The Language of the Sufis: Symbolism and Its Mystical Connotations — Ibn Arabi, Farid al-Din Attar, and Jalal al-Din Rumi as Models

Abstract

Sufi language is a symbolic space that transcends the limits of conventional expression. It springs from an experiential understanding that is not sustained by abstract reason, nor does it adhere to the boundaries of formal logic. It is a cool, harmless language, a revelation rather than a description, taking shape in the presence of absence, and manifesting as language in the presence of presence. Hence, we shed light on prominent Sufi figures such as Ibn Arabi, Farid al-Din Attar, and Jalal al-Din Rumi. A thorough and well-founded study of them is not merely an analysis of literary texts, but rather an exploration of the paths of mysticism, where the word becomes a mirror of existence and the symbol a bridge between the manifest and the hidden. Ibn Arabi, in his Sufi language, reached the Sufi and philosophical heights when he established from it a cognitive system of the unity of existence, where forms are many, but the Truth is one; words vary, but meaning is manifested in every manifestation. While Attar formulated his vision through the symbolic tale that reveals the soul's journey in search of truth, transcending the sensory worlds towards the unity of purpose, we find that Rumi expressed his Sufi language in a poetic language that flows with divine love, where love becomes a universal principle that dissolves the duality between lover and beloved. Thus, for these Sufis, the language is not merely a tool of expression, but an ontological and epistemological structure in which the dialectical relationship between man and the Absolute is revealed. It is a language founded on paradox, built on symbolism, and read with the heart before the mind, to open an infinite interpretive horizon that makes the Sufi text a continuous experience of manifestation and understanding