The Mystical Ontology Foundations of the Ayn Al-Quzat Hamedani

Ayn-al Quzat Hamedani (492-525 LH) is one of the most important pioneers of the tradition of Iranian philosophy, a mystic of the first mystical tradition who has used opinions on ontology for knowledge and journey to God. The purpose of this study was to identify the mystical foundations of his ontology and its roots by a descriptive-analytical method which showed that although in the division of existence he was influenced by philosophers, but the ‘Possible Existence’ had no real place in his division. He believes that existence is one and calls it the unique essence of the universe which everything except it is nothing. But, he uses non-existence in two senses of pure and latent which are the representatives the materials and lights, respectively. These are entities through which the essence is manifested. Thus, light, in his ontology, is the representation of existence and is equivalent to the divine attributes. Mohammad’s Light arises from the attribute of beneficence, and Devil’s Light emerges from the attribute of Omnipotence. For this reason, Ayn Al-Quzat has called Mohammad’s Light alongside Allah, the creature of beings, and by considering darkness as light, he has distanced himself from the believers of Duality. He tried to discuss the emergence of the issues of ‘accompaniment’ and ‘manifestation’ by mentioning plurality from unity and attributes from the essence. The study also shows that Ayn al-Quzat introduced and completed some important theoretical debates with the development of new ideas in ontology such as: unique essence, unit manifestation, lack of boredom through non-repetition in manifestation, and the continuous creativity theory.