نشریه ادیان و عرفان
سال پنجاه و سوم شماره 1 (بهار و تابستان 1399)

Many researches have been done about Anahita, the ancient Iranian goddess, most of which are based on archeological findings, and less research has been done on the manifestation of this goddess in Middle Persian writings. The aim of this study is to focus on the roles of Anāhitā according to Middle Persian writings. In this research, by descriptive-analytical method, the existing evidence about Anahita in Middle Persian works was examined. The findings showed that Anahita, as the celestial and terrestrial embodiment of water in the Zoroastrian worldview, was superior and very important to the gods. In addition to the description of her beauty and power, her role in the life of Zoroaster and the birth of three saviors (Ošidar, Ošidarmāh and Sōšyāns) is emphasized. The inscriptions also show the role of Anahita in the political affairs of the Sassanid period, such as the selection of Cartier as the guardian and priest of Anahita's temples.

In mysticism and philosophy, the proposition of the descent of the soul has always been reflected in the image of the bird. Rumi and Suhrawardi used this allegory many times to express their intentions. By examining the story of birds in Masnavi and Suhrawardi's allegorical treatises such as "Red Wisdom, Safir Simorgh, Song of Gabriel, Moran's Word and the Story of Western Exile", this article shows that two factors determine the difference between these allegorical images. First, various situations are identified; that the cognitive perception of a phenomenon will be different because of the particular conditions in which it is placed. Therefore, symbols and comparisons used in the symbolic stories might differ regarding the poet's spiritual states. The second is the phenomenon and its manifestation at the level of consciousness; that consciousness causes the phenomenon to manifest in a certain form. In this way, a single proposition or a fixed and ancient meaning such as "captivity of the soul" can appear in connection with the three cognitive factors, phenomenon and language in the form of various cryptic images.

Magical thinking, along with animism, has been a pervasive thought among all early societies, and humans have probably been acquainted with magic since the dawn of history. Early man thought letters were part of his identity and existence and always tried to hide them. Indeed, as Frazer says, the early man believed in substantial connection between himself and his name. This article, have dealt with the concrete, unseen & Divine impact of some words, not equations and concepts of them, in 39 books of the Old Testament, which reflect the traditions and beliefs of the Hebrew tribes in parentheses period of 1200 years BC. According to many verses of Bible, the “Word”, play an essential role on creation, destruction and permanence of Existence. In Judaism, the word of “Jehovah” is a distinctive being by which God had created the world. Pronouncing the name of the Jehovah is taboo & forbidden. Jehovah Himself created everything after “saying” whatever He had wanted. God commands by His Word. Man could influence God’s Will by exact pronunciation of some Hebrew word & other special circumstances.

After proposing the unity of existence in theoretical mysticism, some jurists have always criticized the relationship between God and creation in this theory. According to them, in the unity of existence, there is no distinction between God and creation, and this is unacceptable due to the inherent distinction between God and creation in religious sources. An examination of the mystics' point of view shows that they do not believe in the pure objectivity between God and creation, and in their works there is at least two distinctions between ventricular and peripheral. The characteristic of both types of distinction is that instead of proposing a distinction in two beings, it explains it in the realm of one being, and therefore it is not possible to escape objectivity in it. Therefore, these two mystical distinctions do not remove the critique of jurists, which is based on the existential distinction between God and creation.

Suffering is an internal-emotional perception (versus internal-cognitive/voluntary and bodily) that all human beings have had such feeling in their life anyhow. So, deliverance from it, is one of the most important problems of people. Abu Said Abi'l-Khayr as a Muslim Mystic and Buddha as a founder of a religious-wise tradition, have paid attention to the origin of suffering and the path of deliverance from this undesirable condition. In this article, we have tried to explain the views of these two thoughtful men, by descriptive-analytic method. In comparison between their views, we find that both of them have made some kind of connection between "suffering” and both "ignorance" and "self". They think that by "true knowledge" and "good morality" we can be delivered from suffering at all. Nonetheless, there are some important differences between their views and prescriptions.

The political theology of Johannes Baptist Metz, the German Catholic Church priest and theologian, is a theological response and opposition to Western culture's individualism, the privatization of religion, and the values that become exchangeable since Enlightenment to the present day. Thus, in his works, Metz, focusing on the issue of suffering, gives an interpretation of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, which considers the foundation of religion, church, and Christian faith is the dangerous memory of Jesus Christ. As a memory of suffering, he believes this dangerous memory is a unique example of human suffering. This dangerous memory demands everyone to accept responsibility for the others by remembering the suffering of the past and especially the memory of the suffering of Jesus Christ. The objective representation of the Christian faith and the practical realization of this memory is to follow and imitate Jesus Christ in solidarity with the people who suffered and oppressed. This new political theology is based on Metz's personal experience of participating in World War II and the influence of Jewish-Christian and philosophical traditions, which, with the remembering and narrating the life of Jesus Christ, has a critical-corrective approach and offers a new meaning of Christian church and faith. In a descriptive-analytical way, this article examines the nature, roots, and the various dimensions of the Christian memory in the Metz political theology.

This study deals with the mystical attribute of modesty in some of the most important mystical works up to the ninth century (AH). The basis of this research is based on the analysis of modesty from mystical path and behavior point of view. This study, which has been written in a descriptive-analytical way, shows that the modesty adjective in the speech of some mystics, in each of the three levels of behavior, has a different approach and has been transformed in terms of content. As in the first place, mystical journey, which is the status of differences, has a positive and diligent nature. In this field, the seeker tries to achieve modesty and its accessories. In the second place, which is the status of annihilation, the divine attraction makes the seeker mortal from the virtual existence and all of its attributes, so in the mystics, modesty has found a negative and purifying characteristic, its effort fades and its attribution is abandoned to modesty. But in the third degree, that is, the position of survival, the mystic becomes the manifestation of the divine attributes. Hence, modesty, in the mystic after deprivation, is again positive, but transformed. The result of this study shows that although the words of most mystics about modesty correspond to the orderly characteristics of difference, the words of some of them, in addition to the degree of difference, overlap with the characteristics and rules of annihilation and the degree of survival.

The study of the relationship between form and content in mystical-literary works, in addition to explaining the functions of the elements involved in those texts, shows the author's motivations for writing that work. Mesbah-al-Headayeh is a famous and prominent mystical work of Ezzodin Mahmoud Kashani in the eighth century written on theoretical mysticism. By extending the appeal of Sufi theoretical thought, the author strives to demystify Sufi language, which is devoid of any emotional truth and sensual experience in the eighth century, But this extreme focus on the musical realm of language has nothing to do with its vulgarity and mysterious and sophisticated vocabulary and never speaks of authentic mystical experiences in the first centuries. In this article, the authors analyze the reasons for conscious use of music in Mesbah al-Hedayeh by explaining the contextual and extramarital motivations and factors. In general, the depletion of authentic mystical experiences in the eighth century, imitation of Ibn Arabi's mystical language in the development of mystical-musical worlds, the technical style and ability of the Arabic mystical and derivative structures, were the author's motives for conscious use of the word music. Meanwhile , comparative study of Mesbah-al-Hedayeh with its Arabic references shows the quantity and quality of impressibility of author from sheiks( preceptors) ' ideas .Author has strengthened the musical structure of word through using  the meaning of sheiks '( preceptors) ideas and referring to their ideas and  extending horizontal axis of sheiks' (preceptors) word .

In Sufism and the path of hesychasm, the goal is to reach the presence of God in the inner heart and inner silence and peace with the remembrance of the heart. In both ways, the remembrance enters from the verbal and oral the remembrance to the remembrance of the heart. In the school of hesuchia, when the prayer prays indeed the Christ and Holy Ghost pray in him/her and the prayer’s aim is gaining Hesuchia. Hesuchia contains linguistic and inner silence and is mentioned in the remembrance of Christ and the Holy Spirit. In Sufism, too, there is talk of silence and silence of language and heart. Most mystics consider the silence of the heart to be more important than the apparent silence in which the non-verbal remembrance is engaged throughout its existence. In this article, it is concluded that despite the similarities between the two methods of heartfelt remembrance and silence, in Christianity, because of the Trinity, the emphasis is on the remembrance of Jesus

Mohammad Alam ol-Hoda (1039-1115 AH), the eldest son of Mullah Mohsen Feyz Kashani, criticized Sufism in his treatise Derayat Nesar. This treatise is one of the denials of the Safavid era that its literary prose and poetic aspects have not been considered. A group of Shiite scholars and jurists in the mentioned era, in order to establish Shiism and defend the Islamic Shari'a, started a Sufi rivalry. All of them used simple and unpretentious language, but in the meantime, Alam al-Huda used three different types of prose. This article tries to examine the famous denials and comparative analysis of common themes, to introduce the treatise on literature, its literary values ​​and prose style, and finally to show all the denials studied in this research. Relying on a lot of journalism, they have attacked Sufism, and the only work that, in addition to quoting many verses and hadiths, has paid attention to the use of literary arrays and ornaments to attract the audience's attention, is the wisdom of Nisar Mohammad Alam al-Huda.

Attar mentions seven valleys in the Mantiq Al-Tair, but there is one unwritten valley, that is passing from the form to the meaning. In Attar's words, the form is seen in the permissible concept, the pluralities, the appearance, the world and the dependencies on it, and the meaning is also seen in the concept of unity, inwardness, soul, transcendence and attainment of truth. The story of these birds can be considered as passing through the form. Because Attar uses the form of an allegorical story and in the text, he calls the reader and the seeker of the way through appearances and forms and paying attention to the meaning. He sees the way through the face and reaching the world of meaning in cutting off attachments, having effort and justice, and in general in seeking, love and annihilation.

Ontological issues are one of the pillars of understanding mystical views and explaining the differences between mystical traditions. In fact, the mystics' view of the universe influences their views on other issues and directs their actions and transactions. Accordingly, the important and fundamental question in this regard is what are the principles of the issues related to the understanding of universe in the intellectual system of different mystics? In this article, patterns and examples related to the ontology in the point of view of mystics of the first and second mystical traditions are analyzed. The findings show that the mystics of these two traditions have a fundamental difference of opinion about the universe: following philosophers and scholars of Kalām, the mystics of the first tradition have based their ontological foundations on the theory of Vasā’et, but the mystics of the second tradition not only do not believe in this theory, they have opposed this theory and those who believe in it.

One of the most important principles of mystical training in practical mysticism is the need of the seeker for a master in conduct, but the great mystics for some reason have refused to provide scientific and argumentative discussion in this field. In this regard, it is necessary to categorize the dimensions of the need for a teacher and explain the cognitive and behavioral position of the teacher in the course of training the seeker. Through the studies conducted in this study, we find that by linking the issue of the need for a teacher with the ten basic functions of the teacher in the cognitive and behavioral domains, the position of the teacher is adaptable and its necessity can be proved. Recognizing the intangible and complex way, recognizing tasks and programs, recognizing pests, dangers and obstacles, recognizing intuitive events and recognizing the difference in the shape of seekers, are considered as the functions of the master in the cognitive dimension. Promotion to higher levels and authorities, speeding up and facilitating the journey, the impact of the master's inner soul and guardianship, removing pests and obstacles in the seeker's journey and repelling the possible harm caused by the absence of the master, are known among the master's functions in the field of behavior.