The Union with God as a marriage: Examining a key conceptual metaphor in Kashf al-Asrar of Ruzbihan

In contemporary theories, metaphor is considered not only an aesthetic tool, but also a fundamental cognitive process of the human mind. According to the theory of conceptual metaphor, the metaphor is understanding of a conceptual domain in the terms and expressions of another conceptual domain. This research is an attempt to analyze a key conceptual metaphor in the book Kashf al-Asrar by Ruzbihan Baghli.

The method of this study is library-analytical and it focuses on the issue of conceptualizing Union with God with the terms of the conceptual field of marriage in the book Kashf al-Asrar; however, by necessity, the other important works of the sheikh, i.e. Abhar al-Asheqin and Sharah Shathiyat, are also discussed.

Ruzbihan in the book Kashf al-Asrar - his spiritual autobiography, which is dedicated to the report of his revelations - tried to describe the abstract concepts of the conceptual field of Union with God by using the concepts of the conceptual field of "marriage". In this metaphor, the origin realm is the conceptual domain of "marriage," which is a tangible concept, and the destination realm is the conceptual domain of “Union with God” which is a metaphysical and abstract concept. Rozbahan explains the abstract concepts of love relationship with God with the terms and words of the field of marriage, such as bride, bridegroom, celebration ceremony, and the offerings made by the groom to the bride.

According to the theory of conceptual metaphor, Ruzbihan by choosing the conceptual field of "marriage" to describe " Union with God", explains both his perceptual and cognitive system about Union with God and adjusts his and the audience's expectations towards it. In fact, this metaphor transfers the intellectual system and the atmosphere governing "marriage" to the intellectual system and atmosphere governing the concept of "Union with God". Through the study of this metaphor, a concept that is unparalleled in the space of Islamic mysticism, we are introduced to new aspects of Ruzbihan's approach achieves the category of Union with God.