The Mythical Foundation of the Conceptual Metaphor of Death in Rumi's Masnavi

According to the Islamic mysticism, the death is the main path to the truth recognition and connection to it.Death frees the soul from the cage of the body and gives meaning to life and defines his/her purpose; Hence, death is the fruit of life.This kind of thought is also in some myths. Rumi is one of the mystics who has used mythological ideas in drawing the image of death.The current paper explored the death metaphors in Rumi's Masnavi using the conceptual metaphor method and theory to figure out the relationship between Rumi's thought about death and mythical ideas as well as the role of mythical beliefs in defining the path of mystical conduct.We found that Rumi, like most mystics, has recognized and dealt (especially the death of immortality) in the context of the "journey back and up to the Principle / God / Truth" and through this, has opened the path of mystical conduct and has introduced death as a method of the truth recognition and mysticism attainment with shown its key role in the process of receiving divine knowledge and mystical conduct.The basis of this metaphor is the principle of the duality of soul and body in the belief in the duality of the ancient Iranians, which spread in the region of West Asia and North Africa and southern Europe until it emerged from Plato's "The theory of Forms".