الفهرس Only 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Proceeding from the importance of religion and its sacredness, man pays great attention
to the religious issues particularly those controversial issues that have caused man’s perplexity and confusion and that have been the source of much debate all over the different ages. Among these issues are man’s freedom and obligation, the opposition between the existence of God and the existence of evil, Satan and the way he works, the existence of Heaven and Hell; their shape and boundaries. Although religion and philosophy have succeeded in solving such controversial issues, men-of-letters find in these issues a fountain from which they can derive ideas and thoughts for their writings and creative works. This dissertation therefore tries to examine such concepts as Satan, Heaven, Hell, good, evil, obligation and freewill as they occur in Rumi’s Mathnawi, Al Ma’ari’s Risalat Al Ghoufran and Milton’s Paradise Lost who, while keeping the detailed structures of these concepts, could successfully add new visions and fresh insights in a way that reflects not only their religious orientation or their personal issues but the whole nation’s political, social, and ideological status. The first chapter of the study is therefore devoted to explain the previous religious concepts from the Sufi perspective and how Rumi’s absorption in Sufism has affected his thoughts. The next chapter tackles Al Ma’ari’s visions concerning these religious issues through an imaginative journey to the otherworld and how he succeeds in using this journey to convey the religious disputes, the social injustice, and the political greed of his own age. The third chapter interprets these concepts in Milton’s Paradise Lost and how Milton succeeded in employing such concepts to convey his thoughts, beliefs, and ideas as to various issues of his own age, with special focus on the main influences that formed his visions concerning these concepts. The final chapter traces the similarities as well as the differences between the poets in employing and adding new meanings to these concepts. Key words: God – Satan – Heaven – Hell – Obligation – free will – good – evil – Milton – Rumi – Al Ma’ari