مجله ادبیات عرفانی
پیاپی 32 (بهار 1402)

Abu Abdullah Mohammad Ibn Khafif Shirazi, the founder of the Khafifi mystical dynasty, is among the most influential figures in the history of Islamic Sufism. In spite of his crucial role in developing and expanding Islamic mysticism, there has been no systematic study of his mystical disposition to date. This descriptive-analytic research was conducted to gain a profounder understanding of Ibn Khafif's mystical disposition. The questions addressed are: What is the origin and destination of mystical journey in Ibn Khafif's approach, and where do the other destinations lie in between? How important is each of these destinations to the seeker's progress? Which abilities are required to earn the achievements of each destination and what are the manners for acquiring them? The works and sayings of Sheikh did not provide clear responses to these questions; however, the most significant outcome derived from the existing evidence is that devotion is the origin of conduct, and divine recognition is the goal. The origin and the final destination are separated by mystical destinations; among which are mystical states, and according to Ibn Khafif, they are superior to the stations. As the destination of consciousness is preferred over inebriation, and hence, less importance is placed on expansion, enchantment, profanity, and prayer-like dancing, and more emphasis is placed on poverty, asceticism, fear, and grief destinations, the importance of presence is also elevated above that of absence. The destination of poverty is of particular importance to Ibn Khafif, and the preference for poverty over wealth is another indicator worth observing in his mystical disposition. His mysticism is based on Junaid Baghdadi’s teachings; nevertheless, he was influenced by the mystical teachings of Bayazid, which were disseminated in Fars.

The issues of “predestination and free will” have long been among the contentious topics in the history of Iranian-Islamic thought. The conducted studies have chiefly showcased the dominance of fatalistic ideology in the political and mystical history of Iran. Ayn al-Qudat Al-Hamadani is one of the prominent thinkers of mysticism in medieval period of Islam as well as one of the dauntless critics of Seljuq government who paid particular attention to predestination and free will topic. One of the most important epistemological foundations that can be deployed for scrutinizing the political thought of thinkers is their conceptualization of predestination and will—as an important anthropological aspect. In this article, adopting an implication-based approach, the researchers examined and analyzed anthropology of Ayn al-Qudat Hamadani with the aim of discovering and understanding the political implications of his conceptualization of predestination and free will. The main question of the article is what the political consequences of Ayn al-Qudat Hamadani’s conceptualization of predestination and free will are. The findings of the study reveal that Ayn al-Qudat Hamadani, upon determining a predestined nature for the world of divinity and detaching the nature of the human world from it, has criticized and condemned the dominant and exclusively deterministic ideology of his time by laying emphasis on the inherent nature of free will in human beings. The finding of the study can be a counterexample to the narratives that have assessed the whole history of Iranian political thought and culture as believing in fatalism.

Tamhidat is the most important work of Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani, a free-thinking mystic of the Seljuk era, and one of the most famous works of Islamic mysticism, which has been examined in the present research through Norman Fairclough’s “critical discourse analysis” approach. The purpose of this research is to answer several questions: How has the discourse order of Iran’s Seljuk era been reproduced in Tamhidat? Which of the social acts do the discourse acts of Tamhidat reflect? And what was Ayn al-Quzat’s solution to dispose of the discourse of dominance and prejudice in the Seljuk period? The findings of the research show that the social order of the Seljuk era which was based on the authority of political rulers over the people, religious scholars over the followers, and Sufi sheikhs over the disciples, representing various types of social classification, has been reflected in Tamhidat via “naming” the participants. By using two pre-existing genres, “Qur'an exegesis” and “Sermon”, which were considered two distinct cultural and social acts, Ayn al-Quzat, while instilling his beliefs in the audience, created a counter-discourse in opposition to the existing discourses; and even from the position of a social critic and thinker proposed the novel idea of knowledge and “love” in order to dispose of the discourse of domination, violence and radical religiosity of his time. The use of affirmative sentences and special imperative and interrogative patterns in Tamhidat shows that in this discoursal confrontation, the stance of Ayn al-Quzat is an authoritative one; epistemic authority against the authority of domination and the authority of love against the authority of prejudice and violence. These features move Tamhidat beyond the didactic and interpretive position and even consider a social mission for it.

The application of certain rules in style, language, and tone of various narratives gives coherence to an anecdote’s context of the text. The anecdote "Qazor wa Khar", taken from Kalile wa Dimna, is recreated in a different way in Mathnavi and Movlana uses it in a distinct narrative. The main objectives of the study are comparing these two different narratives of the anecdote according to the context of the text, examining the development and expansion of the anecdote’s concepts during its transition from a literary form to a mystical text, analyzing its content, explaining its themes and the way it is in form of a special narrative in Mathnavi. In this research, using content analysis and criticism criteria and theory, the researcher explicates the reasons why Movlana retold Kalile wa Dimna’s story. According to the findings of the research, Movlana, by resorting to some techniques of eloquence, introduces the thoughts and actions of the leading characters of the story as representatives of two groups in order to fulfill the aims of his story in explicating the sincere repentance, and to examine its relationships with related terms such as acquisition, trust, imitation and research in a new narrative. Movlana in this new interpretation exploits the capabilities of the language of mysticism and other small stories to explain the fundamentals of the subject and its broad implications. He emphasizes the understanding of esoteric mysteries through symbols and in referring to the adventures of the characters and analyzing their discourse, he expands the content to present the implied meanings embedded in the new story.

The present study, using a descriptive-analytical method, has dealt with the knowledge of human truth based on the opinions of Sheikh Sharafuddin Ahmed bin Yahya Manyari—one of the mystics of the 8th century (AH)—in the book Ma'dan-ul-Ma'ani. The main question of the research is from Sharafuddin Manyari's viewpoint, what the best way to know the truth of man is. In this research, while explicating the tenets of theologians, sages, and mystics and rejecting the secular penetration and accepting the heavenly reincarnation, a clear picture of his view—which is based on the emergence of an exemplary truth as the best way to reach this truth and eventually annihilation in the absolute existence—is presented. The issue deserves great attention because the solution of many complicated issues of the world of the hereafter, including physical and spiritual resurrection, immortality and eternity, reincarnation of souls and bodies, and the intuition of the Sublime Haq and annihilation in it, all require a detailed explanation of the existential truth of man. According to the findings of the research, man is unaware of his existence by the time he is in the world. When a person wakes up, flies like a butterfly around the candle of his existential truth and speaking soul and becomes a mystic, he unites with the exemplary truth of his soul, which are exemplary properties, and the first spiritual journey of the seeker to God is achieved. In the following, the seeker ceases to exist by being annihilated in the names, attributes, and essence of the Sublime in the truth of the divine truth.

Safinat-ul-Auliya is one of the most important hagiographies by Muhammad Dara Shikoh (1024-1069 A.H.), which contains detailed information about Sufism and its sects and practices, from the beginning of its creation to the age of the author; which is of great importance in historical Sufi studies. Several manuscripts and one lithographic version of this work have been obtained which have not been compared, verified, and corrected yet. This book, which has not been published yet, is of great importance due to the fact that it contains historical information about Sufism, especially first-hand information about some of the author’s Sufi contemporaries, the author's viewpoint and approach in the classification of Sufism, linguistic considerations, and other aspects. Accordingly, it is necessary to present a critical edition along with tables and annotations concerning the content of the book. In this study, in addition to introducing the existing manuscripts of the book Safinat-ul-Auliya, a number of linguistic, literary, content-related, and calligraphic features of the work, as well as the reasons for the necessity of editing the book have been discussed.