The Effect of the Quran and Tradition on Ayatollah Gharavī Isfahānī's Divan of Poems

One of the men of literature, an authority, who has made use of his narrative, Quranic, jurisprudential and theologian expertise in his poems about Imam Hussein (PBUH) is Ayatollah Gharavī Isfahānī. In his Divan of poems, he has mixed Quranic themes and traditions with literary figures and artistic aspects of language and thereby has fluently expressed his awareness of and profound emotions and passion for the Commander of the Martyrs (PBUH) and the events of Kerbella and 'Āshūra (the tenth day of the lunar month Muharram on which the martyrdom of Imam Hussein took place). The majority of the poems in his Divan touch on these subjects. Given that this jurist has been aware of these events, it will be useful to examine the reflection of such events in his poems. Therefore, the present paper explores his poems of Kerbella and 'Āshūra with regard to the followings: the narrative and Quranic aspects such as the use of allusion, quotations from the Quran, Quranic expressions like "the moon did rend asunder" (انشقّ القمر), "he drew near, then he bowed" (دنی فتدلّی), "am I not your Lord" (ألست بربکم), "soul at peace" (نفس مطمئنّه), "the farthest lot-tree" (سدرة المنتهی), etc., the use of Quranic themes and the stories of the prophets including Moses, Jesus, Noah, Solomon, David, Khidr, Job, Adam and Muhammad (the Seal of the Prophets) in order to express his emotions concerning Imam Hussein (PBUH) artistically, the use of verbal literary devices and semantic devices, and finally some discussions about the science of figurative speech employed to express his religious and Quranic emotions, to state the virtues of Imam Hussein and to recite his elegiac poetry.