Knowledge of God and Self-Knowledge; The Influence of the Thoughts of Rūmī on Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist

According to his audience's ability to understand, Jalāl ad-Dīn Rūmī uses allegories and folk tales for expressing spiritual love and mysteries. He believes that folk tales are a means of transcendence for knowledge lovers. Rūmī tells the antecode of "a man of Baghdad and the hidden treasure" to his disciples to interpret the famous hadith " whosoever knows himself knows his Lord". The story inspired the famous Brazilian writer, Paulo Coelho who wrote The Alchemist and became well-known all over the world. By using descriptive-analytical method, the present article deals with the question to what extent has Coelho been influenced by Rumi's mystical thoughts on the subjects of knowledge of God and self-knowledge? The result of the study shows that Rumi's mystical thoughts about unity of Being, manifestation of the Truth, softness of heart, the hidden treasure and divine knowledge, the language of love, the old wise man, cast a shadow over the whole story of The Alchemist.