Jalaloddin Rumi's Masnavi-ye Ma'navi, or 'Spiritual Couplets', composed in the 13th Century, is a monumental work of poetry in the Sufi tradition of Islamic mysticism. For centuries before his love poetry became a literary phenomenon in the West, Rumi's Masnavi had been revered in the Islamic world as its greatest mystical text. Drawing upon a vast array of characters, stories and fables, and deeply versed in spiritual teaching, it takes us on a profound and playful journey of discovery along the path of divine love, toward its ultimate goal of union with the source of all Truth. The main theme of Book Three of the Masnavi is the strengthening of the spirit through purification of human knowledge in the acquisition of mystical wisdom. Rumi teaches that this mystical understanding is superior to the rational knowledge of the human intellect. By the end of this long book, the half-way point is reached in this mystical treatise of oceanic proportions. It may be said to be the most profound of the six books, in pursuing rational thinking to its very depths. Translated with an introduction, notes and analysis by Alan Williams and including the Persian text edited by Mohammad Este'lami.
