AN APPROACH TOWARDS LITERAL & LETTERAL MEANING IN THE THOUGHTS OF OMAR KHAYYAM

Aisha Al-Owais and Rehan Gelani

ABSTRACT

The mânâ-i harfî approach, established by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi in the 20th century, is a concept that perceives the beings from a holistic perspective, and acknowledges the Almighty to be the cause behind everything in the universe, leaving out the secular trio; cause, nature and chance. Omar Khayyam, used this approach along with the Ash’arites school of thought and that of Avicenna’s. Therefore, he developed his own understanding of the being. He perceived this universe as a body united by the Almighty’s soul. He used himself as an identifier pointing to the others and identified God in every single being. Khayyam developed his own mana-i harfi approach using his poetic language, which not many were able to understand and hence labeled him as a heretic. His other works, however, reflected a clearer mânâ-i harfî approach and a holistic worldview. Additionally, the thoughts of Khayyam were similar in some aspects with Nursi’s thoughts, especially when one looks at how each of them utilized the six pillars of a Tawhidi worldview in their writings.