Investigating the Mystical Approach to the Event of Ashura with an Emphasis on Zubdat al-Asrār

The kind of Imam Hussein’s look and belief and his mystical states in the event of Ashura, apart from the epic, emotional, and political approaches, has another comprehensive discourse which is beautifully manifested in the poems of mystics, such as Ṣafī ʻAlī Shāh, and does not provide sadness and humiliation in the event of Ashura; rather, the joy and dignity. In this study, after explaining the interpretative view of Ṣafī ʻAlī Shāh, the composer of the Zubdat al-Asrār (the Essence of Secrets), and comparing his view with some hadiths of the infallibles, the Ashura uprising was examined from the perspective of Islamic mysticism. This view depicts the Ashura heroes at the peak of human conquest and actually depicts a romantic world decorated with daggers, blades and arrows, wherein the beloved intoxicates the lovers with affliction and suffering. By changing the perception of an event, it is possible to transform the feelings arising from that event. In other words, emotions arising from human perceptions change human emotions by transforming into a more subtle vision. This Ṣafī ʻAlī Shāh’s semantic view spread to his students, such as Ummān-e Sāmāni, who wrote a magnificent work entitled Ganjineh Asrār.