The Theory of Mystical Supremacy A Review Analysis of Sheikh Ahmad Sarhendi's Viewpoints

The concept of supremacy (velāyat) is highly considered and discussed as one of the most fundamental concepts of Sufism points of view and its thought structure. Little reflection on the history of Sufism depicts that Sufism, as an intellectual and ideological thought system, has improved and developed by passing the years of its birth. After Ibn Arabi, this expansion got to a point that made it difficult for other existed key concepts of this spiritual system to develop. The avarice of supremacy theory gradually created a situation that some preferred it to prophecy and placed it on the top of introverts’ education list, until the 10th Hijri century when Sheikh Ahmad Sarhendi criticized the previous theories by his rational and traditional knowledge and his intuitive insight and introduced a new definitions of Supremacy and Prophecy which were unprecedented in the history of Sufism. He believed, however, that Prophecy is more important than Supremacy but had a great struggle to propagate the theory of Supremacy and explained new order for it. In this analytic-descriptive study, it has been tried to make the fundamental ideas of Sheikh Ahmed Sarhendi about the steps of conduct, Supremacy and Prophecy and the realities of Sharia clear.