Mystical Distress From Fakhr-al-Din Iraqi's Point of View

The present study examines the mystical concept of distress in the poems of Fakhr-al-Din Iraqi. The concept refers to the separation from God; it awakens the soul of man from forgetfulness, makes him/her eager to meet the Beloved and leads him/her to seek God. The mystical concept of distress is presented in Iraqi poetry in two different ways: First, in the form of an unpleasant and intense pain that is not never desired by the devotee and it is hard and sometimes impossible for him/her to bear it; but, in order to achieve spiritual development, she/he has to be patient until reaching God. The second manifests itself in a pleasant way, so that the lover desires it and considers it as a cure. With regard to the concept of distress, the present study examines the two concepts of nearness (gorb) and distance (bod) from an epistemological perspective. Also, by using descriptive-analytical method, an attempt is made to study the issue of distress in Iraqi intellectual system, and to resolve the contradiction on the issue of distress in his poetry divan.