Is Reason a Valid Source for Man? An Interpretation of Two Distiches of Sanai's Hadiqa

Sanai's Hadiqa is one of the canonical works of Persian literary texts. Sanai is the founder of a new style of poetry in terms of subject-matter and content. Although Hadiqa is a relatively extensive poem written in rhyming couplets with descriptive structure, it occasionally expresses a concept with brevity; the accurate understanding of which requires detailed explanation. The following two distiches are among those posed briefly by Sanai; the understanding of which requires the explanation of their constituents:In the place where Gabriel the AminWhose glory and awe is enormousIs thought to be less than a little sparrowIt would be a shame to rely on reason (Sanai, 1989, p. 62) In these verses, the main theme of which is the intellect's inability to know the Sublime, there are several related words which make it difficult to understand the verse due to their seeming inconsistency: reason, Gabriel, sparrow, awe, and glory. Here, Gabriel is the symbol of reason based on Aristotelian philosophy as well as Suhrawardi's thoughts, and the glory of Gabriel is related to his greatness and dignity when the Prophet (PBUH) looks at him from an earthly position. The sparrow or Sa’wah is also Gabriel when he is in a state of awe and the Holy Prophet looks at him from the horizon of the supreme. In this article, using the documentary research method and referring to other texts to substantiate our findings, we have come to this conclusion that reason is impotent and incapable in knowing or understanding God. In this way, the meaning of the verse has been clarified.