The Need for a New Narrative of Rumi

Abstract

Around thirty years ago, Marilyn Waldman presented arguments to explain why flexible oral teachings of religions, such as Islam, have often taken on a fixed nature and inflexible narrative over time. She explained that theological formation was at the root of this evolution, particularly the techniques of storage and utilization of once-upon-a-time oral information based on social-cognitive differences as well as changes in segments of human society.¹ As oral narratives came to be written down, perspectives on religions and religious topics became more and more rigid because of the concrete nature of the written word. Thus, the tumultuous and dynamic past was reduced to the confinement of written words—an impulse that deflected attention from non-religious past events while at the same time creating a crisis of religious historicism by rejecting non-contextualized interpretations. This seems to be what has happened to the narrative of Rumi’s life and teachings.