Sufi Vision in Jamal Assadi’s Wild Horses: Mystical Symbolism and the Poetics of Spiritual Quest
Keywords:
Jamal Assadi, Wild Horses, Sufism, Mystical Poetry, Symbolism, Arabic Literature, Spiritual Journey, Ibn ʿArabīAbstract
This study examines the manifestations of Sufi thought and mystical imagination in the poetry of Professor Jamal Assadi, with particular emphasis on his collection Wild Horses. The study argues that Assadi’s poetic world is constructed through a complex symbolic system in which the visible world becomes a gateway toward the invisible, and the poetic experience transforms into a spiritual journey searching for meaning, freedom, and transcendence. The image of the horse, which occupies a central position in the collection, is interpreted as a metaphor for the restless human soul seeking liberation from earthly limitations and moving toward higher states of consciousness.
Through a close reading of the collection’s major themes and symbolic structures, this article explores several Sufi dimensions in Assadi’s poetry, including mystical love, the journey of the self, the relationship between human existence and the Absolute, the symbolism of light, silence, nature, and spiritual transformation. The study also situates Assadi’s poetic vision within the broader tradition of Arabic mystical poetry, connecting his poetic imagination with classical Sufi concepts developed by figures such as al-Hallāj, Ibn al-Fāriḍ, Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, and Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī.
The article concludes that Wild Horses represents a modern poetic manifestation of Sufi consciousness, where mystical experience is not merely a religious expression but an aesthetic and existential search for identity, freedom, and harmony between the human being and the universe.
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