Criteria for Distinguishing the Discontinuous Imaginal Universe Events: Employing Henry Corbin’s Method in Tazkirat-al-Awliā

Since the ancient times, there have always been groups of people who believed in the order of the universe. The concept of discontinuous imaginal world was raised in the Muslim world as the mediator between the world of intellect and the world of matter, of course under different titles. The imagination was also considered to be the mediator between sense and reason. Moreover, there exist religious and mystical experiences in different nations which are named differently, including metaphysical powers (Kerāmāt), supernatural wonders (Khavāriq-e-ādāt), and the like. These issues were of great importance and recurrence among the Sufis and various texts have addressed them; one of which is Tazkirat-al-Awliā. Henry Corbin, an Orientalogist, who applied phenomenological components in examining the mystical experiences of Sufis, recurrently reminds us of the necessity of proper understanding of it in its precise position, i.e. discontinuous imaginal universe. The present study, approaching Corbin’s method, which is the same as interpretation (ta’wil) or revelation of the veiled (Kashf-ol-Mahjoub), provides criteria that can be used to discern the imaginary dimension of the eventsin Tazkirat-al-Awliā. The findings of the study suggest that criteria such as sacred time, relationship with angels, subtle and imaginal descriptions, and the like could display the proper place of occurrence of imaginal events to readers of such texts as Tazkirat-al-Awliā.