نشریه عرفان اسلامی
پیاپی 24 (تابستان 1389)

Myths are the secret and divine treasures to study the origin of spirituality and collective memory of mankind. As one of the ancient civilizations, Iran is the birthplace of great and unique myths that have penetrated into other cultures and as of now it has sustained its elements of identification and culture making. One of the founders of the Iranian myths is secret and mystical fundamentals. In Mehr, Zervan, Amshasepandan, Zahhak, Soshiant, and the like there are some mystical elements, Ishraqi philosophy, and internal tariqa, leading to the emergence of schools of thoughts and various tariqas. Ever since the thinking of mankind began with myths, the roots of spiritual and mystical roots are also investigable within such myths.

From the great mystics of Iran points of view, throughout its overt and covert manifestation, the world can be nothing but the mirror of the Almighty; anything they look at or think about is He and they just remember Him. In their opinion, God has bestowed us two eyes so as to see Him both in His faceless unity and among multiplicity. In their views, the world reflects His truth in facelessness, greatness, etc., and the majority and minority both are the mirror of His existence. It is true that:Universe is a mystery, overt or covertBearing no thought, can a glance thou graspO thou, a divine letterO thou, a royal featureNothing without exists in universeEverything thou hast within in diverse

Hafiz has a special position both in practical mysticism and spiritual journey; and soul purification; and mystical theory of philosophy; and love school of Persian or Arabian mystics. His points in Persian literature are unique. Abdorrahman Jaami in his book 'Nafahaatol Ons', page 614, has mentioned that "the words of Hafiz has so much dominant over various levels that no one has ever experience that….". His philosophy of prayer is related neither to the fright and bias nor to mystical and insolent behavior that is exemption from pretense, greed, and lying. Hafiz has utilized invocation and worshiping with praying, having nothing to do with any special time. Whether living in seventh century or fourteenth, he needs to keep his privacy with his creature so that this is possible in the present time. Thus we find that Hafiz is born again everyday because of the new incidents without any expiry as well as his poems being lovely. One can say that Hafiz is alive. The current paper is an investigation over one of the significant concerns of Hafiz: prayer.

In Eastern Christianity, prayer, especially Jesus prayer, is of high importance. In this kind of religion, prayer has been at first addressing God (Father), but later on through the formation of Jesus prayer, the addressing was toward Jesus substituting other kinds of prayer. Being a means rather than an objective, prayer is primarily verbal, and then it should be established into one's heart (the existence center for mankind). The purpose of heartfelt prayer is to keep away from any kind of mental illusions (Hesuchia) and to unite with the trinity of God during the time when the Holy Spirit will be activated in the prayer's heart. Later on to achieve Hesuchia there were some helpful methods of praying such as invocation, clerical father(Guru) and recording the breath was proposed.

Ahmad Jaam was a prominent mystic during fifth and sixth centuries HD having multitude works and profound mystical beliefs which was the basis of a lot of sufi speeches,works such as Resalah Samarghandieh, Serajossaerin, Rozatolmoznebin, Meftahannejat, baharolhaghighah, Ensottaebin, Konoozalhekmah, Fotooharrooh, Letter of belief, Purified, Tazkiraat, and collection of poems, as well as mystical beliefs that this paper is skimming through the mystical expression of Sheikh, including Ikhlas, penitence, monotheism, reliance, samaa', appreciation, patience, love, wisdom, poverty, awareness which are the intellectual reliance of Sheikh. He deemed monotheism as the origin of any activity and penitence as essential for everyone, and the requirement of accepting deeds to be ikhlas. He assumes purified people to have two positions and thinks of reliance to be the kernel of ikhlas and pillar to faith and a bridge to conviction. He approves with samaa' through the Koranic verses and believes that the less wisdom anyone has, the sooner he will fall in love. At last, in terms of poverty "he deems absence in presence" and has divided understanding into public and particular kinds.

Knowledge is located in the conceptual cycle of indefinable. Nothing has been so impressive in expanding the ambiguity and darkness of a subject matter as clear as the definition of knowledge attempted by philosophers. On account of such difficulties, most philosophers have cared for the content of knowledge rather than defining it. According to the ideas of a lot of western philosophers, knowledge is always unintelligible; therefore, they believe that talking over knowledge without source is something meaningless.But in mysticism the subject is totally vice versa. In pure and supreme mystical experience, the notional application of intelligibility about such events is not logical and justified because a number of mystics use the word knowledge as an indication to the experience that lacks any intelligible content. Thus, in order to take the claims of mystics into account, we should dedicate some space for knowledge in out definition of knowledge which only the mankind can firmly stand on his knowledge without any content. The present paper endeavors to clarify such claims by mystics.

This paper focuses on the definition, concept, and meaning of Shath and Shathiyat and its relation with 'Mood'. In other words, the cause of Shathiyat is explained and some samples are presented and the name of some persons who have used them have been called; how to change the whole shathiyat into one sentence and how to make it into a question, and eventually, if possible, to reply to those questions.

Fasting in Persian literature, especially mystical texts, has a particular symbol and emergence, explained as the key to purity and the door of worshiping God as well as a shield and veil revealed from God. Mystics assume fasting as a secret from the divine mystery between people and the Almighty causing the decline of lust and purifying heart plus being invisible to the public to visit God, and to fulfill fasting is interpreted as burrowing from God, and the major condition for fasting is always presumed as purity and lack of mixture with pretense and whim. This paper endeavors to reflect fasting available in mystical texts and interpretation of sufis and mystics along with the kinds of objects and concepts as well as the advantages of fasting and mystical points of fasting as viewed by mystics and sufis.

The current paper which is the outcome of the sociological study on Rumi's Masnavi (Couplet), deals with one aspect of the study, that is political sociology, and demonstrates a lot of mentalities related to government and governor, along with other subjects indicated in this work of art, despite evading the truth.Rumi has indicated a number of the political social subject matters of its time, but in terms of more general matters, he has told a lot and has revealed his own special viewpoints accordingly. Since he provides his ideas through dual interactions, he points to two kinds of governors who interact from policy making and supremacy point of view. Thus, at the heart of his theory there are two rulers, the first one Pharaoh as a symbol of dictatorship and the second one Solomon as a symbol of justice.There are a few examples presented in various parts of the paper over the autocracy and cruelty of kings as well as the cruelty of their agents on their people. Then, some examples are given on the treason of courtiers against one another, showing that though there is treachery with different motifs, there will be a disaster if king is impressed by word of others; otherwise, treachery is not effective. In addition, there is a brief discussion on the goodness and badness of prime ministers who are the most powerful people after the king, and in the end, some signs of utopian king has been referred to in Masnavi.

Mysticism is formed as an inner movement from created and creature, that is, in fact, spiritual journey and Sufism, just like the contemporary beliefs as well as those during some centuries of the Islamic eras. Since he was brought up in a religious and belief based family, Shahriyar, the master, too, had a solid belief and a special passion toward the realm of mysticism and its guidelines, and in his words he strives to explain this objective that human being has always been pursuing to fulfill the privileges of being a created and to achieve the truth and the worshipped God. Manifestation is one of those expressions that mystics use to explain the quality of their insight and intake out of the ocean of knowing and understanding the Almighty and His presence in the objective world, and Shahriyar also looked at the subject of manifestation especially as one of the fundamentals of spiritual journey for which this paper has discussed the matter as far as it permits.