International Mevlana Symposiuın Papers

,.

Birleşmiş Minetler 2007 Eğitim, Bilim ve Kültür MevlAnA CelAleddin ROmi

Kurumu 800. ~um Yıl Oönümü

United Nations Educaöonal, Scientific and aoo:ı Anniversary of

Cu/tura! Organlzatlon the Birth of Rumi

Symposium organization commitlee Prof. Dr. Mahmut Erol Kılıç (President) Celil Güngör Ekrem Işın Nuri Şimşekler Tugrul İnançer

Bu kitap, 8-12 Mayıs 2007 tarihinde Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlıgı himayesinde ve Başbakanlık Tamtma Fonu'nun katkılanyla İstanbul ve Konya'da düzerılenen Uluslararası Mevhiııfı Sempozyumu bildirilerini içermektedir.

The autlıors are responsible for tlıe content of tlıe essays ..

Volume 3

Motto Project Publication

Istanbul, June 20 ı O

ISBN 978-605-61104-0-5

Editors Mahmut Erol Kılıç Celil Güngör Mustafa Çiçekler

Katkıda bulunanlar Bülent Katkak Muttalip Görgülü Berrin Öztürk Nazan Özer Ayla İlker Mustafa İsmet Saraç Asude Alkaylı Turgut Nadir Aksu Gülay Öztürk Kipmen YusufKat Furkan Katkak Berat Yıldız Yücel Daglı

Book design Ersu Pekin

Graphic application Kemal Kara

Publishing Motto Project, 2007 Mtt İletişim ve Reklam Hizmetleri Şehit Muhtar Cad. Tan Apt. No: 13 1 13 Taksim 1 İstanbul Tel: (212) 250 12 02 Fax: (212) 250 12 64 www.mottoproject.com yayirılar@mottoproject.com

Printing Mas Matbaacılık A.Ş. Hamidiye Mahallesi, Soguksu Caddesi, No. 3 Kagıtlıane - İstanbul Tei. 0212 294 10 00

Equivocity of .. unity of being .. in Jalaluddin Rümi

Mohamed Mesbahi 1 Morocco

lT is difficult to attribute the doctrine of "Unity of Being" to Rumi,

because the theological basis of Islam, from which he has drawn the essential of

his thought, has as its main pillar the Unity of God: "Say: He is Allah, Absolute

Oneness" (112:1). 1 For that reason, "monotheism" (tawhid) became a comman

principle of all theological, mystical and philosophical schools of Muslim tho­

ught. It is known that monotheism means essentially the affirmation that God

transcends and is radically different from the world. However, monotheism me­

ans, also, that God has attributes and acts by which He appears to be the only

actor in the world. Both of these affirmations, transcendence and anthropomorp­

hism, made the Islamic worldview different from the pantheist one, which is ha­

sed on the flow of God in the World. In the atmosphere of this transcendent and

anthropomorphic unity, the. discourse of pantheism will remain an exception

within the Islamic culture.

However, we can assume that the "Unity of Being" is a derivative of "mo­

notheism" (tawhid), sin ce the unity of Go d in himself is, in a way, a path to unity

of God with the world and we have some Koranic verses which confirm this

unity. For example "wherever you tum, the Face of Allah is there" (2: 114), "ever­

yone on it will pass away; but the Face of your Lord will remain" (55: 24-25),

"He is the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward" (57: 3), "He is with

you wherever you are" (57: 4). W e can notice that the roots ofpantheism are even

1 The Noble Our'on, translated by Abdalhaqq and Aisha Bewley, Dubai, 1999.

1362 present in the name of God "the Real" (al-Jıaqq) as well. According to Sufis this

name points out that other beings are nothing but false and imaginary ones. The­

re are also several hadiths, which imply pantheist breatlı canceming the relati­

on of God with the whole world. W e all know the famous holly hadith in which

God says, "I was a hidden treasure, and I want to be recognized, so I created the

' world". We can also find these words attributed in Abu 'Ubayda al djarrah, one

of the Companions of the Prophet, "I didn't see something without God being ne­

arer to me than this thing. Nevertheless, the distance that separates unity of God

in Himself, and unity of God with the world, remains very large. Then only the

mystics can venture to proclaim pantheism clearly.

This hesitation towards monotheism and pantheism is reflected on the cor­

pus of laHHuddin Rumi, to the point that we cannot decide whether he is a pro­

ponent of monotheism or pantheism, because his corpus embodies both si des for

unity, transcendence and immanence of God.

However, if there are some aspects of the philosophy of unity of being

in laHHuddin Rumi corpus, they appear only in the form of Sizatahat and not

in a demonstrative discourse. So we should not expect from a great Sufı po­

et to sacrifice that of his poetic style of writing for the sake of being in har­

mony with philosophical principles and concepts. What we can expect from

him are only some poetic allusions in the form of metaphors and symbols,

full of contradictions and which can throw you in a labyrinth of confusion

and astonishment.

The Equivocity of the notian of (walıdat al-wudjud), appears in two forms:

I) in the potential or apriori "unity of being" which exists in Nature and Man,

expecting sameone to actualize it. 2) Ina posteriari "Unity ofBeing" which is re­

alized through a chain of transformations, where the mystic (ssiilik) moves from

monotheism to pantheism.

We can also approach Rumi's "Unity ofBeing" from two angles: I) Asa lo­

gical structure, i.e. a genre that contains three forms of unity of being: imma­

nent unity (pantheism), human unity with God (ittihiid), and divine unity with

man (indwelling, hulün. 2) As a genetic form, i.e. as a process of achievements

from individualism to total unity.

The other aspect of equivocity of "Unity of Being" is that this unity belongs

to the domain of Difference and Opposition, and not to the sphere of Intellect,

which is based on the principle ofidentity. Nevertheless, the objective of this ex-

. Mohamed Mesbahi Equivocity of "uııity of beiııg" iıı Jaliiluddfıı Rümf

perlence is precisely the achievement of identity between men and God through

heart.2 Generally, in Rılmi's (slıatahat) poetship and rationalism, identity and

contrariety, annihilation and subsistence coexist together. This unity aspires, at

same time, to go beyond categories, predicates and oppositions, to overcome

unity, plurality, diversity and otherness to meet existence immediately, and to go

through all states and stations to reach the unique One. The "Unity of Being" jo­

ins the question canceming the truth of I and the question of reality of You

(God). Here Rı1m1 does not seem to be embarrassed in front of these contrarieti­

es spread in his writings. He feels rather assured towards them because they al­

low possibility of change and transformation.

1. Unity of being as a solution of aporia of one and many

"Unity of Being" is an equivocal name. First, because it is composed of two con­

cepts: unity and being. Second, regarding being, we notice that Rı1m1, generally,

replaces it by essence. Consequently, the "Unity of Being" will stand for the

"unity of Essence". The reason is that the principle of separation between essen­

ce and existence do es not co n cem Go d, sin ce His essen ce is His existence. In ot­

her words, He exists not by existence, but by Himself. Third, Unity is not an ac­

cident to be added to Existence in the expressian of "Unity of Existence", but a

n egation of resemblance to other beings. In this co n text, Rılmi says, "Look raund

the world for "others" and/ reach certainty: There are no others".3 Even, when

al-Hallaj called out "I am the Real", the speaker was not really al-Hallaj but God

himself'.4 Then, Existence, Essence and Unity mean the same thing, since not­

lıing exists but the One Being who is divine Essence.

However, the principle of impossibility of existence of other existences

than God is opposed to the reality that other beings exist too. To avoid this

2 In his Seven Seats, reports «the love from the reason doesn't disappear», trans­lated into Arabic lsa Akoub, Damascus, 2004, p. 60. 3 Rumi, Jalal al-Din Dfwiin-i Shams-I Tabriz•, 34972 from Ch itti ek, William C., The Sufi Path of Lave, The Spiritual Teachings of Rümii, New York, State University of New York, 1983, p. 183. 4 Cf. Rümil, Jalal al-Din, Kitiib Fih mii Fih, translated into Ara b i c by 'lsa Ali AI­'Aküb, Damascus and Beyrouth, 2004, p. 277. (my translation).

1364 contradiction, Rumi distinguishes between the Real existence, that is God, and

the vain and imaginable one, Rumi says: "I swear, since seeing Your face, /the

who le world is fraud and fantasy" ? . He, like other lovers of pantheism, us es

manifestations of divine self as a way to avoid opposition between the two

existences, real and vain. Hence, beings become nothing but divine manifes-' tations of one Real individual: "all the tasks of the world are di.fferent, but all

are one"?.

In this meaning, the world tums into a mirror that reflects the Reality of

God. The world, then, does not stand up by itself, but its "stature" stands on God

all times. Therefore, we can say that the relation between unity and manifestati­

on is like that of essences with accidents. Rumi says the following ab out this me­

aning, "Because it is accident (manifestation}, men must not stop at it. Essence

is like a musk di.ffuser, and the material world and its pleasant tlıings are the

perfımıe of this m us k. This peıfume of the m us k do es not last forever, sin ce it is

only an accident. Wlıoever is looking for musk in this peıfume, and is not satis­

.fied ıvitlı this peıfume, is a good man. But anyone who wants to do only ıvith the

perfume (of the m us k), and fe el satisfied, is a bad man". 5

It is important to notice that the concept of manifestation is contradictory.

Manifestation means, first, the act of b ringing to light the hidden and the myste­

rious essence; but if we think again about this concept, we will find out that it

has an opposite signification, which is namely an act of hiding the divine Essen­

c,e from us. Al-Halladj expresses this contradictory nature of manifestations in

these terms: "He is hidden in His manifestation, manifests in His concealing".

Rumi explains the reason of concealing the reality of God in saying "If His light

shines witlıout veil, any Jıeaven or earth, any sun or moon ıvill disappear, and

ıvillnot remain but the King".6 In terms of paradox, His veil is the condition of

the existence of the world.

In this sense, the doctrine of "pantheism" seerus to be an extreme soluti­

on of the oldest aporia: the One and the Multiple, whether in its objective as­

pect (the opposition between the One and the Multiple) or its subjective one

(the opposition between I and You, the self and the other), that is why the

5 Kitiib Ffh mii fih, p. 101. 6 lbid, p. 43, see also p. 72.

Mohamed Mesbahi Equivocity of "wıity of being" in Jaliiluddfn Riimf

"Unity of Being" has two fa c es. W e can refer to the first one by potential unity,

which is the unity of the Real veiled by His manifestations while the second

one takes the name of 'unity' in the sense of 'coming to action ' by polishing

the mirror of men's essence. In other words, the objective "Unity of Being" ap­

pears as a totality that has two faces, God and the world, "From the beginning

to the end, no one but You"?

However, the subjective "unity ofBeing" means the process of transforming

the I into You. Rumi thinks that we cannotjustify the desire of subjective unity

if God is not inside us, "See in your heart, the kingdam of God is inside yours",

and "When you contemplate very well, you .find roots of all things in your self;

all these other things tıvig of your self'.7 In his Ruhaiyat he alsa says: "O Su.fi,

the folloıver of the spiritual path, if you search for that, do not search for Him

outside your self, seek him in yourself',8 and he added: "ıvlıy do you travel the

world beıvildered, Who you seek is not outside you".9

2. The annihilation of the self is the end of a subjective wahdat al-wudjud:

The experience of "Unity of Being" in Rumi appears to be immersed in a hard

paradox, where he feels that the Beloved is both very transcendent and nearer to

him at the same time. Indeed, the lover is scattered between being jealous of his

beloved, who urges him to say "no existence but Him", and the avidity of being

absorbed by Him and to say. "nothing in this dress but Go d". Therefore, w e can­

not overcom e this aporia without annihilating the self in the Other or melting in­

to him, or without abolishing the duality among I and You. Paradoxically, Rumi

deseribes this abalition as a general process that guarantees the evalutian of a

being from the level of elements to a level of angels going through vegetable,

animal and human levels:

"I died as mineral and became a plant; / I died as plant and rose to ani-

7 lbid, p. 47. 8 Rümil, Jalal al-Din, A/-Rubii'iyiit, translated to Arabic by 'lsa Ali AI-'Aküb, Damacus and Beyrouth, 2004, Ruba'iat 32, p. 29. (my translation). 9 lbid, Ruba'iat, p. 516.

1366 mal ;/ I died as an animal and I was a man. 1 Why should I fear? When was I

less by dying?/ Yet once more I shall die as man, to soar/ With angels blest;

but even from angelhood/ I must pass on: all except God both perish./ When I

have sacrificed my angel soul,/ I shall become what no mind ever conceived./

Oh, let me not exist! For Non-existence /Proclaims in organ tones, 'To Him we

' s hall return'." 10

When w e adınit that the annihilation of the self is the purpose of "unity of

being", we really ensure that unity is rather a nihilistic and not an existential

one, this is why Rumi says:

"Take this fame phrase: "I am Real". Some people think it is huge preten­

sion. But "I am Real", in reality, is a great modesty. Because who says, "I am

servant of Real", affirms two existences, one is himself, the other is God. Yet

who says "I am Real" denies himself ... He says "I am Real" means in fact "I am

nonbeing", and He All being, non existence but God. I am in totality nonbeing,

I am nothing". 11

For this reason, the aim of annihilation of the self is not the acquisition of

theoretical knowledge, but the obtaining of an emotional gnosis. In this expe­

rience, the distance and duality between God and man, disappears. 12 The Sufi

does not believe that perception of self-manifestations of Real will be suffici­

ent, but he hop es to go behind them to unveil the core of these manifestations.

In other words, the Sufi does not seem to be content with seeing the Being or

talk.ing about Him, but more than this he wants to become Him, or rather to be

bumed by Him.

Thus, the way to "unity of Being" is an oppositional one. It starts from ma­

nifestations to end in essence; it goes from a sensitive and multiple being to a

rational one, from perceptible to imperceptible. 13 The contrarieties cannot be

transformed one in to an other if they do not have the same nature. However, this

10 Rümil, cited by Nicholson, R. A. The Mystics of ls/om, Routledge, Kegan Paul, London, 1914, p. 68, from http://www.socred-texts.com/isl/moi/moi.htm#68 11 Kitiib Fih mii fih, p. 83; see alsa i b. p. 277 12 He says: "If he has seen to the willful (intended, almaqsud), the duality will disappear", ib., p. 56. 13 He says: "What is it more farthest from comprehension and sagacity than the seeret of the Real (al'aqq) and His Essence", Masnawi, 3, p. 291, 3640. (my translation).

Mohamed Mesbahi Eqııivocity of "zmity of beiııg" in Jaliilııddiıı Riimf

transformatian needs a mystical 'stone', namely the annihilation that dissolves

multiplicity and diversity in an absolute identity: "Be joyful ıvith Him, not ıvith

"others": He is spring, but atlıers are like January. 14 There is neither an end nar

a cause to come back to unity :"Without cause Gad gave us Beiııg; /ıvitlıout ca­

use, give it back again".

But the nihilistic way is not completely a negative way; since the Sufi ac­

quires thanks to it a total freedoru from space, time, geography, history, and from

all things but not from the beloved. 15 'Annihilation of the self gives the Sufi a

possibility to survive with Gad as well. Finally, the evacuation of the self from

knowledge and mundane worries creates in him a new power to enable him to

receive the absolute perfection in the saul, because "it is necessary he has a co­

re in order to perceive the Core, it is obligatory he has a spirit so that he enjoys

by Spirit". 16 In this way, non-being becomes a faculty, and annihilation becomes

an achievement. This is the condition of the individual metamorphosis in the ab­

solute: "W1ıen you have become living through Him /you are indeed Him. That is

utter Oneness, hoıv could that be corartership?". 17

But reaching the Real, does not mean the end of the journey. The human

effort to attain the truth is always renewable since "the beloved ıvears a new

dress at any time", and because even if the Sufi reaches the core of the nut, he

yet discovers thousands of them, 18 "and if the man... arrives to perceive the

Truth, this ıvill not be the Truth himself. I1ıe true man is who do es not .finish to

endeavor, and turns araund the sublime Truth without relaxation nar repose" .19

14 the continuation of the verse is: Everything other than Gad isleading you astray, /Be it you thrane, kingdam, and crawn. (M lll 507-508, from Chittick). 15 "Lo, far I ta myself am un known, now in God's name what must I do?/! odore not the Cross nar the Crescent, I am not a Giaour nar a Jew./East nar West, /and nar s eo is my home, I have kin not w ith angel nar gnome./1 am wrought not of fire nar af foo m, I am shop ed not of dust nar af de w./! was bom not in Ch ina o far, not in Saqsin and not in Bu/ghar;/Not in lndia, where five rivers are, nar 'Iraq nar Khorasan I grew./Not in this world or that world I dwe/J, not in Paradise, neither in He/1;/Not from Eden and Rizwan I fell, not from Adam my lineage I drew./ In a place beyand uttermost Place, ina tract without shadow of trace./ Saul and body transcending, 1/ive in the saul of my Loved One o new!"/ He Gad and Oneness blossomed forth» (M VI 2266, cited by Nicholson, R. A., ap. cit, p. 161. 16 Rümii, AI-Majiilis a/-Sab'ah, (The seven sessions) p. 24. 17 Masnawi, IV 2767 from Chittick, ap. cit. 18 About the infınity of the hidden trueness cf. Rümif, AJ-Rubii'iyiit, (Ouarters). p. 146, quarter no 499. 19 Ffh mii fih, p. 73.

1368 When we read the poetry or prose of Rumi, we cannot determine whether

the "Unity ofBeing" means Ittihad or hulul, because both require annihilation.20

In general, "Unity of Being" indicates the way of Ittihad which starts form

knowledge of the self to come to the knowledge of the Other Self. The princip­

le of this approach is to consider the selfas a mirror of the Real or His astrola­

be: "the man is astrolabe of Real, but it is necessary to have an astronomer to

understand the astrolabe ... Because who "knows himself, knows his Gad" ... as

the silver astrolabe is a mirror of celestial spheres, the human existence ... is an

astrolabe of the Real. When Gad made the man know Him and have an eye on

Him, the man begins seeing in his existential astrolabe the disclosure of the Re­

al and His absolute beauty instant by instant, glance by glance. This beauty do­

esn't disappear". 21

Even if the beginning of a mystical journey is the knowledge of the

self, Rumi advised the Sufı to get ri d of his knowledge of the self as soo n as

he knows it, for he may attain the One and unify with Him. Rumi deseribes

this dialectic relation with his selfas the following : "Suppose you know the

definitions/ of all substances and their products,/what good is it to you?/

Know the true definition of yourself./ That is essential./ Then, when you

know your own definition, 1 flee from it,/ that you may attain the One who

cannot be defined,/ O sifter of the dust". In Rubaiyat, Rumi says als o: "I w as

preoccupied by myself, then I don 't merit my soul/but when I go out of my

~oul, I find my saul''. 22 In the station of Ittihad there is no distinction bet­

ween two selves: "When the saul has been united with Gad, to speak of So-

20 W e can fınd the traces of wahdat al 'hulul in these masnawis: "Happy the moment when we are seated in the Palace, thou and 1, /With two forms and w ith two fıgures but with one saul, thou and 1. {The colors of the grove and the voice of the birds w ili bestow immortality /At the time when we come into the garden, thou and 1./We shall show them the Maan itself, thou and I.{Thou and 1, individuals no more, shall be mingled in ecstasy./Joyful and secure from foolish babble, thou and 1./AII the bright-plumed birds of heaven will devour the ir hearts with envy/ln the place where we shall laugh in such a fashion, thou and I.{This is the greatest wonder, that thou and 1, sitting here in the same nook./Are at this moment both in 'Iraq and Khorasan, thou and 1." 21 Kitiib Fih mii fih, p. 39 ; and he says: "in the Hadith "show me the thing as they are".Man is something great, all things are right in him, but the veils and darkness don't permit him to learn the science existent inside him", ib., p. 90. 22 AI-Rubii'iyiit, quarter 15, p. 24; he says alsa: "sometimes 1 say 'l'm prince of my self/and at times 1 cry Tm captive of myself, ibid, quartet 16, p. 25.

Mohamed Mesbahi Equivocity of "uızity of being" in Jaliiluddfn Rümf

ul (Gad) is to speak of this saul, and to speak of this saul means to speak

of that Soul". 23

The feeling of unity with all things, whether they are different or opposi­

tes, material or spiritual, emotional or intellectual, is one of the several consequ­

ences of the unity of Being.

If there be any lover in the world, O Moslems, 'tis I.

If there be any believer, infidel, or Christian hermit, 'tis I.

The wine-dregs, the cup-bearer, the minstrel, the harp, and the music,

The beloved, the candle, the drink, and the joy of the drunken - 'tis I.

The two-and-seventy creeds and sects in the world

Do not really exist: I swear by God that every creed and sect - 'tis I.

Eartlı and air and water and fire, nay, body and soul too - 'tis I.

Truth and falsehood, good and evil, ease and difficulty from first to last,

Knowledge and learning and asceticism and piety and faith - 'tis I.

The fire of Hell, be assured, with i ts flaming limbos,

Yes, and Paradise and Eden and the Houris - 'tis I.

This eartlı and heaven with all that they hold,

Angels, Peris, Genies, and Mankind- 'tis 1."24

In the domain of ethics, all judgments alıout human acts lose their meaning

in the state of unity of being: " .. for the persona vanished in the Real, offenses

are not offeııses, crimes are not crimes, because he is absorbed in the Real".25

For Rı1mi, the same place (the Being) is not wide enough for two essences,26

for two judgments. However, this unity in place and in self does not prevent Rumi

123 Masnawi, VI 4040, from Turkmen, Erkan, The essence of Rflm!T's Masnevi, Turkey, 1992. p. 345. 24 Rümi, cited by Nicholson, R. A., op. cit., p. 161-162. 25 Kitii b Fih m ii fih, p. 85. 26 cf. ibid. p. 58; and he saysin other works: "Aman knocks at the d oor of the sweetheart, a voice inside says: who is knocking? He answers: 1 am; the voice tells him: this house does not hold you and me. And the door remains close. The lover parts to the desert. After one year, he returns and knocked at the door another time, the voice from inside asks him as the other time :who is knocking? The lover answers this is you yourself; and He opens the door to him ", Rümi, from 'Abdelkader Mahmoud, Alfalsafa al-sflfya f• a/-lsliim, Ca i ro, 1967, p. 535.

1370 from recognizing the existence of diversity between the two essences: "O Gad! O I!

O You ! My radiaııt pearl! W e are diverse one from the other! I am your fate"?

3. The "Unity of Being from existential signification to discursive one:

It is well known that the way Rumi has proceeded to demonstrate his "Unity of

existence" is the analogy in all its forms: comparison, metaphors, allegories,

anecdotes, parables ete, which gave his unity a metaphoric and poetic character.

Thus, to say that "Unity of Being" is metaphorical means that it is in fa ct a "dis­

cursive unity" and not an existential one. It means alsa that this unity is achi­

eved only by the use of discourse and metaphors, namely by using logos in its

linguistic sense.27

Nevertlıeless, ifwe consider that Gad has created the world by a Word I me­

an language, we can say that the world is n atlıing but a disclosure of the Being

that inhabits language. Then, the affirmation that the unity of being in Rumi is

discursive has the same meaning as saying that it is existential. In this way, we

will say that the realization of a discursive unity has the same intensity as the

realization of an existential unity. Thus, the mirror or the astrolabe, where the

Sufi sees Real, is language. When the Sufi, is interpreting the Koranic verse

"wherever you go there is the face of Gad", he sees Gad in all things. W e think

t):ıat this sight is a poetic and metaphorical seeing, and not a sensual or a rati­

anal one. In this poetic experience, only the viewer, the viewed .and visian beco­

me the same thing: "at the end of it all I see is nothing but Gad' or 'Only Gad

sees Gad' or bejare anytlıing else I see only God".28 This is the meaning reached

by Sufis when they claim they see Gad by Gad.

27 About the vanish the name of 1 in the name of the you, he says: "If you want your names, renounce your names, and cl ing to this name ... because who search­es for his name wastes his name, and who hides his name in this name, wins the good reputation for eternity", AI-Majiilis ai-Sab'ah, p. 68. 28 H enson, Steven, "How God become conscious of Himself?", http://www.steven­henson.com/SHENOfo20Ta/kOfo20MayDAı202005.pdf

. Mohamed Mesbahi Equivocity of "ımity of being •· iıı Jaliiluddfıı Rümf

Conclusion

Our objective in this pa per was to discuss the transfonnations of Unity of Being,

mo re than seeking to find out a system of unity of Being in Rümi's thinking. In­

deed, we notice that he is more inclined to deseribe the transformatian of Sufi

from awareness of dualism and pluralism to annihilation in unity, from monot­

heism to pantheism, from unity of Go d to unity with Him. This process of trans­

formatian does not have an end even if the self is annihilated in God, or that

God dwells in the individual.

At first sight, we see this process as a negative one. The ambition of ob­

taining the extreme achievement and unity with the Real, requires evacuating

the self from all individual and collective worries. Nevertheless, when we con­

template this negative process of emptying the self, we find out that this process

gives the individual a new aptitude to receive the absolute and consequently to

make him freer.

The Sufi experience to reach a "Unity of Being" supposes that the mystic

has to stop using reason in a way. Because the end of this experience is not

knowledge through separation and distinction, but through gnosis, i.e. to think

of being via being and think in God-via-God, or congruity achieved with being

through being not by Intellect. In other words, so that divinity comes to live in

yourself, you have to offer all yourself to Him, in the sense that you are seen,

heard, thought and loved only through Him.

However, because Rümi has founded his ıvahdatu al ıvujüd on metaphors

and allegories, we can say that his unity is discursive. But if we consider that the

Real habits the word, through which the cosmos exists, we will understand that

the discursive unity is a synonym of pantheism. It is rather pantheism stimulat­

ed by the Divine Existence.

Hereof we understand why the heart is used by this unity, and why unity

of being was a cordial and not a rational one. Rümi was not interested in

demonstrating his unitary view with necessary and essential premises, but he

was rather interested in the emotional side of that unity, without being distur­

bed by rational notions and demonstrations.

Unity of Being does not abrogate the transcendence of God, nor His sin­

gularity. In the highness of anniliila tion of the self, the sufi recognizes the radi­

cal othemess between man and Go d. If the world is only manifestations of God,

13 7 2 the transfonnations of these manifestations are not a sign of the essence of Go d.

'

His "Unity of Being" remains on the level of emotion, the level of speech and

that of lovers' wanderings. For this reason Rümi's Unity of Being" is a unity of

contemplation, a unity of a view stimulated by Being, a unity where the viewer,

the viewed and vision vanish at the same time.

· Mohamed Mesbahi Eqııivocity of "ımity of beiııg" iıı Jaliilııddiıı Rümi