interpretation. Semiotics investigates the context level of the poems extrinsic level of interpretation. This approach is employed to get a whole unity of the essence
meaning of mystical experience through Jalaluddin Rumi’s poems “The Tavern” and “How Very Close.”
3.3. Procedure
When I conducted this study, I applied two sources which, hopefully, guided me to explore each path of Rumi’s work. The sources were divided into two parts;
primary and secondary source. The primary source was the two poems taken from The Essential Rumi
. These two poems, hopefully, were the representation of Rumi’s mystical experience. While, the secondary sources were books which were
significant to the work, i.e., the references of Rumi’s biography, religious ground, Sufism and also an approach Structural Semiotics as well as the other sources,
namely articles, newspapers, magazines, websites, journals, etc. I mostly consulted my sources from Kolsani’s library and spiritual practitioners named Kuinjabihari.
The importance of interviewing Kuinjabihari is to give the significance meaning in making sense the schemes of sources I read. It also helped me and readers to
understand of how spiritual life was and it was essential for readers to understand the poems deeper. The significance of this overall information was to help readers to
have a better understanding of the poems, in this case mystical experience. This study employed library research in analyzing the poems. I began my work
by establishing some steps to have a systematic and logic understanding toward Rumi’s works. The steps were, first, I read the book persistently and I then chose two
poems which I think represented Rumi’s mystical experience, and after that I PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
continued reading the theory of Structural Semiotics. Next, I read others related literature and critics towards the author. Finally, I started my analysis toward the
poems. The analysis assisted the information from Rumi’s biography, religious ground and Sufism as well. To investigate more information about Sufism and
mysticism, I went to Solo to meet Kuinjabihari whose name means The God of the Universe on April 18, 2007 at 9:00 am - 01:30 pm. He is a spiritual practitioner
whose belief is Sufism. I interviewed him to get any information related to Sufism and mysticism. I noted everything important and he explained clearly that to find our
self essence, we needed assistance from an enlightened spirit in a form of human who helped us to bring us back to God or our true nature. Once a human has found his
true nature, it was told that a man was considered to be a whole being. This stage means that human can directly communicate to God with the ability within the
human being. In brief, to be a whole being is the manifestation of the characteristic of God hirmself. If human being has acquired the characteristics of God, it is told that
he has united with the God. So every act, utterance and attitude was representation of God hirmself. When human has been in a stage of union with God, thus, it was
possible for human being to communicate to God directly, as this messages revealed in Rumi’s poems “The Tavern” and “How Very Close”.
He also gave explanation that a journey to find self essence through many ways of beliefs rooted to the same source that is God. However, mysticism was the private
relationship between human and God. Again, he emphasized that God was not anywhere but God was inside yourselves. At the end, I drew my conclusion just after
contrasting the work and the approach above. During running the steps, I was accompanied by my advisors through routine consultation.
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CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS
This chapter discusses Rumi’s appreciation toward God and his mystical experience expressed in the works. The analysis will consistently limit my scope of
study only over a discourse of Mysticism in Islam i.e., Sufism. In order to have critical understanding of the work, I firstly try to explore the background of Sufism
which later in the development will be strongly and directly connected to essence of mystical experience expressed in the poems. Although the experiences found in
every religion are relatively similar, their ways to attain them are different. Idries Shah describes the meaning of Sufism which is not far different from
the Mysticism in other religions: “Sufism is the knowledge whereby man can realize himself and attain permanency. Sufis can teach in any vehicle, whatever its name”
1968: 312. Menahem Milson, in the introduction of a book Menjadi Sufi: Bimbingan untuk Para Pemula,
describes that the Sufi read the verses of the Koran repeatedly. By doing so, they try to comprehend and internalize the essence of God’s
words, and thus the process of approaching the Owner of the words is begun 1994: 12. In Islamic Mysticism, we can find two systematic states of having mystical
experience namely “fana i.e., passing away from self and “baka i.e., the consciousness of survival in God” please, see chapter II. These two states indicate a
long hard effort to achieve the superlative state i.e., uniting with God. Islamic Mystics believe that they can make a contact with God since the
previous prophet, Mohammed, was able to mystically communicate with Him through the voice of Gabriel. The Mystics in Islam do not see any difference between
them and the prophet. Since the later is also a man, the Mystics see an opportunity to have the same mystical experience.
Sufism believes that love is the essence of their core belief. Sufism believes that everything is a reflection of God. Through love, Sufism breaks the barrier of
physical world which produces the loss of consciousness of everything which is distant to the Truth, even forgetfulness of our own state of forgetfulness Brown,
1982: 542. This may lead Sufism to experience mystical experience or intoxication.
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The analysis is divided into two sections. The first section is to discuss the poems as seen in the intrinsic level. The usage of dictionary, then, is needed to
explicate the meaning of the poems. The second section is to explore the poems in extrinsic level. It investigates the essence of the poems which Rumi wants to convey.
Thus, the comprehension of religious ground, Sufism, Rumi’s biography as well as the information from spiritual practitioner Kuinjabihari have achieved in order to
understand the concept of real happiness which Rumi wants to convey in both of his poems “The Tavern” and “How Very Close”. As an addition, the values both in the
intrinsic as well as extrinsic level play important roles in shaping the concept of real happiness in life through Rumi’s mystical experience.
4.1 The Explication of Jalaluddin Rumi’s poems “The Tavern” and “How Very Close”
This section analyzes text level of interpretation intrinsic level through the investigation of the comprehension linguistic signs. The analysis of the intrinsic level
is based on the elements of the poems in a text level which seen from language,
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Intoxication and mystical experience has the same meaning in terminology. Intoxication refers to an act of being ecstasy while mystical experience involves intoxication to experience the mystical event.
