How to read and understand historical texts, especially in the field of philosophy and political thought, has always been one of the main concerns of researchers in this field. Because of the fear of persecution of governments on one hand, and the fear of the consequences of the general public's acquaintance with philosophical ideas on the other hand, have usually been the two main reasons for philosophers to write Esoterically. There are different methods have been presented in the form of different hermeneutic branches to understand the purposes and intentions of writers and political philosophers, each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses. One of these unknown methods in Iran is the method proposed by the contemporary political philosopher Leo Strauss under the title of Esoteric Writing or reading/Writing between the lines. In this article, I attempt to extract the generalities of this method and to describe its advantages and capacities in reading and understanding classical philosophical texts.

Upanishads are a group of ancient Hindu philosophical texts or the Esoteric sacred doctrines. They are such that all the schools which consider themselves as among traditional Hindu beliefs have sought to establish the truth and validity of their own teachings in accordance with the themes of these doctrinally authoritative sources. In these texts, which have attracted the attention of so many scholars all over the world, one can find the most sophisticated and delicate philosophical Hindu teachings. These doctrines or teachings, according to scholars, reveal a combination of Aryan and pre-Aryan thoughts and ideas in India as well as various teachings and views, but their central theme shows a turn in the ancient Hindu doctrines (especially Vedas), a turn from the external world to the internal world or from the exterior to the interior. The most important doctrine in the Upanishads is, in fact, the one that puts emphasis on the one sacred truth (which is called Brahman) and the knowledge of the human real self or ?tman as the means of obtaining and apprehending that one sacred truth which can be fulfilled only by seeing through veils of ignorance and traversing various levels of false selves.

The true purpose of human life is the worship and praying of God. So in order to understand the reality of prayer clearly, it is imperative to study it through philosophical views. Thus, the present inquiry aims to address the raised questions what is the reality of prayer? What kind of connection is there between truth and the Esoteric dimension of prayers? And are the levels of prayer the same for everyone? We seek to study the issue based on Avicennian and Sadraeian philosophy. Ibn Sina and Mulla Sadra have similar views on the reality of prayer. Mulla Sadra, however, discussed the issue thoroughly in terms of his philosophical system. Both philosophers count Esoteric and exoteric dimensions for practicing prayers. The exoteric aspects lead to the purification of the human soul and this paves the way to reach the truth i. e. to know Allah. Based on the views of the philosophers, knowledge and prayer have a mutual connection. Contemplating on him/her self and other creatures, human become aware of his/her need for God, as such worships Him willingly. Hence, the primitive knowledge of worship leads to the exoteric practice of prayers and this leads to self-purification. Finally, the purified soul would find the possibility to know Allah and the profound reality of his/her prayer.

Esoteric interpretation of the Quran in Mathnawi includes the following: A. The Esoteric interpretation (ta wil)of the Qur"an from the viewpoint of Rumi. as contrary to the views of the Sufis. is performed in regard to the capability of words for the interpretive meaning. Ta wil literally means returning to the origin of an object. and the terminological meanings given to it refer to the same literal meaning. There are two touchstones for ta wil:first. the words of the infallible; and the second. noncontradiction of the literal meaning with the interpretive meaning. According to Rumi. the false ta wil has two kinds: one is a ta wil based on partial reason and the other based on sensual desire. Genuine fa wil.according to Rumi. is introduced from three aspects: 1) Teleological. i.e. it must bring about dynamism and action; 2) TopicologicaL i.e. it must not deny the literal meaning of the words and is not to be contradicted by the ,text; and 3) Competency (Who is competent to carry out the ta wil?). i,e.. It must be based on intuition.

The aim of the present study investigated the psychometric properties of Esoteric Analogies test in college students. The sample of this study was 250 female graduate students who were selected of Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz by multi-stage cluster sampling method. The instruments of this study consisted of Esoteric Analogies (EA) test, Memory & Reasoning Competence Inventory (MARCI) and General Self-efficacy Scale (GSE). The results of the present study indicate Esoteric Analogies test had good internal consistency. Also, results revealed that there are a significant positive correlation between Esoteric Analogies test with Memory & Reasoning Competence Inventory, Reasoning Competence subscale and General Self-efficacy Scale. In addition, confirmatory factor analysis showed Esoteric Analogies test fitted the data at an acceptable level (AGFI=0/81) and could be used in females sample.

Tustari's commentary dates back to the third century ('AH') and is one of the closest commentaries of the Quran to the time of its revelation. The mystical taste of this commentary and its theological and literary features adds to its importance. The most important aspect of this commentary is its mystical approach which has always attracted and influenced mystics and scholars after him. Emphasizing on mystical approach, Tustari has used hadith and linguistics. He has not only paid attention and focused on Esoteric meaning and mystical Esoteric commentary of Quranic verses but also taken into consideration the external commentary, using literary rules and the Prophet's hadiths. Tustari's Esoteric interpretations are not devoid of order and criteria. His frequent use of microcosmic look at macrocosmic verses and the verses related to human relationship shows the orderliness of this method. Providing other worldly and merciful interpretation of the verses related to chastisement and this world is another mystical rule used by Tustari. He has used preaching approach under some verses related to patience, contentment and confidence, which has been followed after him. Showing the orderliness and normality of his mystical Esoteric interpretation, the present paper seeks to provide some criteria in this regard.

Sohrevardi should be regarded as the mediator of illuminationist and peripatetic philosophers and mystics. He deeply mixed mysticism and philosophy, such that philosophy lost its pure strictness and mysticism gained strong argumentative foundations. In other words, such individuals as Ibn Arabi, ' Aziz al-din Nasafi, and even Mulla Sadra emerged as the result of Sohrevardi's influence on philosophy and mysticism. One of the most important commonalities between peripatetic philosophy, illuminationist philosophy and Islamic mysticism is the discussion of existence which is interpreted as "light" by illuminationists and mystics. The most important manifestation of light in the Holy Quran is the verse 35 in the Chapter of "light" for which philosophers and mystics have provided different commentaries and Esoteric interpretations. In his Esoteric interpretations, Sohrevardi has been influenced by both peripatetic philosophers and mystics. For example, like Avicenna, he interprets "La Sharqiyyah wa La Gharbiyyah (neither eastern nor western)" as something which is neither intellect nor matter; like Ghazali, he interprets "Shajara al-Zeytoonah (olive tree)" as intellectual faculty. However, he interprets "noor ala noor (light upon light) " as returning of a thing to its genus while Ghazali and 'Ayn al-Qozat interpret it as prophetic spirit. The present paper discusses Sohrevardi's Esoteric commentaries and interpretations of light (generally) and the verse of light (particularly) and reviews the amount of previous philosophers and mystics' influence on him as well as innovative aspects of his Esoteric commentaries.

The goal of this paper is to prove that there are some Quranic witnesses for Suhrawardi's idea in "affection" and "love". In this respect, after explaining the reality of affection in Suhrawardi's point of view, we will match this Idea to Quranic verses and Esoteric commentary of these verses by referring to those verses related to affection and love. Suhrawardi himself believes in a kind of Esoteric commentary in which understanding of real context of the text depends on the level of reader's comprehension and understanding. In this paper, Suhrawardi's idea has been investigated on the basis of the place of Ontology, Epistemology and Cosmology of affection. In aspect of Ontology, Suhrawardi considers affection as an independent reality which has a pre-eternal source which homogeneousness is not condition in that. In illuminative Epistemology, knowledge is known as the base and foundation of love and in its Cosmology, cosmos order together with felicity and wretchedness of the soul are interpreted in the basis of love. And reaching to human perfection is only possible through love. In this paper, after mentioning Quranic witnesses in each case, we will remark Suhrawardi's Esoteric commentary about each of them.

Shams al-din Mohammad Tabrizi is one of the greatest theosophists of the seventh century AH. He brought a fundamental transformation to the life and thoughts of Maulana Jalal al-din Muhammad. Arguably, the only work remained of Shams is Maghalat-e Shams Tabrizi which is a collection of his discussions with Maulana or his disciples written down by their students. However, Maulana’s Divan-e Shams is a dedication and allusion to Sham’s mysteries. Prophetic Hadith was of paramount importance for Shams. He believed that only the possessors of gnosis and those who are united with God can decipher the in depth meaning of Hadith. He revealed novel mysteries in prophetic Hadith which are not mentioned in Qur’an and were not noticed by his preceding Gnostics. In this paper, Sham’s approach to Hadith interpretation is discussed, and his hermeneutic methods toward it is analyzed.