Journal of Religious Studies
Year:2009 | Volume:3 | Issue:5|Papers Count:8

According to the Islamic mystical texts, and in spite of the writings of the hagiographers, Sufi masters were not willing to do miracles and extraordinary practices. On the contrary, these extraordinary practices had no essential role in the development of early Sufism. But gradually when the Sufi orders were established, speaking about the miracles of the masters became prevalent among the naive adherents of Sufism.They used these stories as a proof of the superiority of their masters.However, some of the Muslim philosophers and mystics such as Ibn Sina and Ibn Arabi, speak about the possibility of these practices.Ibn Sina in the tenth chapter of Isharat wa Tanbihat surveys the mystery of non-prophetical miracles (kiramat) and extraordinary practices and he tries to give rational reasons to prove it. Ibn Arabi also brings many examples of Sufi miracles in his works. He categorizes extraordinary practices into miracles, non-prophetical miracles and magic. He insists on the possibility of non-prophetical miracles.

Gnosis (gnvsiV) is a Greek word which literally means 'knowledge', but technically and specifically refers to ' spiritual or esoteric knowledge of, or insight into the Divine'. Gnosticism is a common title assigned to a variety of Gnostic sects that flourished during the 2nd century AD, especially in Egypt and Alexandria, and lasted for several centuries thereafter. Gnosticism had major impact on the formation of mystical, cosmological and theological doctrines of Judaeo-Christian tradition and later, as some scholars believe, on the Islamic mysticism.The most prominent characteristic of the most Gnostic sects was the firm belief in an essential duality throughout the multiple states of being and universal existence, both macrocosmic and microcosmic.Various speculations made on the specific dualities, such as light and darkness, spirit and matter, good and evil etc., which are found in the majority of the Gnostic onto-cosmological doctrines, were in fact established on the basis of the above mentioned essential duality.Regarding the fact that different religious and esoteric trends in Greek, Persian, Aramaic, Egyptian and Jewish traditions could be traced back to the doctrines of various Gnostic sects, it would not be surprising that there are various perspectives on the origin (s) and nature (s) of Gnostic sects and that the issue has always been a matter of controversy among the scholars. However, many scholars believe that the Persian influences on the dualistic feature of Gnosticism is clearly evident.The present study tries to at investigate these variety of perspectives and surveys Gnostic doctrines on the Divine, man and the Universe.  

Apocalyptic Literature is the most important and the most widespread genre of religious literature. In these texts, mysterious revelations are revealed through visions or intuition to a chosen person. In many religious traditions the sky is abode of gods, and the earth is the home of creatures. As a result of this idea, it is believed that there is a gap between the "world of gods" and "world of creatures". By separating these two worlds, man tries to find a way into the world of gods to become familiar with it before his death. This aspiration, in every tradition led to a series of beliefs and rituals, by which man seeks to share the realm of gods.In Zoroastrianism, like other ancient traditions, there are various examples of the ascension to the upper worlds; such as, the seven ascensions of Zoroaster and his meetings with Ahura-Mazda and Aməshaspəntas, the ascension of Goshtasp, the ascension of Kertir, the famous vizier of Sassanid dynasty, and the ascension of ArdaViraf.This article surveys these ascensions as well as the apocalyptic themes of Zoroastrianism.

As a fact of sentient life, suffering is a concomitant problem of the human existence. Throughout the history people from different backgrounds and points of view, such as psychological, philosophical and mystical, have tried to solve this problem. Thus suffering, more than any other fact of human life, raises the philosophical questions that religion customarily tries to answer; questions such as: Is there any relation between suffering and evil? As the absolute Good, what is the role of God in relation to suffering and evil? What is the best remedy of human suffering? Theists answered to these questions in different ways. Rumi was one of them who tried to find reasonable explanations.His reflections about suffering, as revealed in Mathnavi, can be traced back to his Islamic beliefs on the one hand, and to the teachings of Borhan Al-din Tirmadhi, a), and$a sufi master who emphasized the blame (malama) and asceticism (riyad Shams Tabrizi, who stressed the importance of love in thariqah (the Path) on the other hand.As a Muslim, Rumi observed the suffering from the Islamic point of view. Firstly, he referred to creation as the purposeful act of God and then by explaining the problem of freedom and determinism, described the true suffering as the sweet fruit of the Divine love, so much so that a true lover should willingly submit her/himself to it. Rumi’s frequent referring to Islamic sayings and traditions is the sign of the influence of religious teachings on him.

Mystical vision and deification is the final goal of the mystics in the Orthodox Church. They believe that in the mystical vision Divine manifestation or powers could be observed, but, the Divine essence remains inaccessible. Therefore, in the theology of the Orthodox Church God is symbolized in two forms: Light and darkness. Eastern theology interpreted the union of the divine and the human in Jesus as glorifying humanity and as preparing humanity for its deification. This doctrine is the cornerstone of the Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Here again the union with God means union with His powers. Not only the grace of God, but also the will of the mystic are taking part in deification.

Plotinus used the concept of "Beyond Being" for "The One", in order to transcend it from any kind of definition, determination and multiplicity. Such transcendence causes a great gap between the source of existence and all beings, and it challenges the most important mystical elements such as "relation" and "love". Plotinus, in his philosophical attitude, has no signs of mystical passion and enthusiasm which are the characteristics of the eastern poetic mysticism. Although Plotinus’ thinking has been the background of theoretical mysticism and has affected eastern philosophers and mystics, his mysticism essentially is based on Greek philosophical thinking. The concept of "Beyond Being" is very similar to the idea of "the Good" of Plato. In fact, Plotinus owes this concept to Plato’s theories. By Using this concept and by stripping "the One" from all familiar human characteristics such as thought, love, consciousness, will, and forgiveness, Plotinus describes "the One" as an unknown and unfamiliar concept; so it could be said that his God is a cold and silent one. On the other hand, the transcendence of "the One" in the idea of "Beyond Being" changes the concept of "creation" into "emanation"; so Plotinus did not need to explain about the absence of God’s attributes such as will and consciousness. Due to the absence of the concept of "relation", there is no sign of "faith" in mystical philosophy of Plotinus. In fact, by this ontology he tries to analyze and define God and human in an analytical way.By surveying the concept of "Beyond Being", we come to two general conclusions:1) There is no "relation" between men and the source of creation, and as a result, there is no passionate love and enthusiasm between them.2) The material world is worthless and vain; therefore, all the worldly desires are invalid.

The life of the prophets, as described in religious texts, was always an intersting subject of mystical thinking. Jili, who was a student of Ibn Arabi’s mystical school, studied the life of the divine prophets such as Moses and Jesus, which were revealed in Quranic verses and with allegorical interpretation he compared these stories with mental attitudes.Considering Moses’ life, Jili emphasizes the annihilation of human soul, unique truth of divinity, unveiling of duality in Divine creative being and at last the union of perfect man with God.He believes that Torah was the manifestation of qualitative names of God, while Gospel was the manifestation of essential name of God.God revealed Torah to Moses in nine tablets. He was permitted to preach seven tablets, but the other two tablets which were "Power and Lordship", belonged to Jesus. Jesus preached these two tablets to his people and as a result his people believed in Trinity and went astray.Jili believes that Gospel has esoteric and exoteric characteristics.According to him, the beginning verse of the Gospel, i.e. In the name of Father, Mother and Son, are the exoteric one. It could be compared with the beginning verse of Quarn, i.e. In the name of Allah, Most Beneficent, Most Merciful. The people of Jesus only comprehended the exoteric meaning of the verse and identified it with Spirit, Mary and Jesus. They ignored the esoteric meaning of the Gospel, that is the appearance of God in creation and the manifestation of divine names in bodily beings. Therefore they believed in anthropomorphism and restriction of the Infinite.