The Journey Of The Soul: Rumi’s Interpretation Of Soul’s Longing For Divinity

Abstract

Rumi a great Persian mystic poet who has influenced a majority of Muslim World with his widely accepted and recognized mystical thoughts and Sufi literature. He is mostly famous for his masterpiece “Masnavi-Ma’nvi”. One of the main themes of Masnavi is “loss of the beloved” and the joy that its reunion will bring. Rumi has started his Masnavi with a commentary on the most extraordinary and beautiful connection between ones’ soul and origin of the soul(divinity). Connection of soul and self-negations are also one of the main themes of Holy Quran and teachings of Holy Prophet (SAW) are discussed in this article. In his writings, Rumi talks about how a soul feels the pain and agony of separation from its origin and how a soul longs to finally reconnect back to the divine nature. In order to best describe the nature of soul, Rumi symbolizes it with a flute who has been separated from its root and the melancholy it produces is a description of its longing and agony. Rumi emphasis on the fact that there is no point of a humans’ physical body. Everything that a person does involves its soul. And unlike human body and mind, soul never gets tired or never forgets anything. After presenting an extremely exceptional metaphor, Rumi also suggests a way out for soul in order to finally reconnect with divinity. The only way according to Rumi is developing a strong connection with Divine nature. And in order to do that, one has to build a connection with the creation of divinity; humanity. Rumi talks about how all humans are from the same origin yet there are so many barriers among them. In order to overcome these barriers, one has to have openness and humility. According to Rumi, one should get lost to find every possible way to reconnect with divinity.