Islamic Mysticism in Kabir s Poetry Prof. Hamdi Hameed Yousif Tikrit University, College of Education

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1 Islamic Mysticism in Kabir s Poetry Prof. Hamdi Hameed Yousif Tikrit University, College of Education ABSTRACT: Kabir ( ) is a famous Indian poet of the fifteenth century whose life extends 0ver three centuries: the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Though his real religion is still controversial and his life and death are still been mixed with myth, one can detect a strong Islamic influence in his poems. All his poems belong to the mystical tradition; they were a mixture of Bodhi, Hindu and Islamic mysticism. Kabir lived in an age in which the impassioned poems of the great Muslim mystics, Attar, Saadi, Julalu'ddin Rumi and Hafiz were exerting a powerful influence on the religious thought of India This paper, therefore, is an attempt to examine Kabir's poems in the light of Islamic Sufi (mystical) writings and to show the influence of the great Muslim Sufi poets on him. The paper begins with a brief biographical note about Kabir followed by a section on mysticism and Sufism. The rest of the paper gives an analysis of a selection of Kabir's poems and songs in the light of mysticism. Through the analysis of his poems the study reaches at the conclusion that Kabir's mysticism is a reconciliation of his intense Islamic Sufism with the traditional theology of Brahmanism. Though it is rather impossible to say that he is Brahman or Sufi, for his metaphors and religious symbols are drawn indifferently from both Hindu and Islamic beliefs but his mysticism is nearer to the religion of love of the Muslim Sufis: the love of God Who reveals Himslef only to the faithful lovers. The paper is concluded with the results of the study and recommendations for further studies. Key Words: Mysticism, Sofism, soul, proximity of God. Divine love, voyage, journey, veil, Mystical union, drunkenness, mystical ecstasy. I.i. Kabir ( ) Little is known about Kabir's life, his birth and his death. Evelyn Underhill says that he was born in Benares of Muslim parents in the late fourteenth century and about 1440 he became a disciple of Ramananda (a celebrated Hindu ascetic). His name, says Underhill, "is practically a proof of Moslem ancestry" (Underhill ix). The mystical poems of the Muslim mystics Rabi'a al-adawiya of Basrah (d.801), Mansur al-hallaj (d,922), Farid al-din al-attar ( ), Sa'di Shirazi ( ), Jalal al-din Al-Rumi ( ) and Hafiz Shirazi( ) were well known and influential at that time. According to Underhill, "it is one of the outstanding characteristics of Kabir's genius that he was able to fuse" Islamic and Hindu mysticism into one (Underhill: viii). In her Introduction to The Bijak of Kabir, Linda Hess gives different information about Kabir's life. She says that he was born in Varanasi around the beginning of the fifteenth century to a weaver parent recently 69

2 converted to Islam. She adds that he probably studied meditative and mystical practices with a Hindu guru, and became a "powerful teacher and poet, unique in his autonomy, intensity, and abrasiveness. His verses were composed orally and collected by disciples and admirers after varying periods of circulation. He is generally assumed to have been illiterate", (Hess: 3) However, the most acceptable opinion concerning Kabir's life is that of Russell Perkins in his "Introduction" to Sant Ajaib Singh Ji's book The Ocean of Love. He says that Kabir's life was "lost in the mists of legend" but he asserts that "Kabir lived from 1398 to 1518" (Perkins: xvii). On the other hand, Westcott asserts the uncertainty of "the place and date of his birth, his name, the religion to which he was attached by birth, the state of life in which he lived, married or single, and the number of years that he resided in any particular place"(westcott: 3). This uncertainty, no doubt, was the reason behind the numerous legends that have gathered round his name. Westcott concludes from Kabir's panths that Kabir was brought up in the house of a Muslim weaver whose name is Nini (40). Kabir himself, asserts Underhill, "was a weaver, a simple and unlettered man" (xiii). Unerhill seems to be certain concerning his birth, his love of music, and his death "at Maghar near Gorakhapur" (xviii) in Even his death was turned into a lgend. Muslim and Hindu disciples disputed on the possession of his body, Kabir appeared to them and told them to remove the shroud off his body to see what was there under it. When they did they only found a heap of flowers. The Muslims took half of it to be buried at Maghar and the Hindus took the second half to Benares. (xviiixix). Though this may be a legend, it shows that Kabir was a blameless mixture of both Hindu and Muslim religions. I.ii. Mysticism and Sufism Before approaching Kabir's poems it is necessary to shed some light on the meaning of both "Mysticism" and Islamic "Sufism". All western writers agree on the difficulty of defining "Mysticism" and all Muslim writers agree on the impossibility of defining "Sufism". The difficulty of defining mysticism is due to the non-mental, illogical, paradoxical and unpredictable aspects of the mystical experience that even the great mystics who have genuine mystical experiences declare that their experiences cannot be expressed in words. Even in the Indian religions Buddhism and Hinduism, mystical experience is inexpressible and beyond description. Buddhists, says Winston L. King, "would uniformly say that the task of explaining Nirvana is completely hopeless not only to Christians but to Buddhists", because "the essence of Nirvana is that it is 70

3 beyond all description or explanation of any sort" (King: 4-5). The Buda himself "does not speak about Nirvana but about the way to reach it" and his disciples are told not to waste their time on "such vain speculations" (Zurcher: 31). Definitions of "Mysticism" include a bewildering variety. Mysticism, says Ahmad Razzuq al-fasi "has been defined and interpreted in about two thousand references" ('Isa: 10). Cuthbert Butler believes that mysticism is still a controversial subject, he says that There is probably no more misused word in these our days than 'mysticism'. It has come to be applied to many things of many kinds: to theosophy and Christian science; to superstition and clairvoyance; to demonology and witchcraft; to occultism and magic; to weird psychical experiments, if only they have some religious colour, to revelations and visions; to other-worldliness, or even more dreaminess and impracticability in the affairs of life; to poetry and painting and music of which the motif is unobvious and has been said that love of God is mysticism; or that mysticism is only the Christian life lived on a high level; or that it is Roman Catholic piety in extreme form.(butler: 2). However, one of the tolerable and satisfactory definitions of mysticism is that of Otto Pfleiderer who defines mysticism as "the immediate feeling of the unity of the self with God" (Inge: 25) The Arabic, Persian and Turkish word for "mystic" is "Sufi" and from this word the Orientalist derived the term "Sufism" or "Sufiism". Etymologically speaking, the word "Sufi" is derived from the Arabic word Suf (wool) (Hijwiri: 30). Again, there are more than one thousand definitions, says Al-Sahrawardi, of Sufism though there is a thread that brings them together which is the emphasis on the purity of the Sufis hearts and their mortification of the self (Al-Sahrawardi: 81). Al-Junaid of Baghdad (d. 910), the outstanding Sufi of the Baghdad School, defines Sufism as the "means that God makes thee die to thyself, and makes thee live in Him" (Al-Qushayri: 556, Smith: 168). In another definition he says: Sufism is to purify the heart from the recurrence of creaturely temptation, to say farewell to all the natural inclinations, to subdue the qualities which belong to humanity, to keep fair from the claims of the senses of Divine knowledge, to be occupied with that which is eternally the best, to give wise counsel to all people, faithful to observe the truth and to follow the prophet in respect to 71

4 religious law. (Smith: ) This means that the Sufis, like other mystics of other religions of the world, renounce mundane things and pleasures and everything that hinders them from attaining spiritual union with the Divine. However, certain precepts and terms are of great importance to the understanding of mysticism (or Sufism) and mystical experience in poetry such as the proximity of God, divine love, mystical vision, ecstasy and mystical union. Divine love is the cornerstone of Mysticism in Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism and in Islamic Sufism..It is the highest of all loves; the pure love of God, neither for the sake of Paradise nor because of the fear of Hell. The final stages of the mystical path, says Margaret Smith, "were Love and Gnosis, leading to the Vision of God and the ultimate Goal of the quest, union with the Divine" (Smith: 174). I.iii. Mysticism in Kabir's Poems One Hundred Poems of Kabir, translated into English by the greatest poet of India Rabindranath Tagore assisted by the English Critic Evelyn Underhill (First published in 1915), is the main object of this paper. Reading these poems one feels that they are a unified whole; they complete each other because they deal with a unique subject: the devotional love of the poet and his intensive mystical experience which finds an outlet and expression only in songs. In the first poem we find the Islamic influence on Kabir in the words "seeker", "Kaaba" and "mosque"; words that confirm the poet's Islamic background, together with his use of "Kailash", "Yoga" (a Hindu discipline that promotes spiritual unity with a supreme being through a system of postures and rituals and "Sadhu" ( a Hindu holy man who lives by begging) to refer to Hindu background. I am neither in temple nor in mosque: I am neither in Kaaba nor in Kailash: Neither am I in rites and ceremonies, Nor in Yoga and renunciation. If thou art a true seeker, thou shalt at Once see Me: thou shalt meet Me In a moment of time. (Kabir: 1) 72

5 This mixture of Hindu and Muslim mysticism is emphasized in his second poem "Hindus and Muslims alike have achieved that end, where remains no mark of distinction." (Kabir: 2) In another poem he uses the metaphor of "the garden of flowers" which stands for the goal of the Sufi (mystic). He tells the mystic that this garden is within us, i. e. we are the breath of God and God is there in every body: Do not go to the garden of flowers! O Friend! Go not there; In your body is the garden of flowers (Kabir: 3) This is reminiscent of Al-Nasafi's image of the beggar who begs people unaware that a precious gem is hidden in his pocket (Al-Nasafi: 38). In another poem, this metaphor is replaced by the moon and the sun: The moon shines in my body, but my blind eyes cannot see it: The moon is within me, and so is the sun. In another place he uses the metaphor of the musk-deer which looks for musk in grass forgetting that it is within itself: The musk is in the deer, but is seeks it not within itself: it wanders in quest of grass. (Kabir: 6) ))لن تسع ي ازضي وال سوائي ووسع ي قلب عبد Tradition, This asserts the Holy My "الوؤهي(( earth and My heaven contain Me not but the heart of My faithful servant cantaineth Me".( Al-Ahadith ul-qudsiyya: 123). However, this time he gives the solution. If you want to realize God within you, you should annihilate and mortify your lower soul (self) in order to be apt and capable for the vision of, or union with God: So long as man clamours for the I and the mine, his works are as naught: When all love of the I and the Mine is dead, then the work of the Lord is done. (Kabir: 5) The poet then goes back to Hinduism to elucidate the interrelationship between God and man. The Hindus believe in the infinity of Brahma and therefore all creatures are within him. On the other hand, Brahma is within every creature which is parallel to the Muslim's belief that God is in every creature: The creature is in Brahma, and Brahma is in the creature: they are ever distinct, yet ever united. He Himself is the sun, the light, and the lighted. He Himself is Brahma, creature, and Maya. He himself is the manifold form, the infinite space. (Kabir: 6-7) 73

6 Furthermore, the same Islamic idea of man as the microcosm can be found in Kabir's poems: Within this earthern vessel are bowers and groves, and within it is the Creator: Within this vessel are the seven oceans and the unnumbered stars. (Kabir: 8) Talking about the inexpressible nature of divinity Kabir says that "there are no words to tell that which He is" (9). The poet then uses the metaphor of the swan for the soul. The swan's "ancient tale" suggests the antiquity of the soul. The swan's flight is to be to the kingdom of heaven where there is no sorrow, no doubt and no death: Tell me, O Swan, your ancient tale. From what land do you come O Swan? To what shore will you fly? Where would you take your rest, O Swan and what do you seek?. There is a land where no doubt nor sorrow have rule: where the terror of Death is no more. (Kabir:12) Man's relationship to God is like that of a wave to the river; they are indistinctable and inseparable. What unites them is that both are water. Within the Supreme Divinity, men are like the waves of a river; the river and its waves are one, i. e. God and the mystic are one: The river and its waves are one surf: where is the difference between the river and its waves... Tell me, Sir, where is the distinction? (Kabir: 14) In poem XV, the poet develops the metaphor of the river into an image of a vast ocean where millions of Krishnas (in Hinduism, the eighth incarnation of the god Vishnu, often depicted as a young cowherd), Vishnus (in Hinduism, a god called the Preserver, the second member of the triad that includes Brahma the Creator and Shiva the Destroyer), Brahmas (in Hinduism, the god of knowledge and understanding, regarded as the protector of the world and in later tradition called the creator), Shivas (in Hinduism, an important deity, worshipped as the god of destruction), Indras (in Vedic mythology, a powerful warrior god and the ruler of the sky and weather. He became a subordinate god in later Hindu mythology), demi-gods and munis (a 74

7 Hindu or Jain ascetic noted for exceptional holiness, religious inspiration, piety, or knowledge) stop short and only a few could cross to the other shore; they are the pure and faithful lovers of the Divine. Union with the Beloved One (God) is the ultimate goal of all mystics. This union, no doubt, is unattainable in reality between a physical mortal being and the Divine. However, most of the great mystics, including Kabir, talk about a state of mystical ecstasy and great joy at the end of their mystical journey. In some of Kabir's poems this ecstasy is sometimes symbolized by music and song; other times by an ocean of sweetness:.only a few pure souls know of its delight. Music is all around it, and there the heart partakes of the joy of the Infinite Sea. Kabir says: Dive thou unto that Ocean of Sweetness: thus let all the errors of life and of death flee away." (Kabir: 19) This union with the unattainable can only be achieved in meditation when the mystic looks within because God is there in the heart of the believer It is the sport of the Unattainable One: look within and behold how the moonbeams of that Hidden One shine in you. (Kabir: 19-20) This is emphasized when the poet says " but I in my meditation have seen Him without sight" (21). All the mystics agree that thy physical eye is unable to perceive the spiritual and that the mystic," the devout seeker", according to Kabir, in the process of renunciation, mortification, meditation and remembrance of God develops a spiritual faculty of sight: the heart's eye, (according to Sufis), which is capable of perceiving the Divine. Kabir, sometimes, uses the language of paradox because the intensity of the mystical experience cannot be expressed otherwise or by using the unfamiliar language; expressions such as "unstruck music" and "travelling by no track". Describing the ecstasy of the mystical joy he says "the Unstruck Music is sounded; it is the music of love" (20). 75

8 In poem XVII, which is longer than other poems, Kabir's mystical experience is that of love in which the lover and Beloved are one. The union between them is attained when the Beloved reveals Himself to him "My Beloved One gleams like the lightning flash in the sky" (17) which also suggests that at such moments of revelation he becomes as vast as the sky. On the other hand, this is reminiscent of some of Al-Hallaj's verses that lead to his death; Kabir says: "O brother, behold! The Lord is in this vessel of my body" (80), which recalls to mind Al-Hallaj's famous words (there is naught in this vestment but Allah), and his "ليس في هر الجبة إال هللا" famous line أ ا هي أهىي وهي أهىي أ ا حي زوحاى حلل ا بد ا I am the One I love and He is me, We are two souls in one body (Hallaj:) and when He says : I witnessed my Maker with my heart's eye I asked, 'Who are you?' He answered, 'You" (Jamal: 25) Which is a sound proof that Kabir, though illiterate, could have known about Islamic mystics such as Al-Hallaj, Attar, Saadi, Hafiz Shirazi and others. The dominating metaphors in this poem (XVII) are music, voyage, ocean of sweetness, ocean of life, ocean of manifestation, infinite sea, sorrowless land, heart's bee, nectar, drunkenness, and the lamp of love. All these metaphors combine together in an attempt to express the inexpressible mystical union between the lover and the Beloved, the finite and the infinite, the outward and the inward. The speaker's voyage culminates in mystical ecstasy where the mystic achieves his heart's desire: "My heart's bee drinks its nectar" (19) and the image of drink (wine) which is recurrent in Islamic Sufi poetry is used in this poem to suggest his great joy and ecstasy: "I am drunken with the sight of this all" (24). In poem XVIII, when the poet reaches the shore, he says that "pure and white music blossoms" there suggesting absolute happiness and joy. He adds that "On that shore there is a city where the rain of nectar pours and pours, and never ceases" (25). 76

9 Poem XIX, though it is a very short poem, sums up the Sufi philosophy which is mainly based on the Glorious Qur'an. The poet addresses his heart telling it to wake up from the long sleep for the Beloved, "the Supreme Spirit" is nearby: O my heart! The Supreme Spirit, the Great Master, is near you: wake, o wake! Run to the feet of your Beloved: for your Lord stands near to your head. (Kabir: 26) His heart had been asleep for "unnumbered ages" and this goes with the Islamic Sufi doctrine that when the soul descends into the body it undergoes a process of oblivion or forgetfulness; it forgets that it was so close to God in the Kingdom of Heaven. The Sufi's evidence for this is the ayat ul-mithaq (verse of testament) in the Glorious Qur'an. In this aya, the souls had testified the Lordship of God when God asked the souls "Am I not your Lord" and the souls answered "Yes, we testify". The aya reads as follows: "وإذ أخر زبك هي ب ي آدم هي ظهىزهن ذزيتهن وأشهدهن عل أ فسهن ألست بسبكن قالىا بل شهد ا أى تقىلىا يىم القيوة إ ا ك ا عي هرا غافليي" )األعساف: ) 271 When thy Lord drew forth from the children of Adam from their loins their descendants and made them Testify concerning themselves "Am I not your Lord? They said : "Yea! We do testify!" (this, lest we should say on the Day of Judgement: "Of this we were never mindful" (Qur'an: VII, 172) However, after being joined to the bodies, the souls had forgotten their divine nature and hence, the importance given to recollection (dhikr) in Sufiism. Kabir's use of the metaphor of sleep suggests the long ages of the soul's oblivion of the vision of God "You have slept for unnumbered ages; this morning will you not wake?" (26). The Muslim Sufi mystics believe in the proximity of God which is the main Sufi doctrine. God is in the heart of every human being but men are ignorant of this fact. This proximity of God is everywhere in Kabir's poems: Your Lord is near: yet you are climbing the palm-tree to seek Him.. Alas! The true fountain of life is beside you, and you have set up a stone to worship. (Kabir: 28-29). 77

10 In another poem he reminds us of Al-Nasafi's metaphor of the beggar who is unaware of the precious jewel in his pocket, but unlike the beggar, Kabir is aware of this diamond: I have wrapped the diamond in my cloak; why open it again and again? (Kabir: 39-40) This emphasizes the previously quoted line ".the Lord is in this vessel of my body" (30). In poem XXX the diamond in the pocket of the beggar is replaced by a bird, singing and dancing joyfully on a tree. Then we find it dwelling and singing at the heart of the poet None tell me of this bird that sings within me. It is neither coloured nor colourless: it has neither form nor outline: It sits in the shadow of love. It dwells within the Unattainable, the Infinite, and the Eternal; and no one marks when it comes and goes. (37) In the fourth line above the speaker identifies himself with "the Unattainable, the Infinite, and the Eternal"; he becomes one with the Beloved for the bird that dwells and sings within the Unattainable dwells and sings within him. This craving desire to meet the Beloved is the core of Islamic Sufi experience. However, in poem xxxi we find a Christian, rather than a Muslim metaphor. In Christian mysticism, the end of the mystical experience is the mystical marriage between the soul of the mystic (the bride) and Christ (the bridegroom) (Butler: 141?), looking at the souls of both male and female mystics as feminine. The poet, therefore, describes the Beloved as "my husband" which means that he is the bride: The gates of the sky are opened, the temple is revealed: I meet my husband, and leave at His feet the offering of my body and my mind. (38) In his first sermon, for instance, St. Bernard uses this allegory: "When the beloved soul shall have been perfected", says he, "the Bridegroom will make with her a spiritual marriage...and they shall be two not in one flesh but in one spirit" (Butler ). This spiritual marriage is an allegory of the union of the soul with God. 78

11 The frequently used Islamic metaphor of drunkenness (sukr) is used in many of Kabir's poems, such as poem XXXIII. Drunkenness is a reference to the final stage of the mystical journey where the lover is intoxicated with mystical ecstatic joy at the vision of the Beloved: "Where is the need of words, when love has made drunken the heart?" (39). It is an inexpressible state of extreme happiness that the human language stands mute. In this state of drunkenness, the poet loses his reason and becomes mad of ecstasy: "He who has drunk of this nectar, wanders like one who is mad" (51). Again, in poem LIV, he uses the metaphor of wine for this state of mystical vision: If you have not drunk of the nectar of the One Love, what boots it though you should purge yourself of all stains? (Kabir: 59) In poem LVIII, he encourages himself to drink of the wine of Divine love to the extent of intoxication and drunkenness: Empty the cup! O be drunken! Drink the divine nectar of His Name! Kabir says: "Listen to me, dear Sadu! (Kabir: 68) It is impossible, according to Kabir, to reach at this state of blessedness; the goal of the mystical journey, i. e. the vision of the Divine without satisfying the soul's thirst with the wine of love which is described as the "ocean of happiness": "When at last you are come to the ocean of happiness, do not go back thirsty" (65). All the mystics before him have drunk from this nectar of love, why shouldn't he? is a pure water before you; drink it at every breath. Do not follow the mirage on foot, but thirst for the nectar; Dhruva, Prahlad, and Shukadeva has tasted it: The saints are drunk with love,their thirst is for love. (Kabir: 65) However, though the poet rarely talks about the renunciation and mortification of desires, here he does. The speaker should get rid of the heavy burden of the senses and animal desires in order to be pure and suitable for attaining his goal: 79

12 You are weaving your bondage of falsehood, your words are full of deception: With the load of desires which you hold on your head, how can you be light? Kabir says: "Keep within you truth, detachment, and love." (Kabir: 66) In another poem (LXIII) he clarifies the reason of this distraction; it is because his heart has diverted from his Beloved into another one: Oh my heart, how could you turn from the smile of your Lord and wander so far from Him? You have left your Beloved and are thinking of others; and this is why all your work is in vain. (Kabir: 67) The mystic should break all his mundane attachments and think only of Divine love, otherwise he will be distracted from the vision of God. It is not that God is pleased with man's mortification of his fleshly desires, but one should be unpolluted and uncontaminated to be apt for mystical union with the Divine: It is not the austerities that mortify the flesh which is pleasing to the Lord. When you leave off your clothes and kill your senses, you do not please the Lord: (Kabir:69) This is the first time Kabir talks about distraction in this volume of poems. Distraction, of course, means the veils that obstruct and hinder the vision of God. These veils are the senses and fleshly desires and unless they are curbed, renunciated and mortified the mystic stops short of attaining his goal. The veil is one of the major metaphors of Islamic Sufism which recurs everywhere in Sufi poetry. Take for instance Rabi'a's lines: 'Tis Purest love when Thou dost raise 80

13 The veil to my adoring gaze-- Not mind the praise in that or this Thine is the praise in both, I wis (al-kalabadhi: 113) Kabir uses the "veils" in poem XXII He removes the veil from the eyes, and gives the true Vision of Brahma: He reveals the world in Him, and makes me to hear Unstruck Music (Kabir: 29) And again, he says "Dear friend, lift my veil lightly now;/ for this is the night of love" (92) Removing the veils and the vision of the Divine is the last stage of the mystical quest in both Hindu and Islamic mysticism. In this moment of vision, according to the mystics of both religions the soul is transformed into likeness of God; it becomes Godlike, as it was before being imprisoned in the body. In fact, this is what is meant by the annihilation of the lower soul (self). It is a state "between sleep and waking" (Al- Qushayri: 393). This is what Kabir says about the final state of the mystical quest: Know yourself then, Kabir; for He is in you from head to foot, Sing with gladness, and keep your seat unmoved within your heart. (Kabir: 84) At the end of his "pilgrimage" to the Beloved, Kabir addresses himself as well other initiates telling them to attach themselves to the Divine: If you have found Him, then give yourself utterly, and take Him to you Why do you loose Him again and again? (Kabir: 101) Furthermore, he emphasizes the idea that God is at the heart of every human being; one should search for the Divine within oneself rather than outside: The Lord is in me, the Lord is in you, as life is in every seed. O servant! 81

14 Put false pride away, and seek for Him in you. (Kabir: 102) He concludes his poems with the mystical belief that God is at the heart of the believer and that mystical vision is attainable to the pure hearts: "Kabir says: 'Listen to me, brother! Bring the vision of the Beloved in your heart" (105). This line takes us back to his first poem in which he addresses the initiate mystic not to look for God neither in the temple nor in the mosque; neither in Kaaba nor in Kallash but at the heart of the mystic. COCLUSION Kabir's life as well as his poetry show a distinctive influence of both Hinduism and Islam. This influence is exquisitely intermingled in his songs. Though Hinduism is a pantheistic religion, Brahma in his poems is interchangeable with God in the Islamic Sufi poetry. Kabir's mystical poems are Islamic Sufi poems per excellence in the sense that they deal with the antiquity of the soul, the love of the Divine, the proximity of God (He is at the heart of the faithful believer), the oneness of the lover (the mystic) and the Beloved (God), mystical vision of the Divine, and mystical ecstasy and joy at the moment of vision. All this is articulated by using the major Sufi symbols and metaphors such as the journey or the voyage, the ocean, water, the gem, the bagger, the veil, wine or nectar, music and the bride and the bridegroom. Though Islamic Sufism is everywhere in his poems, Kabir's mysticism is a stunning fusion of both Hindu mysticism and Islam Sufism. Bibliography: 1. Al-Attar, Farid ul-din. Mantiq el-tayr (Conference of Birds) (trans.) Badi' Mohammad Jum'a. Beyrut: Dar ul-andalus, Al-Hallaj, Al-Husein ibn Mansur. Diwan ul-hallaj, (ed.) Hamil Mustafa al- Shaibi. Baghdad: Afaq Arabiyya Publishing House Press, Al-Hijwiri, Ali b. 'Uthman al-jallabi. The Kashful-Mahjub, Trans. Renold A. Nickolson. London: Luzac and Co., Al-Makki, Abu Talib Mohammad ibn Ali. Qut ul-qulub fi Mu'amalt il- Mahbub. (The Food of the Hearts in the Treatment of the Beloved). Beyrut: Dar ul- Fikr, A. H Al-Nasafi, Aziz ibn Mohammad. Oriental Mysticism: A Treatise on the Sufistic and Unitarian Thought of the Persians. (trans.) E. H. Palmer. London: Luzac & Co., Al-Qushayri, Abul-Qasim. Ar-Risalatuul Qushayriyyah (eds.) Abdul-Halim Mahmud b. Al-Sharif. Cairo,

15 7. Al-Rumi, Jalaluddin. Mathnawi (trans.) Mohammd Abdul-Salam Kafafi. Beyrut: Al-Maktabat ul-asriyya, Al-Sahrawardi. Awarif ul-ma'arif (On the Margin of Al-Ghazali's Ihya', vol. V). Beyrut: Dar ul-nadwatul-jadida, Butler, Dom Cathbert. Western Mysticism. London: Constable and Co. LTD., Hess, linda and Shukdeo Singh. The Bijak of Kabir. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Ibn 'Ajiba, Ahmad ibn Mohammad. Iqadh ul-himam fi Sharh il-hikam. Beyrut: Al-Maktabat ul-thaqafiya, Inge, W. R. Mysticism in Religion. London: Hutchinson University Library (n. d,) 13. Isa, Shaykh Abdul-Cader. Haqa'iq An al-tasawwuf (Facts about Sufism). Ramadi: Maktabat Al-Nawa'ir, Jamal, Mahmood.Islamic (ed.). Mystical Poetry: Sufi Verse from the Mystics to Rumi. London: Penguin Books Ltd., Ji, Sant Ajaib Singh. The Ocean of Love The Anurag Sagar of Kabir. (Trans. and ed.) Sanborton, New Hampshire, Kabir. One Hundred Poems of Kabir. Trans. Rabindranath Tagore assisted by Evelyn Underhill. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., King, Winston L. Buddhism and Christianity: Some Bridges of Understanding. London: George Allen and Unwin LTD., Maktabat ul-tahrir. Al-Ahadith ul-qudsiyya (The Holy Traditions). Baghdad: Maktabat ul-tahrir, Nicholson, R. A. The Mystics of Islam. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul LTD., Perkins, Russell, "Introduction" to The Ocean of Love The Anurag Sagar of Kabir. (Trans. and ed.) Sanborton, New Hampshire, Smith, Margaret. Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East. Amsterdam: Phile Press, Undrehill, Evelyn. "Introduction" to One Hundred Poems of Kabir. Trans. Rabindranath Tagore assisted by Evelyn Underhill. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., Westcott, G. H. Kabir and the Kabir Panth. Cawnpore:Christ Church Mission Press, Zurcher, Eric. Buddhism: Its Origin and Spread. London: Routledge,

16 الممخص: التصوف اإلسالمي في الشعر الكبير أ.د. حمدي حميد يوسف جامعة تكريت/ الكبير ) ( ىو الشاعر اليندي الشيير كمية التربية ) ( من القرن الخامس عشر الذي امتدت حياتو ثالثة قرون: ال اربع عشر والخامس عشر والسادس عشر. وعمى الرغم من دينو الحقيقي فال ي ازل مثي ار لمجدل وحياتو وموتو ال ت ازل مختمطا مع أسطورة يمكن لممرء أن الكشف عن تأثير إسالمي قوي في قصائده. كل ما قدمو من قصائد تنتمي إلى تقاليد صوفية. كانت القصائد الحماسية من الصوفيين المسممين الفكر الديني في اليند. خميطا من بودي واليندوسية و التصوف اإلسالمي. الكبير عاش في العصر ىذه البحث لذلك واظيار تأثير الشع ارء الصوفيين المسممين تأثير ا كانت الذي كالعطار وسعدي وجالل الدين الرومي وحافظ تمارس تأثي ار قويا عمى ىو محاولة لد ارسة ا كبي ر فيو. قصائد الكبير في ضوء كتابات الصوفية اإلسالمية يبدأ البحث بالسيرة الذاتية مختصرة عن الكبير يميو فرع عن التصوف والصوفية ثم بعد ذلك يعطي البحث تحميال لمجموعة مختارة من قصائد الكبير واألغاني في ضوء التصوف. من خالل تحميل قصائده تصل الد ارسة إلى نتيجة مفادىا: أن تصوف الكبير ىو مصالحة لو مع التصوف اإلسالمي ومع الالىوت التقميدي لاللب ارىمانية. الكممات الرئيسة: التصوف والروح والقرب من اهلل. الحب اإللهي النشوة الصوفية. والرحمة والحجاب واتحاد صوفية والسكر 84