The Concept of Faith and its Relation with Religious Experience in the Thought of Molavi in Mathnavi

Faith is one of the stages of man’s knowledge whose perfection requires strengthening of some factors as well as knowing and preventing some obstacles. In the light of Islamic ideology and depth of their internal contemplation، mystics pay special attention to this issue. In their view، faith is a verification manifested in epistemological، emotional and experiential planes of man and، due to this، they consider a high position for emotions and experience in religions and faith. Molavi is one of the most prominent mystics in the field of Islamic and mystical thought who has discussed the nature of faith and its relation to religious experience in his works like Mathanvi which is a pedagogical work full of Islamic knowledge، verses، hadiths، mystical thoughts and humane emotions. Based on the context of discourse، he has considered the concept of faith and proposed his especial inferences. For instance، he considers faith as a dubious issue which has different stages، and faith is not literal and exoteric but it is the researchable and esoteric faith which is of value. By discussing the concept of faith in epistemological، emotional and practical domains، this article aims to investigate the relation of faith to religious experience in Molavi’s view.