مجله ادبیات عرفانی
پیاپی 10 (بهار و تابستان 1393)

Manichaean religion founded by Mani is a Gnostic religion، which is considered as a mystical cult. The basic principle of religion is the descent of soul from the heaven and its imprisonment in the material world; the duty of mankind is to get rid of this wicked world through piety and forbearance to free his soul from this prison along with the purity of his heart. Like Gnostics، Manicheans had a dualistic view، and considered the path of salvation through the achievement of Gnosis or wisdom; such wisdom is brought to human by the messengers of God and divine saviors. Some principles of Manich-aean beliefs and Islamic mysticism are the same، including the idea of «Perfect Man». The «Perfect Man» in Islamic mystical beliefs is very close to “Hormazd-bagh” or the “First Man” in Manichaeism، therefore، some believe that the origin of the idea of «Perfect Man» comes from Manichaeism.

One of the unsolved mysteries in Mathnavi is its completion or incompletion before Mawlana''s death. Some scholars believe death، agedness، or disease caused Mawlana not to complete Mathnavi; so it remained incomplete، but some others claim that Mawlana completed Mathnavi a few years before his death. The results of this article–that has been done by content analysis–show that not only Molavi completed Mathnavi during his lifetime، but the edition and writing of Mathnavi has been done under his own supervision. Moreover، the story of Shahzadegan (The princes) is not incomplete as the story of love has neither beginning nor ending.

Discourse analysis and its theories have recently provided a b ackground and s uitable substrates to study text structures. Paul Ricoeur''s dialectical discourse is of this kind and focuses on text analysis beyond language and on space and conceptual background of text. Attar’s Ellahinameh is a Persian literary classical work with dialogical narrative structure. This research makes an effort to identify the shaped discourses in Ellahinameh through a descriptive – analytical method and with a discursive approach in two levels: 1. structure: including rational agent، vocabulary distribution، expressive faces and 2. content: including conceptual foundations in sense and reference، the origin of discourses and silenced sub- discourse to make an analysis and new reading of the text appropriate for the contemporary reader The analysis of the text in this way shows that the two discourses of world- oriented and World aversion which center on God and man have been formed dialectically in Ellahinameh. Three elements of patriarchy، authority and knowledge as a source of power and domination of father’s ascetic discourse can be detected; they increase his influence، dominance and domination on both discourses. The integration and differentiation between religion and the world is suggested by two discourses and according to the father’s discourse of domination، more examples have been presented to convince children of the doctrinal teachings.

Jonun al-Majanin، written by Ghavam al-Din SanjaniKhafi (734-820 AH) is among the Sufi literary works of the early 9th century AH covering invaluable information about the Sufis of that era، religious sects and theological movements as well as the accounts and biography of the author himself، which was penciled with a literary style. The author has tried to make his mystical thoughts and reflections in a question-answer style، and mostly using symbols and in a simple language understandable for his audience، and thereby، he has interpreted and explained Quranic verses، Hadiths، mystical expressions and poems. The fable of “Hunting Ground” (or Four Brothers) or the first verses of the Ghazal “that Beauty gave me a sweeper…” are instance of mystical interpretations in Sufi circles of that era reflected in Jonun al-Majanin. Khafi، by explaining and criticizing the beliefs of different Islamic sects and also epistemological concepts and thoughts، particularly those about reason and science، their scope and relations with each other، has reduced the mystical theme of Jonun al-Majanin and due to his respect to Molavi، in the final section، by mentioning some Ghazals of Shams of Tabriz، has tried his poetic competence in a welcoming way. Jonun al-Majanin has been penciled in four chapters titled as Beliefs (Motaghidat)، Reflections (Waridat)، Events (Waghia’at)، and Poems. The present study tries to investigate some parts of the epistemologicalcosmos of Ghavam al-Din Khafiby criticizing and investigating mystical accounts and thoughts of this unknown scholar and interpreting his Jonun al-Majanin based on its two newly found and ancient versions.

The unconventional and beautiful structure of Mathnavi requires that the reader، in order to understand more deeply and to get more artistic enjoyment from Mawlana’s words، not to encounter Mathnavi’s text with his conventionally lingual and mental patterns. Furthermore، the semantic schema of ignored and hidden without considering the semantic grounds and organic link of pieces and components of the textin a reductionist reading. Accordingly، the present study، by considering one of the epistemological and ontological approaches of Mawlana، explains the manner and reason of the fall of oppositions and the originality of relative attitudeand the cohesion in Mathnavi. The present study shows that how Mawlana goes beyond the closed and repetitive fence of this structure in spite of the presence of binary oppositions in Mathnavi. Avoiding making definite and final conclusion and seeing the concepts in coherence and spectral view are among Mawlana’s infrastructure principles in thinking throughout Mathnavi which is transferred to the reader through expressions like “from the viewpoint”، “different directions”، “from the perspective”، “in relation to”، “towards you”، “on one hand”، etc. This article by re-reading some of the stories of Mathnavi –which are outlined with this fundamental idea—، shows that how concepts in slippery and fluid form join together in the universality of Mathnavi. Looking closely at these concepts for several times، this fact will be highlighted that in Mathnavi no concept is defined once and for all but each of them is outlined many times - from a specific perspective and angle- so that the reader would not consider any meaning as the final one and awaits another aspect of that in another line، story or volume.

A ttention to mysticism and man`s inner process to attain the truth، in Mawlana’s teachings، has a significant status. Rumi’s emphasis on this issue is the result of the impression taken from religious texts and also of his mystical experience. From Mawlana`s point of view، human soul is a spiritual truth whose nature is of knowledge divine origin. In this spiritual quest، Mawlana highlights self-knowledge and its obstacles which include ethical matters or epistemological issues such as alienation، fantasy، imagination and imitational cognition. Besides unraveling the obstacles، getting in touch with the Divinity and returning to the Origin are the main targets of this spiritual quest in Mawlana’s teachings. This article attempt to analyze the obstacles and results of self-knowledge and mystical process in Mawlana’s teachings.

Using a descriptive-analytical method، this study deals with the meaning and interpretation of the term «black light» in mystical literature. The study covers both Persian and Arab mystical literature. In these texts، we can find two different، if not contrasting، interpretations of «black light»: one is the light of the Divine Essence and the second is the Devil light. In most cases، this term has been used in contexts related to the first sense of the term. There are two reasons underlying the darkness or dimness ofthe essence light. The first is that the intensity of Divine light leads to the dimness of the wayfarer''s sight and approaching such a light disturbs his eyes and annihilates him. The second is that the given darkness refers to the multiplicity and determination which conceals the essence light; in the case of the latter، the term will gain a sense much closer to the meaning «blinds of light» (shining veils). Some believe that the black light represents manifestations of God''s attributes and others consider it to be a kind of reference to the Arcane، one of the seven stages in self path to perfection. A quite contrary position has been taken by Einolghozat Hamedani who considers black light the same as Devil light; because he views Devil as the manifestation of God''s Glory. Some believe that using the term in this sense has a Gahani or Zorvani origin which is based on the collocation of light and darkness. This is related partly to the defense from the ontological role of the Devil and can be subject to critique.