Western literature and religion borrow heavily from the rose symbolism that blossoms in Sufi literature and teachings. The practice of being a Sufi is often called following the “Path of the Rose.” In The Sufis, Shah argues that the Rosicrucians (or “Rose-Cross”), an occult society founded in the seventeenth century, took their name from a mistranslation of the Sufi Path of the Rose. Many scholars also argue that the Roman Catholic practice of praying the rosary was inspired by this aspect of Sufi philosophy.

Roses symbolize love and beauty in both Sufi and western literature. For the Sufis, roses symbolize both the appealing love of God and God’s perfect beauty. Rose symbolism in western literature includes the divine figure of the Virgin Mary, but also follows a more secular religion of love with the chivalric quest for romance replacing the quest for God. To understand the distinction, one might consider how a rose garden for Sufis is a place to find God, but in British literature, a garden is used to describe a woman’s features (e.g. the “roses” in a woman’s cheeks in Thomas Campion’s “There is a Garden in her Face”). IN Hafez’s poem, the burning of the roses symbolizes both the ardor caused by love and the “death” it inflicts on the lover.