The Qur an and Hadith; the Inspiring Mystical Views of Najm al-Din Razi in Mirsad al-Ibad

Rationalists have long accused Muslim gnostic in a hidden struggle of depending on their personal experiences and spiritual states in education and promoting Islamic injunctions. With the emergence of the school of Divine Love in the middle of the second century A.H(lunar), this issue turned into a new challenge between philosophers and gnostic. But, as a result of the development of the thoughts of great mystics such as, Ruzbehan, Suhrawardi, Einolghozat, Ghazali, Najm al-Din Razi, Sa’di, Molana and Hafez, Islamic mysticism found a new opportunity, using the ability of Persian language and introducing the origin of its thoughts, that is, the Qur’an and Hadith, mysticism could create great mystical masterpieces and prove the strength of its world view. Najm al-Din Razi, one of the famous gnostics of the sixth century, not only expressed his mystic thoughts according to the method and in the context of the Qur’an and divine sunnah but also gave inspiration to such great people like Hafez. According to Razi’s views, the Qur’an has two aspects: exoteric and esoteric. Its exoteric aspect belongs to those versed in religious law and its esoretic aspect belongs to the friends (of God) and gnostics. He mixed the prose of Mirsad al-Ibad with mystical notes and Qur’anic maxims to show that the heavenly words of gnostics are not mere description and explanation of personal experiences and states. This paper seeks to review the effect of the Qur’an and Hadith on Mirsad al-Ibad by Najm al-Din Razi.