Maulana Rumi is considered the greatest poet of transcendental love in the Islamic tradition. Hisnteachings in poetry aim to inspire spiritual growth and community-building, drawing deeply from thenQuran and Hadith. Rumi uses allegories, imagery, metaphors, parables, and symbolic language to revealnthe divine presence in everyday life. The rhymes and rhythms of his poetry have the power to break thenmonotony of thought. Such linguistic techniques help readers to comprehend universal forms, or morenaccurately, to become influenced by the divine flame and open potential ethical futures in everyday life.nHis poetry perfectly blends the transcendental and immanent in a singular experience, easing thenfriction arising from the tension of normative and historical realities. We study Rumi in light of thenshrinking public space for interpretation, the emphasis on rationality, and the scarcity of room fornmystical experience. His writings offer a more comprehensive range of interpretations to re-envisionnmodern religious forms, often reductive to carry a more profound phenomenological experience ofndivinity and skewed to provide meaning to the human condition. In this course, we will explore thendeeper emotional layers of Rumi’s poetry, his perspectives on the self and the universe, his notion of anform of life, and how his ideas resonate with us. Additionally, the course will help to recover thenaesthetic experience, a core ethos of Islam that is marginalized at the expense of legalistic strands.nThis course will be taught in English, making it accessible to all students. No prior knowledge of Persiannis required. Students will read widely from Rumi’s oeuvre alongside critical interpretative work innEnglish.
