MAULANA JALAL AD-DIN RUMÎ'S IMPACT ON SOCIETAL AND POLITICAL CORRUPTION IN HIS TIME. Ibrahim CERRAH ABSTRACT ‘Muslim scholars’ (ulema) and ‘Muslim rulers’ (umera) are two groups of people who have a vital role in ‘correcting’ (islah) or ‘corrupting’ (fesad) the society. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) assigned a special task to those two classes of people in correction and corruption of the whole society. What is more, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) also praised scholars, in one of his sayings, "The scholars are the heirs of the prophets". Yet while Islamic tradition has many examples of scholars fulfilling this function, there are others who did not live up to their responsibility and became what is defined as the ‘bad scholars’ (Ulema-i Ssu). Today scholars in Muslim societies can be categorized into three groups: the first category passively supports the corruption, suppression and injustice of oppressive rulers by remaining silent, the second category supports them actively with their fatwas. Third group is the one who acts according to the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) "The best jihad is to speak a word of truth to a tyrannical ruler,” and warns a sultan about justice. Despite the fact, the Prophet places an exceptional value to those who oppose unjust and oppressive rulers, today there are few who accept the risks to oppose oppressive rulers; a comparatively balanced approach where good deeds are appreciated and bad ones are critically analyzed for justice. Therefore, today’s Muslim societies need ‘scholars’ (ulema) like Rumi, who showed a balanced approach and maintained good relations with ‘rulers’ (umera) supporting them in their good activities, but also warning them against the evils of corruption of all sorts. KEYWORDS: Correction, Corruption, Sultans, Social Control and Justice