Impact of Persian Sufi Thoughts on D. H. Lawrence’s Writing

In this paper we have argued that Lawrence’s interest in what is ancient wisdom brings him in direct or indirect contact with Sufi metaphysics. This outlook on the world brings him closer to a Sufi universe in two ways. Firstly, Lawrence portrays romantic relationships in a mystical language, he presents the sensuous relationships as sacred activities through which the characters aspire to self-discovery. Lawrence`s portrayal of romantic love corresponds with higher concept of love in Sufi literature. Secondly, this paper takes a closer look to some of Lawrence’s spiritual works including his Study of Thomas Hardy to compare his sustained argument regarding spiritualism and transcendental motifs in comparison with Sufi cosmology. Moreover, the following discussion also includes a detailed engagement with Lawrence`s correspondence and biographical information of the time when Lawrence was writing his essays and novels which contain transcendental motifs. His correspondents and biographical information suggest he had some direct exposure with Sufi literature in translation.


Introduction
D. H. Lawrence (1885Lawrence ( -1930 is one of most influential novelists of the early 20 th century (Leavis, 1955), emphasising upon theme of the relationship between man and woman in his writings. However, he gives a sacral meaning to such relationship in the sense that instead of dealing with human relationship with ordinary language and perceptions, he resorts to a metaphysical tone in his presentation giving an ontological meaning to his characters' interest in human relationship. This extraordinary manner of presentation of romantic human relationships is not entirely a new thing or not necessarily a foreign influence in English literature. We can notice such literary trends in the Romantic Movement and later in the Lawrence's art and provoked much detractive criticism from many influential critics of English literature. Beside new form and characterization in his novels his treatment to the natural world and imaginative wanderings beyond the world of sense perception made him a highly imaginative artist and place him in the romantic traditions of transcendentalists and pantheists like Whitman and Wordsworth.
Moreover, the most significant criticism on Lawrence's work comes with the emergence of New Criticism during the 1950s and 1960s (Beynon, 1997). Importantly, two influential literary critics of English literature T. S. Eliot (1934) and F. R. Leavis (1955;1976) took Lawrence`s fictions seriously. Later critics, however, found Eliot's critical opinion simplistic. Later critics appreciated that his spiritual insight distinguishes Lawrence's art from the bulk of the modernist artistic creation of the first quarter of twentieth century, such as Joyce, and Pound and Woolf. What annoyed the religious moralists like Eliot the most was not his non-religious or heretic attitude but his deeply religious sensibility on a different level. Mark Spilka quotes Eliot as saying, "the point is that Lawrence started life wholly free from any restriction of tradition or institution, that he had no guidance except the Inner Light, the most untrustworthy and deceitful guide that ever offered itself to wandering humanity" (1963, p. 2).
Unlike early critics' rejection of Lawrence's work on moral and religious basis, many later critics of Lawrence find him as a deeply religious writer. Mark Kinkead-Weekes (2001) refers to Lawrence There are critics who consider Lawrence's spiritual insights and his religious symbolism as evident of either his misrepresentation of Christian ideals (Pittock, 1990) or revitalizing Christian myths (Jones, 1995). Likewise, critics like Nanett Norris (2015)  She finds the concept of the unity of God is an important theme in many of Lawrence's poetry.

Research Methodology
This paper has adopted a textual and contextual method. The evidence for the argument are collected through literary analysis of the given literary writings of the authors. The contextual evidence are collected from historical and biographical sources. is in the 'escape away into flame' of the 'eternal phoenix' and he notes, "the flame was all the story and all triumph" (Lawrence, 1985, p.8). The actual life is in the 'red outburst at the top of the poppy', which is the finest form of being not worried for its preservation and happy to die because life comes out of its ashes. This idea of the life's eternal sense of being in its relation to cosmos is a Sufi ontological quest which Lawrence must be aware of before writing his Hardy essays which we have argued later in this paper. There seems to exist a sense of physical touch in Lawrence's call for a spiritual urgency and in his understanding of religious truth, in Lawrence's writing, as we can see in the flowering of poppy and the flame of life in his essay, body and mind work together in a spiritually charged environmentwhich is the dark substance of being, for obtaining a true enlightenment. The spiritual energy which can guide us to full knowledge and in a state of awareness does not come from thoughts and ideas, it resides in our body and through this energy we can connect to a larger cosmic existence of which we are only a part and until that connection is not made our understanding shall remain superficial.

Discussion
Likewise, the stories and parables of Sufi traditions narrate an unending saga of soul and body, love, and relationship as well as more importantly the theme of being physically and spiritually alive and dead. Rumi's The Mathnawi begins with the story of reed-flute and its physical detachment from its 'osier bed'. But it survives in its 'plaintive notes' whenever touched by the lips of a lover. What Lawrence tries to explain in his metaphors of poppy and phoenix that Rumi lays out this theme of body and soul more eloquently in the onset of The Mathnawi. For instance, he mentions.
Body is not veiled from soul, neither / soul from body, / Yet no man hath ever seen a soul. / This plaint of the flute is fire, not mere air. / Let him who lacks this fire be / accounted dead! / 'Tis the fire of love that inspires the flute, / 'Tis the ferment of love that possesses the wine. / The flute is the confidant of all unhappy lovers; / Yea, its strains lay bare my inmost secrets (Rumi, 1979, p.1).
As compared with Lawrence, Rumi's symbols are exhaustive and one leading to other. Beloved is all that lives, the lover a dead thing (Rumi, 1979, pp. 1-2).
Here we can see how Rumi and Lawrence adopt a similar metaphoric style in their articulation of similar metaphysical argument. The 'Beloved' here is the physical form of being, life's finest moment like the reed-flute and like Lawrence's red of the poppy. In another place Rumi expresses the same idea in simpler way, he notes, "Seemingly the bough is the cause of the fruit, / But really the bough exists because of the fruit" (1979, p. 128). Life is worth living for its substance, for its finest moment and for the sake of something greater. It is the 'touch' of the 'beloved lips' which can bring a true sense of being in Rumi and for Rumi it is also a religious experience, revelation to Moses was an act of love. While reading the above quoted lines from The Mathnawi, one cannot fail to notice the confusion of Sufi Symbolism here, which is a constant feature of Sufi poetry. The reason for such use of symbolic language seems to be that the idea is too big, and the imaginative flight is too wide to put it in simpler terms.
Rumi takes a natural object and gives it the qualities of life in its most concrete form such as the physical detachment of reed-flute from its base and then the pain of this separation and then another physical touch of a lover's lip bring it into life of another formthe melodious notes.
Whether it is the Mount Sinai or the poet himself, the physical touch of beloved is enough to bring them into life. This bringing together a natural object, the concept of love, touch of beloved and revelation of God into one symbolic system may suggest many things including unity of being, however, one thing it has in common with Lawrence, is the quality of life. One cannot ignore the palpable substance of life dancing around us when reading this poetry.
Lawrence like Rumi in his essay on Thomas Hardy tells the story of his heart, calling for the individual to come out of his dull routine, leave his moral virtues behind, throw away  (Lawrence, 1979, p.8 darling English public, when will it go in for a little spiritual athletics" (Lawrence, 1979, p. 153)? Lawrence is not only aware of the alienation of the general public from his work, but he life, but that one is in oneself the whole of mankind" (Lawrence, 1979, p. 302 suggests is greater than this. As we saw in his letter to Garnett where he explains his objection to scared body theory of Christianity and the moral space of a character to grow, he notes, "Somehowthat which is physicnon-human, in humanity, is more interesting to me than the old-fashioned human elementwhich causes one to conceive a character in a certain moral scheme is what I object to" (Lawrence, 1997, p.77). Lawrence clearly does not mean sexual object here when he says 'physic' or animalistic desire by 'non-human'. Lawrence refers to orthodox and conventional Christian humanity that is evidently part of modern post-Renaissance humanism. Lawrence clearly wants a total departure from this conventional moral scheme of things and from Christian and post-Renaissance human element.
Comparable aspect with Sufi cosmology is that Lawrence appreciates the wonder of being. As we noted in his desire for a 'sudden spiritual conversion' in the letter to Minister and in his fascination to St. Paul's quick awareness to the spiritual reality of divine being, Lawrence wants to be free for his moment of bewilderment. Lawrence seems to agree with Rumi when he says, "Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment; / cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment intuition" (Rumi, 1979, p.136). Lawrence despises the conceit of rational judgement in modern man, as we saw in his letter to Russell and he equally despises the conceit of humanism promoted by some well-meaning mystic and spiritual writers as we noted in his critique of Whitman. He underscores the importance of the celebration of individual life which is the bases of the spiritual growth and fulfilment of being.
Given the tradition and impact of Sufistic thought one can justifiably argue that