نشریه ادیان و عرفان
سال پنجاه و دوم شماره 2 (پاییز و زمستان 1398)

Sheikh Ala Al-Dawlah (657-736 AH) in his various works, especially Persian epistles, refers to the issue of how the human heart can be a manifestation and a mirror of the manifestation of divine glory and beauty, And through this, he has dealt with "Lataef Sab’a".  Before him, Ibn Arabi briefly had discussed this issue in the treatise of Shaq al-Jayb.  Lataef  Sab’a's theory and its application to the seven prophets of existence has so far been known as Ala 'al-Dawlah Semnani, but whether others have addressed this issue before him or whether this theory was innovation of  Sheikh Ala' al-Dawlah himself remains to be seen. A comparative study of Sheikh Ala al-Dawlah's Persian works with Ibn Arabi's treatise on Shaq al-Jayb has led us to note that Sheikh Ala al-Dawlah was strongly influenced by Ibn Arabi, especially in the matter of the unity of existence, despite his sharp differences. As far as can be said, some of the contents of Sheikh Ala al-Dawlah about Latef al-Sab'a are exactly the translations of the contents of Ibn Arabi's treatise on Shaq al-Jajib. The only new dimension that Ala al-Dawlah has added to Ibn Arabi's discussions, in addition to describing and expanding them, is the application of these subtleties to the prophets of the seven  existence that Attar has mentioned in Mosibat Nameh.  Therefore, it can be said that Sheikh Ala al-Dawla's innovation is that he was able to combine the seven prophets mentioned by Attar in Mosibat Nameh with h "Lataef Sab’a" that Ibn Arabi dealt with in his treatise Shaq al-Jayb. In addition, for the first time, Sheikh Ala al-Dawlah based his interpretive theory on the same Lata’f. This is something that neither Attar nor Najmuddin Razi and Ibn Arabi have used in their mystical interpretations.

Mani composed a cycle of narratives, which entitled Kaw n in Middle Persian and Parthian. The Coptic texts call it Tgrphe nngigas. This title bears in Arabic: Sifr al-jababira. Ibn al-Nadim, Biruni, Ya ͨ qhubi, Šahrist ni and the other Islamic scholars and Authors have cited their valuable knowledge about Mani and his religion in their books. It was many years before that the western scientists have any authentic information about this silent religion. Ibn al-Nadim has written in his book Al-Fihrist too exactly and without criticizing, very important information about Manichaean Religions, which is unequalled in ancient world. Whatever he said is after finding Manichaean Fragments in Turfan confirmed.  In the chapter about “Manichaean Religion” in Al-Fihrist comes the list of Mani’s Books, one of them is kawān (sifr al-jab bere). He says about this book: “The book sif-al-jab bere includes …” In all manuscripts comes a lack in this phrase. In this paper, Ibn al-Nadim’s information about Kaw n with the Manichaean Fragments of Turfan collection (the Middle Persian, Parthian and Soghdian texts) and quotations from Coptic and the other Islamic texts have been compared, to find the main structure of this book.

The present article, based on a descriptive-analytic method, by explaining the gnostic attitudes toward human beings and the world, compare the Hymn of the Pearl, which has been written in the Syriac language and dates back to the second century AD,  with the Story of the Prince and the Witch of Kabuliin Rumi's Masnavi. By deciphering both of these allegorical stories, the basic beliefs of the Gnostic worldview, such as the dualism of the celestial and the material world, the duality of spirit and body, the fall of the soul from the world of light into the darkness and its confinement in the material world and the body yoke, amnesia, the awakening and the return to the prime position, and the meeting of "self" or "heavenly witness", are discussed. Also, we refer to some of Attar's anecdotes that share common themes with the Hymn of the Pearl and Story of the Prince and the Witch of Kabul.

There are various theories about the external and scientific appearance  or absence of. Some mystics, like Fergani, regard the name mostathir as the first determination.  According to existing traditions, some believe that the names mostathir are from the names of God that He considers them to be exclusive to His essence. Mystics and sages have expressed characteristics and rules about these names, and the external and scientific appearance or absence of them is an important and fundamental issue. Some mystics, such as Ferghani, have insisted non-appearance of these names and have not spoken about their scientific appearance. Others, like Imam Khomeini, believe in their external and scientific appearance. Meanwhile, somee like Allameh Tabatabai only believe in the scientific emergence of such names.People like Tabatabai, meanwhile, only believe in the scientific appearance of such names.In this article, first the name mostathir are defined, then the characteristics and finally the external and scientific appearance of these names are analyzed.

In ʿAṭṭār's mystical thought, Divine Grace as a special blessing is rooted in God’s willingness that Attar called it "Azal-ul-Āzāl" or "Piṣan" (beginning of beginnings). The present study attempts to clarify the relationship between Divine grace and human striving in tht Manṭiq-aṭ-Ṭayr and Moṣībat-Nāma of ʿAṭṭār. Is man's spiritual happiness obtained from divine grace or from my efforts? ʿAṭṭār, on the one hand, considers the Divine grace as a pure gift, and believes that the honorary rank which one attains through the glance of favor, cannot be acquired by means of any act of obedience. But On the other hand, he emphasizes that acts of obedience are necessary. Therefore, human beings must take measures to attain God’s mercy and compassion, and through acts of obedience they must endeavor to show themselves worthy of God’s glance of mercy. How can we reconcile these two paradoxical approaches? If Divine grace is a pure gift from God, then what is the value of human effort? Analyses made in this paper, show: in ʿAṭṭār's thought, the "human striving" is not "cause" of God’s grace. But it is indispensable "pre-condition" for Divine grace. Accordingly, every Ddivine grace is accompanied by effort, but not every effort is accompanied by divine grace. In ʿAṭṭār's theory, the realization of spiritual perfection depends on three elements: "Divine grace", "spiritual leader" and "human striving". Among these, divine grace is more important.

Assuming the possibility of a miracle occurring, the answer to prayer, and the extraordinary actions of another habit, the fundamental question arises as to how such events can be explained naturally. How does God fulfil His special acts, such as answer to prayers and miracles in nature? Various responses from philosophers, theologians and scholars of the empirical sciences have been given to the above questions. The purpose of this study is to explain the way in which God's action is in the natural world using quantum theory. The contention of this study is that the influence of God in the world can be explained in the framework of Copenhagen and Bohemian interpretation of the quantum theory. In this way, within the framework of Copenhagen's interpretation and by accepting the role of consciousness as the interpreter of wave functions, God's action in nature is done through non-thematic quantum consciousness and can change them in the desired direction. Also, in the context of Bohemian interpretation, God creates the desired change at the quantum level and then at the macroscopic level of nature by controlling the hidden variables that are sub-quantum level variables and by changing the arrangement of these variables at the hidden order level. The most important result of this research is that both the Copenhagen and Bohemian interpretations, which are the most common interpretations of quantum mechanics, can provide a convincing explanation of how God affects nature in certain actions such as miracles and prayers.

The concept of human being and his essence is considered one of the most important questions among Muslim intellectuals. However,  it is mostly controversial in Sufism. By the end of the fifth century, the value of human being was conceived solely based on his spiritual aspect. However, from the sixth century onwards, the earthly body has attracted the attention of Sufis. Hence, in this era, the idea of Soil changed. Firstly, the main purpose of emphasizing on the value of soil was to prove human superiority over the other creatures. However, the new concepts about soil had a secondary consequence, which lead to divergence between the two concepts of human and soil and finally preferred soil to human. This article explains two main milestones in the evolution of the history of the idea of soil, with a historical-analytical approach

The issue of "the possibility of morality" in mystical monistic reading is one of the challenges facing thinkers in the field of ethics and mysticism. One of the important theories in this field is "the incompatibility of morality with mystical monism", meaning that this mystical view makes morality impossible and meaningless. In this paper, with a descriptive-analytical approach and based on a logical approach, meanwhile presenting a claim of the authors of this theory, their assumptions about ethics and the reasons for its incompatibility with mystical monism are discussed. These assumptions, which are in fact the required application conditions of morality, can be analyzed under ontological, anthropological, and axiological categories: ontologically, ethics requires pluralism and a commitment to authenticity and reality of the distinction between different things; from an anthropological point of view, ethics requires the assertion of independent individual identities, whereby the otherness between the "self" and the "other" is formed, which is essential for establishing a moral relation; in terms of axiological point of view, one of components of ethical thinking and language is the validity of distinct value and normative categories such as good and evil or good and bad or right and wrong. According to the authors of this theory, the denial of the reality of the distinctions between creatures, the denial of otherness between self and other, and the meaninglessness of good and evil are of the logical requirements of mystical monism, which contradict the above assumptions and thus destroy the application conditions of morality.

The open and polyphonic nature of Hafez's poems has made them alive from ancient times to the present day. One of the most popular readings of Hafez's poetry is the mystical reading, which can be divided into various types. Among the mystical readings, one can mention a treatise by Jalal al-Din al-Dawani in the 15th century, in which he recited a verse from Hafez based on the paradigm of the unity of existence. The present study  tries to use the semiotic model based on the three contexts to critique and evaluate the religious reading of Hafez by Dawani and to refer to the history of the evolution of the Iranian-Islamic mysticism to show that such a reading of Hafez's poetry is not appropriate. To explain the evolution of the history of Sufism, the concept of the first and second mystical traditions was used and the major and common concepts of these two traditions, namely, revelation, love, and the unity of witness/the unity of existence, were compared with each other.