Monasticism in the Breadth of Relations

Piety and abstinence is one of the most important characteristics of religion so that they have made a lot of people secluded and monastic. Monasticism is mostly and generally accepted by some religions such as Christianity. As for monasticism in Islam، the best way is utilizing the Koran and relations attributed to religious saints. As evident in Islamic sources، the Almighty has pointed to monasticism in four verses of the Koran. To have more understanding on the concept of monasticism، the Islamic commentators including both Shiite and Sunny have their own comments so that the accurate conceptual meaning of the word has come to be difficult. Therefore، it should be commented out of the relations and prophet traditions. This paper is up to investigating the content of some relations as well as the true perspective of Islam on the better understanding of monasticism. Thus، it is endeavored to analyze the two categories of relations on the rejection and confirmation of monasticism and its manifestation in Shiite and Sunny sources that have had two different inferences on the positive and negative meaning of monasticism، together with the conflict and paradox of the two concepts from the Islam point of view.