Eleventh International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

We began this study by an inquiry about the today importance of Rumi, not only as a poet but also as a mystic, and the generalization of his presence in important spheres of the religious and spiritual existence of the Iranian society. The frequency of the presence of Rumi in religious and spiritual circles reinforces the assumption that in the religious life of a large portion of the Iranian society, he plays the role of a medium in the road towards guidance and salvation. To analyze the role and the position of Rumi, this essay explores the constructed image of Rumi in Masnavi‘s circles which are guided by an commentator of the text. The final purpose is a thick description of the semantic system which is produced through these circles. The findings of this study shows that the spiritual current that Rumi represents is in contrast to the official and mediator-oriented religion in which “Shariah” plays a central role and jurist and cleric are its exclusive mediators. Rumi’s audience sees him as a liberating way to achieve a kind of immediate spirituality to allow them the possibility of “subjectivity”. However, the findings show that the semantic system produced has created just a kind of satisfactory “perception of subjectivity” given to them by the commentator of Masnavi, rather than turning these audiences into active subjects. The attempt to achieve the immediate spirituality, has not led to the elimination of the traditional intermediaries, but has reproduced a new system of intermediaries.