Fostering Theological Concepts through Verses and Narrations in the Preface of Amir Khusrow Dehlavi's Masnavi

In this paper, we have investigated the fostering of theological concepts through verses and narrations in the preface of Amir Khusrau Dehlavi's Masnavi. The research type is analytical-descriptive and its method is library. After investigating the prefaces from a theological point of view, we have come to the conclusion that Amir Khusrau Dehlavi has quoted verses from the Holy Quran or hadiths of the infallible Imams, either directly or indirectly and implicitly, in most of the verses that contain theological concepts. Thus, he sought to achieve two goals: One is that he attempted to foster theological concepts by quoting verses and hadiths in order to make his beliefs believable to his audience, and on the other hand, he sought to pay tribute to the Holy Quran and the hadiths of the infallible Imams. Among the three poems investigated, theological concepts in the preface of the poem Hasht Behesht are more than the other two poems, and in the preface of this poem, the poet has discussed diverse and various concepts of theology. Most of the theological concepts used in the preface of these three poems are concepts that have been repeated in other poets' poems before Dehlavi, however, Dehlavi is one of the prominent poets in terms of verses, hadiths and narrations that have been used to document and foster theological concepts.