ABSTRACT
The mystical notion of going back to one's origin indicates the relationship between the metaphysics of creation and the practical path of return, in which the former serves as the general frame for the occurrence of the latter. To place mystical return in such a broad context raises the question of the consistency of the two sides of Rumi's mysticism, namely, his mythic theory of creation. Rumi's works contain, in addition to the classifications mentioned earlier, other categorizations connected to the subject of the stages of the mystical return. In the case of such Sufis as Rumi, who accentuate the connection and even fusion of shara and the Sufi path, the crucial point would be to understand the meaning of the term shara in its specifically mystical context. Commencing from the non-mystical stage of the ordinary man, one attains, through the first practice of dying from being man, the first stage of angelhood and the domination of the intellect.
