Investigating Mystical Interpretations of Mutashabih Qur’anic Ayahs in the Works of Ruzbihan Baghli Using the Theory of Intertextuality

Ruzbihan Baghli has presented innovative and unique mystical interpretations of Qur’anic ayahs, and hadiths. According to Ruzbihan, shatah is a kind of mutashabih discourse that is not only in the words of mystics but is also found in the Qur’an and hadith, and the ayahs related to the mention of divine attributes as well as muqattaʿat are in shath language. In his opinion, Sufiya shath is one of the manifestations of shath in general, or exactly, the third manifestation of it following the Qur’an and hadith, which means the change and transformation that the divine or unseen reality finds when it is expressed in human language and this statement is undoubtedly two-sided. Two valuable works by Ruzbihan Baghli, both of which have poetic prose and are full of imagination are the Explanation of Shathiyat and mystical interpretation of Arais-Al-Bayan fi Haqayeq al-Qur'an. Drawing on these two works, the present research aims to identify, in a descriptive-analytical way, the ayahs of the Holy Qurʾan that are among the Mutashabih and that contain shath, according to Ruzbihan. Also, it attempts to point out the ayahs placed in the shath-containing context and the way they are interpreted by Ruzbihan. Therefore, ayahs that are Mutashabih and contradictory, that is, the ayahs related to the attributes of God and muqattaʿat, and the ayahs that the mystics have placed in a shath-containing context were examined. Ruzbihan's mystical interpretations of these ayahs, various techniques of intertextuality, including general negation, partial negation, and avoidance, were also studied in the shath of the mystics.