A Comparative Analysis of the Essence and Attributes of God in Masnavi-e-Ma'navi and Dao-de-Jing

The matter of explaining the essence and attributes of God in Islamic mysticism has been influenced by Quranic tradition that is the criterion based on which the mystics have categorized the essence, attributes, and actions of God. Rumi, in Masnavi-e-Ma'navi, being referred to as the most prominent mystical work in Persian language, has been engaged with this subject with precision and delicacy, and, also, has broached the unknown nature of God.  Likewise, Laozi, the Chinese sage, in Dao-de-jing, the most predominant text of the Dao tradition that was written in the eighteen century before Masnavi-e-Ma'navi, has raised major and delicate discussions on the unknowability of the essence of Dao. Accordingly, the present paper is an attempt to represent and investigate the findings concerning God's essence and attributes in Masnavi-e-Ma'navi and Dao-de-jing. Furthermore, it also aims at explaining the similarities and differences between them via integrating the descriptive-analytical method. As depicted by the results of the study, the true essence of God in Masnavi-e-Ma'navi and that of Dao in Dao-de-jing is elusive and unknowable. However, God's attributes in Masnavi-e-Ma'navi are more numerous than those of Dao in Dao-de-jing. This is justifiable via the reference to nomenclature in Islamic mysticism and mystical interpretations of God's names. Also, even though, some attributes of Dao, such as profoundness, silence, and formlessness, do not have known equivalents in Islamic mysticism, they are used as attributes of God in Masnavi-e-Ma'navi. 
Introduction:
The concepts of God’s essence and attributes are referred to as common terminologies in Islamic philosophy and theology and have entered the field of mysticism and multiple examples of such type have been manifested in many verses of "Masnavi-e Ma'navi", as a significant work of Islamic mysticism. The formation of these terms dates back to Qur'an and Islamic tradition and the emergence of various philosophical-theological movements. It may seem far-fetched to evaluate the mystical grasp of Masnavi-e-Ma'navi on God's essence and attributes with the understanding of "Laozi", the founder of Daoism. However, despite the approximate time gap of eighteen centuries between the publication of Masnavi-e Ma'navi and that of Dao-de-jing, and the different geographical conditions in which they were formed, as well as the different cultural and intellectual environments of Rumi and Laozi, it is possible to perceive their similar and sometimes identical epistemological approaches to the concepts of God’s essence and attributes and show their common theological and ontological mindsets in explaining and understanding these concepts.
Materials and Methods:
God's essence in Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi and Dao-de-jing
In alignment with the prophetic tradition (hadith), Rumi considers thinking about God's essence as reprehensible and misleading, as there is no way to know God's essence. Not only is this not a means of knowledge in this realm, but also an obstacle and a veil. The idea of comprehending God's true essence is delusional, and any effort made with that ambition is to no avail. Rumi believes the observable world is rendered on the foundation of contrast, and each thing is a door to knowing other things, and basically, knowledge is the result of perceiving this contrast. Since there is no contrast in God's essence, human intellect has no way of knowing it. Likewise, in Laozi's mind, Dao is the best way of referring to a truth, and naming an essence that is totally unpresentable and nameless. Otherwise, it would not be what he has in mind. He calls this indescribable, unknowable truth Dao, due to the necessity of linguistic formation of the problem, but he immediately states that because that truth is now expressed in the form of words, it is no longer the truth before naming it.
Results and Discussion:
God's attributes in Masnavi-e Ma'navi and Dao-de-jing
With respect to Rumi's mindset, after the level of essence, without a reference to any hierarchy in time and space, there lies the attributes and names of god, and the entire world and countless creatures are the manifestation of God's infinite attributes. In the first hymn of Dao-de-jing, Laozi establishes a theology based on the essence and attributes of Dao, which includes the levels of the occult, the nameless (non-existent), the named (existent), and all beings in the world. All of these levels, except for the occult level, lie within the realm of human reason, knowledge, and inquiry. Also, the names of God in Islamic mysticism are divided into two categories of positive and negative attributes. positive attributes include God's unquestionable names, and negative attributes include names that God is free from.

Positive names

These names can be divided into three parts. The names of essence include: Lord (Rab), First (awal) and Last (akhar), appearance (zaher) and substance (baten), great (azim), immortal (baghi), and light (noor). The names of attributes include: merciful (rahim) and the agentive names, creator (khaleq), lowerer (khafid), exalter (rafi), and hearkener (mujib).
In the category of the names of essence, although the name "deep", which is one of the attributes of Dao, does not have a specific and well-known equivalent in Islamic mysticism, it is used as the name of God in Masnavi-eMa'navi.
Leave the part and embrace the whole
These streams all stem from a deep ocean

negative names

Although it is possible to attribute some of God's positive names to human beings or other creatures at a lower level, a number of negative attributes that indicate God's lack of some attributes, are unique to God, and no human being shares them with God.
Names such as incorporeal, unborn, invisible, one-and-only, and faceless. In this category, silence, which is one of the attributes of Dao, does not have a specific equivalent in Islamic mysticism. However, it is used for God in the Masnavi-e Ma'navi.
God's appeal, with no cause and effect hundred words he say, with no lips and mouth.
Conclusion:
The assessment of the concepts of God's essence and attributes in Masnavi-e Ma'navi and Dao-de-jing shows that Rumi and Laozi, despite their great distance in time and space and the sharp differences that existed in the intellectual and spiritual traditions of their time, had nearly similar approaches to these concepts, and established more or less the same theological foundations. Also, the unknowability of God and Dao's essence is emphasized in both works by suggesting that there is no opposition and contrast in their essence; however, in the field of positive attributes, we see names in Masnavi-e Ma'navi that have no equivalent in Dao-de-jing. It seems that one of the causes of this discrepancy is the importance and breadth of the nomenclature and the inexhaustibility of God's names in Islamic mysticism and Masnavi-e Ma'navi; a topic that is not so prominent, at least to that extent, in Dao-de-jing.
What confirms this conjecture is, in addition to the quantity, the quality of nouns, which includes all three types of proper noun, attribute, and agentive, has no equivalent. Another issue that compounds this dispute is the contemplation of Islamic thinkers on the subject of names and attributes, which has provided the basis for various interpretations and has added to the complexity of identifying these names, which sometimes have similar meanings. It is also worth mentioning that, even though not all of it is dedicated to the discussion of God's essence and attributes, the sheer volume of Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi, compared with the very compressed text of Dao-de-jing, has provided Rumi with more opportunities to discuss this topic. However, it should be made clear that many of the important and fundamental names and attributes of God in the Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi have similar or identical equivalents in Dao-de-jin, that is sometimes surprising.