Rumi’s Tale of Moses and the Shepherd

By • Feb 17th, 2012 • Category: Lectures, Mysticism

The ‘Tale of Moses and the Shepherd’ is one of the most famous stories in Rum’s masterpiece, Mathnavi. In this fictional story, Rumi creates a dialog between two characters- Moses and a shepherd- to vividly illustrate two pitfalls in religiosity: formalism and exclusivism. He argues against reducing faith to formalities (such as theological doctrines and rituals), and viewing one’s religion as the only valid path to God. This lecture presents Rumi’s poetry with commentary.

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