مجله پژوهش های ادب عرفانی (گوهر گویا)
سال سیزدهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 41، تابستان 1398)

Mawlawi's Masnavi Manavi is the most important mystical poem of Persian language and literature. The chance of many audiences has led to writing commentaries of this poem after the death Mowlana, and has continued to this day. In writing commentary on Persian works, there is no specific method for explaining the points; therefore, there is no definite and uniform procedure in commentaries on Masnavi regarding how to explain the concepts and how to describe the complexities of the verses. Hence, it is not possible to evaluate the methodology and efficiency of commentators’ methods. Thus, it is necessary to design a model based on the most important constituents of Masnavi's formulation of verses in order to provide a commentary tailored to the needs of the audience as well as to evaluate the commentaries on Masnavi in terms of the method. This article attempted to design a model for writing commentaries on Masnavi by examining its verses through the statistical method of ‘classification sampling’ and to identify its formulating components. With the help of this model, on the one hand, one can write a methodological commentary tailored to the needs of the audience and, on the other hand, it is possible to evaluate the way the explanations are presented in commentaries on Masnavi.

Ayn-al Quzat Hamedani (492-525 LH) is one of the most important pioneers of the tradition of Iranian philosophy, a mystic of the first mystical tradition who has used opinions on ontology for knowledge and journey to God. The purpose of this study was to identify the mystical foundations of his ontology and its roots by a descriptive-analytical method which showed that although in the division of existence he was influenced by philosophers, but the ‘Possible Existence’ had no real place in his division. He believes that existence is one and calls it the unique essence of the universe which everything except it is nothing. But, he uses non-existence in two senses of pure and latent which are the representatives the materials and lights, respectively. These are entities through which the essence is manifested. Thus, light, in his ontology, is the representation of existence and is equivalent to the divine attributes. Mohammad’s Light arises from the attribute of beneficence, and Devil’s Light emerges from the attribute of Omnipotence. For this reason, Ayn Al-Quzat has called Mohammad’s Light alongside Allah, the creature of beings, and by considering darkness as light, he has distanced himself from the believers of Duality. He tried to discuss the emergence of the issues of ‘accompaniment’ and ‘manifestation’ by mentioning plurality from unity and attributes from the essence. The study also shows that Ayn al-Quzat introduced and completed some important theoretical debates with the development of new ideas in ontology such as: unique essence, unit manifestation, lack of boredom through non-repetition in manifestation, and the continuous creativity theory.

Keramat (Dignity) is always renowned for the Sufis and is considered as the most prominent ability of the Sufi elderly. Dignity topic is one of the beginning topics of Sufism and a major part of Sufism literature is narrating Dignity of Sufi elders. According to Quran, prophets do acts that are impossible for mankind in facing of opponents to be an approval of their speech and acts. Some of Sufis consider Dignity as a reason to rightfulness of their leadership. But, some others denied it and consider it as a reason of downfall in the way to advancement and perfection. However, Dignity is seen in Iranian romances and is an example of the capabilities of the hero of the romance. The root of it should be sought in the culture derived from myth. In this research, the author is going to analyze these commonalities together, and according to it, explore the Dignity out of Sufian stories and separate Dignities of story heroes from other in two romances that have religious attitude, Abumoslenameh and Hamzehnameh, and come to the conclusion that ‘Far’ (God Chosen), that is the spiritual power said in ancient thoughts, is the source of Dignity thought. The belief in all these stories is central. According to this, romance, especially religious romance, tries to promote the important element of belief; meaning that it will try to follow the purpose that Islamic mysticism got from telling elders stories.

To understand the position of the text and the relationship with the world inside the work, the selected title is an important tool for the initial judgment for critique and analysis of the text. Thus, the implication of title to the text and the text to the title is a bilateral implication. However, sometimes due to the existence of meta-textual components in the titles, a bilateral implication is tarnished; therefore, identifying the dominant principles and patterns on the implications is one of the objectives of this research. This paper analyzed the semiotics and patterns in the nomenclature of mystical prose and verse books from various aspects, emphasizing the fact that selecting a title entails the involvement of components such as topic, temporal situation of text production, and the aesthetic aspects. In this paper, we investigated the dominant patterns in nomenclature of mystical works in terms of linguistic, rhetorical, and semantic aspects and the effective factors in this nomenclature by selecting 100 mystical prose and verse books. Based on the findings of this study, the dominant linguistic model is the additional combination appropriate for the metaphorical expression that is most used in these texts. Also, internal factors and content have the most effect on the choice of titles, and while using words with emotional and ideological load, the use of terms related to pre-Islamic culture and rituals has a special place in mystical texts. Finally, the title roles in the mystical texts and the pathology of the difficulties in selecting the titles are mentioned.

The journey has always been one of the topics of mysticism and Sufism, and mystics have long traveled to purify themselves. In fact, mysticism and Sufism are kinds of journey and experience in which one feels God in himself, while he is in a nonsense status. Many of the famous Sufi figures have combined Afaq and Anfos (Extrovertive and Introvertive journeys) and used the apparent journey as an introduction to the inner journey. On the other hand, in most of Sufism books, parts or sections are devoted to the apparent journey and expression of its customs and conditions. Since Islamic teachings have paid special attention to journey, the mystics and Sufis have also paid attention to this matter in their works and speeches. With a careful look at the works of Attar Neishaburi, a very important point manifested is that Attar in his works has experienced some kind of Extrovertive and Introvertive journeys, and even sometimes tries to describe a glimpse of what he has seen in these journeys. This descriptive-analytical study attempted to analyze the ‘journey’ in the mystical texts, and its customs, conditions, and accessories based on Attar’s poetic and prose works. The results of the study showed that the main purpose of the journey is to oppose sensual whims, to nurture and transform its vicious traits into pleasing traits, which are pursued more seriously in Extrovertive and Introvertive journeys than in any other ones

Phenomenology has been used in research related to sacred affairs (both religion and mysticism). As a result of philosophical phenomenology, the most important features of the phenomenology of religion are description against the analysis, intuition of essence, suspension, avoidance of dogma and empathy. The ‘empathy’ dimension in the phenomenology of religion and mysticism has more functions than philosophical phenomenology. Phenomenology of empathy is a phenomenological description of the subject from the perspective of the believer. In his mystical religious phenomenology, Friedrich Heiler, by setting aside assumptions, penetrates deep into the ‘religious experience’ and describes it in a direct, immediate and empathetic confrontation. Influenced by Friedrich Heiler’s religious studies and emphasizing the phenomenology of empathy, Anne Marie Schimmel has set herself free from monopolistic assumptions to understand mysticism and Islam more precisely. This influence rests mostly on comparative theology and mysticism, moving from outside to the inside of the religion, the unity of religions, the prayer, and the emphasis on immediate and living manifestations. In Anne Marie Schimmel’s studies, the elements of affection and empathy have been strongly emphasized due to the apparent emergence and evolution of phenomena in the social customs of Muslims and followers of Sufism. This has sometimes made her research unauthentic. On the other hand, sometimes Schimmel’s research cannot be universal, persuasive, or scientifically explanatory because of the descriptive dimension of phenomena and the lack of causal and analytical foundations as well as its reliance on the personal emotion of the researcher.