An Introduction Who was Rumi? Sufism and Islam God and the World Universal Man The Fall The Trust Union with God The Nafs Knowledge and Method The Limitations of Rational Knowledge

slide 7 of 11 “So man has come into this world for a particular task, and that is his purpose; if he does not perform it, then he will have done nothing." —Rumi “Universal Man, as the principle of all manifestation, is the distributor of God’s bounty to the world. Thus the outward harmony of the universe depends on man’s collective actualization of the state of Universal Man. When a man realizes this original and primordial state, he becomes a ‘channel of grace’ for the world. But through the fall, the majority of men have forgotten their rightful function, and thus the world becomes ever more ‘separated’ from God and ever more chaotic. This original function of man to be the Universal Man and act as a channel of grace for the world is referred to by the Quran as the ‘trust’ (al-amanah) placed upon man’s shoulders at his creation.”