Content analysis and artistic study of the poems of Mahmoud Mofleh "But You Are a Balm" based on the indicators of Islamic literature

The theory of the Islamic literature is a new theory that considers a literary work as a mixture of art and commitment. Purposefulness, adherence to the Islamic principles, originality, comprehensiveness, independence of opinion, and effectiveness are the most important features of the Islamic literature. Mahmoud Mofleh (born 1943) is one of the most influential Palestinian poets. He has several poem collections. One of his famous anthologis is "But You Are a Balm" which contains the features and indicators of the Islamic literature. The purpose of this article is to enumerate the characteristics of Islamic literature in the two dimensions of form and content in that anthology to explain the depth of themes and the expressive tricks and delicacies of the poems. Therefore, an attempt has been made to discover the relationship between the poet's religious emotions and his thoughts and imagination and to show how sincere the poet has been in his religious claims.

The research method is descriptive-analytical in the light of the indicators that have been listed for the Islamic literature. Based on these indicators, the research focuses on three characteristics including purposefulness, religious affiliation, and attachment to knowledge and love for the homeland. It proceeded to extract appropriate poems and verses in the “But You Are a Balm” anthology. Then, the degree of connection between the poet's claims and his linguistic and expressive elements is determined. For this purpose, attention is paid to the semantic and phonetic nature of words and phrases, the scope of the poet's imagination and the quality of his arrangements are examined, his subconscious is unveiled, and it is shown to what extent and how the poet's words correspond to his feelings.

The present study shows that the characteristics of the Islamic literature such as purposefulness, emphasis on beliefs, adherence to Islamic teachings, combining religion and knowledge and belonging to the Islamic homeland are central in most of the poems in the anthology. They have given the poet's mind and language an Islamic color and flavor. The structure of the poems is also related to their Islamic themes. At the lexical level, the poet's influence taken from Qur'anic words and interpretations is palpable. The music of the words is in harmony with the meanings encoded in them, and their rhythm conveys their semantic features and emotional charge. The poet's general imagination is sometimes present in the Saudi atmosphere, the homeland of revelation, and draws a picture of the desert. Proportional metaphors and similes are also included within such a picture. 

The Islamic literature wants the poet to serve as a committed preacher of virtues and a propagator of the sublime Islamic ethics if the poems are to be worthwhile. Poetry, however, must not only take on a media dimension and sacrifice art to mission but poetry promote its religious message artistically and directly. The condition for such an art is that the poet enjoys emotional truth which means that such linguistic elements as words, phrases and music of the poem should be in harmony with the poet's emotional mood and in line with the atmosphere of joy or sorrow that prevails in the poem. Expressive elements are also effective in showing the truth of the poet's feelings. In the Islamic literature, when a poet's general and partial imagination creates paintings and images that are in line with the cultural context of Islam and subconsciously follow the Qur'anic teachings, they confirm the poet's emotional truth. However, in accordance with the basic view of the theory of the Islamic literature, Mofleh's poem is a successful poem. This is because the coherence of structure and content can be seen along with emotional unity, and the principles and teachings of Islam have been promoted artistically and indirectly. The presence of emotions in most of the poems in "But You Are a Balm" has caused a variety of styles and the entanglement of compositional and narrative styles. The emotional unity has also given these poems a thematic unity, making them integrated. These characteristics prove Mofleh's artistic glory as a committed Islamic poet. The coherence of the structure and content and the integrity of the emotional space in the artistic context of the poems help the reader reach emotional coexistence with the artistic experience of the poet.