RELIGION & MYSTICISM
Year:2012 | Volume:8 | Issue:32|Papers Count:16

Piety and abstinence is one of the most important characteristics of religion so that they have made a lot of people secluded and monastic. Monasticism is mostly and generally accepted by some religions such as Christianity. As for monasticism in Islam, the best way is utilizing the Koran and relations attributed to religious saints. As evident in Islamic sources, the Almighty has pointed to monasticism in four verses of the Koran. To have more understanding on the concept of monasticism, the Islamic commentators including both Shiite and Sunny have their own comments so that the accurate conceptual meaning of the word has come to be difficult. Therefore, it should be commented out of the relations and prophet traditions.This paper is up to investigating the content of some relations as well as the true perspective of Islam on the better understanding of monasticism. Thus, it is endeavored to analyze the two categories of relations on the rejection and confirmation of monasticism and its manifestation in Shiite and Sunny sources that have had two different inferences on the positive and negative meaning of monasticism, together with the conflict and paradox of the two concepts from the Islam point of view.

Spiritual journey has got its own constituents, formalities, and conditions. One of the constituents is known to be silence and quietude. In the Koran and relations, silence has always been addressed as an exalted icon and value. In mystical prose and poetry, too, silence is a pre-condition of solitude and one of the means of achieving mystical perfection, having some advantages and consequences. Some mystics assume tariqa principles as silence itself. Since silence is of various types, there are different comments and beliefs concerning Sufis' silence so that some prefer to be silent and some would rather talk. As far as possible, this paper tries to first analyze the concept of silence and quietude in the Koran and relations and key mystical literature, and then deal with Masnavi Ma'navi in which mystical silence and quietude are reflected and has got special manifestation.

To achieve the reality of existence and eternity, mankind should be mortal. Man should perish his entity to be able to gain his real self that is nothing but the everlasting Almighty. At this stage, man can not find any trace of himself and whatever is looked upon is only God. There is no desire to be manifested. Mortality is of several kinds but the most significant hierarchy of which includes operational, characteristic, and instinctive kind. Of course, in the overall stages, mortality is a category of survival. The mortal man achieves that knowledge which there wouldn't be any veil against him and that he perceives truths in their true formats. And in the end, he achieves the knowledge which finds out there is no entity to have independence and that everyone is mortal.

In this paper, the writer tries to explain the diseases that deviate and evolve heart resulting in depression and death of heart by going through mystical cultures and texts while providing different definitions of heart and soul documented out of the Holy Koran and evidences in mystical literature, having in mind that the Almighty has mentioned the heart diseases and the ways to recover them. The writer has explained the recovery ways of the diseases according to the verses of the Koran and the traditions, after a study over them, together with evidences reflected in mystical verses and prose so that the impression of the Koran on mystical literature could be recognized.

Known as Sheikh Najmoddin the Great, Abuljenab Ahmand Kheivi was the famous commentator, relationist, and mystic of Islam and Iran who spent the two decades of his life on scientific and spiritual research in Islamic territories. In his journeys, he learned the special science of relation and mystical and spiritual journeys from the great scholars of his time and then after refining his soul, learning spiritual science, and achieving the ability to teach out of his own sheikh, he went back to his hometown Kharazm. Over there, he began extending his mystical teachings and supporting the enthusiasts. In addition to writing great deal of works on spiritual journeys, he nurtured followers from Khorasan and Mesopotamia, out of which he spread the mystical science despite the prevailing political and religious atmosphere throughout Kharazm kingdom. This paper endeavors to analyze the religious atmosphere of Khorasan, Mesopotamia and Kharazm after evaluating his scientific and religious life, together with his mystical and spiritual teachings in Gorganj, the east empire of the Islamic world, especially his debate as the advocate of Tariqa and intuition with Imam Fakhr Razi, the representative of Sufi and Reasoning school.

A mystic passes through the twisting and turning paths of mysticism in order to attain the appreciation of God and reach the nearness to Him as wellas monotheism. there For, he transcends the world of matter and travels in another world. In each stage of mystical hierarchies, the mystic receives some revelations form unseen world so that he can envision his beloved as light or in different colors. Mystics believe that light in means God, who is the creator of heavens and earth, and all the universies have benefited from His light.Based on their own mystical procedures, mystics like Eynolghozate Hamedani, Najmed din Kobra,Najmed din Razi, Molavi and Sheikh Mahmode Shabestari describe their mystical experiences about the reception of light and diverse colors of a world suprior to the material world. This article investigates the viewpoints these mystics.

The purpose of the paper is to show to what extent Mowlana was interested in some elements of Shiite. Though in spite of what some Shiite Muslims he cannot be considered as a Shiite.The evidences found in Shams' lyrics and his works states that such a mystic poet loves Ali not as the fourth Imam of Muslims, rather, by far because of his traits and his perfectness. Accordingly, he symbolically, sometimes as a reality, points out to whatever associates with him. Other than that, Mowlana have paid attention to Imam Hossein and Karbala and martyrdom in some of his lyrics.Another point dealt with in this paper is the kind of impression Mowlana gains out of such ritual cases because one can find out in many of his hints that rather than a conscious and historical way he views the matters with an unconscious and mythical approach.

The great Islamic mystics' works reveal this fact that two elements of affection and understanding play an important role in the formation and boundaries of such valuable works. Although few mystics lack these two significant elements, a group of Islamic mystics are more epistemology centric whose works include further manifestation of understanding while another group are more affection oriented and utilize affection in their works more.Ibn Farez is one of the great scholars of affection centric mystics during seven century A.H. in whose works he has utilized his lovely affection.

Islamic art has great treasures of the deep mystical meaning and divine wisdom, rooted in deep thought and spiritual foundations of art, because it is divine. The art when creating new ways and sometimes using images and art forms of past, such as ancient Iran and pre-Islamic Iran. Unfortunately, when investigating the “Islamic Art”, a wide range of attitudes and approaches to historical controls in the form of “art history” is seen, and instead a look at the empty deeper philosophical attitude to the arts in the context of philosophical approaches to art is visible. In fact, meditation on the inner aspect of the art and codified language, and language, metaphysical and mystical allegory that contains the necessary foundations is undeniable and frequency of deficiencies in this area can be seen also in academic circles. This paper investigates the symbolic meaning of the Codified art and why the need for such Lisani when examining the art. The symbolic meaning of some designs, and the elements of nature imagery in Islamic art, In addition to these elements, some mystical and metaphysical foundations of this art are investigated.

Perhaps among those Iranians who are eager to study, especially those having fun with Persian literature, you can rarely find a person who is ignorant about what the scholar of Toos, Ferdowsi, had stated about his own valuable poetry-Shahnameh:A huge palace out of poetry founded INo rain or storm ever makes it dieIt is absolutely true that Shahnameh is a huge and large palace which is its history of existence has always attracted the attention of great scholars and architects, though no one has ever been able to view the overall angles of the work all at once and through the lens of his personal binoculars; in other words, no one has succeeded to dominate over every aspect of the work. The writer's word, Shahnameh is like an epic bride who has never had the chance to sleep with any groom.However, since the fairy faced bride can not tolerate her veil, every now and then, she peeks at her suitors. Therefore, every suitor, too, has been able to only observe or espress her eyebrows or eyelashes from the perspective or position he has been aware of. Accordingly, the writer's endeavor is to mystically take a look at the tale of Rustam and Sohrab, and the death of Rustam in general. It is hoped that the purpose is served God willingly.

Although there are radical differences between mysticism and epic in many sections, there are a lot of identical features found for both that through profound look at epic poetries one can find out that the mystical backgrounds are deeply rooted in the beliefs and ancient customs and the footprint of mysticism are evident in epic works. From this perspective the overall heroic works and writings have the potential to be studied just like Shahnameh, Garshasbnameh, Bahmannameh, Kooshnameh, Shahriyarnameh, Banoogashsbnameh, etc. In spite of the fact that dualities have on the surface strengthened the foundation of mysticism and epic, in deep down they have made essential interrelations. Good or bad, celebrating and mourning, being and striving, qualification and disqualification, darkness and lightness, Ahurah and Ahriman, angel and demon, and the like each one is a mixture of the other one, and by pursuing them one ends up with the other one. It is obvious that without making such a master key of thinking applicable, any entry into the mystical and epic minds in Iran is like beating a dead horse.