مجله پژوهش های ادب عرفانی (گوهر گویا)
سال پانزدهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 47، پاییز و زمستان 1400)

Problem Statement: 

Martin Seligman, the father of positive psychology, in search of what Aristotle called the “good life”, by focusing on the positive aspects of human beings, replaced virtues and abilities with the components of the Guidelines for Diagnosing Psychological Disorders. This new movement has been formed with the motivation of optimizing the quality of life by promoting mental happiness in the context of satisfaction with the past, the happiness of the present, and hopeful optimism for the future. The Welfare Theory refers to positive emotion, positive relationships, meaning, fascination, and achievement to achieve prosperity. The six virtues of justice, altruism, excellence, wisdom, courage and moderation, and twenty-four abilities underlie it.

 Research Methods: 

The present study, using content analysis and statistical findings, investigates the characteristics of the Welfare Theory in Shams’ sonnets based on Seligman’s positive psychology in order to introduce new dimensions of this work with a different perspective. 

Because the common goals of literary and mystical works with positive psychology are to acquire satisfaction from the past, hope for the future, and gain satisfaction in the present in order to cultivate a capable human being on the path to prosperity and meaningful life, the mysterious ocean of Shams’ lyric poems with the dominance of music and love, the field of wave formation and expression is one of the elements of the Welfare Theory that has been addressed in this interdisciplinary research. As a result, it looks at the ideas of Rumi and Seligman’s adaptation to the category of prosperity and the necessities of human endeavor in this direction to achieve perfection.

Hadith has always been one of the most important sources of the Holy Qur'an. Sulami in the book of Haghayegh al-Tafsir, the commentary on parts of the Qur'an attributed to Imam Ja'far Sadiq (as) has brought. In this study, with a Analytical descriptive and comparative method study between two interpretations: Lata'if al-Isharat by Qushayri and Kashf al-Asrar by Meybodi, the amount of the use of narrations of Imam Sadiq(as), the approach was each. This study shows that all narrations of Imam in Lata'if al-Isharat are derived from Haghayegh al-Tafsir, if Kashf al-Asrar is only a reference part of them. The range of quotations in Lata'if is very narrow than Kashf al-Asrar. While it was greedy to preserve the Quranic of Islam and has tried to keep the Sunni and Sunni people satisfied, Meybodi has shown his devotion to the promise of Shiite imams. The Imam Sadiq (as) was one of the elders of Sufism. Both commentators, based on a narration from Imam Sadiq (AS), believe in the existence of levels in the Qur'an and they accept the outward interpretation along with the inward interpretation. They both believe in the union of divine law, spiritual way and spiritual truth. The basis of allusive interpretation in both interpretations is the mystical experience that has formed the ontological, epistemological, and linguistic foundations.

Problem Statement: 

According to Carl Gustav Jung, in addition to the personal unconscious, human beings have a common part called the collective unconscious. The contents of this part of the soul and mind are archetypes. Archetypal critique is one of the main approaches of contemporary literary criticism that explores the nature and characteristics of archetypes and their role in literature. Among these archetypes in the present study, the archetype of anima is discussed. Anima is the feminine half of men’s existence that can change under the living conditions of any person and its positive and negative manifestations can be manifested. In the field of literature in different cultures, we also see the birth of strong themes by this archetype, so it is necessary to study products such as novels that are more dependent on the individual’s consciousness based on psychoanalysis. In this regard, the present study investigates the manifestation of this element in the psyche of Ibn Arabi in the novel Mawt Ṣaghir (Minor Death) by Mohammad Hassan Alwan, a prominent Saudi writer. Using a descriptive-analytical method, this paper shows that anima has a significant effect on the creation of events and incidents in the story and has created grounds for conflict between the characters. The findings indicate that the positive manifestations of the anima have been manifested in the form of lover, guide, otad, etc. 

Research Methods: 

One of the most popular types of literary criticism in recent decades has been psychological critique based on Jung’s theories. Jung’s school of psychology, known as Analytical Psychology, is especially famous for its collective subconscious and its contents, the archetypes. In addition to the individual unconscious, Jung believes in a deeper layer called the collective subconscious for the psyche, which is common to all human beings. One of the most important archetypes that Jung addresses in his theories is the anime archetype, which represents the female psyche. In other words, “Jung was the only twentieth-century psychologist to distinguish between male and female psychology” (Sanford, 1980, p. 5). This study analyzes the manifestation of this element in the psyche of Ibn Arabi's character in the novel Mawt Ṣaghir (Minor Death) by Mohammad Hassan Alwan, a prominent Saudi writer. Considering that the archetype of anima at different levels is reflected in the main character, familiarity and integration with one's own anime lead to what Jung refers to as the archetype of happiness, explaining why research is needed.

With the help of the evidence extracted from the novel, this paper deals with the similarities of Ibn Arabi's mistress to the concept of anima in Jung's theory and shows that the descriptive-analytical method has a significant effect on creating events and incidents in the story and the context of conflict it has created. The findings of the study indicate that the positive aspects of the anima are manifested in the form of lover, guide, otad, and so on. In sum, the characteristics of the anima that Jung referred to are consistent with the characteristics that Alwan intended for the characters. In other words, obvious manifestations of the archetype of anima can be seen in the Mawt Ṣaghir of Mohammad Hassan Alwan, which reminds us of the influence and role of the collective unconscious in the creation of this work.

In cognitive stylistics, the theory of probable worlds is used to understand the contradictory plots of narratives. The principles of this theory explain the type of reading of the literary narrative and the interactions between the text and the reader. Similarly, Quantum physicists emphasize the multiplicity of universes and call them parallel universes. This issue can be explored in narratology under the name of possible worlds. Ryan divides multi-world narratives into three types of stories: fantasy and science fiction (world exploration narrative), intermittent history, and time travel. The fit of probable worlds with the real world can be studied in terms of access to real-world conditions that include 1) access to a time when the history of the probable world is different from the history of the real world, 2) linguistic access, 3) the use of language that leads the reader to the probable world, 4) natural access, 5) violations of the laws of physics, logic, mathematics, etc. 5) the real world, and 6) access to objects that are incompatible with the probable world with the real world.

Literary language and poetry in particular is a suitable platform for the manifestation of Qur'anic teachings by poets, who enable the audience to receive and interpret their poems spiritually by referring their thoughts to the Holy Words of Revelation. In this regard, Hazin Lahiji, a 12th-century Sufi poet, has been influenced by the Qur'an in various ways. Inspiration through divine verses has helped the process of reading and analyzing his mystical poems. His sad poems are accordingly affected in both explicit and implicit forms. Sometimes, they are reflected in the content and sometimes by the words of the Qur'an in such a way that the contents, compositions, themes, and events of the Qur'an, in line with his poems, have created the ground for the variety of expressions and crystallization of his mystical thoughts. The present study was an attempt to investigate Lahiji's method of composing sad poems, which is referred to as ‘intertextuality’ or ‘proportionality’ in modern linguistic discussions. In this view, the authors intended to answer the following 3 questions by examining the poet's poems: 1) In what ways have his sad poems been influenced by the word of revelation? 2) What are the main mystical concepts of sad poetry that refer to Quranic themes? 3) How has Hazin aligned Qur'anic themes with poetic acquisitions in his mystical poems? This research was based on a descriptive-analytical method for analyzing Lahiji's sad poems. The results of this study showed that Lahiji used the techniques of adaptation, simile, allegory, allusion, interpretation, and quotation to translation. The rhetorical layers of his mystical language were adorned with the words of the divine dictators in such a way that the simple interaction between the absent text [the Qur'an] and the present text [poetry] in his poem had made his creativity unfruitful. The pure concepts of mysticism, such as ‘trust’, ‘manifestation’, ‘endurance’, ‘nearness’, ‘annihilation’, and ‘survival’, with the support of divine verses were found in Rohani’s interpretations. In addition, deliberately sad norms and unusual distances from Qur'anic characters, such as Khidr had plunged some of his poems into an aura of poetic appropriation.

Tazkereh al-Awliya, which is the most important work of Attar's prose and one of the greatest texts of mystical prose, has great potential for intertextual comparisons with other mystical works as well as Attar’s Masnavis. This descriptive-comparative study aims to show the textual relationship of 51 joint anecdotes of Tazkereh-al-Awliya and Attar's Masnavis with the hypertext approach, one of the five pillars of Gérard Genette’s theory of transtextuality. The results of the research show a broad relationship between Tazkereh Al-Awliya and Attar’s Masnavis. Both types of hypertext (i.e. homogeneity and tragedy) are observed in these works. This connection is more than the type of tragedy, and among Attar's Masnavis, Al-Tair, Elahinameh, Misibatnameh, and Asrarnameh, respectively, have the highest percentage of common anecdotes with Tazkereh al-Awliya.

The story of Pir-e Changi is one of the interesting stories of Molavi in the first book of Mathnavi, from which different readings have been made, and in each reading, somehow one of the semantic dimensions and hidden aspects has been reviewed. In this study, we analyze the narrative structure of this story based on the narrative pattern of Grimas, whose main goal is to draw the narrative plan of the story and while answering the following questions in specific ways: What is the main function of this story that forms the basis of its narrative design? What are the accessory/implicit stories that have been included in this story? Do the components of the whole narrative system reinforce problems as the main function of this story? It is assumed that among all the functions included in the story of Pir-e Changi, two functions can be considered as the main functions in it that produce two themes, ‘seeking wealth’ that Pir Changi demands from God by playing the harp and superficial judgment, and ‘lack of awareness from the truth’. From among these two important functions, drawing the plan of the story and appropriate meanings of the implicit stories with the help of the Greimas narrative model, one of the functions can be considered the main core of all functions. The results of the study show that based on the deep structure of narrative and actants, Pir-e Changi’s outgoing from a closed place to the desert is the main function of the story that forms the fundamental theme that is ‘lack of awareness of the truth’, because both deep narrative structure and implicit stories make a system to form this function and theme.

The dream is one of the most frequent motifs in mystical proses, which was considered a kind of honor. It is used as a medium to gain knowledge and understanding because it brought information from the unseen world (the afterlife). In these dreams, the question of “What did the God Almighty do to you?” is very frequent because of the fear Sufis had of the afterlife and the consequences of their actions. The inquirer asks the teller to enlighten him about the events of the purgatory. If God has absolved him of his sins, what was the reason for that? And if he has been tormented or punished for his sins, what negligence or mistake was he punished for? To answer the abovementioned questions, eighteen mystical proses were analyzed. The analysis of the obtained results showed that, in most cases, the teller talks about the favor and mercy of God and that the affairs of the afterlife are easier than what people think, so much that for fifty-nine cases of God's mercy, only nine cases of punishment were seen during the analysis. Contemplation on the proses shows that first, God’s favor and “causeless mercy” or, to be more precise, His “generosity and beneficence” are not only toward mystics and righteous people but also toward normal people, sinners, and murderers; hence God’s true nature is of justice and mercy. And second, that heaven and its blessings are the least of rewards given to the blessed by God; while the more exclusive rewards are seeing God and His companionship, God’s consent and satisfaction in His servants, the prophet greeting the mystic, and being the companions of prophets and righteous people.

The book Asrar al-Tawhid is a mystical work in which social agents are represented in different ways. The purpose of the present study is to analyze the discourse of this book based on Van Leeuwen's model relying on the descriptive-analytical method. Preliminary results of the study indicate that in this work, Abu Saeed Abu al-Khair is introduced as a dynamic and effective force through activation. The highest frequency of writing after Abu Saeed Abu al-Khair is related to Khajeh Hassan Modab, the special agent of Abu Saeed and Abolghasem Qashiri. It is obvious that the frequency of naming this prestigious figure due to his final inclination towards Abu Sa'id has had a tremendous impact on the image and spiritual legitimacy of Abu Sa'id Abu al-Khair. In Asrar al-Tawhid, the highest frequency of groups is related to Sufi elders, dervishes, and disciples, all of whom belong to their own group and to the sect-oriented discourse. In the non-identification section, it was found that the identities of anonymous agents were not important in propagating the method-oriented discourse. However, what matters is what they do. The actions of these anonymous agents always have a similar and effective function in expressing the author’s mystical views, which often include observing and perceiving the greatness and importance of the spiritual personality of Abu Sa'id Abu al-Khair. In the book Asrar al-Tawhid, the humanization of animals has an ideological burden, because the presence of these wild animals is one of the virtues of Abu Sa'id Abu al-Khair to be a sign of his legitimacy, consolidation of power, and truth. From the point of view of the deletion component, it was proved that parts of Abu Sa'id's knowledge include the category of fading, since the producer of discourse in this work, like other seekers, is obliged to refrain from revealing the secrets of God and not to share the secret of truth except with the people of truth.

The story of the ‘Jewish King and Minister’ in Masnavi Ma'navi, in the first reading, shows a way in the policy that the landlords divide the followers of a religion. From epistemological and intellectual perspectives, it has also shown the misconceptions and mistakes of human beings in reasoning. In this story, Mowlana, by showing the plan of the minister to destroy the religion of Christianity, has practically shown how wrong reasoning, as well as judging and acting on that argument, causes disaster. The results show that the mistake of the Jewish king and the minister has a cognitive origin and it goes back to their misconceptions. They have thought about the subject (= Christianity) with a bipolar fundamentalist mentality and based on this mentality, they have evaluated, judged, and finally issued a verdict.

The gradual Sufi approach to Islam made mystical discourse one of the dominant discourses after the sixth century AH. Mysticism and Sufism have been manifested more than anything else in Persian literature. Persian mystical literature gradually formed the ideology of a large part of the Iranian society and influenced other Iranian arts, including miniature. The study of Iranian miniature, as a cultural-artistic text, leads the audience to a set of symbolic codes that have been formed in the context of Islamic mysticism. In this regard, the aim of the present study is to analyze the relationship between mystical literature and Iranian miniatures. Therefore, through the semiotic approach, the impact of mystical literature on the signifying system of Iranian miniature has been shown. Furthermore, we have examined how characteristics of mystical literature are manifested in the visual signs of the paintings. We have performed a content analysis with an intertextual semiotic approach using a descriptive-comparative method, and explained the relationship between mystical literature and Iranian miniature, by using semiotics, analyzing, and comparing verbal and visual signs in the mystical literature and miniatures. Analysis of visual signs such as perspective, face painting, color, light, framing and imaginary images in Iranian miniatures in this study shows that the significance of these visual signs is about mystical themes such as unity in diversity, the quality of the human soul and spirit, spirituality and the best system that rules the world, the movement of the transcendent man from the material world to the spiritual world, and immortality.

The East, as the cradle of human civilization, appeared more and more in the works of Russian thinkers and writers since the 1940s. The name of Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy is also connected with the culture and philosophy of the East, and the influence of the philosophy of the East on the formation of his worldview is very great. He considered the oriental way of life, the peacefulness and hard work of his people, and the cultural heritage of the Orient as the saviors of humanity. Tolstoy's familiarity with Eastern culture and wisdom goes back to his teenage years, when he moved to Kazan, an ancient and Muslim city on the banks of the Volga River, at the age of thirteen, prepared to enter the Faculty of Philosophy, the Department of Arabic and Turkish Languages of Kazan University. The young count learned Arabic and Turkish languages under the supervision of the great scientist Mirza Kazem Beyk, one of the first founders of Oriental studies in Russia. By studying Mirza Kazembeik's works (Persian literature, Iranian epic, and Iranian mythology from Ferdowsi's point of view), he got acquainted with Ferdowsi, Rumi, Saadi, Hafez, Jami, and other great Persian poets and literature.By serving in the Caucasus and participating in the Crimean War, the young Tolstoy became more familiar with Islam, Eastern culture and the temperament of the Crimean Muslim Tatars, and he did not stop learning more about Eastern religions and wisdom until the end of his life. In this way, it can be said that Eastern religions, especially Islam and Islamic mysticism, have played a significant role in the formation of the author's intellectual and worldview.Tolstoy, a great Russian writer, was well aware of the literary role of language in education. He used literature to explain moral, religious, philosophical issues, and the impact of his words and created works whose educational aspects are as rich and strong as his literary aspects. Tolstoy defined a new semiotic system by creating allegorical stories for audiences who were often deprived of reading and writing or had little benefit of knowledge. He sought to teach religious and moral concepts to the mass of people, especially children, with narrative, simple, and clear language.

Review of the Literature:

Tolstoy's works were created in different genres, including novels, long and short stories, folk tales, etc. The audience of the works of this well-known writer and thinker was different strata of society, from children and teenagers to adults, from ordinary people to educated people and intellectuals. If it is mentioned, Tolstoy suffered a mental crisis in the 1970s, a crisis that ultimately led to the formation of a new worldview in the author's life and works, and religion and spirituality became the focal point of his works: he turned to create moral and instructive short stories in simple language and tried to create works for common readers.Tolstoy, as a teacher at Yasnaya Polyana School, dealt directly with children and attached great importance to their education. He believed that teaching with the help of epic and historical stories, allegorical stories, and stories taken from legends and popular culture, songs, and stories is far more efficient than teaching with the help of common scientific sources.Also, he was of the opinion that, to educate the common people, it is necessary to have books with a lot of content, which should have a simple language, and that great literary works belong to the educated stratum of the society and are not useful for the common people. It should be noted that the emergence of this type of Tolstoy's works was not only for the purpose of creating literature with simple and understandable language for the common people, but he wanted to convey his worldview and beliefs and tell people about the meaning of life. He believed that the most important duty of a writer is to teach the right way of life.Tolstoy's folk stories were created between 1880-1890. These short religious-philosophical stories have signs of allegory, legend, admonition, story, and anecdote.The story of ‘the godson’ (Крестник) can be classified under folk stories and in the genre of allegorical instructive stories. Tolstoy wrote this story in 1886. He started writing, but the audit did not issue permission to publish this work as an independent book, and in a letter to the publisher, he called it "the most anti-God work". Finally, in 1906 AD, he succeeded in obtaining permission to publish the work ‘Posrednik’ (Посредник).The Qur'an, as a religious book and a true guide for mankind, contains many instructive stories and anecdotes. The story of ‘Moses and Khidr’ is one of the wonderful and mysterious stories of the Quran and it is mentioned in Surah Kahf, verses 60-82. Human wisdom is hidden in the story of ‘Moses and Khidr’ about the external and internal aspects and destinies of this world, and the philosophy of creation is in line with Tolstoy's religious and moral thoughts. Therefore, knowing that the author is familiar with the Qur'an and has even mastered it, it is possible that the wonderful story of ‘Moses and Khidr’ in the Qur'an is one of the sources of inspiration for the author in creating this work. In the following, we will examine the stories ‘the Godson’ and ‘Moses and Khidr’ in terms of their structure and content.

In this descriptive-adaptive study, we examine the quranic story ‘Moses and Khidr’ and Tolstoy's ‘the Godson’ story in Surah Kahf from the Qur'an. By delving into the structural and content elements of these two stories, we find remarkable similarities that cannot be considered coincidences. In this research, we try to answer three research questions: 1) Can these similarities be considered proof of Tolstoy's influence from Islam and the Quran? 2) What truth do these similarities come from centuries of time and cultural differences? 3) Can we come to the conclusion that the spirit of truth is a constant thing and has found a different form and language only in the eyes of each nation?

With a comparative approach to the Quranic story ‘Moses and Khidr’ and Tolstoy's ‘the Godson’, we reach remarkable similarities in terms of structure and content: 1) the central existence of the guide (first the godfather and then the deserter of the world in the story of ‘the Godson’ and the Lord and Khedr in the story of ‘Moses and Khidr’), 2) the existence of allegorical income (the story of the bear and its cubs in the story of ‘the Godson’ and the story of the fish coming back to life in the story of ‘Moses and Khidr’), 3) three events that are unfair on the surface and force the disciple (adopted son/ Moses) to break the covenant and do prohibitions, and 4) interpretation of the wisdom of those events by the mentor (adopted father/ Khidr).A similar message is also hidden in the heart of both stories, that the fate of this world is not incalculable, and knowing the mystery that is covered by wisdom and expediency on people requires a special ability and capacity. Both stories invite their audience to patience, inaction, submission and satisfaction, and unquestioning following of the mentor. Therefore, by putting these two stories together and examining them, we reach almost identical and similar results, a similarity that helps us to answer the question raised in the introduction with more certainty.Tolstoy was most likely influenced by the Quranic story ‘Moses and Khidr’ in creating this story. He benefited from other religions and rituals, especially Islam, and was constantly searching and accepting for knowing the truth, and avoided dogma, religious fanaticism, and belonging to a religion and culture. By comparing these two stories, we realized that the truth is a constant issue and continues to live beyond time and place and religious and ethnic affiliations.