The Dialectics of Spiritual Poetry and Intuition of Meaning in Bidel Dehlavi’s Thoughts

We can explore Bidel Dehlavi’s epistemic system and artistic identity through two layers of intuitive experience and spiritual texts. A collateral bond, in terms of ontology and epistemology, unites these two epistemic-artistic layers. The first, is an intuitive experience stemming from the demeanor of “Tabatol to Fana” (translation: Annihilation to Inexistence) and ascension of “Peleh Peleh ta Khoda” (translation: Step-by-Step to God). The second is a mysterious collection of spiritual texts whose real value is appraised through philosophical sonnet. The collection decrypts the indivisibility of the truth in a symbolic language, and places God at a level that is within the scope of man’s intuitive understanding. In other words, Bidel recreates meaning via the triple process of deducing, paraphrasing, and interpreting spiritual texts. The fundamental questions of the research are as follows: What is the most prominent possible existing connection between the intuitive experience (the epistemic layer) and the symbolic interpretive language of Bidel (artistic layer)? What are the reasons for Bidel’s tendency toward symbolic expressions in his poems? By examining these two questions, we test the hypothesis that Bidel’s ontological and epistemological foundations have an intentional and subtle relation to his symbolic language and formulations. The poet turns to symbolism and creation of spiritual texts in order to remove the mask of meaning. On the other hand, the essence of natural languages, embedded in empirical human discourses, blocks the way to absolute manifestation. This is the reason why Bidel is able to overcome this linguistic restriction via imagination, mystery, and symbolism through Sufi understanding.