Prophets and saints in the Rumi’s Mathnawi

• Autor(a) principal: Filho, Mario Guimarães Werneck
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Horizonte - Revista de Estudos de Teologia e Ciências da Religião
• Texto Completo: http://periodicos.pucminas.br/index.php/horizonte/article/view/P.2175-5841.2018v16n51p1351
• topic: Rumi; Sufism; Islam; prophets and saints; Ciências da Religião; Teologia; Rumi; sufismo; Islã; profetas e santos; Ciência da Religião; Teorias de Linguagem; Estudos de Religião; Teologia

The present work has as its guiding principle to show the importance of the prophets and the saints in the Mathnawi of Rumi - mystic of the Sufi Islamic tradition, born in Vakhsh, in the vicinity of present day Balkh Afghanistan in 1207. For Rumi the prophets and saints are instruments of communication between God and his creatures. Far beyond historical figures, prophets and saints actualize the message and bring into the phenomenal world the subtle influx of the numinous. The present study starts from the lineage of Adam (monotheistic and Koranic lineage) and passing through the various prophets common to the monotheistic traditions culminates with the figure of Mohammad (held by Islam as a seal of prophecy). In the same way, the saints whom the Islamic tradition celebrates as bridges between the worlds and messengers who actualize the divine message have for Rumi the force of being sent that can be seen and heard synthesizing the eternal teachings in updated temporal experiences. For Rumi the importance of the prophets and the saints is revealed in the striking features that each one of them acquires and which he covers as envoys and friends of God, updated bridges of an eternal and perennial message. For this reason, Rumi urges each disciple and believer to listen to the message of the prophets and to visit the saints in order to actualize the theophanical secrets of God.