Jalal Al Din Al Rumi, Sufi Poet

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that understanding Al Rumi's poetry largely depends on a willingness to accept the complexity of the philosophical and spiritual ideas that they express and the manner in which they challenge the very notion of the self.

From the Paper:

"Jalal El Din Al Rumi, a thirteenth century Moslem Sufi poet, is currently the most popularly read poet in the West. Norman M. Brown, the leader of the Community Unitarian Universalist Church in Daytona Beach, Florida, has an interesting theory regarding Al Rumi's popularity. As he argues, most people, whether conscious of it or not, have spiritual needs and desires. The rational outlook of twentieth century Western civilization suppresses these types of needs and desires, does not give them the opportunity to express or fulfill themselves and, as a result, many people become spiritually frustrated (Brown). The minority who are conscious of their spiritual frustration turn to various religions in search of some type of fulfillment. However, few, if any, of these religions provide such fulfillment. The exception to this, according to Norman M. Brown is Sufi "mystical" Islam which appears to address both human spiritual needs and emotions on one hand, and the human respect for rationality and intellect, on the other (Brown). As Brown argues, Sufi thought, combining between philosophy and spirituality, and concisely expressed in the poetry of Al Rumi, satisfy the inborn human spiritual and intellectual desires and, in this, lies the popularity of the Sufist poet in the West."

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