Rumi and the Meaning of Secret

This lecture was held on August 24 in the year 2011 at the “8th Resurrection Conference”. The conference was organized at the Eyvan-e-Shams Hall by the Soroosh-e Mowlana Institute for Arts and Culture.
In his lecture Dr. Amir Hossein Mahouzi talked about the meaning and concept of ‘Secret’ in the works of Rumi, mainly Divan-e Shams and the Masnavi. According to him, Rumi has hidden plenty of the secrets in Masnavi and yet, he reveals them to a large extent in Divan- e Shams. Although there are certain exceptions, in which some secrets are unsealed in the Masnavi but unrevealed in the Divan.

According to Dr. Mahouzi’s interpretation, one of the things that unveils a secret is love because the lover cannot in any way hide it from the beloved. However, at times the secrets are such that they cannot be revealed except to ones who are familiar with them, as unsealing them can lead to the fate that Hallaj met. Rumi in one of his statements says that if the secrets that are known to me get revealed by me, I will get hanged by Hallaj himself.