Divine Madness and Monotheistic Delicacies of Divinely Absorbed Individuals

The divine madness as a type of the Sufistic career in the Islamic mysticism is related to some divine people who are called ‘fool of God’, ‘wise fool’, or ‘wise mad.’ This group are exemplified by Buhlul who along with other wise mads appears in Persian mystical literature. In Attar-e-Neyshaburi’s works, the ‘holy fool’ is an individual who outwardly behaved in an eccentric manner while inwardly he pursued a religious ideal or enlivened by mystical experience. The ecstatic impertinence of divine mads in Attar’s mystical poems is displayed as an unusual career of sufistic way.According to Attar-e- Neyshaburi, ‘holy fool’ became ‘the primary goal of the Sufis’, and that with the expansion of mysticism the prevalence of such divine madness widened the bounds of social tolerance for ususual behavior and ‘altered states’ of consciousness. From the viewpoint of Attar, simulated madness disguised inward spiritual purity, as did the ‘intentional transgression of social mores’ for example among the Malamiyya or Qalandariyya. The reports of Attar in his mystical poems on spiritual states of holy wise mads are related to their pure love of God and their asceticism and monasticism.