Pacifism As A Major Subject Of Islamic Mysticism And Rumi’s Thoughts

Pacificism

Pacificism is a major subject of Islamic mysticism and Rumi’s thoughts. Based on pacificism, the mystic believes God as existential and absolute truth and there is no one but God. Pacificism is the opposition to war or violence as a means of settling disputes or gaining an advantage.

Pacificism in Islamic mysticism means the public and general peace. The world has never been without representations of love and peace. Rumi was and is one of the perfect representatives of such a complete human being, and one of the greatest teachers of universal love and peace

The pacificism in Islamic mysticism and Rumi’s thoughts has two major bases: love and pantheism, which both of them are principle bases of Islamic mysticism.

1. Love

Love is one of the most important principles in Islamic mysticism and there are very definitions and theories about it, for each theory teaches how to come close to God or to be united with him. Rumi has a completely positive viewpoint to existence. He believes that there is no absolute evil in the world: evil is relative because he thinks that every negative problem may be turned to a positive opportunity in the future. So he has no hostility against others because there is no the absolute reason for hostility:

Love is divided in two parts: love in the human and love in all the world and creations. So pacificism is divided in these two parts: peace to the people and peace to all the world and creations. The humanistic peace is the peace which Rumi through it loves all of the people even his enemy. The results of this part are justice, security, dedication, guidance, honesty, freshness, beauty, and love. The universal peace is the peace which he through it loves cosmos and nature. Its results respect to nature as a living thing and the aesthetic attitude to the world.

2. Pantheism

Literally means “God is All” and “All is God”. It is the view that everything is of an all-encompassing immanent abstract God; or that the Universe, or nature, and God are equivalent

Rumi based on pantheism sees humans and cosmos as the illumination of God. the spirit of God has been inspired in all of the things; so he believes that every pain of humans is a pain for others:

The pain of one part of the body is the pain of all (its parts),

Whether it be the hour of peace or war (Rumi, 4V, 2000: 340).

And he emphasizes that only the existence of God is absolute and actually other beings are non-existence and because of the pantheism all of the things love god:

One reason for Rumi’s popularity is that “Rumi is able to verbalize the highly personal and often confusing world of personal/spiritual growth and mysticism in a very forward and direct fashion. He does not offend anyone, and he includes everyone. The world of Rumi is neither exclusively the world of a Sufi, nor the world of a Hindu, nor a Jew, nor a Christian; it is the highest state of a human being — a fully evolved human. A complete human is not bound by cultural limitations; he touches every one of us. Rumi’s poems are heard in churches, synagogues, Zen monasteries, as well as in the downtown New York art/performance/ music scene.”