The Opposition of Life and Death in Mathnavi

Mathnavi is a collection of relatively varied contrasts wherein the opposition of the two worlds constitutes one of the most important foundations of the poet’s thought. In the constellation of Molavi’s thoughts, the dominance of the Unseen world over the Visible world is constantly palpable. The discussion of ‘return’ is one of the foundations of his thought, leading us toward the Unseen world under the disguise of different terms. In this article, we encounter various meanings of death. These meanings, though leading us to the next world are different from one another. They are: transitional death, natural death, advisable death and martyrdom, among which Molana deals with the first one more than the others. In order to content his readers regarding the Unseen world, Molana has taken resort to allegory, because when he speaks of a world for which there is no boundary and form, he inevitably makes use of something perceivable in the world of form.