Repetition and Sequence of Seven Deadly Sins in the Sana’i'sWorks and Seven Great Devils in Zoroastrianism: a Comparative Study

Hakim Sana'i Ghaznavi (d. 536 AH), the epic poet of Persian mystical literature, in compiling his ethical-mystical system and in explaining the seven great sins of morality- greed, lust, anger, arrogance, envy, Stinginess, vulgarity, and hatred- enjoys Islamic culture and the legacy of and the ancient Zoroastrian. In his fearful approach to the Quranic thinking, he refers to these seven wild animal temperaments as the "Seven Gates of Hell" and in sympathetic tendency to ancient Iranian mythological culture as "demons". It is clear from the Sana'i’s word that Zoroastrianism, for the first time, was supposed to refer to these seven animal traits, and these seven traits reflects as "the Seven Gates of Hell" to the later works of Muslim mystics. In this paper, the authors have attempted to analyze Sana'i's poems in the field of Deadly Sins with a comparative perspective and illustrate the commonalities of these seven moral sins with the nature and function of the demons in Avesta and other and other Zoroastrian sources. In addition, the authors have illustrated with a parable these Seven Deadly Sins of morality in al-Haqiqah and Divan Sana'I and their mythological, rhetorical and rhetorical origins. "The principle of repetition and sequence of these seven wild animal nature", "the devil being of these traits", "the creatures and collaborators of these demons, who are created by the Devil", "being in the nest of human bodies of these demons", "hellish being of those who have these property," shows the alignment of Sana’i’s thought with some of the Zoroastrian beliefs.