The Wings of an Angel on the Tail of a Donkey: Matter, Spirit & the Human Predicament in Rumi

Reynold Nicholson the late professor of Islamic Studies at Cambridge University once said of Rumi that he was “perhaps the greatest mystical poet of any language.” While one might legitimately contest the sweeping nature of his claim, Nicholson’s assessment reflected the hypnotic power which the creative genius of the Persian mystic’s poetry has wielded on those who have studied it in any depth. In Nicholson’s own case, the assessment was based on a lifetime of research, having spent the last 40 years of his life translating his works into English. The aim of our lecture will be to explore one particular aspect of Rumi’s thought: his understanding of the relation between matter and spirit, or “form” and “meaning,” and the relation of these two realms to the existential predicament of the human being. Stranded in between the “wings of an angel and the tail of a donkey,” to use Rumi’s own words, the human being is pulled simultaneously by his own higher, angelic, divine nature as well as his lower bestial, creaturely, and material form. Caught in between body and spirit, form and meaning, Heaven and Earth, the first step towards liberation lies in recognizing the dual nature of the human being.