They Could Make Them Learn

IBNA Staff Writer, *Mawlavi and Shariati liquating false Sufism* - IBNA Iran Book News Agency - Tehran, Iran; Friday, January 7, 2011

Seyyed Mohammad Borhani author of ‘Mawlavi and Shariati’ has made a new comparative reading of Shariati’s thought and Mawlana Rumi’s.

According to him, promotion of the ideas of great thinkers is a practical means to refusal of false Sufism which is only possible through elevation of public knowledge of Islamic mysticisms.

IBNA: he said: “What is important in the introduction of these two figures’ mysticism is that they both had a deep knowledge of their contemporary religions and cultures and both have believed in Islamic mysticism as the best path to truth.”

He added: “Dr Ali Shariati addresses his son Eshan on page 107 of ‘To Familiar Audiences’ and says, ‘I am going to familiarize you with a person who can by himself cope with all fallacies and diversions in East and West; he is Mowlana Rumi.”

Borhani continued: “Dr Shariati’s special attention to Mowlana’s thought made me write about common indicators of Shariati’s and Rumi’s ideas in a volume as Dr Shariati was familiar with all schools of thought and religions of his time in east and west yet he introduces Mowlana Rumi to his son as the best model to follow.”

Borhani referred to the results of this comparison and said: “It became clear that these figures had many things in common the most important of which is having a sophisticated and literate father with mastery over his contemporary culture. Mowlana Rumi learnt the preliminaries of Islamic culture from his father Sultan-al-Olama when he was seven, and Dr Shariati also leant about the roots of Islam in preschool age from his father Mohammad-Taghi Shariati, an interpreter of Quran.”

“Both of them were talented with mental creativity as Rumi composed about 60 thousand lines of his Qazales after meeting Shams and Shariati too applied this creativity on expressing his ideas.”

Borhani continued: “Another common issue in their thoughts is that none were fanatic for being Shia and this led to the absorption of fans from many other religions or schools of thought, and they could make them learn about Islamic instructions on piety and self improvement.”

Borhani remarked that although rich mysticism shows the path to truth and self-purification in a comprehensive way, individuals in contemporary society are interested in false Sufism due to their lack of information about it, whereas Mowlana the mystic and Shariati the intellectual have mastery over their thought as appropriate models for reaching truth.”

Borhani said the best place for introducing their thoughts is school: “In order to eradicate false Sufism, I suggested teaching Mathnavi Ma’navi as school course to the Ministry of Education so that the youth’s familiarity with Islamic mysticism could start in early school age rather than through individuals and false methods.”