Сетевой научно-практический журнал СЕРИЯ Вопросы теоретической и прикладной лингвистики №3 2015 73 UDC 821 DOI: 10.18413 / 2313-8912-2015-1-3-73-82 Н АуЧНЙ резуЛТАТ АBSTRACT S ufsm or tasawwuf is the inner, mystical, or psycho-spiritual dimension of Islam. However, many scholars believe that Sufsm is outside the sphere of Islam. As a result, there has always been disagreement among religious scholars and Sufs themselves regarding the origins of Sufsm. The traditional view sees Sufsm as the mystical school of Islam and its beginnings in the frst centuries following the life of the Prophet Mohammad. Indeed, there is another view that traces the pre-Islamic roots of Sufsm back through mystics and mystery schools of the other regions gathered into the trunk known as Islamic Sufsm. The word Suf originates from a Persian word meaning wisdom and wisdom is the ultimate power. The following survey tries to explore this concept in the works of Rumi and its impact on the western writers and poets particularly Whitman. It tries to show how Whitman inspired from Rumi and came to be the messenger of Sufsm in his poems. These poems reveal the depth of Suf spirituality, the inner states of mystical love, and the Unity of Being through symbolic expressions. They also ex- press aspects of Sufsm and of traveling the Suf path inaccessible in prose writings. K ey words: Sufsm; Persian literature; Persian poetry; Rumi, Whitman. THE INFLUENCE OF RUMI’S THOUGHT ON WHITMAN’S POETRY Bahram Moghaddas Mahdieh Boostani Bahram Moghaddas PhD in TEFL, Ministry of Education, Mahmoodabad, Mazandaran, Iran Department of English, Khazar Institute of Higher Education, Iran E-mail: dr.moghaddas@khazar.ac.ir Mahdieh Boostani PhD Candidate in the English Language and Literature, Banaras Hindu University, India E-mail: Mahdieh_boostani@yahoo.com