Imam Khomeini on Mystical Epistemology

"Mystical epistemology" is a new term coined in the Islamic mysticism. After his physical and spiritual struggles, In Imam Khomeini's point of view, a mystic goes able to remove the veil of knowledge becoming a real human being and comes to know the Divine Truth. Describing mystic vision as the manifestation of the One Truth in the creatures, Imam Khomeini categorizes that vision into two aspects: unseen and of heart. Having embraced the arguments from intellect and intellect depending method of the senses for knowing the Divinity, Imam Khomeini goes to prefer the knowledge from the heart. He considers mystical experience as the spiritual status of a mystic who comes to acquire such knowledge through the imperfection of both himself and all contingent creatures from one side and through the perfection of the Divinity from another side. In the position of articulation, however, it is very difficult for the addressed [non mystics] to digest the mystic's meaning. Imam Khomeini has divided the knowledge into four aspects. He argues that mystical knowledge can be sound and realistic only when it does not contradict the Quran and Shariat. He then goes to criticize those who repudiate the mystical knowledge as ill-founded or as words of ignorant derawish (Sufis). The knowledge and true vision of Allah based on the Quran and sound traditions, Imam Khomeini argues, are peculiar to those people of heart who have acquired their knowledge from the light of the Last Prophet and from the ring of the Last Saint.