THE PROCESS OF SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION IN SHEYKH FARIDUDDIN ATTAR’S AND MEVLANA CELALEDDIN RUMI’S WORKS

In Attar`s and Mevlana`s work, the reflected are the points and the moments of spiritual trip of a God lover-salik. The obstacles and difficulties of those, who step on this path, the ways of overcoming those obstacles and difficulties, are explained in the finest details. The main purpose in this trip for a human being is to recognise himself and own passion. Mevlana referred frequently to his spiritual guide and genius Sufi poet Sheikh Fariduddin Attar’s poems and the symbols and figurative expressions he had used. Mevlana was also influenced by Attar’s works in Divan-i Kebir, and benefited from his “Tezkiretul-Evliya”, “Ilahiname”, Esrarname” and mainly “Mantik-at-Teyr”. In “Mantiqut-Teyr” the character of “Hudhud” is symbol of sheikh in the religion. “The birds tripped under the command of Hudhud. The difficulties on the way wore out the birds. The doubts and questions arose again. But Hudhud answered the questions of the birds patiently, and tried to explain that they were in the right direction. Tired and exhausted birds gathered strength again and kept going. Some of the birds became exhausted and couldn’t move on. Some lost their ways while looking for food. And the others died of starvation and thirst. Only thirty birds of hundreds of birds endured the troubles. At this moment the messenger brought a piece of paper from Simurg. When they read the paper and saw that all their lives had been written there, they became shocked. At that moment Simurg appeared. Divine light spread everywhere. When the birds looked at the reflection of Simurg in the mirror thay saw themselves. It turned out that the meaning of “Simurg” was “thirty birds”. Then the birds got rid of their physical features as a result of pains and grief. All differences and contradictions disappeared. They met with One (God). This case showed that the person who loved God was far from all differences and contradictions. They saw the face of inner beauty only after getting rid of physical appearance features. While the birds were shocked and confused the voice of Simurg was heard: “When you came here, you were thirty birds. Therefore you saw thirty birds in the mirror. If you were more or less than thirty, this would change nothing ! You would see yourselves again. This is a mirror”. The Birds melted in Simurg and lived in him. Meantime the differences like way, traveler and guide disappeared”.