Mystical Literature
Year:2021 | Volume:13 | Issue:25|Papers Count:6

Bahr al-Mahabba fi Asrā r al-Mavadda is one of the Sufi commentaries in Arabic in which Surah Yusuf (Joseph Chapter) has been interpreted in a simple and pleasant prose along with some mystical points, allusions, and anecdotes. Four Persian translations of the work have been done over the last century due to its appealing content and significance. However, no critical review and correction of the book or accurate information about it, like its author, time of authorship, origin, formation, and its status in the mystic tradition of interpreting the Qur'an could be found. This commentary was composed with a practical approach to mysticism and in compliance with religious law and ethics, within the context of Sufi interpretive tradition in the early centuries of Islam (before the seventh century). This work, of which there are several editions, is sometimes attributed to Abu al-Futuh Ahmad al-Ghazali and sometimes to his older brother, Abu Hamed Muhammad. However, it appears that both of these ascriptions are wrong. It seems that this work had been compiled by collecting and translating some Persian anecdotes and quotations from the earlier Islamic commentaries, especially Anis al-Muridin and Shams al-Majalis, Ons al-Muridin and Rawdat al-Muhibbin and Ghessa-ye Yusuf; works that had been written in Arabic four or five centuries earlier. The present study was conducted through examining the commentary and its available editions as well as analyzing the content of hand-written manuscripts, early centuries’ commentaries, and the studies that have been done to date.

To understand literary works, it is essential to be aware of the pretexts and works preceding them. Accordingly, discovering the origins of literary texts is one of the ways of understanding them more accurately. The present study investigates the degree to which Al-Risala al-Qushayriyya (The Treatise of al-Qushayriyya) has been influenced by religious and mystical texts, and through adopting a descriptive-comparative research method, examines its intertextuality based on Gerard Genet's theory. Studying the pre-texts related to the conducts and supernatural wonders of Sheikh Abou Ishaq Kazerouni (352-426 AH) in Ferdows al-Murshediyeh reveals that mythologizing the hero based on archetypes and drawing analogies between lifestyle, miracles and stories of the prophets and those of the spiritual guide by his disciples, to show his high status and grandeur, are evident. The study of intertextuality between Ferdows al-Murshediyeh and other mystical texts concerning mystical themes and terminology, verses and hadiths, anecdotes and quotes of the mystics confirms that there is an explicit intertextuality between its themes and those of Al-Risala al-Qushayriyya. Hence, Al-Risala al-Qushayriyya had been one of the references used by Sheikh Abou Ishaq Kazerouni and his disciples, and Sheikh Abou Ishaq had borrowed some mystical themes, anecdotes, and quotes of other mystics from Qushayri. This explicit intertextual relationship at the level of phrases and words is chiefly represented as quotations without in-text citations.

The story of “ Sheikh Sanan and Christian girl” , which is one of the longest stories in Attar’ s Mantiq al-Teyr (Conference of the Birds), is rooted in real events and has been cited in many credible references preceding Attar. Nonetheless, Attar's narration of this story has gained popularity due to its integration with mystical and Sufi concepts. On the one hand, this narration has unveiled Attar's ascetic face and has turned Sheikh Sanan's story into an ideological and religious text, on the other hand, it has been subject to various interpretations, some of which are contrary to its ideological beliefs and have raised epistemological questions. In view of that, through seeking a counterdiscourse line of thought in the story of Sheikh Sanan, we intend to answer this question: If the story of Sheikh Sanan is an ideological and religious text, how has it been subject to various interpretations so far? By tracing the history of the evolution of the term "infidelity" in Sufism of Khorasan before Attar, the writer has shown the background of this term and how it had evolved prior to its being taken up by Attar. Analyzing the story through Critical Discourse Analysis was the next step. The results of the research indicate that in fact the history of the evolution of the term "infidelity" as well as Attar's intellectual system allow the interpreters to recognize this term in the story of Sheikh Sanan in its evolved meaning (counterdiscourse) and thus consider an intrinsic meaning for "infidelity". Accordingly, it could be seen that the relationship between infidelity and religion is sometimes opposite and sometimes a parallel movement.

As Gnosticism has an epistemological root, it resembles mysticism and Sufism. There are two general approaches to this resemblance and closeness; one that confirms the penetration of Gnostic thoughts into mysticism, especially in the sixth century, and another that rejects this issue. There are common concepts and themes in Gnosticism and mysticism, the study of which would help to approve or reject the interplay hypothesis. Attar Neyshaboori is one of the mystic poets who lived in the sixth century and it is probable that he would have been impressed by Gnostic thoughts. Hence, studying the common Gnostic and mystic concepts and themes in his works could be essential. The symbols and manifestations of these themes in Attar’ s poems are noteworthy and deserve investigation. The contrast between body and soul, the descent of the soul and its enslavement by matter, the dominance of sleep over the soul, forgetting the origin of the self, bewilderment and alienation of the soul in the materialistic world, hearing hidden, intuitive calls and veils covering the path are among common themes in Gnosticism and mysticism. In mysticism, the ultimate goal of spiritual journey is to rejoin God; however, in Gnosticism the goal is to rejoin the self, as also represented in Attar’ s poems. In this analyticaldescriptive study, these common themes in 165 selected sonnets were examined and the aim was to explain the possibility of Gnostic thoughts influencing Attar’ s sonnets and hence their integration with his other mental resources.

The Unity of Existence is one of the fundamental concepts in theoretical and practical mysticism and in our Islamic-Iranian tradition prominent figures like Ibn Arabi and Rumi have worked on this concept. In his works, Rumi, the great mystic of the seventh century, presents and explicates this concept in different ways, often allegorically. Obviously, this idea is not limited to Islamic-Iranian tradition and traces of these insights could be found in the works of thinkers and writers of other nations. The famous Russian writer and thinker, Leo Tolstoy, has used Oriental wisdoms, rituals, and religions in his spiritual quests for meaning of life. In the meantime, one of the themes permeating all Tolstoy's works, like an invisible thread, is the concept of unity. He discusses unity in a good number of his works including the story of “ The Cossacks", the epic novel "War and Peace", "The Death of Ivan Ilyich", his didactic anecdotes, and in the collection "The Way of Life", among others. In this study, we sought to explore the representation of the Unity of Existence in the works of Rumi and Tolstoy. The findings suggest that Tolstoy's allusions to the Unity of Existence could be re-read and examined in light of Rumi's view of the Unity of Existence through a descriptive-comparative approach. In this study, adopting American school in comparative literature approach, we aim to explicate the similarities of views held by Rumi and Tolstoy concerning the Unity of Existence.

Mysticism, Sufism, terminologies, and codes related to them have always been present in classical Persian poetry and have been deployed by numerous poets. However, this connection has become quite limited in contemporary poetry. Bearing in mind that these codes offer the possibility of producing, receiving, and interpreting texts, in this article, we attempt to examine the mystical codes in Seyyed Hassan Hosseini's poetry so that we can understand the role and influence of mysticism and Sufism on creation of poetic imageries and themes in his work. This article examines the linguistic, mental and rhetorical layers of Hosseini's poems via descriptive-analytical approach to show the quality of the influence of these codes. The results show that although with the developments in the modern world and the change in the taste of the new generation, mystical and Sufi elements and codes are no longer the focus of attention of contemporary poets, especially modern poets, Seyyed Hassan Hosseini has deployed these codes in three linguistic, literal and mental fields. In the field of rhetoric, he has used these codes to create various poetic imageries such as similes, metaphors, and all kinds of allusions and symmetries. In the mental field, he has used many of these codes to fight hypocrisy and its manifestations. In this way, he has been able to deploy these codes to enrich contemporary literature and reduce the chasm between modern poetry and classical Persian poetry, to some extent.