MYSTICISM STUDIES
Year:2010 | Volume:- | Issue:10|Papers Count:10

In Islam, the punishment of certain sins has been determined the abiding in Hell for ever, and many of Quranic verses have approved the matter. Muslim interpreters and thinkers, disagree on the eternality of torment. Some have interpreted the abiding in Hell in the meaning of eternal chastisement and torture and some others, including Ibn al-'Arabi, have believed in the abiding in Hell but without continuation of torment for ever.In the present paper, the verses of threat of punishment, have been classified into six groups and then the esoteric commentaries of Ibn al-Arabi have been examined and analyzed respectively. In some cases, if necessary, the views of other interpreters have been provided to assay Ibn al-'Arabi’s viewpoints.Finally it has been concluded that according to the postulates of Ibn al-'Arabi’s school, the hermeneutic of verses of abiding in Hell, had been inevitable for him.

The Holly Quran, according to mystics’ conviction is not only the most important source of gaining knowledge in the Islamic mysticism field but also an authentic criteria for separation between truth from illusion.Infered from mystical texts, there are two groups of wayfarers of the Path who, because of their false understanding of Quranic meaning and learnings, have fallen into prey of vain Fantasies and untrue surmises.One group really intends to follow mystical journey and reach the Reality, but because of the most thick veil i.e. egoism, their perceptions are not inward revelation  but misunderstanding and lack of insight. Second group have tainted their goals of the mystical path to worldly benefits and advantages, hence their sayings are not valid.According to Persian Sufi texts, both groups, in spite of their pseudo- mystical words which apparently seem to deal with spiritual concepts and matters, are devoid of knowledge and divine intuition. Some have interpreted this kind of pseudo- mystical expressions as ‘unclean light’. Sanaee, Rumi, Mohammad Ghazzali and his younger brother Ahmad and ‘Eyn al-Qozat, also have named them in a similar manner which have been examined in this article. Also in the present study, based on the most outstanding Persian mystical texts, different aspects of the subject have been analyzed and supported by sufficient evidences.

Maqalat Shams as an eminent and significant work in the history of mysticism and Persian literature, which has a close relation with Rumi’s life and work, not only ignord by common readers but also research scholars have not paid attention to it properly. One of the main reasons of this, seems to be scattered sentences and lack of apparent firmness of the text, which have caused it appears ambiguous.In the present paper, the origin of the ambiguity is examined. For this, the method of ‘discourse analysis’ with emphasis on grammatical cohesion, including reference and ellipsis has been used.As a result, the causes of existence of ambiguity in the text are as fallows: Unawareness of readers of the most important stylistic feature of the text i.e. ‘brevity’, use of personal pronouns as endophoric and anafra reference, use of masculine third person pronoun i.e. ‘he’ in the meaning of man in general, omission of particular nouns in order to preserveng brevity, shift of verb from third person to first person and vice versa, use of ellipsis, exist of ambigiuty in distinction between speaker and listener in the structure of conversation, unfamiliarity of modern readers with contextual situations and background knowledge.

The study of spiritual experiences of Jalal al-Din of Balkh (604-672 Lunar) through his life and works indicates that he is always looking for new, dynamic and perfect needs. This kind of attitude mixed by such positive and ultimate outlook towards man which humanist psychologists have talked regarding this subject in their theories.In the present paper, Rumi’s eventful life joined with perpetual needs, has been considered from a psychological perspective, and through comparing of his works and life story with A.H. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory, the departures of Rumi’s spiritual and artistic life have been emphasized.Finally, life and thoughts of Movlana as an eastern and Islamic patern of the theory, supported by examples and evidences from his poetry, have been introduced and analyzed.

Myths with language full of mystery, allusion and ambiguity are attractive and inevitable realities in arena of classic literature, mystical texts and contemporary poetry. Ferdowsi, the famous classic poet, who is regarded as a firm foundation of Persian epic literature, has attempted to clarify them and emboss their significant role. The revival of ancient myths and revealing their numinous reality, have external and internal reasons. The external reasons should be searched in the course of movement of culture and civilization along the history and the internal ones in the mystical literature.The aim of this research project is the recreation of myths in the mystical literature which relates a kind of return to the origin, an attempt for rebirth and man’s tendency towards eternity. The entrance of Simorgh myth to many of ‘treatises of birds’ shows the significance of recreation of it.In the present paper, only Simorgh and Cycnus myths in the classic and contemporary poetry as well as mystical texts have been recreated. The entelechy of the article, keeping numinous aspect of the myths, is to show the important role of them in connection between past and present and that the recreation and reiteration of them, in deed, are in some ways the manifestation and continuation of very numinous truth.

In some Sufi hagiographies a dialogue between a Sufi man and a mystic woman is narrated, in most of which the woman is nameless and called so as well- Majhoolah al-Asma‘a-.According to certain narratives, while the Sufi man is in the state of meditation or ecstacy, the woman appears into an imaginary figure and solves his spiritual problems and guides him upon the Path.There are some similarities among these anecdotes. This paper aims at discussing the features of these visits and characteristics of the dream woman in two of these tales, taken from the narratives related to Dhu al-Nun and Ibn al-’Arabi, the great Sufi masters of third and seventh centuries, in which She can be considered as Sophia, Daena, Shakhina, or according to Yung as the anima of poet himself. This imaginary woman, in deed, is the hidden part of mystic’s soul which through meditation and revelation manifests and directs him in his spiritual journey. She as the product of Sufi active imagination, is divine manifestation of wisdom, grace and love.The present paper consists of three parts. The first part deals with the positive look of Dhu al-Nun towards woman. The second talks of Ibn al-’Arabi’s school of love, in which woman plays a central role. Then, considering these two similar tales that narrate encounters with the anima, the important status of the dream woman in these situations has been discussed.

Mystics inspired from the Holy Quran have considered the world from one side the Image of God and from the other side the manifestation of Divine Names and Attributes, which the later has been divided into two types: The Names of Majesty and the Name of Beauty. Those Names which relate with grace, mercy, generosity, have been named the Names of Beauty and those ones deal with vengeance, anger, retribution, have been named the Names of Majesty. On the other hand, since the Divine Attribute have one existence, the paradoxical combination of Majesty and Beauty here appears.In the present paper, after representing the mentioned points, the authors discuss on the status of Majesty and Beauty based on the mystical ontology, epistemology, psychology and symbology. Then, they show that in the love mysticism this paradox has been called coquetry -Naz-, which is a mixture of refutation and attraction, and through symbols such as face and hair, eye and lip and the other related idioms has been represented. Reflection of this symbolic usage in the Persian poetry is the final section of the article.

Lavayeh is one of the most famous Persian mystical texts. The treatise has been written following the example of Sheikh Ahmad Ghazzali’s Savaneh. Devotion of ‘Eyn al-Qozat of Hamadan to the author of Savaneh and relation of them with each other, and some other factors, caused that Lavayeh be known by the name of ‘Eyn al-Qozat’s, and even once has been published by his name in Iran. This untrue attribution has been spread to many books and literary researches. On the other hand, in some writings including catalogues, history of literature works, and literary-mystical researches, in addition to ‘Eyn al-Qozat, others have been named as Lavayeh author.In this article, on the basis of endopharic and anafra evidences, attribution of Lavayeh to ‘Eyn al-Qozat has been rejected and accordingly Hamid al-Din Naguri, an Indian Sufi master of seventh century is being introduced as the author of the treatise.

In studying of the analytical history of Sufism and the formation and transformation of its theoretical foundations, research on the biographies of hermits- mystics of early centuries is an inevitable and necessary issue. One of these great persons is Ahmad Harb Isfahani Neishaboori who has a special status in historical studies of Sufism due to his personal and intellectual characteristics as well as being the teacher of Mohammad karram, the founder of karramieh sect.Unfortunately, these is no valuable study on him until now. The present paper, concentrating on Ahmad Harb’s biography and thought, tries to discuse on matters such as karramieh doctrines, relation between Ahmad and Mohammad karram, reasons of his rejection by some traditionists, and so on, thus it can be of value and significance in the series of research works done on karramieh.

Dream is one of the issues which has a special status in mysticism and psychoanalysis and it can be the subject of interdisciplinary researches. Psychoanalysis has a vast domain with different branches among which Yung’s psychoanalysis is more compatible with oriental and Islamic mysticism. For Yung dream is very important and he mentions man’s unconscious as its origin. He thinks that sometimes the content of unconscious appears in dream symbolically and thus for analyzing such dreams this symbolic nature should be considered and their deep layers should be recognized.Cryptological study of Ibn al-‘Arabi’s dream on the basis of Yung’s view reveals the origin of this dream and according to it we can analyze the interpretation of Ibn al-‘Arabi and others. Also doubts and debates related to this matter can be removed. What Ibn al-‘Arabi quotes from the Prophet in Fosus al-Hekam can be justified in a way that, on the one hand, his veracity is kept and, on the other hand, what he says is not completely ascribed to the Prophet but an accepted explanation is found for it. This study shows that the Self of Ibn al-‘Arabi is manifested as the blessed image of the Prophet in dream and the archived content of his unconscious has been given to him in the form of a book, named Fosus al-Hekam, to be reported by him.