A Study of Episteme in Sanai's Hadiqat ul-Haqiqah

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.