Mystical Stations in the Thoughts of Ibn Sina and Suhrawardi

"Mystical stations and states" are among the basic stages of mystical journey towards the Truth, and make it possible to unite with the Truth. According to their mystical experiences, Ibn Sina and Suhrawardi have mentioned some degrees and orders different from the others. In the ninth stage of "al-Esharat", Ibn Sina refers to nine stages, such as "khalseh, tavaqqol, estifaz, enghelab, taqalqol, mashiyat, ta’rij, taradod and vosul” which are carried out through the will power and austerity of the mystic. He goes on to sum up mystical stations in four stages: "tafrigh, nafz, tark, and rafz." In his works, Suhrawardi states some incoherent stages, but in the book Al-Kalamat al-Zawqiyah, he succinctly points out six stages of "zogh, shogh, esgh, vasl, fana and bagha”. Using the "conceptual analysis" method, this paper examines and compares the spiritual stations expressed by these two mystic philosophers. Since the views of both thinkers were influenced by the religious teachings and the rules of Islamic mysticism, some common points such as "khalseh, sakineh, tavaqol and vasl" are observed in their works. However, in most of the stages, there are differences at least in with respect to terms and idioms. Suhrawardi seems to have taken steps to complete Ibn Sina’s work by adding the two stages of "fana" and "baqa" after the stage of vasl" which is the final stage in Ibn Sina’s classification.