Nūr al-Dīn Kāshānī and his Miṣafāt al-Ashbāḥ wa Mijalāt al-Arwāḥ

Attaining and understanding the truth will not be feasible except through mystical wayfaring, which would be possible only through assimilation into sharī‘a (religious law) and comprehension of its mysteries; the spiritual states and discourses of a sālik (mystical wayfarer) is the realization of this notion. In the course of writings by the dignitaries of knowledge and thought, the legacy of works on theoretical and practical wayfaring and spiritual journey are available like a radiating sun to those thirsty for the pure thoughts and those seeking to arrive at the fountainhead of truth. The sages and divinely endowed scholars have each stated a portion of these mysteries and tried to provide the interested seekers with rays of Divine Light which had radiated on their hearts; thus, leaving behind plenty of books on such issues as mysteries of sharī‘a, moralities, and theoretical and practical mysticism.Among these dignitaries, was the prominent mystic, Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad Kāshānī, renowned as Nūr al-Dīn Akhbārī, belonging to the scholarly and mystic-nourishing household of Fayḍ Kāshānī and one of the disciples of Mullā Muḥsin Fayḍ Kāshānī and ‘Allāma Majlisī, who like other friends of Allah were unknown on earth and well-known in heavens. Thus, given the importance and necessity of knowing these noble figures and editing their manuscript works to be presented to the cultural community which is rated among the genuine intellectual and ideological sources, it is attempted in the present article to give a brief biography of the above-mentioned scholar and an introduction and contextual analysis of the valuable and unsurpassed manuscript, Miṣafāt al-Ashbāḥ wa Mijalāt al-Arwāḥ, known as The Book of Thinking, from among the works of this divinely endowed scholar and prominent mystic, which I have edited myself as well.