THE DIVINE UNITY IN AND BEYOND NATURE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN WALT WHITMAN’S AND JALAL AD-DIN MUHAMMAD RUMI’S ECSTATIC POEMS

Yıl 2020, , 633 - 643, 15.09.2020

Melih Kökcü

https://doi.org/10.30520/tjsosci.777912

Öz

As of today, the teachings of Rumi, Ibn al-Arabi and other Sufi mystics are enjoying a considerable revival in the United States. Especially ecstatic poems of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi have sold hundreds of thousands of copies recently, making him a best-selling poet not only in the United States but also in other many countries. The roots of American fascination for Sufism, however, reach as deep as the nineteenth century when American transcendentalism appeared as an expression within Romanticism as a literary movement. This paper aims to compare the concept of the Divine Unity in both seemingly unrelated philosophical movements in terms of how the ecstatic poems of Walt Whitman and Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi transcend physical existence in nature to see the truth of the universe, which means, for all of them, the unity with God. Some studies, albeit clear differences between two traditions, show evidence to commentate that their mystical and transcendental tenets share a basic understanding of human desire leading to the Divine Unity. Two religious and philosophical movements argue about omnipresence and omnipotence of God and in this point nature plays a crucial role as God’s perfect manifestation. The ascetic poems of Rumi, the thirteenth-century Sufi Muslim philosopher born in today’s Afghanistan, and the transcendental poems of Whitman, the nineteenth-century Christian transcendentalist from New York, are bedecked with similar natural elements to see what lays beyond form in compossible nature.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Sufism, American Transcendentalism, Rumi, Whitman, Poetry, Walt Whitman

Kaynakça

• Ahmad, Mahnaz. “Whitman and Hafiz: Expressions of Universal Love and Tolerance.” Sufism and American Literary Masters. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2014.
• Ahmad, Mirza Tahir. Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge and Truth. Islamabad: Islam International Publications Ltd., 1998. Print.
• Aminrazavi, Mehdi. Sufism and American Literary Masters. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2014.
• Anadolu-Okur, Nilgün. “The Enduring Allure of Rumi and Sufism in American Literature.” Muslims and American Popular Culture. Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2014. pp. 245-66. Print.
• Bala Ruma, Mustapha. A Study of English Romanticism and Sufism as Literary Movements. Saarbrücken: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, 2012.
• Burckhardt, Titus. Introduction to Sufi Doctrine. Bloomington: World Wisdom, Inc., 2008.
• Chittick, William C. “Sufi Thought and Practice.” The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. pp. 207-16.
• Chittick, William C. Sufism. Oxford: Oneworld, 2000.
• Chittick, William C. The Sufi Doctrine of Rumi. Bloomington: World Wisdom, Inc., 2005.
• Chittick, William C. The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-Arabi’s Metaphysics Imagination. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989.
• Chittick, William C. “Wahdat al-Wujud.” Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World. New York: Thomson Gale, 2004.
• Ekhtiyar Mansur. “The Chronological Development of Emerson’s Interest in Persian Mysticism.” Sufism and American Literary Masters. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2014.
• Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Poems. New York: Ams Press, 1968.
• Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “The Poet.” Essays: Second Series. New York: Ams Press, 1968.
• Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “The Over-Soul.” Essays: First Series. New York: Ams Press, 1968.
• Furlanetto, Elena. “Walt Whitman’s “Sea Drift” Cluster: The Encounter of Sufi and American Selves at Paumanok.” Harbors, Flows, and Migrations: The USA in/and the World. New Castle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017. Print.
• Glassé, Cyril. “Wahdat al-Wujud.” The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam. London: Stacey International, 2001.
• Hodder, Alan. “Asian Influences.” The Handbook of Transcendentalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. pp. 27-37.
• Ibn al-Arabi, Muhyiddin and Reynold A. Nicholson. Tarjuman al-Ashwaq: A Collection of Mystical Odes. London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1911. Print.
• Landau, Rom. The Philosophy of Ibn ‘Arabi. London/New York: Routledge, 2008. Print.
• LeMaster, J.R. and Sabahat Jahan. Walt Whitman and the Persian Poets. Bethesda: Ibex Publishers, 2009. Print.
• Loloi, Parvin. “Emerson and Aspect of Sa’adi’s Reception.” Sufism and American Literary Masters. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2014. pp. 91-116.
• Manzari, Alireza. “Nature in American Transcendentalism.” English Language and Literature Studies. Canadian Center of Science and Education, Vol.2 No.3 (2012). Print.
• Nicholson, Reynold A. The Mystics of Islam. London: G. Bell and Sons Ltd., 1914. Print.
• Nicholson, Reynold A. Studies in Islamic Poetry. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1969.
• Rumi, Jalal ad-Din and Coleman Barks. Rumi: The Book of Love. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. Print.
• Rumi, Jalal ad-Din and Reynold A. Nicholson. The Mathnawi of Jalalu’ddin Rumi. London: Messrs Luzac & Co., 1926. Print.
• Sowder, Michael. Whitman’s Ecstatic Union. New York/London: Routledge, 2005.
• Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Philadelphia: D. McKay, 1891-92. Print.
• Whitman, Walt and Malcolm Cowley. Leave of Grass: The First (1855) Edition. London: The Viking Press, 1960.
• Whitman, Walt. The Selected Poems of Walt Whitman. New York: Walter J. Black, 1942. Print.