MYSTICISM STUDIES
Year:2012 | Volume:- | Issue:14|Papers Count:9

Mysticism is a broad spiritual trend, which is prevalent among religions. There is a close resemblance and understanding among religions when considering mysticism. Similarly, there is much close resemblance and understanding between two mystical systems of Christianity and Islam. The present article attempted to compare practical mysticism in two systems of desert fathers’ practical mysticism and Sufism. At the outset of the study, the development of desert fathers’ speeches in first four centuries is studied. The genesis of Islamic mysticism and the significance of practical mysticism in both schools of thought are also pointed out. The article has been divided based on Abu Nasr Sarraj “Al-luma' fi al-Tasawwof” into seven stages of repentance, asceticism, renunciation, poverty, patience, self-surrender to him and contentment. Concerning the stages, some verses of the Holy Quran and the Bible, which have been invoked by Muslim and Christian mystics, have been quoted first. Then some quotations from the prophets of Islam and Christianity and from Sufi Scholars of the two systems have been cited and analyzed. There are lots of similarities and closeness between the two intellectual systems; however Islamic renunciation is more reasonable than Christian monk’s Seclusion.

Investigating the multilateral connections of literary texts throws light on deep cultural communications and literary or cogitative interactions over the centuries. These investigations may lead to discovering secret of beauty, maturity of art and eternity of masterpieces in literature. Mathnavi Ma‘navi is a masterpiece that not only argues about ancient literary contexts, but also relates to people’s culture and their religious or mystical meanings. The present study is aimed at examining textual that are abundant with Mathnavi’s concepts, ideas and structures. It is also intended to elucidate how Mathnavi interacts with these texts. Finally, this study fulfills to discover some new sources of Mathnivi’s tales that have not been mentioned in “Maakheze qesas va tamthilate Mathnavi” (by Badi‘ al-zaman Foroozanfar). It also reveals new aspects of Mowlana’s thoughts and his artistic abilities.

“Kashf al-Mahjoob” by Hojwiri and “Sharh al-Ta‘arrof” by Mostamli Bokhari are among the most valuable mystical texts in Persian, which are chronologically considered to be primary. These two books are assumed to fall under the category of Sufism in Khorasan. Regarding four aspects of pragmatics, ontology, teleology, and moral status, the present study examined the nature and apex of pain and suffering in Mostamli’s and Hujwiri’s structure of thought. The results indicated that ordinary meanings presented in concrete world are challenged in mystic studies and get a new meaning and form. Considering this explanation, pain and Suffering are regarded as consequences of life and necessities of mystic passage. Mystical pains and Sufferings, resulted from burdensome obstacles in the path of love and wisdom, are highly appreciated in mystical literature. Therefore despite their subtle differences about their approaches, both of the aforementioned mystics are in quest of wisdom. They are actually looking for diligent mystics’ refinement and purification rather than mitigating their pains.

The present study argues about the meaning of "truth" in Rumi's perspective. This article examines the meaning of truth and the way to reach it in Mathnawi. It is an attempt to reveal Jalal al-din Rumi's point of view regarding truth and truth seeking. The author intended to clarify that Rumi has presented a new and specific interpretation of truth-seeking which complete philosophers' and speakers' view. According to Molavi (Rumi), real researchers are those who are affected by their research. He believes that researchers' souls should be evolved due to their study. Otherwise, they would be imitators rather than researchers. Along with expressing the limitations of truth seeking, Molavi has introduced different ways to reach it.

Magic realism is assumed a new style of fiction developed in the second half of 20th century. This style is said to be rooted in Latin America. However, some of the literature scholars argue that this style is originated in east literature specifically in mystical texts. Imagination, which is considered one of the fundamental components of magic realism, may break down cause-and-effect link in the story. Stemmed from myths, legends, beliefs, anecdotes, or folk stories, imagination can be distributed all over the stories. Mystical texts or specifically speaking mystical bibliographies of great mystics are primarily written in imaginary and storied form. They present amazing and astonishing events in realistic way. This method is the same as narrative mode in magic realism texts. Elucidating different definitions and characteristics of magic realism, authors of present study probed the origin of magic realism in east literature, specifically mystic texts (bibliographies). Common points of these two schools or styles are also presented. The most important of which are crossing the border between reality and ultra-reality, unifying reality and ultra-reality, unifying opposites, seeking truth through imagination, marvel actions and amazing behaviors of story characters, and etc.

One of the oldest methods of Quranic interpretation is mystical interpretation. In the current era, this method has gone through some changes. These changes and differences are so evident that cause mystical interpretation to be divided in two branches: early and late. Considering the late mystical interpretive methods, there are some prominent pieces of work written in Imami Shi‘ite school of thought such as: Interpretation of Quran by Keyvan Qazvini, Makhzan al-Erfan by Banoo Amin, and works of Ali Safyii Haeri. The late mystical interpreters generalized their understanding of Quran and attempted to create some typical interpretations that were well received by the public. Nowadays, this approach is regarded to be a widespread and prevalent orientation, which may highly affect on the intellectual system of society (both scholars and ordinary people). Therefore, it seems necessary to criticize and interpret this approach. Although this method involves many advantages, there are some indispensible shortcomings such as lack of systematic and scientific methodology, disparity from traditional interpretation, lack of attention to innocents’ stories, modern thinking, and reliance on non-innocent intuition.

The history of egotism is as long as human’s life. It shows that human being is interested in self-love which is expressing and praising his beauty. In the “poem of egotism”, the poet appreciates all his properties. One of the fundamental topics in the poem of egoism is praising religious beliefs and specific knowledge. One of the specific types of religious egotism is related to highly spiritual affairs, which are approaching God and unifying Him. This kind of egoism, entitled as “Holy Egotism”, is aroused from a pure heart that is confident and submissive to God. After a glance at Ibn ‘Arabi’s life and an explanation about holy egoism, the present article scrutinizes instances of four types of holy egoism in Ibn ‘Arabi’s Diwan; egoism on relationship with God, relationship with Prophet, total love, and self-love. The results indicate that Ibn ‘Arabi concerns about highly spiritual affairs which are approaching God and unifying Him. It is also found out that when writing poems of egoism, Ibn ‘Arabi was aimed at showing human’s status and his relationship with sheer truth.

One of the frequent words in common conversations, classic literature, and mystical texts is considered to be the word “La obali” (originally means impulsive) which has recently been applied inappropriately. This word is taken from Arabic into Persian. Through the years, it has changed from a synthetic word to a single word with a specific meaning. Regarding etymology of mystical words in religious teachings, this study has attempted to find out the main origin of the aforementioned word. It has also examined the application of this word when describing God and truth-seekers. Besides, necessity of semantic study of the word “La obali”, history of its’ semantic change in mystical literature, and justification of its reference to God are investigated in the present research.

When studying mystical texts, the reader finds out that along with mystic's loving relationship with God, which is characterized by resort, absorption, submission and, finally, destruction, there is another relationship, which appears to be irrespective of the holy and unholy sanctum. Coexistence of these two opposites confuses readers of mystical texts. Investigating the quotes and actions of ten famous Islamic mystics – from Rabe‘eh to Rumi –, the present study examines the types, manifestations and reasons of taboo-breaking in mystical texts. In mystical texts, taboo breaking exists in two forms: "denial of distance" and "fighting the medium" in respect to the holy and unholy. It includes various topics such as sense of union with God, expressing equality with God, fasting and praying, Satan, etc. A deeper search for causes of taboo-breaking indicates that although some instances taboo-breaking or mystic’s impudence seem to be a protest against the distortion of values, in most cases it is the result of the mystic's intimacy with God. Therefore, it is not in contradiction with his submission to Him.