Limitation and Expansion of Legitimacy and Salvation in the Mystical Words of Mawlānā

With regard to the legitimacy and salvation of the religious followers, three general approaches have always been the center of attention: Exclusivism, pluralism, and inclusiveness. Religious pluralism was born as an approach in the twentieth century, but its roots can be found in some of the speeches of the ancients such as Muslim mystics. One of them is Jalal o din Mohammad Maolavi (Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī) to whom ambiguous positions are attributed. This research has been done through analytical-descriptive method focusing on Mawlānā’s words and using the views of  scholars who study Mawlānā. The results show that despite the numerous evidences of exclusivism, inclusiveness, and pluralism in his words, the general and absolute verdict that he is an exclusivist or pluralist is unjustified in rescuing the religious followers. He believes that the truth is one. It seems different because people look at it from the different angles. The unobtrusiveness of the true reality and the limitations of the perceptual powers are the reason of the different opinions. Mawlānā believes that divine religions are one light radiated from different lights and there are not any differences between them. All of them rescue people’s life. But regarding legitimacy, he considers Islam as having superior legitimacy and in some cases as the absolute truth.