UNITY AND PLURALITY OF RELIGIONS FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF ʿAYN AL-QUḌĀT HAMEDĀNĪ AND ‘AZĪZ AL-DĪN NASAFĪ

Besides a variety of approaches to the reality of the plurality of religion, a few of Muslim mystics have reflected on the issue from a mystical perspective according to the socio-political conditions of their time. Among such mystics, one can mention two prominent mystics of the middle centuries of Islam, i.e., ʿAyn al-Quḍāt Hamedānī and ‘Azīz al-Din Nasafī. In the present study, in addition to comparing the thoughts of the two mystics, their approaches to the issue of unity and plurality of religions are examined in a comparative-analytical manner. It is also shown that although both mystics believe in the existence of a common principle in all religions, how ʿAyn al-Quḍāt has highlighted the linguistic and translation errors as factors resulting in the plurality of religion based on his hermeneutic views, while Nasafī, based on the theory of the unity of existence, has emphasized the plurality in literals as well as belief in an invented god. On the other hand, because they accept spiritual experiences and collective wisdom as criteria for the verity of religions, both mystics have attempted to show why spiritual experiences, which are rooted in a divine reality, have changed and distorted over time.