A comparative analysis of the paradoxes of life and death and the world and the hereafter from the perspectives of Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī and Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī

One factor contributing to the permanence of literary works and texts is the thought underlying these works. In Persian literature, poets and writers have not only composed poems and created literary works, but also introduced theological, moral, philosophical, mystical, and other thoughts into literary works. Mawlānā Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī is one of the poets of the 7th century AH with mystical thoughts and Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī is one of the poets of the 5th century AH with religious and philosophical ideas. Following the American school, the present study sought to perform a comparative analysis of the similarities and differences in the views of two Eastern poets with the same religion but with different ideas about the contradictory issues of existence related to life and death and the world and the hereafter. The results indicated that Mawlānā follows a mystical and philosophical approach to the phenomena with his enlightening lens, but Abū al-ʿAlāʾ follows a poetic philosophy and a skeptical and pessimistic view of these paradoxical concepts.