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 11 of 11 “The great scholars of the age split hairs on all manner of sciences. They know perfectly and have a complete comprehension of those matters which do not concern them. But as for what is truly of moment and touches a man more closely than all else, namely his own self, this your great scholar does not know.” —Rumi “As we have seen, in Rumi’s view external knowledge, or knowledge in the usual sense of the term, is useful and justifiable only to the extent that it is symbolically effective. Man should never be satisfied to ‘know’ with the feeble powers of his reason. Rather he should enter the Path in order to be delivered from the limitations of reason and attain to gnosis.”