مجله ادبیات عرفانی
پیاپی 29 (تابستان 1401)

Since there is no accurate information about the life of Taj ad-Din Mahmoud Oshnuvi, researchers have just speculated about the details of his life. Accordingly, publication of any document that can clarify some aspects of his life is of great importance. In this article, besides examining the opinions of the researchers about Oshnuvi's life and works, a newfound letter by Majd ad-Din Baghdadi is introduced; the content of which reveals that Oshnuvi lived around the years 597 to 602 A.H. in Herat. While staying in Herat, he guided his disciples, taught, and preached in an old monastery. At that time, his status and reputation were so high that the people around Muhammad Khwarazmshah, fearing his spiritual influence, tried to defame him. They attempted to alter Sultan's opinion about him. As soon as Khwarazmshah besieged Herat, he imprisoned Oshnuvi. At last, a great mystic like Majd ad-Din Baghdadi, who respected and honored him, exploited his great influence in Khwarazmshah’s court to free Oshnuvi from captivity.

Lahiji, one of the great Iranian mystics of Noorbakhshia lineage, has spoken about his mystical revelations in the commentary that he wrote on Shabestari’s Gulshan-i Raz. Mystical revelations, as the specific experiences of mystics in explaining the mystical view and effective factors in reporting these experiences and the feelings experienced by the mystic, have continuously been the focus of attention of the researchers of philosophy of mysticism. Another important aspect in the investigation of mystical experiences is the influence of the cultural and educational context with which the mystic has been in contact. In view of that, in the present study, the researchers analyzed the components and elements of Sheikh's revelations using a descriptive and analytical method. The questions addressed were: “What are the elements and components of Lahiji's mystical experiences? And to what extent was Sheikh influenced by his previous teachings and cultural context?” According to the three dominant theories in the philosophy of mysticism, Lahiji's reports can be seen corroborating the intermediary view. Also, in addition to the theories and models the researchers have proposed regarding the experience of triple feelings (single being, oneness of beings, and oneness with beings), the feeling of oneness with a single being has been reported, which can be assumed as the fourth state in this model. In describing his experiences, Sheikh went through states in which upon perceiving God's presence and His inherent manifestations, he felt oneness with God and reached the experience of pure consciousness.

The existential domains of man are representive of his thoughts and behavior, which are rooted in various sciences. The actions and behaviors that are manifested in humans from these domains, depending on the type of division, enjoy their own characteristics; accordingly, it is considered a suitable method to know the different dimensions of a human being. Shams Tabrizi's life has always been wrapped in ambiguity and this has continuously encouraged the audience to learn more about the different aspects of his behavior. In the present paper, organized by content analysis and explanation method and using library sources, the researchers adopted Shafii Kadkani’s classification of human existence domains into three bright, gray and dark categories to analyze Shams Tabrizi's personality based on his articles and to explicate each of the existential domains of his personality psychologically. The results of the study show that Shams has highly desirable features and critical views as well unpleasant features; nevertheless, due to his inner beauty, he is well liked in the minds of his audience, and every reader by reflecting on his articles realizes that he seeks to find manifestations of goodness in most of his words. Love of God, seeking help from Him, kindness, and compassion are among the qualities that constantly cause eternity and brilliance in his bright domain. In the gray domain of ​​Shams, we face a mystic who criticizes and reprimands many renowned mystics of Persian Literature with the label of disobedience to the Prophet. Shams' black domain of existence includes irascibilities, aggressions, insults and humiliations that he utters.

“Theology” and relationship with God is the most significant issue in mysticism, and mystics have had a special view and interpretation in this regard. Abu Abdullah Neffari, as one of these mystics, presented his mystical experiences in several sections of two books, Al-Mawaqif and Al-Mukhatabat, in a very complex language from which his theological view can be inferred. What the characteristics of “knowing God” in Neffari’s mystical thought are is the question addressed in this study. The author, adopting a descriptive-analytical research method, extracted the “theological” content of Neffari’s mystical thought and concluded that Neffari strongly insisted on the inability of man to know God; nevertheless, to him, this does not mean “divesting” God of His attributes and declaring His incomparability or transcendence. Relying on the inability to know God, he reveals the “holy ignorance” in knowing God. In fact, he holds a special transcendental view in this regard. According to Neffari’s beliefs, it is God who identifies Himself to His servant. He has used the term "Taarrof" in this context. The final part of the article addresses the issue of how to communicate with God.

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.

In this paper, adopting a descriptive-explanatory method, the criticisms of one of the most influential figures of Sufism, Shāh Ne'matollāh Vali, in the epistles attributed to him are analyzed with the aim of identifying the fields critiqued by him, as well as his method and language in these criticisms. Studying these criticisms reveals his standpoints on religion, mysticism, and philosophy. Shāh Vali had many disciples and certainly a number of them had deviations; nonetheless, the results of the research show that Shāh Vali did not critique them. He limited himself to critiquing theoretical views regarding mystical journey. Shāh Vali did not believe in the position of observation and considered the knowledge of mystics to be incomplete except for the knowledge of Qutb. Also, he did not see any contradictions between the mystical journey and the ordinary life of the people. In the field of philosophy and speculative theology, although he is one of the commentators of Akbari School, he has occasionally criticized Ibn Arabi's views, as well as the views of sages, Mu'tazila and theologians, and some of the views of the Imamiyyah without mentioning the name of the one being critiqued. He was opposed to the ascetics and Shattāh; however, he had a positive view of Malamatiāyyah. From the point of view of language, Shāh Vali used parables and anecdotes less and expressed his criticisms in a simple and clear language.