Clarifying Various Models for Expressing Stages of Mysticism

One of the most important discussions in practical mysticism is the quality of expressing various stages of mysticism. From the early years of the written history of mystical arguments, one of the main concerns of the mystics was how to express the stages of mysticism. Muslim mystics have failed to specify the exact number of stages for a mystic in his spiritual journey to his final destination. To that end, there is difference of opinion among them. Different opinions of the mystics on the quality of spiritual journey and the stages of mysticism can be classified under the following four categories: “multiplicity”; “diversity”; “prioritization”; and “definition”. Imam Khomeini has maintained a paradoxical approach toward expressing stages of mysticism. On one hand, he avoids step-by-step clarification of stages of mysticism, and on the other hand, he writes about generalities of spiritual journey. This paper tries to explore the causes of this apparently paradoxical approach in the first stage, and in the second stage, introduce various models for expressing generalities of mystical journeys based on Imam Khomeini’s works. These models have been categorized based on six major items, each possessing different models of clarification