Methods of Persuasion in Mystical Books; The Case Study: Haqiq al-Haqq or Aina-i Haq Numa

The concept of "persuasion' has a special place in mystical and religious texts. It has a more important role than the concept of "waring" and is a means of indirectly guiding public opinion. The present essay examines the subject of persuasion in Haqiq al-Haqq</em> or Aina-i Haq Numa</em> (Truth Showing Mirror), composed by Abd ul Latif Chishti. In this versified book, the poet attempts to attract the sālek (the holy traveler) to theistic mysticism and to immortalize the name of his own sect, the Chishtiye. By using the analytic-descriptive method and based on new linguistic methods and inspired by the functionalist theories of Jacobson and Lasswell, the present article tries to examine the subject of persuasion in the five areas of environment, stimulus, audience, reward and content. The results show that the use of figures of speech has brought the book a lot of literary value and the proper and frequent use of persuasion, as an educational method, has added to its educational richness.