''Step by Step Up to Union With God'' () is a book by

Abdolhossein Zarrinkoob Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub ( Luri/ Persian: , also Romanized as ''Zarrinkoob'', ''Zarrinkub'', ) (March 21, 1923 – September 15, 1999) was a scholar and professor of Iranian literature, history of literature, Persian culture and history. He was ...

, a scholar of

Iranian literature Iranian literature, or Iranic literature, refers to the literature, literary traditions of the Iranian languages, developed predominantly in Iran and other regions in the Middle East and the Caucasus, eastern Anatolia, Asia Minor, and parts of w ...

history of literature The history of literature is the historical development of writings in prose or poetry that attempt to provide entertainment or education to the reader, as well as the development of the literary techniques used in the communication of these pie ...

, Persian culture and history. The book is about the life, thought and spiritual conduct of the 13th-century Persian

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

poet, Mowlana Jalaluddin Mohammad Balkhi Rumi (1207–1273). The author, Abdolhossein Zarrinkoob, unlike his other writings, refrained from giving various references and sources in the book and has written all the contents in a simple, fluent and common sense. The title of the book is taken from a

distich In poetry, a couplet ( ) or distich ( ) is a pair of successive Line (poetry), lines that rhyme and have the same Metre (poetry), metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (closed) couplet, each of the two lines is en ...

from the section called ''"Books 3"'' from ''"

Masnavi The ''Masnavi'', or ''Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi'' (, DIN 31635, DMG: ''Mas̲navī-e maʻnavī''), also written ''Mathnawi'', or ''Mathnavi'', is an extensive poem written in Persian language, Persian by Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, also known as Rumi. I ...

"'' written by ''"

Rumi Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (), or simply Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century poet, Hanafi '' faqih'' (jurist), Maturidi theologian (''mutakallim''), and Sufi mystic born during the Khwarazmian Empire ...

"'':

Plot

The book ''Step by Step Up to Union With God: Life, Thought and Spiritual Journey of Jalal-al-din Rumi'' tells the story of the ''"Rumi 's"'' life from his birth to the end of his life. It starts from ''"Rumi 's"'' childhood, and gradually reviews his whole life, mystical conduct and spiritual ascension. The book is mostly written as a story; But it is a documentary story whose subject matter is not one of the conventional categories of the story. The book covers the poet's childhood and his travels with his father from

Khorasan KhorasanDabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 (; , ) is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plateau in West and Central Asia that encompasses western and no ...

and

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

, where he remained in

Konya Konya is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium. In 19th-century accounts of the city in En ...

for the rest of his life. Everywhere in the book, there is talk of ''"Rumi 's"'' love for God and his efforts to reach the god and the beloved, and only a few parts of the book deal with his daily activities, mostly including mystical aspects of ''"Rumi 's"'' life. The author has tried to present a simple book to readers without cumbersome contents. The text of the book depicts the revelations of ''"Rumi 's"'' childhood years, his asceticism and austerity, the illusions of his school years and then the interruption of them in the sequence of years, the levels of a spiritual conduct that is the result of his life and the basis of his book ''"

"''. The book appraises ''"Rumi 's"'' spiritual excitement, his love for the perfect man, his ecstasy and his obsession with poetry, dance and music, which separates him step by step from his belongings and prepares him to ascend to meet the Lord. The author pursues events separately and in the sequence of normal life, without going into the details of the secrets of ''"Rumi 's"'' teaching, draws a picture of his condition and thoughts to the extent that shows traces of ''"Rumi 's"'' long secrets throughout the ''"Masnavi"'', and sequels the sixty-eight-year life of Rumi and its unique attributes such as the spiritual, uninterrupted and indefatigable journey step by step from cutting off the heart's desire from the world to disappearing self-existence and unity with the whole wisdom. Thus, the book shows the path of ''"Rumi 's"'' conduct which starts from the discard dependencies with one's own belongings and continues until the severance of ties with one's ego, and this path is the base of the elegance theme of ''"Masnavi"'' and a summary of the ''"Rumi 's"'' life too.

Book chapters

The book ''"Step by Step Up to Union With God: Life, Thought and Spiritual Journey of Jalal-al-din Rumi"'' has about 400 pages and 100 sections. The chapters are: * "", "Baha ol-Valad and the Lord" * "", "Emigration or escape" * "", "The aged mentor in Konya" * "", "Advent of Shams" * "", "Irreversible absence" * "", "Dance in the bazaar" * "", "Hesamuddin and the story of Masnavi" * "", "Crossing beyond poetry" * "", "From the stations of asceticism to the passing away (from self-existence)" * "", "The last years" * "", "Notes and bibliography"

An excerpt text

The following text excerpted from Chapter 9 ''"From the stations of asceticism to the passing away (from self-existence)"'':

Translation

The book ''"Step by Step Up to Union With God: Life, Thought and Spiritual Journey of Jalal-al-din Rumi"'' has been translated into English and published in the United States in 2009. It has been translated into

Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...

and published in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

, and has been translated into

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

and published in

Erzurum Erzurum (; ) is a List of cities in Turkey, city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. It is the site of an ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

References

External links