پژوهشنامه ادیان
سال هشتم شماره 2 (پیاپی 16، پاییز و زمستان 1393)

The concept of seal of sainthood (khātam al-awlÊyā") is an important issue in Islamic mysticism, which has been the subject of speculation and contemplation by many muslim mystics, such as \akÊm TirmidhÊ who systematically dealt with it in his book khatm al-awlÊyā".From the point of view of Ibn cArabÊ, vilāyah is the intuitive and esoteric knowledge of God, and khātam al-awlÊyā"or the seal of sainthood is someone who has attained the highest level of vilāyah. However, his views on instances of this concept is inconsistent and varied, so he mentions different persons, even himself as its instances. Nårbaksh on the other hand, holds that whoever attains all the states, stages and perfections is the perfect man, quãb al-aqãāb, and the leader of the saints. He uses the term “buråz” or making appearance for the process of transition of the vilāyah from Adam and other prophets to the Sufi masters. In his opinion, in this process the body of the saint becomes the bearer of Prophet’s spirit as the eternal Muhammadan Truth, as well as the spirits of Jesuse and the twelfth shici Imam. The present paper is going to deal with this subject in the works of Ibn cArabÊ and Siyyid MuÈammad Nårbakhsh.

In his teachings and words, Jesus frequently promised early advent of God’s kingdom. However, from the outset of his call, both his followers and opponents couldn’t get the exact meaning of this expression. So, they interpreted it as a political-social concept. When speaking about kingdom of God, Jesus tried to apply metaphors in order to teach this significant notion to his people. Nonetheless, his opponents employed such statements to charge him with leading a riot against Romans in order to gain power. Applying semantic approach, the present study attempts to investigate the background of the notion of kingdom of God (or kingdom of heaven) in the Old and New Testaments. Then, Gnostic teachings about evil, the governance of devil in the current world, the positive role of wisdom in saving man, and the duality of matter and spirit are notified. The findings indicate that the term kingdom of God in Jesus’s words refers to God’s governance in the universe. It is found that Jesus is chosen as a prophet in order to promise kingdom of god and provide the situation for absolute kingdom and kingship of God on earth, as it appears to be in the heaven. At the end of the world, God’s will and power will dominate and destroy devil’s governance. So, there will be an absolute kingdom and kingship of God. Beside aforementioned meanings, this concept is presumed to refer to the mystical notion of intuition and certainty about god’s absolute power and governance, to which some believe in current world and others finally will believe when the end comes.

Despite the fact that Paul’s view on law does not constitute the core of his theology, the subject is nonetheless one of the most controversial and frequent issues of his theology. Many theologians hold that he denied the law, and in particular the mosaic law, and in other words, he didn’t regard it as an important factor in attaining salvation. Others consider Paul as distorting Jesus’ teachings. However, it should be considered that his views on law are indeed a natural result of his Christology and without having this point in mind, our understanding of his views is faulty and incomplete. From another point of view, as Underhill puts it, Paul is to be considered a mystic rather than a rationalistic theologian, and so he considered the concept of law from the point of view of a mystic, not a theologian. On the other hand, by redefining the Jewish religious concepts, and especially its law, he was trying to bring closer the Jews to gentiles. This paper is going to make the point that the negation of the law by Paul was relative not absolute, and in his view the degree of people’s observance of the law depends on ethnic, religious and personal factors.

The destiny of man and his liberation from pain and misery have been the key subjects of theology of religions. In old and new theological discussions concerning the final salvation of man, three types of theories as exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism are put forward. This paper is going to investigate Sadr al-dÊn ShÊrāzʒs view on this subject, which as his many other philosophical innovations, seems quite new and peculiar to him. By considering the salvation as a relative concept, he puts forward a fresh view which might be called comprehensive inclusivism.

Mircea Eliade (1907-1986) was one of the most outstanding scholars on religious studies, mythology and symbolism. He wrote a number of important works on subjects such as yoga and shamanism, morphology and general types of religious experience. He also had some important theories on the Holy and special function of religion. In his view, bringing about of the encounter of man and the Holy is the main function of religion and religious rituals as a whole. Religion helps man to recognize manifestations of the Holy in nature and History. Primitive man had a special talent in discovering the Holy in nature, so much so that for him all nature was the mainfestation of the Holy, while for the Hebrews it was manifested in history rather than nature. In this view, the Holy shows himself in the ups and downs of history, which in turn brings about considerable consequences.

The present paper is a brief introduction to the works of the famous presian sufi of the 7th century A.H., Shaykh Sacd al-dīn Hammuyyī, which is arranged in four parts: books and treatises, letters of authorization, texts containing the chains of masters, and letters. Each part includes the time and place of the writing, the subject matter and a short report of the extant manuscripts. Besides his extant 54 books and treatises, here the manuscript no.726 in the Yenī Jāmic library in Istanbul is presented, which contains 8 untitled works attributed to Sacd al-dīn and another 12 works of him which no trace of them is found. In the other three parts of this paper, a number of mistakes in the sources are corrected, more information about the places of the manuscripts is provided and 6 new letters are introduced.

One of the fundamental elements of mystical journey in Taßawwuf is nafy al-Khawāãir (negation of thoughts), which means cleansing of the mind from all thoughts and images. The mystic has to work on this concept from the first stage of his journey up to the last, which is anihilation in God. Only with full negation of thoughts, can the mystic receive divine lights and manifestations. This essay attempts to emphasize the role of nafy al-khawāãir by investigating its cause, function, and consequences, and by introducing thoughts (khawāãir), their types, and the method of their recognition.