پژوهشنامه عرفان
سال چهارم شماره 7 (پاییز و زمستان 1391)

Kabir, the renowned Indian poet and mystic, was the most influential figure of the Bhakti movement in northern India. The Bhakti movement, having its origins in ancient Hinduism of south India, achieved the peak of its maturity in middle ages of Indian history through the influence of Islamic mystical doctrines. Kabir was the successor of earlier Bhakti leaders such as Ramananda in south India. He spread the reformist ideas in north India and introduced new ideas. The ideas of Kabir were formed under the influence of principles of Islamic mysticism which include monotheism, rejection of idol-worshiping, rejection of caste system, laying emphasis on the role of Guru and emphasis on the path of gnosis.

The ethical status and place of animals is among the most important issues in the applied ethics. Some thinkers like Descartes, Augustine, Aquinas, and Locke, by putting forth some contented differences, maintain that no ethical status can be perceived for animals. Hence, human beings do not have any responsibility or duty towards animals. Some other thinkers, including Bentham, Mill and Singer, by challenging those contentions, argue that animals more or less have some ethical status. Therefore mistreatment of animals is not allowed. Attempts have been made in the present paper to depict the differences between animals and human beings from the viewpoint of mysticism. Also by comparing the mystical viewpoint with that of Western philosophy, attempts have been made to explain the foundations of human duty and responsibility towards animals. In fact, there is a kind of dutifulness towards and proper treatment of animals in Sufism whose foundations are totally different with those put forth by Western philosophy. Love and compassion are the bases of dutifulness towards and proper treatment of animals in Sufism.

Belief in the different grades of revelation in mystics’ viewpoint has led them to consider revelation as an endless and permanent issue which creates a special kind of episteme through esoteric acquisition. Belief in this kind of acquisition of episteme through intuition and perception leads to the creation of texts that mystics call revelation of heart or the domination of divine inspiration over man. By eliminating their own status as authors, the mystics consider themselves only as the scribes of these esoteric perceptions or introduce the entire text as the gift of God. The inspirational word, at the moment of domination over the mystic, is accompanied with such traits as change of mood, lack of will and snapping of the determination to speak, and in written case it leads to the creation of texts which are often bulky and lack a structural order. Since they include great, unknown meanings, they do not take the audience into consideration. The authors of such works, consider compositions as superior words which have immense effects and thoughtful ideas that cannot be grasped by everybody.

Love movement can be considered as the “current of manifestation stemming from the love of revelation and expression” which prevails in all divine names and all pillars of the universe. Conviction in this kind of movement is based on acceptance of ‘personal unity of being’ which Ibn Arabi achieved through intuition and Mulla Sadra demonstrated issues related to its cause and effect. On the basis of unity of being, the subject and ultimate goal of love movement is the Absolute Truth; for everything else other than the Truth is pure falsehood. Nevertheless, different interpretations of the ultimate goal of this movement in the descent and ascent trends have been expressed: love and generation of perfect man are two famous interpretations of the ultimate goal of love movement in the descent trend; while unity and annihilation of lover in beloved are two interpretations of ultimate goal of love movement in the ascent trend.

The rich current of mysticism has its roots in several sources that have influenced it. One of these sources is the ancient religions, particularly Zoroastrianism. There are many commonalities between mysticism and Zoroastrianism. One of these commonalities is the “hidden guide of the truth seekers”. Attempts have been made in the present paper to study these commonalities by elaborating the statements and life of followers of the ancient religion, particularly two renowned representatives of the Khorasan Mystic School, one of whom lived in the east and another in the west of the territory.Any follower of a religion has two kinds of guides. The first ones are the human guides who are called precept or mentor (pir) in mystical books who are have a horizontal dimension with the followers. The second group are the hidden guides who guide the followers in vertical dimension from top to bottom. In order to acquire gnosis of the hidden guide, the followers try to find the direction through contemplation and meditation. In this regard, the hidden guide appears in a mystical manner under different names such as light, perfect angel, inner essence, divine couple, divine knowledge, intuition, Mohammadan light, divine inspiration and counterpart, and guide, and due to closeness of human being with the divine spirit, the grounds are prepared for eschatology. Attempts have been made in the present paper to explain the hidden guide.

Journey in time and entering other worlds parallel to the material world is one of the major issues of modern physics whose materialization seems to have become possible after the introduction of Einstein’s relativity theory in the light of passing through gates such as blackholes and wormholes. But the rules dominating the material world reduce the possibility of journey in time to an impossible level, because the common requirement of the said methods is a speed equal to that of light for a thing which in turn according to the laws of relativity requires the tending of the density of a thing to infinity and consequently physical impossibility of movement of such a thing. Hence, journey in time has thus far remained a pleasant puzzle or a figment of imagination. Journey in time in viewpoint of Mulana is possible within the realm of Ascension and occurs in two ejective and gradual conditions. A noteworthy point is that Mulana, like today’s physicists, argues that journey in time is possible through heavenly blackholes, but what distinguishes his viewpoints from those of physicists is that he maintains that journey in time requires mental-psychological discipline of the traveler and a non-eval identity. Basing and intertwining Mulana’s viewpoints on meta-theory of relativity in physics can cover some of the holes of mystical-philosophical viewpoints and consequently lead to a theological leap.

Ibn Arabi lays emphasis on the dual role of reason as two different issues. He maintains that from the viewpoint of action, reason is finite while from the viewpoint of acceptance it is infinite. In his opinion, reason in acting, enjoys a limited and definite realm, but in acceptance, it does not have any border or limit and can be illuminated in the light of heart and revelation to perceive the truths. In this regard, reason is a follower and function of revelation and heart. In viewpoint of Allamah Tabatabie, reason is one of the noblest human forces that can comprehend generalities and truths. However, he maintains that reason alone cannot comprehend all the truths he rather maintains that reason as an epistemological instrument has realm and border. Man’ reason needs revelation to gain access to the knowledge which is out of its reach. Reason is neither capable of understanding the Book and Tradition nor is it capable of knowing God and the truths without any limitation. Reason and its perceptions are valuable in the sense that one can use it for the understanding of revelatory statements.