A Study of the Discourse Function of "Allegory" in Sufi Expression; A Case Study of the Allegory of the Concept of "Worship"

There are three main views in the study of "allegory": a) In the "rhetorical" view, allegory is a literary industry that rhetorical scholars examine under the science of expression and has an aesthetic function; B) In the "cognitive" attitude, it is a cognitive phenomenon that plays an important role in organizing human concepts and thinking, and what appears in language is only a manifestation of that cognitive phenomenon; C) In the "discourse" view, allegory is a powerful tool that social activists use based on individual and social sources and to legitimize their discourse and reject rival discourses. Throughout the history of Sufism, Sufis have always tried to give allegory to the spiritual elements of their mystical experiences through allegory; But each allegory represents mystical concepts in a certain way. Relying on such an attitude and using the methodological foundations and tools of Laclau and Moff's theory of discourse, the present study examines the function of Sufi allegorical discourse on the concept of "obedience and worship" in Sufi expression. From a discursive point of view, in the early periods of Sufism, allegories are interdisciplinary in nature; That is, identities and concepts are often formed around signs that emerge from the common discourses of that period or even discourses outside the discourse of Islamic religious sciences. But in later times, the Sufis sought to reject the meanings of rival discourses by constructing concepts and identities, and to construct new networks of signs.