Step by Step Up to Union with God recounts the life story, from birth to death, of the celebrated 13th-century Persian Sufi poet, Jalal-al-Din of Balkh, commonly known in the West as Rumi, being the creator of one of the most exquisite collections of lyrical poems (designated Ghazaliyyat-e Shams) and the greatest versified presentation of Islamic mysticism. It covers the poet's childhood, his emigration at the age of 13, accompanying his father, through Khorasan and Baghdad to Anatolia, where he eventually settled in Konya for the rest of his life.