A comparative study of the concept of love, solitude and unity of existence in the eyes of Molavi and Eckhart

The current research was conducted with the aim of comparative analysis of the concepts of "love-seclusion and unity of existence" in Rumi's Masnavi and Eckhart's Paris questions. This descriptive and analytical research was conducted using library sources and showed that Rumi and Eckhart consider the unity of existence as the basis and foundation of mysticism. Also, love is very important for Maulvi, although Eckhart considers love to be very important, but he praises the position of piety (solitude, seclusion, isolation) more than love.
Key words: unity of being, love, isolation, Molvi, Eckhart
 
Introduction
Rumi's Masnavi is one of the most wonderful literary works of Iran and the world and has always been criticized and analyzed throughout history, but Eckhart's Parisian questions are less known in Iran. Both Maulana and Meister Eckhart are among the most prominent mystical representatives of their religion, and the title "Maulvi" for Jalaluddin Muhammad Balkhi and "Meister" for Eckhart means mentor and sheikh in Christian mysticism, this is the confirmation of this issue. These two famous mystics, who were almost the same age but had different cultural and religious environments, and based on their worldview, they were looking for the knowledge of existence and existence, and they turned to something sacred and divine, and they share a common cultural and religious infrastructure. And there are common features and very close sympathies between them. Their main concern, as reflected in their teachings, was to pay attention to the pain and suffering of humanity and how to get rid of pain and suffering, and the audience was all of humanity. For this reason, the trans-historical and trans-religious view of these two thinkers is of high value. The breadth of spiritual and mystical teachings that these two mystics offered to humanity has brought many admirers to their destination. Therefore, the present study aims to compare the attitude of Rumi and Eckhart regarding the three important mystical keywords (love-solitude-unity of existence).
The statistical population and sample size of the works of interest in this research (Molvi's work and Eckhart's work) are as follows:
The full text of the six books of Mawlawi's Masnavi based on the corrected version of Reynolds Nicholson and the full text of the Parisian questions by Meisterhardt, which of course was originally in German and in this research, the translated version in English was used: "MASTER ECKHART,PARISIAN QUESTIONS AND PROLOGUES, Translated with an Introduction and Notes: bY ARMAND A. MAURER,  C.S.B. PONTIFICAL INSTITUTE OF MEDIAEVAL STUDIES TORONTO, CANAD"
 
Research Methodology
The method of this research is descriptive-analytical and using library sources, and in fact, it is related to research units such as words, sentences, verses, or interpretations and the like, and these items are considered as "data". they become First, he carefully studied the data and after processing and defining the scope of the work and analyzing the content, he found the commonalities and differences of the findings about the three concepts of unity, love, solitude in the spiritual Masnawi and Parisian questions. The data is interpreted.
 
Discussion and conclusion
According to the conducted studies, it can be said: the functions that Molavi listed for "love" are far more than those estimated by Eckhart. The centrality of Masnavi is love. In Masnavi, Rumi talks more about the lover and discusses love as a passionate force, and sometimes in Rumi's thinking, love is like God. Its first story "The Story of a King Falling in Love with a Concubine" begins with love, and the last one, "The Three Princes and the Castle of Zat al-Soor" also ends with love, and both of them contain heavenly aspects. and the earthly aspects. He considers himself unable and shy to describe and express love. Like other mystics, Eckhart considers "love" to be very important, but he praises the status of devotion (seclusion, isolation, isolation) more than love.
Also, it seems that both of them pay a lot of attention to the mystical concept of "seclusion" and the generalities are the same for both of them, that is, they both believe that cutting from creation is a way to reach God, but they differ from each other in details. Maulana considers seclusion and solitude to be very necessary for self-improvement and self-cultivation, and in several anecdotes he has confirmed this issue, but he also pays attention to the hadith "La Rehbaniyeh fi-Islam" and in several anecdotes the importance of "conversation" It has been paid.If Ekhart considers isolation to be equivalent to the poverty of the soul, which is one of the characteristics of the death of attributes, he considers freedom from oneself to be unity with God.According to the multiplicity of semantic sharing and the connection between the three concepts of unity, love and solitude, we can draw the following conclusion: the way to reach the unity of existence, which is a general concept in mysticism, is love for God, and this love comes in various ways. It turns out that one of the most important of them is isolation. It is very clear that in order to reach God, a mystic must pay special attention to these three concepts and concepts that have a similar meaning in order to be able to pass the levels of excellence.