پژوهشنامه عرفان
سال پنجم شماره 10 (بهار و تابستان 1393)

Although the intermingling of mystical ideas with poetic verve began in fourth century hegira with the quadrants of Abu Saeed abi-al-Khair، Sanai is the first poet whose poems are not explainable and interpretable except in the domain of mysticism. In other words، the objective and purpose of the poet in his works is to express mystical themes. He has given shape to mystical worldview in his works and has reached such a perfection in this field that his Hadiqah can be considered an encyclopedia of mysticism and Gnosticism، because it contains numerous admonishments، traditions، examples and anecdotes in different mystical fields. One of the main subjects of this spiritual book is knowledge of the Absolute Truth (God). In the viewpoint of the mystics knowledge is the very understanding of God. In mysticism، Truth is only One، that is، the Almighty God. Hence، true knowledge is knowledge of God and this knowledge is related to the acts، attributes or the quiddity of God. The mystics maintain that knowledge is an illuminated meaning whose interpretation is not conceivable and at the time of necessity it cannot be expressed except through similar words or allegories and cannot be taught. The heart of the mystic is blessed with the knowledge God. The present research is an attempt to study the viewpoints of Sanai about knowledge in his Hadiqah، which was composed during the time of maturity of the poet and contains all his mystical viewpoints.

The main objective of the present paper is to study the viewpoints of two renowned advocates of Unity of Action. Without any doubt, one who maintains that God is the absolute actor of the world of being and believes that ‘there is no effective being in the existence except Allah’ would not subscribe to the viewpoint of a person who considers man as an independent actor parallel to God and hence would have a different viewpoint regarding man’s free-will as well. Gazzali refuses the notion of determinism and free-will and advocates a third notion, i.e. acquisition, which is also advocated by the Ash’arites. Ibn Arabi confirms the notion of acquisition, but does not consider it as the final solution to the problem of extremism and free-will. He believes in combination of determinism of Creator and manifestation of free-will of God in man to rid of the problem of determinism and free-will but at the same time preserves the perimeter of unity of action.

Pathological study of some intuitions in the field of explanation and interpretation has not been denied by some renowned mystics. Ibn Arabi also accepts these cases. He considers the essence of intuition invulnerable regarding its source, but maintains that the error may come from the acquirer of intuition. The question is: How far this argument is correct and at what stage mystical findings become possibly vulnerable? Attempts have been made in this research to study the criteria and stages of verification of intuition as reported by the speaker and acquirer of intuition and also study the role of explanatory factors and sources of the said errors as well as suggest some solutions to rid of these probable damages.

Interaction between God and Man has always been one of the key issues in the field of religion and knowledge of God. Man develops his relations with God in the light of the culture in which he is raised, painting unique attitudes towards God on his own soul. Attar Neishabouri’s Mosibat Nameh is replete with tumultuous attitudes of human classes towards God, whose aims are to connect to God and know Him. The most important personages of this mystical work, i.e. mystics and lunatics, on the side of personages such as elderly and non-human creatures, are the careers of the latest and most different kinds of relations with God. The present paper is an attempt to explain God’s interaction with His human and non-human creatures in the light of two specific attributes of divine mercy and wrath regarding man and universe. Also attempts have been made to explain different kinds of love and imprudent relations with God in the attitude of different social strata. Also in the light of the entire movement of the universe under the divine will and mercy, Attar’s approach to direct relation of every human being with God and multiplicity of the ways of this relationship are discussed.

The Holy Prophet (PBUH) of Islam says: “I have been raised to perfect the ethical virtues”. He also said that good demeanor is key to heaven: “One would not enter the heaven except possessing good ethical virtues.” Islam has always laid emphasis on good demeanor, tolerance and pacifism and prohibited ethical evils such as vengeance, animosity and adamancy. Muslim mystics, through a delicate and artistic approach to religion and ethical issues, have ornamented their texts with the gem of education. Islamic mystical teachings, particularly since seventh century, have entered people’s life and through a mystical and artistic approach invited people to ethical virtues such as brotherhood, benevolence, avoidance from animosity and vengeance, tolerance and patience to achieve peace, tranquility, unity and solidarity.The present paper is an attempt to study the wise and sagacious words of great poets of Persian literature such as Sa’di, Moulavi and Hafiz to impart their messages of peace, friendship and fraternity to the readers.

Self-development and self-actualization means moving towards ultimate perfection on the basis of individual capabilities and abilities. In fact, it is moving from inferior self to superior self. The self-actualized and self-developed people are those who try to actualize their genuine and God-like self – on the basis of the primordial nature of seeking perfection. They have gone beyond an animal life. In Imam Khomeini’s viewpoints self-developed people are those who have trampled upon the head of selfishness, i.e. they have annihilated the inferior self and attained the sublime self. His wayfaring is from the point of obedience to God to the point of glory of lordship. Maslow also speaks of the Godly nature of self-actualized people, but his definition of Godly is the status of the sages not of God. Imam Khomeini’s approach to self-developed and perfect man who has achieved the perfect level of self-development indicates that such a man enjoys the metaphysical and divine depth, while Maslow looks for the self-actualized and sublime people in the context of nature; although at times he speaks of metaphysics and spirituality as well.

The main objective of the present paper is to study different theological perceptions in Attar’s mystical thought and its ethical and ritualistic requirements. First of all, in Attar’s theology, three perceptions of God are not provable: God beyond personification and lack of personification, personified and imprersonified God. Secondly, among the said perceptions, it is possible to establish ethical and ritualistic relationship only with personified God, for this relationship requires two conditions, i.e. personification and human-likeness, which only personified God can have. Since personified God in Attar’s approach, besides human-like attributes has non-human-like attributes too which are beyond rational and ethical rules, we face some sort of incompatibility in ethical and ritualistic relationship with God.