The Effect of Love on Spiritual Health from the Point of View of Fromm and MulawÊ

Subject Areas : Christianity

محمد Abdorahimi ¹ , محمدتقی Fa'ali ²

1 - دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، واحد علوم و تحقیقات، رشته عرفان اسلامی، تهران، ایران
2 - دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، واحد علوم و تحقیقات، گروه عرفان اسلامی، تهران، ایران

Received: 2016-11-24 Accepted : 2016-11-24 Published : 2016-02-20

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Abstract :

Both Mulana and Eric Fromm consider “love” as one of the main factors of creating psychological and spiritual health, and call the true and sound love “the art of healthy and developed man”. Despite the temporal and spatial distance, and differences in culture and approach, there are many common points in their words, which shows the affinity of Fromm’s psychology and MulawÊ’s mysticism. They both refer to “the healing and treating role of love”, “love as a relating and unifying factor”, “the necessity of cleansing vices and adorning with virtues in a love relationship”, “love being the outcome of knowledge and understanding”, “the possibility of learning to love”, “love being the generator of love”, “creativity and fruitfulness of love”, “association of love with suffering, and the necessity of patience for the lover”. MulawÊ and Fromm’s differences of opinion goes back to their approach, status, the horizon of their views, and the depth of their words rather that an unreconcilable logical opposition. Fromm considers love as an essential element in “psychological growth and health”, but MulawÊ regards it as the cause of “proximity and return to the divine threshold” and tries to deliver man to paradise and eternal bliss through his psychological wellbeing.