نشریه مطالعات عرفانی
پیاپی 18 (پاییز و زمستان 1392)

Despite the existence of long-standing ties between poetry and music، Sanāyi، the famous poet of the sixth century، was a serious opponent unlike many other poets. He overtly blamed music as erotic art and composed poems blaming music. The author describes Sanāyi’s opinion about music in this paper and explores the terms of his disagreement. In the meantime، social backgrounds of his opposing views including his knowledge of and participation in ceremonies of joy and cheerfulness before his spiritual change are highlighted. His moral decrees on music and his general opposition with music are discussed in relation to his psychology of Samā’ music. In his belief، when man’s spirit descends to nature، it loses the original elevated status and seeks what matches the new worldly temperament. To him، the devil produces the joy in music and uses ears as the instrument to contaminate the soul، so veil is considered as stumbling block. Sanāyi’s view about music and Samā’ are not، of course، much welcome by other poets.

Probably the stream called Asceticism (later named Sufism and Mysticism) can be regarded as the most everlasting and permanent course which paved its way at some Muslems’ ideology with a few changes since the advent of Islam. It seems that asceticism، after Fiqh and Quranic works، has been written about more than any other areas. The style and the formal structure of mystical writings have constantly changed based on the prose of each era. Perhaps the first place where this formal change revealed was at the book titles، contents، or even their introductions. Titles and themes written in each era are، on the one hand، following the prose style of that era and reveal the prose features of that period، and on the other hand، they reflect the major themes of that area. Sufism writing titles، in the same token، represent Arabic and Persian prose features as well as Sufism mainstreams in each era. This paper، first، briefly discusses the main eras of Sufism from first to eighth century and its Arabic and Persian features، and then studies the forms of Sufism writing titles such as books، odes، etc. It seems that Sufism writing titles in the first centuries have been mostly in short، simple، clear، and non-musical (non- rhythmic) forms and represented the content of the books. As we move forward in history، these titles become longer، more rhythmic، and vaguer and even mysterious; literary and spiritual figures of speech appear، and symbolic contents and type of audience are accentuated.

In Daoism، ''Sheng Ren'' or ''Perfect Man'' is assigned to a person who acts in accordance with Dao and nature. A sage person is wholly in harmony with Dao and therefore، the most significant description of him is manifested as ''Wu-wei'' or ''non-action''. Dao is the being which natural and spontaneous process of all the things is depended to it. Therefore، no one should put obstacles in the way of Dao. In conclusion، everything would appear in accordance with its natural and genetical way. Dao is itself without any action but it creates everything. A man can attain truth just in the condition that he acts naturally. In fact، not-action is not anything else than being in accordance with Dao and nature. A Daoist sage is a person who lets all cosmic courses circulate freely in him and in all the world; and following that، both he himself and whole of the world reach to unity in calmness and tranquility. He lays down all his acquired and learned perceptions and realizes his being identical with everything in the world. He avoids from any kind of artificial autonomic interference in nature. As in nature everything arises in stillness and emerges his duties without any frippery or exaggeration; also a man should do all his tasks in their natural course avoiding personal interests or benefits.

One of the fundamentals of the establishment and consolidation of an age-old civilization is the effectiveness and suitability of its educational systems. In fact، the efficiency of an educational and training system necessitates a deep insight as well as the right educational method. One of the most prominent educational systems is the method offered by Muslim mystics، who taught their pupils by means of one of the most effective training approaches، despite poverty and serious setbacks. Focusing on Attar Neishabouri’s Tazkiratul Awliya and adopting a descriptive-analytic approach، the researchers of the present study analyze its embedded mystics'' implied teaching methods and their function and frequency. Implicit or indirect teaching styles are characterized by irony، implication، and the absence of the master''s explicit didactic statements. The present article indicates that Muslim mystics adopted three styles in training، namely، the observational، the explorative، and the observational-explorative with their sub-categories and sub-branches. Observational style includes performance techniques and natural and environmental elements. Explorative style incorporates mystery، esoteric discourse، personal interpretation، and allegory. Observational-explorative style employs travel and art in training disciples. Keywords: Training Methods (the observational، the explorative، the observational-explorative)، Implicit Teaching، Islamic Mysticism، and Tazkerat al-Awliyā

Teymourid’s era was one of the most important periods in the history of Sufism. The most significant feature which differentiates this period from other eras is “its movement towards political power” which has been reflected in the relation of the kings to the sheikhs of Naqshbandyyeh، the most influential mystic sect. The present study is an attempt to analyze the position of Sufism of Naqshbandyyeh in Jami’s sonnets discourse using Norman Fairclough’s CDA and Michael Halliday’s functionalism. In Jami’s triple collection of poems، various discourses in the form of sonnet could be observed among which nasehaneh (advisable)، qalandarāneh and Mahdi (Eulogic) sonnet discourses are the most important grounds in which Naghshbandieh’s ideologies are reflected. Among multi-dimensional principles of Naqshbandieh، khalvat dar anjoman (Solitude among the community) and safar andar vatan (Journey along the country) have been more to the interest of Jāmi. Sonnet discourse analysis، using Fairclough’s method، has been undertaken at 3 levels of description، interpretation، and explanation and ideational meta-function has been adopted from Halliday’s meta-functions. Also، material process، relational process، and naming the discourse interlocutors are the main tools for representing “Naqshbandyyeh’s ideology” by Jāmi.

An important category in methodology of mystical language is to explicate mechanism of language and narrative elements in expressing the wonders wrought by saints. Since these wonderworks takes place in a complicated inexpressible world، the narrator by telling narratives in a language different with the common language tries to reconstitute the mysterious incomprehensible world of the wonderworks; yet it hinges upon his proficiency how well he manages to form the perceived scene. In addition to discriminate between believe in wonderworks and superstitions، and to avoid misunderstanding between the two، the present paper at first by giving illustrations from spiritual stations sought to analyze some of the narrative tricks and the impact of them on actualizing the wonderworks، then reveals inclination of their language from allegory toward metaphor. The result of the study shows that the narrator depending on his expertise by using various techniques and methods attempts to make the strange wonderworks authentic and believable، however in later times in parallel with the decline of Sufism and socio-political tensions either its form or content become hackneyed and deteriorated; as gradually departs from the plain allegorical language of the spiritual stations in the opening periods of Sufism and falls into a metaphoric afflicted language in later times; not verbal metaphors and symbolic figurative language due to inexpressibility of language in describing mystical experiences but a vast use of conceptual metaphors intended for various desires and interests.

The story of Alexander the Great and his world-conquering during history and then changing this cruel face into an ideal face have drawn the attention of lots of critics from a long time ago. Nezāmi used this story to express his wise thinking. Amir khosro Dehlavi، as a first taunt-teller of Khamseh، put Alexander’s story into verse in Ᾱyineh-Eskandary. The necessity of doing this study is that despite lots of mystical manifestation in this story، no studies have been done on this issue yet. The current study، using a descriptive-analytic approach، investigates the mystical dimensions of Alexander’s story in respect of his two-faceted character in the history and legend. Finally، it is concluded that Amir khosro Dehlavi mostly used the parts of the story which have more conceptual capacity to nourish the mystical meanings. On the one hand، the wicked and warmonger character of Alexander at the beginning of the story is the symbol of a materialistic person; on the other hand، his war with Khāqān is a fighting with the soul. Alexander، passing through the stages by the help of Soroush، Khezr and Elyās (symbols of spiritual leaders)، reaches to the sea of knowledge and awareness. Alexander’s voyage - affected by Manteq-al-tayr by Attar – shows seven steps of approaching to the most high. Alexander passes through two steps of claim and love in land، and two steps of satisfaction and awareness in sea reaches the land of wonders. At last، guided by Soroush، he is led to a scrutiny of his own ideal being. This point is completely mystical and is indicative of monotheism. Thus، Alexander’s death is reaching to morality step to reach to God.