A Comparative Study of Mystical Unity in Attar Neyshabouri's and Ibn Arabi's Thoughts

The mysticism of Khorasan from the third century AH to the sixth century AH has had the widest extent in the Persian culture and literature. From the sixth century AH onwards, especially from the seventh century AH, theoretical mysticism has become more widespread with the introduction of Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi. What has lead to the creation of theoretical and practical mysticism is the mystics’ different views of the category of unity. Despite numerous researches on unity/ monotheism, no attention has been paid to the issue of creation beside truth and the difference of spiritual wayfaring in relation to the category of unity. With this in mind, poetical works of Attar Neyshabouri as the representative of the mysticism of Khorasan, and Ibn Arabi’s thoughts in the The Bezels of Wisdom and The Meccan Illuminations were examined closely, and the verses and the parts indicating unity or monotheism, look at creation, and levels of the world were extracted, and the necessary analyses were offered based on the explanations. It was concluded that in the mysticism of Khorasan, the look at the creator and mere attention to him is at the beginning of the movement of the spiritual wayfarer, and that in the mysticism of Iraq, attention is drawn to both creation and truth. The mystics of Khorasan view creation as mirage and shadow, while creation is the truth itself in the mysticism of Ibn Arabi. On the other hand, the issue of achieving the highest level of unity in the mysticism of Khorasan is in the position of the manifestation of phoenix (the level of unicity in comparison with theoretical mysticism) and in the existential mysticism of Ibn Arabi is in the determination of the oneness of God. The basis of spiritual wayfaring in the mysticism of Khorasan is the mere attention to the truth and the rejection of existence, while the basis of mysticism of Iraq is self-awareness and the acceptance of existence authenticity.