The transformative power of text: the case of the Sufi poetic

This exegesis examines the transformative power of text, specifically through the lens of the Sufi poetic and in particular The Mathnawi of Rumi. It explores the writing, reading and experience of text from a Sufi perspective, through the lens of its own discursive tradition and nomenclature. This is not to discount other scholarship but rather it is hoped that this study will offer a glimpse of the Sufi poetic as it is experienced from within itself, to those unfamiliar with it and its context. In order to approach this examination, the key terms - transformation, text, Sufi and poetic - are considered and explored. Throughout this discussion I will also explore my creative thesis Allah on the Soles of his Feet (herein referred to as my novel) and practice, allowing the exegetical work to engage in a conversation with the creative work. <br><br>In addition to this exegesis I present my novel, Allah on the Soles of his Feet. The novel is an autobiographical, narrative fiction and is set between Melbourne and Istanbul and between the past (1915 in Istanbul and 1978 in Afghanistan) and the present. It opens with a mystic inspired short story, The Black Horse and The Bride, which is reminiscent of the invocations included at the beginning of Sufi tales (for example the ‘proem’ or Song of the Reed, as it is known, that opens Rumi’s Mathnawi which was quoted above). The story introduces themes of longing, nostalgia, travelling, both physically and metaphysically and unrealised love. Its non-linear narrative and discursive style further reflects the tradition of storytelling in my Turkish family as it resonates with the undercurrent of mysticism.