Mystical Literature
Year:2019 | Volume:10 | Issue:19|Papers Count:7

Most of the world’ s mystical schools strive to isolate the seekers and novices from the profane and mundane life and guide them to the real driving force of the world and the mysteries of the sacred world. Shamanism is one of these mystical schools that by its specific rituals and practices takes the seeker into a trance state and ecstatic unconsciousness, and through seeking help from the world of spirits and world of gods makes supernatural wonders take place. Shamanic rituals and customs bear a striking resemblance to Islamic Sufi customs; to the extent that some even believe that Islamic Sufism was influenced by Shamanism. In this study, the authors investigate some of these similarities, including the states of trance and ecstatic unconsciousness, the importance of music and stomp, soul flight and ascension of the seeker, magical flight, mystical austerity, performing supernatural wonders, and the issue of rebirth.

In the mystic/gnostic texts and in theosophists’ teachings, God’ s names hold a special status, particularly broader and more important than all other mystic themes. The discussion concerning the majestic attributes of God and the aesthetic names of God, their manifestations, and the characteristic effects of each on the human soul have comprised a large part of mystical written works, in which Sufi-oriented authors have proposed their views on these matters. In this research, applying an analytical– descriptive approach, and after an investigation into the resources related to the history of the holy names of God and the mystics’ viewpoints, two prominent books of the fourth and sixth centuries (Kashf al-Mahjub and Rawh al-Arwah) were selected to be examined at two literary and ideational levels. It can be apprehended that the mystical works of the fourth century were written in religious format, deploying formal, didactic and simple prose style of writing. However, parallel to mysticism’ s movement from piety towards love, texts appear to enjoy more pictorial and structural abstraction and literariness through deploying metaphor, allegory and rhyme. On the other hand, Sam’ ani’ s deliberate effort in narrating mystical experiences is evident in Rawh al-Arwah; which makes it different from Kashf al-Mahjub in this regard. This is closely related to particular and coherent status of aesthetics in Rawh al-Arwah which is conveyed to readers through passionate expressions of love and mystical experiences, issue which is absent from Kashf al-Mahjub’ s didactic discourse.

The harmony of the universe with the Divine Book, which provides an avenue for esoteric knowledge, illuminative discovery, and continued inspired perception of God, is one of the deep argumentative-mystical and Qur’ anic issues discussed by mystics. Although the origin of this thought could be attributed to Ibn-e-Arabi, the mystics succeeding him strived to delve into it more meticulously, and explore the truth of the connection between the worlds and the universe orders with the Holy Qur’ an. Sheikh Mahmud Shabestari and Allameh Seyyed Haydar Amoli are among the celebrated mystics who investigated the issue, and strived for confirming the correspondence between components of the Compilation (Tadwin) book and Genesis (Takwin) book. The present study, using a library research method, aims to explore the thoughts of these two great mystics, and compares their views concerning these two worlds and their examples, and discusses the applications of such a discussion. Accordingly, it is argued that such a discussion by these two mystics not only underscores the interpretability, inimitability, and miraculous quality of the Holy Qur’ an, but also suggests the respect bestowed on world creatures— as manifestations of the Divine Essence— the integration of the universe of existence, and the connectivity of all its components.

Using descriptive-analytical research method, the present study analyzes Ibn-e Bazaz Ardabili’ s Safvat al-Safa based on the mythical view of Mircea Eliade. From the perspective of Eliade, myth is the most important from of real, sacred, and communal thinking and for this reason it is exemplary and repeatable. In myth, the hero achieves trans-human conditions by transforming the sensory experience into religious experience. The religiousness of this experience means that the individual’ s existence in the profane world is halted, and he enters a world of light through supernatural forces. As a result, through applying religious experience, he can replicate mythical events. According to the mythical model of Eliade, the mythical sanctity of Sheikh Safi, Safvat al-Safa’ s hero, resembles the gods’ archetype and primordial models. The examples and components of mythical times and places of Mircea Eliade are also evident in Safvat al-Safa. As Sheikh Safi uses a religious experience, he replicates the mythical events, and conforming to religious man’ s example, he achieves a sense of religious power through austerity. Through this, he reaches illumination and inner self-recognition and his heart gets ready to accept the facts. At the stage of acquiring secret knowledge and being honored with initiation (tasharuf), the hard tests, and the compact and confined places for learning mystical mysticism are somehow representative of the embryonic world and rebirth. The hero reaches the divine manifestation (tajalli) through the stages of mysterylearning and initiation, and by his spiritual flight or ascension meets the angels face to face. Several examples of mythical models and repetitions are observed in the mystical experience of Sheikh Safi al-din Ardabili in Safvat al-Safa.

While Iranian culture has long enjoyed valuable works in the field of spirituality and mysticism, currently, we witness the spread of new religious movements. Increasing attention to spirituality has led some researchers to focus exclusively on the similarities between the teachings of the nascent spiritual movements and those of Islamic mysticism, which could have serious consequences. Taking that into consideration, and with the aim of depicting the conflicts between the teachings of the new religious movements and Islamic spirituality and mysticism, the present study addresses Osho’ s teachings, as the founder of one of the nascent spiritual movements, and examines his views regarding the existence of God and the possibility and ways of knowing Him, as the most important concern of humankind. To illustrate the dissimilarities between his viewpoints and those of Muslim mystics, his teachings in this field are also compared with Rumi’ s, as one of the true representatives of Islamic mysticism and spirituality. Findings reveal fundamental differences between the views of Osho and Rumi’ s. Lack of coherence in his view of the existence of God, as well as his different perceptions of notions such as love, freedom, and self-knowledge as ways of knowing God, which stand in contrast with the teachings of Rumi, support this issue. This seems to be due to their different origins of thoughts because unlike Osho that clearly denies the divine religions, Rumi’ s beliefs are rooted in the teachings of Islam.

To better understand Islamic mysticism, the mystical experience must be scrutinized accurately. So far, studies have been conducted regarding the nature of Islamic mysticism, each examining mystical experiences and Islamic mysticism, in general, through a certain perspective. Different divisions and types of Islamic mysticism, namely romantic mysticism, pious mysticism, Khorassanian and Baghdadian mysticism, mystical experience and spiritual-path experience are examples of these perspectives. There are also studies which focus on the nature of mystical experience adopting a linguistic approach. Relying on mystical primary sources and based on the mystics’ quotes, the present study divides mystical experience into four categories; preliminaries, teachings, states and speeches, and outer performances, and considers them as components of a cycle which interact with each other to aid the mystic reach the goal. This paper also provides a new model which clearly represents the nature of Islamic mysticism. In this model, the extent of mystics’ mastery over the states they encounter is considered as one of the reasons for their difference.

Since the ancient times, there have always been groups of people who believed in the order of the universe. The concept of discontinuous imaginal world was raised in the Muslim world as the mediator between the world of intellect and the world of matter, of course under different titles. The imagination was also considered to be the mediator between sense and reason. Moreover, there exist religious and mystical experiences in different nations which are named differently, including metaphysical powers (Kerā mā t), supernatural wonders (Khavā riq-e-ā dā t), and the like. These issues were of great importance and recurrence among the Sufis, and various texts have addressed them, one of which is Tazkirat-al-Awliā . Henry Corbin, an Orientalist, who used phenomenological components in examining the mystical experiences of Sufis, recurrently reminds us of the necessity of proper understanding of it in its precise position, i. e. discontinuous imaginal universe. The present study, approaching Corbin’ s method, which is the same as interpretation (ta’ wil) or revelation of the veiled (Kashf-ol-Mahjoub), provides criteria that can be used to discern the imaginary dimension of the events in Tazkirat-al-Awliā . Results suggest that criteria such as sacred time, relationship with angels, subtle and imaginal descriptions, and the like could display the proper place of occurrence of imaginal events to readers of texts as Tazkirat-al-Awliā .