Considering God as the creator of evil, we have distanced from the inherent and attributive monotheism. Also, distinguishing the creator of good and bad from each other, we have violated the unity of divine acts. It can be understood from the content of Shahname and Mas
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Considering God as the creator of evil, we have distanced from the inherent and attributive monotheism. Also, distinguishing the creator of good and bad from each other, we have violated the unity of divine acts. It can be understood from the content of Shahname and Masnavi that Ferdowsi and Rumi view evil from two perspectives to solve this mystery. The first perspective is holistic and analyzes the relation of evil to God based on the creator and creature relationship and concludes that every creature has been created according to a reason and no evil is real in the universe. From the second perspective, the relation of creatures with each other is examined and the type of human’s look and knowledge determines the good and evil of the creatures. On the other hand, good and evil are relative issues and what human calls evil is considered good in the entire universe. From this viewpoint, it is impossible to perceive a world better than the current world. These interpretations are in line with the mystical view of Rumi that calls the world “impermanent” and that of Ferdowsi that views the universe a “temporary house”. In Ferdowsi’s worldview, deriving evil from good is intellectually implausible, and according to Rumi’s romantic attitude, God does not create inherent evil because of beneficence. However, Ferdowsi believes it is possible to recognize relative evil by wisdom, but Rumi contends it is not possible to understand through wisdom the reason why evil has been created. This study is aimed at providing evidence from Shahname and Mathnavi, showing that Ferdowsi and Rumi, despite different viewpoints about the aim of creation of evil and the tools to recognize it, have similar perspectives about the creator and relativity of evil.
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