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 5 of 11 “Man is in appearance a derivative of this world, and intrinsically the origin of the world.” —Rumi “Although the universe is one when seen from the point of view of the Divine Essence, from the point of view of relativity there is a fundamental polarization into microcosm and macrocosm. The macrocosm is the universe in all its indefinite multiplicity, reflecting the Divine Names and Qualities as so many individual particularizations and determined modes. The microcosm is man, who reflects these same qualities but as a totality. The macrocosm and the microcosm are like two mirrors facing each other; each contains all of the other’s qualities, but the one in a more outward and objective manner and in detail (mufassal) and the other in a more inward and subjective manner and in summary form (mujmal). Thus man’s total knowledge of himself in principle includes the knowledge of the whole universe…The prototype of both the microcosm and the macrocosm is the Universal or Perfect Man (al-insan al-kamil), who is the sum total of all levels of reality in a permanent synthesis.”