Mystical Literature
Year:2010 | Volume:1 | Issue:1|Papers Count:7

Sanāī is the prominent Iranian poet of the 6th century. Besides his poems, a few epistles have remained from him. Professor Nazir Ahmad assembled them in a book entitled Makātīb-e Sanāī. This article aims at analyzing the structure and the stylistic features of these epistles in order to show the gradual evolution of Persian prose from simple to technical style.The results of this research indicate that the style of this book is between simple and technical and in fact it is a sample of epistolary prose which is more technical. A general look at some other prose works of literature at the same period shows that in the earlier works such as Chāhār Maghāleh the features of technical style are less and in the later ones such as Monsha‘āt-e-Khāghānī are more. Therefore, it can be concluded that as Sanāī’s epistles were written at a middle stage, there is a kind of balance in them between simple and technical style. Moreover, the difference between the structure of some epistles and the fact that they were not gathered by Sanāī in a collection leaves the doubt in the attribution of all of them to him.

Dream has long been under the attention of various fields of study such as theology, mythology, mysticism, and literature. This research aims at considering the concept of dream in Mathnavī of Maulānā. Moreover, it discusses how Maulānā approached dream and how applied it in his masterpiece. This paper is based on library research method and its corpus is Mohammad Este’lami’s edition of Mathnavī. This edition is preferred to others because of its higher scientific validity. First, dream is presented from the point of view of the Koran, the hadith, psychology, and mysticism; and then, the allegories used by Maulānā in relation to dream, the reason of dreaming, or having a true dream, and the difference between the dream of the saints and the mammonists in twenty-six anecdotes of Mathnavī are discussed.

Mystical themes form a considerable part of Persian literary texts. Mystical reflections such as philosophy are divided into two aspects of theoretical and practical. Practical mysticism is a spiritual journey traversed with guidance of a spiritual master on the way to achieve personality metamorphosis. Consulting is similar to practical mysticism in the interaction between a counselor and an interlocutor, in resolving uncertainties and the ambiguities, and moreover in achieving intellectual and personality perfection of the interlocutor. However, there is a main difference between these processes: in mysticism the ‘master’ and in consulting the ‘interlocutor’ has the pivotal role. In spite of some more discrepancies, there are enough similarities to be able to draw parallels between mystical conduct and consulting. This inquiry aims at showing these differences and similarities in order to find a suitable practical model for consulting based on the emotional and mental interaction between the master and the disciple in practical mysticism.

The noble principle of ‘saint-ship’ is one of the main axes of Islamic Sufism and Gnosticism. The need of wayfarer to the help and guidance of a perfect master (shaykh) and saint in the complex mystical journey has constantly been emphasized in educative books of Sufism – whether prose or poem. Hakīm Termāzī is the first Sufi to introduce the concept of saint-ship within the form of a theory and an intellectual system. However, Mohī al-Dīn Ibn Arabī was the one who systematized this theory in a complete and comprehensive manner.The present paper aims at presenting the evolution of saint-ship thought and its related discussions based on the most important prose books of Sufism, and in some cases the poems of prominent Gnostic figures. It covers the theories on saint-ship from third century hejri to the contemporary time that is the beginning of the Constitution. Study of Ibn Arabī and his disciples, related to the al-Andalus school, is due to the importance of Ibn Arabī in the realm of Islamic mysticism and his focus on the perfect human and master.

The main theme of Seir al-Ibād Il al-Maād, the great work of Sanāī Ghaznavī, is a spiritual journey from the human to the Divine world. It is a universal theme that has profound archetypal origins in East and West. In this paper, Seir al-Ibād and its symbols are analyzed from a mythological (archetypal) point of view, and then, the transformations that this theme has gone through in some similar works of literature, is discussed. Moreover, this inquiry focuses on finding the most important archetypal bases and giving an anthropological interpretation of the symbolic signs of this work. The results of this research show that the most important mythological base of this text and the similar works analyzed is ‘ascent’. Seir al-Ibād, is the symbolic narration of the wayfarer’s journey to God. It is an internal journey from the multitude of consciousness to the unity of collective unconsciousness. In this journey perception (consciousness) gives its place to intelligence (universal awareness), and in return from this mystical unconscious experience, it resides in the status of reason and self-consciousness (faultless super-ego: mystical reason). Moreover, praising of the Prophet that appeared at the end instead of the introduction, symbolizes this return.

Myth and mysticism are normally considered separately and from two different categories in the realm of humanities. In this paper, however, the writer demonstrates that mysticism is the continuation of and complementary to deities’ myths. The most significant common function of myth and mysticism is the powerful motivation of Proximity of man to God or gods. This motive is realized in myth by bringing gods to earth, and in mysticism through the elevation of man to the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, in the elimination of the distance between man and god, the function of myth and mysticism are respectively descending and ascending. While mythical rites and religions advocate the descent of gods to mankind and the emergence of "anthropomorphic deities", mystical rituals and traditions determine ways of the Perfect Man's ascension to the kingdom of heaven and finally the emergence of a group of "God – like human beings ".

The ‘Light of God’ is the main sign and the key to understanding mystical texts. Sufis propounded important views about the ‘Light of God’ by their mystical experiences. In Sufi's commentary on this notion, the chief mystical idea is ‘union with The Absolute’. There are different symbolic meanings for the ‘light’ based on mystical and spiritual experiences of Sufis. However, the fundamental concepts such as ‘self-knowledge’, ‘theology’, ‘pantheism’, and other fundamental mystical subjects are included in the basic frame of mystical experience. This article attempts to explain Mulānā's mystical experiences of the ‘Light of God’.