مجله انوار معرفت
پیاپی 2 (زمستان 1390)

In Islamic mysticism, different proposals have been put forward for the stages of man's inner movement towards his perfection, one of which is "the four-Volume Asfar ". The main content of the famous four-volume Asfar are the journeys from creatures towards the Truth" “in the Truth by the Truth "from Truth towards creatures by the Truth", and "in creatures by the Truth". The issue of the journey "towards God" and "in God" has been discussed since the early development of Islamic mysticism. As far, the station of "existence after annihilation" which refers to the two latter journeys, it had not been discussed nor referred to as a journey until Ibn 'Arabi's time. Therefore, the four-fold division of the aforementioned journeys which took from before Ibn 'Arabi only refers to the journey "towards God" and the journey "in God", and did not have any reference to the latter journeys. After Ibn 'Arabi, different accounts of the four-volume Asfar were written and the first one which is most similar to the famous four-volume Afar is 'Afif Al-Din Telemsani's account. After that, Kashani wrote an account of the journeys in his" Manazil al- Saerin machining some modification in its content. After Kashani, his pupil, Qaysari, proposed the final and famous form of the four journeys with minor changes in it, an which became famous through Mullāh Ṣadrā and his four-volume Asfar. Many rules and effects are mentioned in the works of the knowledgeable for these journeys, the most important of which is the manifestation of the questions of "guardianship" and "caliphate" for perfected perfect people.

Muslim gnostics emphasize on the idea that the Qur’an has several semantic levels which are arranged in longitudinal order in which each follows the one before in a particular order so that some of them are considered as outward aspects of the Qur’anic verses and some as inward aspects of the verses. Citing some examples of Muslim gnostics’ statements on this issue, the present paper confirms the aforementioned idea with evidence from Quranic verses and traditions. In his discussion of this point, the author refers to three groups of verses and elaborates on nine groups of traditions.

One of the signs of the salient feature of gnostic experience or intuition is that it cannot be explained; which indicates the "impossibility of putting the gnostic experience in words". The main reasons for this salient feature of gnostic intuition are: lack of existential communicability of sensation, spiritual blindness, depth of emotions and sensation in the gnostic experience, symbolism of gnostic language, metaphorical view of gnostic language, unintelligibility of the gnostic experience, arbitrariness of gnostic intuition,, and choosing gnostic terms for certain facts. A review and assessment of these reasons show that either they are not soundly grounded, they come under serious criticisms and challenges, the idea of their being unexplainable is not understood properly. Therefore, the assumption of their being unexplainable is something and "putting the gnostic experience in words is something else. Consequently, we can conclude that it is possible to put gnostic experiences and intuitions in words.

The question of creating man according to the divine form whose content corresponds with the ontological and anthropological foundations of theoretical mysticism can be easily proved by religious doctrines. This question seems like a general rule whose effects and details are detected in Ibn 'Arabi's anthropology and his discussions of psychology. The present paper tries to investigate the meaning of "divine form" and" creating man according to the divine form". It also touches on some of its details like the comprehensiveness of man, creation of man by the Most High God's two hands and divine vicegerency.

One of the important issues in theoretical mysticism is renewal of essences, a notion which cannot be perceived except through intuition. This issue is an exposition of mystical creation. According to renewal of essences, appearances are essentially non-existent, do not last in the context of external existence for more than a moment and lend their always place an entirely to similar appearance. In other words, in renewal of essences, the creation of things is permanent and in every moment every creatures is replaced by a similar existing thing though not identical in the previous moment. Given this point, what we consider creature during the period of existence is in fact a series of continuous and, in fact, accurate and successive creations. Among the findings of this research is that it is possible to the existence of perfection in the different configurations of the world and to the negation of any eliminating manifestation (versus creating manifestation).

The exposition and analysis of man's free will and the kind of the Most High God's activity in as far as man's volitional actions concerned in the fields of theology, philosophy and mysticism can be considered three longitudinal and sound interpretations. This means that theology, and as this discipline requires provides an entirely realistic interpretation of free will and of course, known and accepted by common people through ordinary examples, rhetoric method, and best sorts of debates. Philosophy provides a rational analysis of the issue and points out of its requirements including the question of causality and the way of attributing an act to different longitudinal actors. Mysticism also provides an analysis based on intuition for explaining the relationship between Divinity and universe and the relationship between the Most High God's will and man' free will. Having briefly explained the theological and philosophical view on this issue, the present paper expounds gnotics’ analysis of the question of man's free will, proves the conformity of this view with that of the Shiite -a way between free will and determinism- rejects any charge of determinism against gnostics and proves the priority of gnostics analysis of man's free will over the others’ analysis.

One of the new trends of mysticism is Paulo Coelho's school. Paulo disseminates a new way of achieving spirituality. Some directions about how to achieve a spiritual journey can be extracted from Paulo's novels. He believes that man's only duty is to follow personal visions. If man directs his attention to peripheral signs and inner summons, the way to life will be accessible. Here wayfarer of spirituality can use magic power, love, and sex, as well. In addition to these directions, Paulo proposes systematic practices of Ram tradition by stages and invites the followers of this path to handle them with care. The present paper tries to analyze and criticize these ways.