Jalal al-Din Rumi · Theology

The Elephant in the Dark

In one short parable - men in a dark room each touching a different part of an elephant and quarrelling over what it is - Rumi captured the limits of human knowledge, the roots of religious conflict, and the need for a deeper kind of sight.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Rumi’s elephant parable dramatises how partial perception breeds error and conflict. Reconstruct the parable and explain what Rumi means by ‘the eye of the Sea’ that would resolve it, in your own words.

Leads to Al-Ghazali.

epoché — a humanities education that remembers you.