrection. Everyone was weeping and most men walked along naked, shouting and tearing their clothes. Likewise, all the religious communities with their men of religion and worldly power were present, including the Christians and the Jews, the Greeks, the Arabs and the Turks, and others as well. All of them, in accordance with their customary practice, walked in procession while holding up their [sacred] books. And they recited verses from the Psalms of David, the Torah and the Gospels, and made lamentation. Meanwhile, the Muslims were unable to beat them off with sticks and blows and swords. This group would not be kept away and a great disturbance arose. News of this reached the sultan of Islam, Ṣāheb and the Parvāna. The prominent monks and priests were summoned and told: “What does this event have to do with you? This king of religion is our chief, imam and guide.” They answered: “We came to understand the truth of Moses and the truth of Jesus and of all the prophets because of his clear explanation, and we beheld in him the behavior of the perfect prophets we read about in our [sacred] books. If you Muslims call Mowlānā the Moḥammad of your time, we recognize him to be the Moses of the era and the Jesus of the age. As much as you admire him and are devoted to him, we are bondsmen and disciples a thousand times more so. As the poet said:Seventy-two religions heard their secret from us.We’re like a flute whose mode fits two hundred creeds.Thus, Mowlānā’s essence is a sun of higher truths which shone on mankind and bestowed favor, and all houses have been illuminated by him.” Another priest who was Greek said: “The similitude for Mowlānā is bread. No one can do without bread. Have you ever seen a hungry person who shuns bread? But what do you know about who he was!”All the prominent men fell silent and said nothing.
What is to be done, O Muslims? for I do not recognize myself.I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Gabr (Zoroastrian), nor Moslem.I am not of the East, nor of the West, nor of the land, nor of the sea;[…]My place is the Placeless, trace is the Traceless;It is neither body nor soul, for I belong to the Soul of the Beloved.(Rūmī 1973, p. 79, with slight modification)
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Conflicts of Interest
1 | On the website www.tanzil.net (accessed on 2 January 2022), there are 18 translations of the Qurʾān in English and many in other languages. Comparing the translations of the verses (Q 4, 157–58) shows the variety of interpretations. In this article, the Qurʾānic quotations are taken from several translations, mainly (Itani 2012) and (Abdel Haleem 2004), with modifications if necessary. The letter Q indicates the Qurʾān; the first number indicates the sūra number; the second one shows the verse number (Ḥafṣ numeration). |
2 | The Word of God in the Qurʾān is related to all levels of creation, revelation, and divine decrees: “Say, if the whole oceans were ink for writing the words of my Lord, it would run dry before those words were exhausted even if We were to add another ocean to it” (Q 18, 109), see also (Q 31, 27). At the same time, Jesus Christ is the unique person called a “Word of God”: The angels said, ‘Mary, God gives you news of a Word from Him, whose name will be the Christ Jesus son of Mary” (Q 3, 45), see also (Q 4, 171). |
3 | They attributed the “confusion” mentioned in (Q 4, 157–58) to Jesus’ empty tomb. They also considered that only the human nature of the Christ, nāsūt, was crucified (cf. Bausani 1982). For Modern Islamic debate (cf. Ayoub 2007, pp. 156–83). |
4 | Ḥallāǧ was born in Ṭūr in Fars (modern Iran) and imprisoned and crucified in Bagdad for heresy. The work of Louis Massignon on his life and thought remains the primary study on the topic (Massignon 1975). We have access only to the poem’s French translation (Massignon 1969, vol. 2, pp. 157–60), as the Persian original, located in the third volume of Uštūr Nāme, is not published. It should be mentioned that the attribution of this work to ʿAṭṭār is arguable. A critical edition of the original with a new translation is planned in a forthcoming study. Dawlatšāh Samarqandī (d. 900/1494 circa) mentioned an encounter between ʿAṭṭār and Rūmī in Nīšāpūr when the latter was a child traveling with his father from Balḫ to Konya. In this account, ʿAṭṭār foresaw the Rumi’s genius and gave the boy his book, the Asrār Nama (Samarqandī 2003, p. 193). Critical scholars doubt the veracity of the meeting; however, it shows the spiritual continuity between two major figures of Persian Sufism (Lewis 2003, pp. 64–65). |
5 | For Rūmī’s biography and works, see: (Aflākī 2002, pp. 55–421; Chittick 1983, pp. 1–10; Lewis 2003, pp. 271–419; Schimmel 1980, pp. 1–58; Schimmel 2001, pp. 11–33). |
6 | This article mainly uses Reynold A. Nicholson’s translation (Rūmī 1925–1940). Volumes I, III, and V are a critical edition of the original Persian text; II, IV, and VI, the English translation; VII and VIII, the translator’s commentary. This is the first English translation of the text and it still maintains its scholarly validity today. It has also been an essential reference for other translations, such as the Italian one (Rūmī 2006). I have compared and verified the translation with the Persian original, published by Nicholson, and with more recent Iranian editions (Rūmī 2020–2021), and adjustments to the translation are indicated in the footnotes. The transliteration of some words was modified to be adapted to be in line with the rest of the article. The letter M indicates Maṯnawī in Nicholson’s translation (Rūmī 1925–1940), followed by the first number indicating the book (out of six in total) and the numbers after the comma indicating the verse numbers according to Nicholson’s numbering. |
7 | Gabriele Mandel Khān, in the Italian translation, asserted erroneously that Rūmī was referring to the verse: “God would not punish them while you are amongst them,” (Q 8, 33), which refers to the Prophet Muḥammad and not Jesus. |
8 | (Q 5, 117) and a similar verse (Q 3, 55) have caused a great deal of debate among Qurʾānic commentators because they contradict the literalist understanding of (Q 4, 157–58). Al-Rāzī mentioned several opinions in this regard (Rāzī 1981, vol. 8, pp. 74–76, vol. 12, p. 144). |
9 | The Biblical translation used in this article is (Bible 1989). |
10 | Otto or attar is an essential oil from flowers, especially the damask rose. |
11 | These verses can be seen as the conclusion to the long story of “Moses and the Shepherd” (M 2, 1720–1815), a text of theology of religions par excellence. |
12 | See for instance the influential commentary of the Mawlawī Šayḫ of the Galata lodge in Istanbul, Ismāʿīl Rusūḫ al-Dīn al-Anqarawī (d. 1631), also known as Rusūḫī, in seven volumes in Ottoman Turkish (Anqarawī 1872, vol. 2, pp. 309–10). See also Yūsuf b. Aḥmad al-Mawlawī (d. 1669), Šayḫ of the Mawlawī lodge of Beşiktaş on the Bosphorus, who wrote an Arabic translation and commentary mainly derived from Anqarawī’s work (Mawlawī 1872, vol. 2, pp. 320–21). About the Maṯnawī’s commentaries (cf. Lewis 2003, pp. 475–82). |
13 | Kalīla and Dimna are two jackals, the protagonists of the book bearing their names, written or rather translated by Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ (d. 139/756–757 or 142/759–760). any editions (Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ 1984). |
14 | In Šīʿī tradition, the Ḥadīṯ of the Ark, Ḥadīṯ al-safīna, is considered a pillar of imamology and salvation doctrines, narrated in different versions: “Certainly, Ahl al-Bayt [the Prophet Muhammad’s Family] are like the Ark of Noah, [and] saved whoever boarded” (Mağlisī 1966, vol. 23, pp. 123–25). |
15 | Yazīd b. Muʿāwiya was the second Umayyad caliph (d. 64/683). He is the perpetrator of injustice in Ḥusayn’s martyrdom, analogous to the role of Pontius Pilatus in the Crucifixion, as mentioned in the Nicene Creed. |
16 | It is similar to Jesus saying, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children (Lk 23, 28). |
17 | The death of Rūmī is called šab-e ʿarūs, and celebrated every year, joyously and serenely, on December 17 in his mausoleum in Konya. One might also compare this attitude towards death to the “Canticle of the Creatures” or “Canticle of Brother Sun” attributed to St. Francis, in which he mentions “our Sister Bodily Death” (Armstrong et al. 2000, pp. 113–14). |
18 | Abū al-Fayḍ Ṯawbān b. Ibrāhīm, known as Ḏū al-Nūn, born at Akhmīm, in Upper Egypt. He was sent to prison in Baghdad because of his Sufi teachings, then released by the Abbasid caliph Mutawakkil and returned to Egypt (Ebstein 2014). |
19 | Ġadīr Ḫumm is a pond on the caravan route between Mecca and Medina, where the Prophet Muhammad, returning from his farewell pilgrimage, proclaimed, “Anyone who has me as his mawlā, has ʿAlī as his mawlā.” This ḥadīṯ is fundamental to Šīʿī Imamology. It is also found in Sunni sources, but interpreted as an indication of ʿAlī’s merit which does not necessarily imply a nomination for succession. See the encyclopedic work of ʿAbd al-Ḥusayn al-Amīnī (Amīnī [1966] 1995). See also (Amir-Moezzi 2014). |
20 | Nicholson, followed by other translators, translated the word Masīḥ with Messiah; instead, it is possible to translate it with “Christ.” |
21 | Referring to Jesus’ miracle, Mt (14, 25–26), Mk (6, 48–49), Jn (6, 19). |
22 | This “Paschal” and inner interpretation of Christmas is well explained by Sulṭān Valad (d. 1318), Rūmī’s son and spiritual heir: “When sorrow produces strong urges, the child comes quickly. At the time of Jesus’ birth, peace be upon him, it is sorrow that brought Mary, peace be upon her, to the foot of the palm tree and made her give birth to the spirit of God. […] If the divine pain dominates you and invades you continuously, this pain does not leave you time to take care of anything else. Certainly, from your Mary-like soul, Jesus who is the spirit of God will be born.” (Sulṭān Valad 1982, pp. 91–92). The English translation is mine. The question is not denying the reality of suffering but overcoming it by seeing the horizon of resurrection/birth. |
23 | Following the exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey in 1923, the Greek Christians were forced to leave. |
24 | Mowlānā or Mawlānā means “our lord,” a famous honorific title of Rūmī. Omid Safi translates khodā-sāz as “God-maker” (Safi 2018, p. xxxii). ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Theryānūs offered a lengthy explanation of his paradoxical and ironic answer, best captured by the phrase: “He conveyed me from the imitation of invoking God to the reality of knowing God.” (Aflākī 2002, p. 190). The idea of a “God-maker” is also not alien to Ibn ʿArabī’s concept of God-created in belief (cf. Corbin 2012, pp. 209–14). |
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Mokrani, A. The Cross in Rūmī’s Maṯnawī. Religions 2022, 13, 611. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13070611
Mokrani A. The Cross in Rūmī’s Maṯnawī. Religions. 2022; 13(7):611. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13070611
Chicago/Turabian StyleMokrani, Adnane. 2022. "The Cross in Rūmī’s Maṯnawī" Religions 13, no. 7: 611. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13070611