The Concept of Suffering from the Rumi s Point of View

As a fact of sentient life, suffering is a concomitant problem of the human existence. Throughout the history people from different backgrounds and points of view, such as psychological, philosophical and mystical, have tried to solve this problem. Thus suffering, more than any other fact of human life, raises the philosophical questions that religion customarily tries to answer; questions such as: Is there any relation between suffering and evil? As the absolute Good, what is the role of God in relation to suffering and evil? What is the best remedy ofhuman suffering? Theists answered to these questions in different ways. Rumi was one of them who tried to find reasonable explanations. His reflections about suffering, as revealed in Mathnavī, can be traced back to his Islamic beliefs on the one hand, and to the teachings of Borhān Al-dīn Tirmadhī, a sufi master who emphasized the blame (malāma) and asceticism (riyada), and Shams Tabrizi, who stressed the importance of love in thariqah (the Path) on the other hand. As a Muslim, Rumi observed the suffering from the Islamic pointof view. Firstly, he referred to creation as the purposeful act of God and then by explaining the problem of freedom and determinism, described the true suffering as the sweet fruit of the Divine love, so much so that a true lover should willingly submit her/himself to it. Rumi’s frequent referring to Islamic sayings and traditions is the sign of the influence of religious teachings on him.