Islamic mysticism in kabir’s poetry

الملخص EN

Kabir (1398-1518) is a famous Indian poet of the fifteenth century whose life extends 0ver three centuries: the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Though his real religion is still controversial and his life and death are still been mixed with myth, one can detect a strong Islamic influence in his poems.

All his poems belong to the mystical tradition; they were a mixture of Bodhi, Hindu and Islamic mysticism.

Kabir lived in an age in which the impassioned poems of the great Muslim mystics, Attar, Saadi, Julalu'ddin Rumi and Hafiz were exerting a powerful influence on the religious thought of India This paper, therefore, is an attempt to examine Kabir's poems in the light of Islamic Sufi (mystical) writings and to show the influence of the great Muslim Sufi poets on him.

The paper begins with a brief biographical note about Kabir followed by a section on mysticism and Sufism.

The rest of the paper gives an analysis of a selection of Kabir's poems and songs in the light of mysticism.

Through the analysis of his poems the study reaches at the conclusion that Kabir's mysticism is a reconciliation of his intense Islamic Sufism with the traditional theology of Brahmanism.

Though it is rather impossible to say that he is Brahman or Sufi, for his metaphors and religious symbols are drawn indifferently from both Hindu and Islamic beliefs but his mysticism is nearer to the religion of love of the Muslim Sufis: the love of God Who reveals Himslef only to the faithful lovers.

The paper is concluded with the results of the study and recommendations for further studies.

Key Words: Mysticism, Sofism, soul, proximity of God.

Divine love, voyage, journey, veil, Mystical union, drunkenness, mystical ecstasy.