Iranian Studies

The Practice of Mysticism (‘irfan-i ‘amali) in Islam

admin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 05:57:49 +0000

Dr Seyed G Safavi,

SOAS, University of London

Abstract

This article introduces the theoretical aspects of the practice of mysticism in Islam. It examines the nature of mysticism, the mystic and his states, the goal of the mystic and the ethics of spiritual wayfaring. The author addresses major themes that are central concerns of mystical authors and describes their meaning. He describes and analyses mystical states drawing on the major practical and homiletic manuals of the ‘Irfan tradition. The paper is both descriptive and prescriptive.

“In His name who taught the soul to think
Who enlightened the heart by the soul’s insight.”[i]

In this article, we attempt to provide a brief introduction to the theory of mystical practice as expounded in classical Islamic mystical texts. A range of issues is considered from the very nature of mysticism to specific states and stages of the path of the mystic. The mystic’s path begins with self-reflection and a contemplation of creation that leads him to the One, his origin, and once the mystic embarks on his journey to the One to his origin he completes his circle of being. His origin is the One and his return is the One. First, he must start with creation.

I: Purpose and design of creation

One of the most positive and decisive Islamic teachings is that the creation has a definitive purpose. Islam contends that the act of creation has not been aimless and in vain. It is for a purpose, as God says in the Holy Qur’an:

“Did you think that We had created you in vain and that you would never be recalled to Us?”[ii]

One of the most important, positive and exalted objectives of God’s prophets, indeed the ultimate purpose of creation, is for man to realise and perfect his being as a true servant of God, gaining intuitive knowledge and bearing witness to the Lord. As He said:

“I was a hidden treasure but wished that they would know Me, therefore, I created mankind.”[iii]

And in the holy verse:

“I only created mankind and the jinn so that they might worship Me.”[iv]

Indeed the divine phrase, “…that they would know Me” establishes the divine hadith. The truth, the inner reality and the ultimate in Islamic mysticism with respect to the infinite depth of meaning of the above Qur’anic verses amounts to divine service to, and intuitive witnessing of, God.

II: Forgetting oneself

Usually when man enters this world, he becomes negligent of himself as a result of such tendencies as neglecting the Lord, seeking the world, pursuing power and status, and satisfying his carnal desires. As God has said

…those who forgot Allah so He caused them to forget themselves.[v]

Man forgets the three essential questions of “Where have I come from?” “Where Am I going to?” and “Why am I here?” These are questions that establish the cause, the philosophy and the ultimate objective of the creation and set forth man’s basic essence and his authentic self.

Yesterday came and passed I did in it no action.

And today in it by me heat no any bazaar.

Tomorrow I will go without to know any secret.

Not to become was better for me than this coming.

III: Awakening

“Say: I exort you only to one thing, that rise up for Allah’s sake in twos and singly, then ponder: there is no madness in your fellow-citizen; he is only a warner to you before a severe chastisement.”(Qur’an, Surah Saba’, 46).

During a man’s lifetime often circumstances and certain conditions put an end to his negligence and awaken him to observe the blessings of God and make him realize his own sinfulness and how far he has strayed away from the exalted purpose of his own creation. Under such conditions, one understands one’s own shortcomings and spiritual and mental states and stages like those of Ibrahim ibn Adham (d. 778), Bishr al-Hafi (d. d. 841), Fudayl ibn ‘Iyad, developing his character. As a result, he becomes aware of his real self, of what he is and of what he can be. By the light of guidance, the traveller seeketh the path to the Beloved. Hafiz said:

In this city, my fortune, I have tried;

From this whirlpool, my chattels ‘tis necessary to draw.

IV: What is man and what is he capable of being?

Man has two facets or aspects, namely, matter and mind, body and soul, earthly and celestial, and the bestial and angelic. The Qur’anic verse “We created man from dry clay, from black moulded loam.”[vi] points to the material aspect of man. The verse (15:29) “…and breathed of My spirit into him” is indicative of man’s moral or divine aspects. Man’s creation is the loftiest and most exalted model of creation as we read: “Verily, We created man in the best form.”[vii], “In him both worlds have met now a devil, next a human set.”[viii]

Man, this trustee of God,[ix] this perfectionist and seeker of truth, this divinely trained[x] educated being,[xi] and possessor of wonders is capable of being more ferocious and savage than any rabid animal and can sink deep in sins, in self love, in false pleasures and happiness. But man is capable of ascension to the highest levels of heaven and can fulfil the function of being God’s caliph on earth.

“And about face from the Hades of the lewd.
All but prepares him to meet the highest good.”[xii]

And reach such status that, in the words of Hazrat ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (‘A.S):

“If veils are removed from the face of the unknown, the secret, nothing new will be revealed to him.”[xiii]

Love, lover and beloved, reason and the reasonable shall be the same to him. According to Shabistari in Golshan-i raz:

“No distinction left among the parts
The knower and the known united
And merged in all the charts.”[xiv]

“Naught but His knowledge
Can contain the mystic’s heart
Naught but the Absolute Being
Can his intuition acknowledge.”[xv]

And, if the ‘seventy thousand veils of darkness and of light’ [xvi] that bar the peripatetic mystic from the presence of the Lord be removed by rigorous religious practices and by purging the self, or soul, man becomes a theomorphic being and finds peace and tranquillity through his nearness to God. He acquires the contented soul (al-nafs al-mutma’inna), which converts him into an entirely divine being. The prophetic tradition sets forth this status of light in the following terms:

“And when My faithful servant approaches Me through prayers and good deeds, I shall bestow upon him of My affection. Hence forth, I shall be his ears by which He hears; I shall be his eyes to see with and he shall use My tongue and hands by which to say and to hold.”[xvii]

And if divine love sets fire to the heart of this gem of the world of creation, this most noble creature (man), he shall attain to such an exalted stage as the following divine edict purports:

“He who seeks Me finds Me
He who finds Me knows Me
He who knows Me befriends Me
He who befriends Me loves Me
He who loves Me shall be loved by Me
And I shall destroy him who loves Me
And he whom I destroy is entitled to revenge or ‘blood money’ from Me
And I shall stand ‘blood money’ and at the disposal of him whom I have destroyed.”[xviii]

However, attaining such a superb position and a pure life and eternal serenity is possible only when:

“Dust and dirt are you entire
Cast them away now
Get dust off your heart
Make room worthy of the Beloved
Make your exit to let Him in
His face shall be manifest to you
When you no more are
In your heart no light shall shine
Unless the snare are first removed
Your prayers shall avail you naught
Unless you give your-self up in full
When your essence is purged at last
Of things ugly and obscene
Your prayers shall surely shine
Well bright and all serene.”[xix]

V: Mysticism (‘irfan) as an agent for uniting man with God

Of all the Islamic tenets and teachings, the one that is exclusively devoted to the basic issue of the manner and quality of man’s spiritual conduct, his fight against carnal desires, is attainment of union with the Lord. Man thus ceases to exist independently but continues his existence in Him. This is mysticism or ‘Irfan.

Mystic knowledge, as a thorough cultural system that pertains to man’s spiritual life, has its theoretical base in an unimpeachable belief in the fact that the most perfect way to receive the essence and the truth of existence is through intuitive knowledge and perception, the unification of reason with the reasoned and the reasonable, love with lover and the beloved. From the practical point of view, it is based on the performance of lawful ascetic practices, purification of the ego or soul, vigilance, reckoning of the self, the saying of prayers and passing beyond the surface and the superfluities of worldly affair and in the utmost attachment to the truths of all matters relating to body and soul.

‘Irfan (mysticism) is both theoretical and practical. The theoretical undertakes the elaboration and interpretation of God, the world and the man from a mystical viewpoint. It provides mystical answers to the three essential questions of life, namely the whence, wherefore and whither.

Practical mysticism is also called wayfaring or peripatetic journeying and sets forth the realisations and duties of man with himself, with the world and with God.[xx] It denotes what a salik or walker, wayfarer, or peripatetic ‘arif or mystic’s initial conduct and its terminal points must be in order to become a Perfect Man (insan-i kamil) and successor of God on earth and reach the highest position that is possible for man to attain. That exalted human status is the dissolution (fana) of his being in God and his subsistence (baqa) by His will to eternal life. It describes an ‘arif’s duties of conduct, his means, his states and the experience he goes through on his way to join with the Lord. Ways to purge the self, to combat the ego and purify the soul are also included among these practices. Thus ‘irfan is described as an intuitive knowledge of God that leads man to His presence and to the ultimate which is to witness and be in presence with God (liqa’Allah).

VI: The Law, the Way and the Truth (shari‘at, tariqat, haqiqat)

In the clash of ideas among Islamic scholars and thinkers, some are exponents of pure fiqh or Islamic religious jurisprudence. They support the view that religion means the face value of what its laws and tenets signify. However, the ‘urafa’‘arif, meaning mystics) believe that religious laws and decrees have implications and meanings other than what meets the eye. [xxi] They hold that behind and beyond the surface and explicit meanings of religious edicts, there exist certain truths that are the real aims and objectives of religion. Therefore, the mystics have their own conclusions regarding the real import and significance of religious beliefs and precepts such as monotheism, prophethood, resurrection, daily prayers, the pilgrimage, fasting, and so on. The real mystics, to be sure, adhere to a holistic conception of life that comprises the law, the way and the truth (shari‘at, tariqat, haqiqat).[xxii] They maintain that attainment of truth is not possible except through religion. It has been said: (plural for

“Shari‘at is the rind, Truth the kernel.
Between the two lies the Way.”[xxiii]

“Break up the shell
Hold up the peal
Cast off the rind
Take up the sweet nut Word,
With their rhetoric and syntax
All have but a letter at the core
No way to waste one’s life
The dear life to circle and spin
Green peels reveal the juicy nut
Crack the skin and get at the dehiscent pod
Unripe is the nut not covered in skin
Face-sheet in for often yield
Glorious data of faith in charming din.”[xxiv]

The ‘arif regards the shari‘at (face, appearance) and tariqat (the hidden, the concealed) as the guiding light and the way but his objective is his destination which is above these two and above all else. This he calls God and the Truth, al-Haqqhaqiqat, in which the realisation of all things and objects rest. The mystic regards the attainment to such knowledge as the ultimate point in all creation. He [xxv]sees all things and objects (in the universe) as seeking Him and desiring His knowledge, the tariqat and the shari‘at are both preludes to such achievement.[xxvi] and

The ‘urafa’ believe that the heart, the core and the essence (batin) or the inner being of shari‘at is the way which they term tariqat. This way or road ends in truth, which is monotheism and it occurs after the mystic has ceased to exist as an independent entity. Thus the ‘arif (mystic) believes in three things: the shari‘at, the tariqat and the haqiqat.[xxvii]

Know that shari‘at is the word of the prophets, tariqat is the deed or action of the prophets and haqiqat is the vision or perception or insight of the prophets. The salik or walker must first learn what he must of the shari‘at. Then he must perform of the actions of the tariqat as much as he should so that the lights of truth are revealed to him commensurate with his efforts. Nasafi in this regard said:

“O Dervish! He who accepts what his prophet has said is of the shari‘at and he who performs what his prophet has performed is of the tariqat and he who sees what his prophet has seen is of haqq (truth).”[xxviii]

And Rumi in Mathnawi said:

“Shari‘at is like a candle, it kindles the way, without acquiring a light, the path cannot be traversed. As you enter the way your wayfaring is tariqat. And, when you reach the destination that is the haqq (truth).”[xxix]

VII: Who is a mystic (‘arif)?

An ‘arif is a person who arrives at a knowledge of truth (as it is) through intuition and spiritual illumination and inspiration. He is submerged and deeply involved and engaged in divine affairs and matters. He is committed and dedicated to the commands and decrees of religion (shari‘at) and has merged shari‘at and haqiqat. A real mystic is one who has passed from the stage of certainty (‘ilm al-yaqin) and conviction of knowledge to the stage and level of conviction by perception and insight (‘ayn al-yaqin) and beyond to the certainty of truth (haqq al-yaqin).[xxx] He has passed from the stage of mental awakening and repentance. He has gained understanding to the stage of grace and awareness experienced in His Presence. He has undergone obliteration and found revival in the Lord. A true mystic is also one who performs prayers, purges his ego, and experiences religiously allowed rigorous ascetic exercises not from fear of hell, nor for love of paradise and not as extraordinary wondrous acts. Rather, he has God in mind in all this and nothing and no one else, as the Holy Qur’an says:

“My prayers and my devotions, my life and my death, are all for Allah.”[xxxi]

The Lion of Truth Imam Ali in lecture 184 (Sifat al-Mottaqin) of the Nahj al-Balaghih explains who is a true mystic (‘arif):

“The God-fearing are people of distinction. Their speech is ‘to the point’, their dress is modest, and their gait is humble. They keep their eyes closed to what Allah has made unlawful for them, and they strain their ears to gain that knowledge which is beneficial for them. They remain in the time of trials, as they remain in comfort. If there had not been fixed periods of life ordained for each, their spirits would not have remained in their bodies even for the twinkling of an eye, because of their eagerness for the reward, and for fear of chastisement if they live a long life full of (possible) sins. The greatness of the Creator is always in their hearts, and everything else appears small in their eyes. Thus, they see, and are enjoying Paradise’s favors; they also see, and feel the punishment of Hell.

Their hearts grieve, they protect themselves against evil, their bodies are thin, their needs are scanty, and their souls are chaste. They endure hardship for a short while, and consequently, they secure comfort for a long time. It is a beneficial transaction that Allah made easy for them. The world aimed at them, but they did not aim at it. It captured them, but they freed themselves from it by paying a ransom.

During the night they are upstanding on their feet, reading portions of the Qur’an in a well-measured way, creating through it grief for themselves and seeking by it the cure of their ailments. If they come across a verse creating eagerness (for Paradise) they pursue it avidly, and their spirits turn towards it eagerly, and they feel as if it is in front of them. And when they come across a verse which contains fear (of Hell) they bend the ears of their hearts towards it, and feel as though the sound of Hell and its cries are reaching their ears. They bend themselves from their backs, prostrate themselves on their foreheads, their palms, their knees, and their toes, and beseech Allah, the Sublime, for their deliverance. During the day they are enduring, learned, virtuous and God-fearing. Fear (of Allah) has made them thin like arrows. If anyone looks at them he believes they are sick, although they are not sick, and he says that they have gone mad. In fact, great concern (i.e. fear) has made them mad.

They are not satisfied with their meager good acts, and do not regard their major acts as great. They always blame themselves and are afraid of their deeds. When anyone of them is spoken of highly, he says: “I know myself better than others, and my Lord knows me better than I know. O’ Allah do not deal with me according to what they say, and make me better than they think of me and forgive me (those shortcomings) which they do not know.”

The character of anyone of them is that you will see that he has strength in religion, determination along with leniency, faith with conviction, eagerness in (seeking) knowledge in forbearance, moderation in riches, devotion in worship, gracefulness in starvation, endurance in hardship, desire for the lawful, pleasure in guidance and hatred from greed. He performs virtuous deeds but still feels afraid. In the evening he is anxious to offer thanks (to Allah). In the morning his anxiety is to remember (Allah). He passes the night in fear and rises in the morning in joy – fear lest the night is passed in forgetfulness, and joy over the favor and mercy received by him. If his self refuses to endure a thing which it does not like he does not grant its request towards what he likes. The coolness of his eye lies in what is to last forever, while from the things (of this world) that will not last he keeps aloof. He transfuses knowledge with forbearance, and speech with action.

You will see his hopes simple, his shortcomings few, his heart fearing, his spirit contented, his meal small and simple, his religion safe, his desires dead and his anger suppressed. Good alone is expected from him. Evil from him is not to be feared. Even if he is found among those who forget (Allah) he is counted among those who remember (Him) but if he is among the rememberers he is not counted among the forgetful. He forgives him who is unjust to him, and he gives to him who deprives him. He behaves well with him who behaves ill with him.

Indecent speech is far from him, his utterance is lenient, his evils are non-existent, his virtues are ever present, his good is ahead and mischief has turned its face (from him). He is dignified during calamities, patient in distresses, and thankful during ease. He does not commit excess over him whom he hates, and does not commit sin for the sake of him whom he loves. He admits truth before evidence is brought against him. He does not misappropriate what is placed in his custody, and does not forget what he is required to remember. He does not call others bad names, he does not cause harm to his neighbor, he does not feel happy at others misfortunes, he does not enter into wrong and does not go out of right.

If he is silent his silence does not grieve him, if he laughs he does not raise his voice, and if he is wronged he endures till Allah takes revenge on his behalf. His own self is in distress because of him, while the people are in ease with him. He puts himself in hardship for the sake of his next life, and makes people feel safe from himself. His keeping away from others is by way of ascetism and punfication, and his nearness by way of deceit and cheating.”

The term ‘arif has been defined variously. It has been given different meanings from differing angles, view and attitudes. Some have differentiated between ‘arif and Sufi but we have ignored such distinctions in this study. However, the following definitions are commonplace in the literature.

1) Avicenna (d. 1037) says that an ‘arif is one:

“Who has turned away his conscience, or heart and mind from all things except God and has opened up his inner being to the sacred and holy world so that the light of truth (God) may shine and become reflected in it.”[xxxii]

2) Junayd (d. 910) says:

“Tasawwuf (mysticism) is picking and screening…and anyone who is cut off or separated from all that is not of God, is a Sufi.”[xxxiii]

3) Junayd also says:

“A Sufi is one whose heart, like that of Abraham, is safe from love of this world; who performs God’s commands as Abraham and submits himself to His Will as Abraham and Ishmael; whose grief is such as David’s, whose ‘poverty’ is like that of Christ, whose patience is that of Job; whose enthusiasm be like that of Moses and whose sincerity be as that of Muhammad.”[xxxiv]

‘arif’s often trace their spiritual and initiatic lineage back to the Prophet through his family, especially the first eight Shi‘i Imams.

VIII: The goal of mysticism as distinct from practical reason and philosophy

1. The aims of an ‘arif or mystic are severance and separation from everything and all things that are not of God, purification, abstraction of the soul, dissolution in God (mahw) and revival by Him (baqa’).
2. Mystic conduct is active whereas ethical conduct is static. In ‘irfan the various steps and stages and the beginning and ending of each ‘journey’ receives particular attention with respect to one’s deeds and conduct.
3. Ethical acts embellish one’s soul without order or discipline, whereas in ‘irfan ethical factors assume a dialectic form.
4. The spiritual elements in ethics are limited to some meanings and practices of movement and conduct. Discussions are often held with respect to states and intuitional revelations that are the salik’s exclusively and of which others are unaware.
5. The objective of the philosopher is to turn the worldly man into an intellectual being, but the mystic wants to reach the core of truth, which is God and to witness His presence. The philosopher finds perfection in understanding. The ‘arif finds it in reaching (to the ultimate truth).
6. A philosopher’s tools are reason, logic, argument and proof. An ‘arif’s tools are his heart, diligence, purification, inner effort and movement.[xxxv]

Shabistari says:

“Arguments of reason may all be jewels and gems. Yet, the pleasures of the heart are surely something else.”[xxxvi]

1. The mystic seeks God and prays and praises the Lord for no reason except that He is worthy of praise.[xxxvii]

IX: What is wayfaring (suluk)?

‘Irfan is ever concerned with man’s conscience, the core of his being and heart. Suluk, which means walking, has a particular meaning in mystical terminology. Physical walking with the legs is not what is intended. Suluk means entrance of the mind and the heart into the world within, into the world unknown, the invisible world.

Suluk indicates ‘going’ generally. The walker may make physical journeys or he may make trips to the realms of the mind or the heart. To the ‘arif’s or mystics, suluk means a special going:[xxxviii] moving or going towards God, and moving or traversing within the Divine Realm. Going to the Lord is finite but moving within Him is infinite.

Sayr or movement towards God implies that the itinerant, the mover, should continue in the path until he ceases to exist as he is and finds survival in God. In other words, he hears, sees, speaks and knows through the Lord.

Thou art the Path, the Journeyer, and the Destination.

Sayr in God means that when the salik or the aspirant is to meet with the Lord, he finds new life, after submitting his being to Him. By His Will, he shall continue his sayr, or journey of discovery until the time that he can see and know all things in detail as they truly are and that nothing, whatever, on earth, in Heaven or else where in the Almighty’s Domain, remains unknown to him.[xxxix] Know that by suluk, the mystics means moving from bad words to worthy argument; from bad deeds to good deeds; from bad conduct to good conduct and from one’s own essence and being to that of the Lord.

X: The reality of wayfaring

“Everyone on it must pass away, and there will endure for ever the person of your Lord, the Lord of glory and honor.”(Qur’an, 26:55). (Fana wa Baqa).

The reality of wayfaring is to overwhelm the body and the soul or self under the banner of faith through the decrees and commands of the fiqh (religious laws and edicts) as pertain to the body and the mind under the Almighty’s divine banner. The entirety of the ups and downs of the path, its pursuits, crises and consequences are registered in these stages.[xl]

“So when the night overshadowed him, he saw a star; said he: Is this my Lord? So when it set, he said: “I do not love the setting ones”. Then when he saw the moon rising, he said: Is this my Lord? So when it set, he said: if my Lord had not guided me I should certainly be of the erring people. Then when he saw the sun rising, he said: is this my Lord? Is this the greatest? So when it set, he said: O my people! Surely I am clear of what you set up (with Allah). Surely I have turned myself, being upright, wholly to Him Who originated the heavens and the earth, and I am not of the polytheists.”(Qur’an, 76-79:6).

Hafiz says:

From the fire of my heart, my chest in grief for the Beloved consumed.

In this house, was a fire that the house consumed.

From the farness of the Heart-Ravisher (Dilbar), my body melted.

From the love’s fire of the Beloved’s face, my spirit consumed.

XI: Intention (niyyat) in suluk

“Actions are judged by their intention.”[xli]

The declaration of intention, that is, a deliberate, conscious, and willful undertaking of suluk is extremely important. Fiqh has decreed the enunciation of the intention to ensure that religious rituals like daily prayers are correct and acceptable. However, in mystical knowledge, every act and deed of man whether the compulsory ones, or the recommended acts, should express as their intention nearness to God. The salik’s wish behind his declared intentions should not be a request for material well-being, it should not be a request for knowledge and gnosis; it should not be a request, a wish to be human and have all human values and grades developed in him. For, if this is realised, all the above wishes shall be granted, even things that the salik has not dreamed of.[xlii]

XII: Aspects of suluk

Suluk consists of the following qualities: silence (samt), abstinence (or hunger), seclusion (khalvat), wakefulness (yaqza), nocturnal devotion or vigilance (tahajjud). The elders or authorities of ‘Irfan, hold that suluk is based on four pillars: frugal consumption, saying little, sleeping little, and staying in seclusion from people.[xliii]

Samt or silence is of two types. General silence is keeping one’s tongue from all that is unnecessary and talking only when necessary and avoiding speech in excess of what is necessary. It is to avoid talk that is not of God. Such silence must be maintained at all times. The ahadith (traditions) and narratives indicate this type of silence. According to one hadith:

“Silence is the motto of the lovers. It pleases God. Silence is the practice of the prophets and the elite.”

Special silence safeguards one’s tongue in talking with people or with non-initiates in the absolute and, in this sense it is regarded as a necessary condition in all exclusively theological recitals.[xliv] This category is silence by the heart, that is, keeping silence for the sake of what is not of God.[xlv] Thus he who is silent by the tongue has lightened his burden. But he who keeps silent by word and heart, seek him for Almighty God has made His Will manifest in him.

He, whose tongue is not silent but is silent in his heart, is a speaker in terms of hikmat (wisdom). He, who will not keep silent in words or in his heart, is possessed by the devil. Silence by the tongue is only the goal of the masses. Silence of the heart is an attribute of those who are near to the Lord and they are men of perception, insight and vision.

“There is no worship like silence
He remains safe who remains silent.”[xlvi]

Hunger (or abstinence) is also of two types, deliberate and of constraint. Deliberate abstinence belongs to the peripatetics. Abstinence of constraint is that of the searchers. A muhaqqiq or seeker does not hold the soul in hunger but his food intake is little. Hunger in any condition and for any reason it may be, is the strength of a salik’s claim and reveals great things to the seekers (of truth). Abstinence has states and stages such as humility, respect, courtesy, mendacity, absence of excess, quiescence of limbs and destruction or eradication of unworthy memories. Such are the states and stages of abstinence of the walkers of the Path.

But the abstinence or hunger of the muhaqqaqin or seekers is sympathy, serenity, fellowship, non-being and purification from human characteristics. It is divine seclusion from the veils of time, a most sublime status namely, samadani, an attribute of God meaning absolute lack of want and need but wanted and needed by everything and everyone, a status that contains secrets and revelations.[xlvii] It is better that abstinence be observed in such a way as not to weaken the salik’s conduct and upset the mind and heart. In this connection, Imam al-Sadiq (‘A) has said:

“Abstinence insures the believer’s constant progression, it is food for the soul and nourishment for the heart.”[xlviii]

“Hunger is a great aid to refresh the soul and to break habits.”[xlix]

There are two types of seclusion (khalvat), general and private. General seclusion (also called withdrawal) is staying away from all that is not of God, especially from such people who are sinful and seekers of this world. Association with these groups or individuals is permissible only to the extent that it is absolutely necessary. Association with the chaste, the faithful does not negate such seclusion. The words of the Immaculate Shi‘i Imams indicate that this is the type of seclusion that must be observed. As Imam Husayn (‘A.S) has said,

“There never was a prophet, messenger or apostle who did not go into seclusion at one time or other, in the beginning, during or at the end of his life.”[l]

The occasional retiring of the Prophet to the Cave at Hira is an indication of this type of seclusion. At any rate, this is the preferred variety of seclusion. Private seclusion implies being alone and staying away from upsetting noises. It calls for remembrance of God and saying prayers in isolation in an enclosure not much larger than the salik himself. The place should be clean and lawfully occupied and it is better that it have no window. This type of seclusion is observed and recommended by certain elders, if not by all, who perform recital exercises in remembrance of God.[li]

Solitude is of two kinds. The solitude (‘uzlat) of the devotees is observed by avoidance of physical association with others. The solitude of the seekers (muhaqqaqin) is the exercise of the heart in avoiding all things and objects and keeping the heart free and open only to God and His Knowledge. This leads to awareness of the Lord and to the divine secrets of the oneness of God. Seclusion and solitude purge the salik of any non-divine trait or impediment. Seclusion and solitude afford the seekers (of the Lord) the highest standing and opportunity for intuitive knowledge of God and for witnessing His Presence.[lii]

Wakefulness (or sleeping a little) refers to the alertness of the mind and heart and it is either through the eyes staying open, or by the heart being on the alert. Alertness of the heart means putting an end to being negligent, remiss and heedless and to seek and ask for divine perception. Wakefulness of the eyes means remaining in the wakeful state with eyes open to beseech for the alertness and vigilance of the mind and heart. Know that action of the heart is void with eyes close (negligence of watchfulness). If the salik keeps a vigilant heart with his eyes closed, he shall witness the alertness and the watchfulness of his eyes.[liii]

Therefore, the fruit of wakefulness will be the perpetuation of the heart’s action and ascension of the salik to exalted places that are reserved for the Lord. The state of wakefulness is to maintain and cherish those states that befall the salik or are bestowed upon him as he advances toward his goal. The searcher or seeker (muhaqqiq) enjoys divine qualities through the wakeful stage.

As for nocturnal devotion or vigilance (tahajjud), the holy Qur’an says:

“Pray during the latter part of the night, an additional duty for which your Lord may exalt you to a position of praise and glory.”[liv]

It is recommended that the salik spend half the night, or a third, or two thirds in prayers and devotion. The Qur’anic verse which is addressed to the Prophet confirms this as we read:

“O you who are wrapped up in your mantle, rise to pray by night except a little, half the night or little less or little more.”[lv]

There have been eager salik’s who did not let up on their nocturnal devotions until daybreak and so were able to say the Morning Prayer with the ablution they had for evening prayers. Shaykh Abu Talib al-Makki (d. 996) has mentioned the names of forty such men, followers of the Prophet in the book named Qut al-qulub (Nourishment of the hearts).[lvi] It is recommended that nocturnal devotions take no less than one-sixth of the night time. Know that staying up at night is by Divine Grace and not merely the act of a seeker going in search of his beloved.[lvii] The light of love for getting up at night shall not be kindled in a salik’s heart unless the real Beloved has first made itself manifest in the heart of the believer. When the heart receives such inkling, the willing soul is awakened and in all honour and ecstasy stands in prayer before the Creator of all goodness and asks relief from the agony of separation of lovers and the Beloved.[lviii]

Shaykh’s who achieved spiritual states, all observed nocturnal vigilance. One can find many references to the excellence of tahajjud or nocturnal devotion, in the rising at nights to spend time in prayers of supplication in numerous Qur’anic verses and traditions.[lix] It is related that the most despicable men in the eyes of God are those who lie down like corpses all night and waste their days in loafing.[lx] Therefore, tahajjud means wakefulness as the Holy Qur’an directs night prayers, prayers of supplication, repentance, remembrance of God, reckoning with the self and reprimanding it. These are some of the major rites and exercises of ‘irfan.

XIII: The Four Journeys in Mysticism

Journeys are of various types in mysticism. There is the physical journey which the salik or walker along the Path undertakes. Then there are the inner journeys and journeys that imply a beginning and an end with superior destinations. These moral or spiritual journeys are divided into four journeys, each of which is endowed with very subtle points. The depth of ‘irfan and its sayr and suluk rest in these journeys. We shall not analyse them here in any detail but merely mention the most concise text concerning the four divine journeys:

“Know that four journeys exist for the seekers among the mystics and divine authorities. These are the journey from men towards God, journeying along with the Lord within Him. The third journey is the opposite of the first, it is from God to man with God and the fourth journey is in some respects opposite to the second for it is journeying with God among men.”[lxi]

The first journey is devoted to the removal of all curtains or veils of darkness and light and entering the world of matter, the Heavens and the Lord’s divine domain. The second journey is passing through the world of spirit. However, the third journey, the journey from God to man is superior to the second journey because the latter is sukr or intoxication in reaching God and disappearing in Him, which when achieved, the salik finds new life in the Lord and by his eyes, and through every means. In this fourth journey, he sees and perceives the entire world of matter and Heaven and witnesses the grandeur of the Divine Domain of Power and Majesty and imparts knowledge of actions, attributes and of essence.[lxii]

XIV: ‘Urafa’s character and conduct

The most significant feature of the ‘Urafa or mystics is their behaviour or conduct which consists of patience, humility, advice, sympathy, kindness, moderation, devotion, service, fellowship, joy, generosity, compassion, friendliness, pardon, munificence, fidelity, decency, affection, cheerfulness, calmness, prayer, good temperament, soothed ego, respect for brothers, honoring the elders, mercy toward minors and adults, belittling the ego of himself and rating high all that comes unto him.[lxiii] The Prophet said:

“I have been sent down to destroy bad habits and teach proper conduct to the servants (of God).”[lxiv]

In his counsel to Mu‘adh ibn Jabal, the Prophet in fact compiled all good and proper conduct as he says and ruled out improper conduct:

“O Mu‘adh! Practice chastity and virtue, be truthful in word and action, fulfil promises and return to the owner all that has been left with you in trust. Avoid treason and observe neighbourliness; have mercy and compassion for orphans”, talk softly and offer greetings, do good and do not seek plenty. Treat this world with disdain but cherish the next. Beware of the Day of Reckoning. Try, O Mu‘adh, not to curse the patient and the meek. Make sure you commit no sin; repent immediately if you do and continue in a state of repentance. Know that Almighty God admits those of His servants to His Presence who are equipped with these qualities.”

In regards to the characters of the ‘Arif, Imam Ali says in the Nahj al-Balaghah, (short speeches 325):

“A believer has a cheerful face, a sorrowful heart, a very broad chest (full of generosity), and a very humble heart. He hates high position and dislikes renown. His grief is long his courage is far reaching, his silence is much and, his time is occupied. He is grateful, enduring, buried in his thoughts, sparing in his friendship (with others), of bright demeanor and of soft temperament. He is stronger than stone but humbler than a slave.”

These are some of the qualities that an ‘arif must possess:

1. Humility

An ‘arif’s best quality is his humility. He who entertains humility in his heart can benefit by it all the time. He will be at ease in his association with others and others will be comfortable when dealing with him. The Prophet of God, in spite of his glorious status, set examples of humility by darning his own clothes and shoes with his own hands. He sat down and spoke with the poor, the orphaned and aided them. Bayazid Bastami (d. 875) said:

A man is humble who belittles his own ego and holds it at the lowest level and regards himself as the worse and lowliest living creature.

2. Moderation and Leniency

Another characteristic of an ‘arif is moderation and leniency, forbearance and toleration of others. The Prophet never said an unkind word to anyone. He never derided a food (put before him), nor did he punish a servant. It must be born in mind that the general moderation that people observe is a ‘Irfani characteristic. It is said that everything has an essence. Man’s essence is reason and patience is reason’s essence. The proof of a man’s reason is his tolerance of the pains and hardships inflicted on him by others and also courteous treatment of the people which purges the ego of impurities and palliates mulishness and quick anger. It is recorded in a hadith (tradition) that he who enjoys being lenient most shall reap more benefits.

3. Sacrifice

Another quality of the ‘Urafa is their readiness for sacrifice. Sacrifice generates from a powerful sense of compassion and mercy. It implies the strength of the soul to give away an only available object in sacrifice to others. It also implies patience and independence. Abu Hafs Suhrawardi (d. 1234) said:

Sacrifice means preferring brothers and friends to oneself in all affairs of this and of the other world, so that there is no distinction among blood brothers, relatives, and friends.

4. Pardon or Forgiveness

Pardoning of others is another ‘Irfani trait. Mystics go to the extreme in overlooking the wrongs done to them by others. Sufyan al-Thawri (d. 778) said:

If you do well to someone who has harmed you, then it can be said that you have done good, for returning good for good is the work of tradesmen.

The Prophet said:

“To do good means to pardon the cruelty of other’s to yourself and to make up with and join him who severs his ties with you and to be generous to him who withholds things from you.”

5. Cheerfulness

Good-naturedness and cheerfulness are other ‘Irfani characteristics. It warms the hearts and pleases others. Their joyfulness is a sign of the light of their hearts. As Almighty Allah says in Qur’an:

..There shall be beaming faces, smiling and cheerful.[lxv]

6. Indulgence

Another of the qualities of the mystic is that he is opposed to formalism and fastidiousness in his manner and conduct. A condition for this is imitation of the Prophet in softness of speech and joviality. The prophet once said:

“I do not make jokes and do not utter anything except the truth.”

Taking things hard or being hard to please is bad in everything including dress, food, reception of guests, in asking questions, in speech and in all other things pertaining to this world.

7. Generosity (Infaq)

Infaq is another specified characteristic of the ‘Urafa. Hoarding is abhorrent because the ‘arif sees himself as residing by the seaside. He considers that divine blessings shall remain with him indefinitely, and if one who lives by the sea takes to hoarding water he will be open to ridicule and accused of ignorance. The Prophet says:

“Each day two angels make the following declamation: “O Lord bless him with plenty who is busy performing charitable deeds and destroy the assets and holdings of him who is miserly and withholds things from the people.”

8. Contentment

The Master of the Faithful and Preceptor of seekers, Imam ‘Ali (‘A) said:

“Contentment is a blade that never becomes blunt.”

Dhu l-Nun al-Misri (d. 859) said:

He who exercises contentment shall be free of and at peace with the people and shall gain superiority and excellence over his peers.

9. Putting Off Enmity and Anger

An ‘arif must purge himself of all feelings of anger and animosity. There should be no such feelings in an ‘arif’s heart toward anything or anyone. Such feelings should be replaced by spiritual qualities in an ‘arif. The Messenger of God has said:

“Power and might do not consist in overwhelming someone by force. Mighty is he who controls his feelings of anger.”

10. Peacemaking

The ‘arif is able and willing to make peace, to agree with and befriend others and to give up a feud. The Lord has described His Messenger’s Apostles in these words:

“Let them be hard on Our enemies but lenient and merciful to Our friends.”

11. Proper Gratefulness

When a salik is first developed into a fountainhead for monotheism, he loses all beings in Almighty God. He sees the Lord as the source of all generosity and prohibitions. As he proceeds and develops farther and reaches monotheism in its pure and absolute form, he finds the proof and reason for divine bestowals and withholdings. He sees the cause first and next the effect and such awareness and knowledge are gained by insight. The salik will then offer thanks first to the Benefactor, the Absolute Donor and then to the Cause that has acted as intermediate. It is recorded in a hadith that the first and foremost group of people to be invited to Heaven shall be the thankful ones, those who are grateful in prosperity in hardship, in sorrow and in joy.

12. Status and Dignity

Whenever a salik has knowledge and is aware of the blights of ego it maybe that he confers of what he has to assist friends and uses his status and wealth to improve and reform relations. A man’s integrity comes to a test in four things: interdiction, charity, honour and lowliness.[lxvi]

XV: Love

“O believers, whoever from among you turns back from his religion, then Allah will bring a people [instead of you] whom He loves them, and they love Him.” (Qur’an, 54: 5).

Love is the main gate to the city of God for many Islamic mystical orders specially Safavid and Mawlawi orders (See on Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardebili point of view on love: Ibn Bazaz, Safat al- Safa, p.515, 543-549, Rumi, Divane Shams, Mathnawi).

The basis and cause of love is beauty. Allah is absolute beauty. He is beautiful and he loves beauty.

Love is the engine for suluk/spiritual journey, without which the journey is impossible. By love the salik flies towards the Divine world; and the path of Love is better than any other path. Love makes the heart of the salik clean and soft. Love helps the salik leave behind and overtake his egoism faster than other traditions. Love purifies and filters the heart. The world of the one who is drunken by the Divine wine is the world of love. When the ‘arif reaches the world of love, the drunkenness of love becomes visible. The spirit is the palace of love because it is from the Divine world. When the ‘arif is familiarised with the Divine love, his heart becomes filled by him, hence there is no place for anything else. “When the ‘arif enters the sea of love, his outside and inside becomes love, for when the ‘ashiq/lover sees himself, he sees love and also when he sees love itself, he sees the ma’ashuq/ beloved.”[lxvii]. For the ‘arif loves the Creator, hence, he loves both the creation and the universe. The ‘arif reaches peace and tranquillity by love. Love is the physician for all illnesses and disorders. It is the cure for all of the soul’s sicknesses such as selfishness, egoism, greed, jealousy, envy, pride, anger and lust. According to Rumi Love is the astrolabe of God’s secretes. It means by love we reach certain type of knowledge which is not reachable by particular reason.

The signs of the love of Allah according to Ghazali in the Alchemy of Happiness-Fourth Rukn, Ninth Principle:

Know that love is a dear treasure, and the claim of love is easy, so that humans think that they are of the lovers. But there are signs and reasons to love, and humans must desire these of themselves, which are seven.

The first sign is that the lover of Allah does not hate death, for no friend hates meeting a friend. And the Prophet said, “whoever loves meeting Allah, the exalted, Allah, also loves meeting him”, and Boyuti said to one of the ascetics “Do you love death?” the ascetic paused in answering, he (Boyuti) said, “if you were truthful you would have loved it.” But it is permissible for one to be a lover, and hate the hastening of death, not death itself. And the sign was that he was restless in making provisions.

The second sign is that the lover of Allah, sacrifices for his beloved, and should cleave to what he knows brings him closer to God, and should avoid what places him at a distance. The fact of a person sinning is not proof that he does not love God, but his love is not with all the heart. The great Sufi Fudhail said to a certain man, “If anyone asks you whether you love God, keep silent; for if you say, ‘I do not love Him, ‘you are an infidel; and if you say, ‘I do’ your deeds contradict you.”

The third sign is that the remembrance and invocation of God should always remain fresh in one’s heart without effort, for one abundantly remembers what one loves, and if one’s love is complete he will never forget it. So if the heart is forced into remembrance, it is feared that his beloved is that which its remembrance is dominant in his heart. While the love of Allah is not dominant, however the love of his love is dominant that he wishes to love. And love is one thing and the love of love is another

The fourth sign is that he loves the Qur’an, which is His word, and the Prophet (Mohammad) and whatever is related to him. And when love gains strength, he will love all human beings, for all are God’s servants, but his loves will embrace all beings, for they are created by Him. As whoever loves anyone, loves his compositions and his handwriting.

The fifth sign is that he will be covetous of spiritual retreat and supplication and will long for the approach of night and the obstacles are removed, so that he may supplicate with the Friend. If he loves conversation by day and sleep at night more that the spiritual retreat, then his love is weak. A revelation came to David that, “O David, do not become intimate with anyone; for except two kinds of people none are separated from me: those who are earnest in seeking reward and turns lazy when the reward comes late, and he who forgets Me and is content with himself. The sign of being separated form me is that I leave him on his own, and leave him amused in the material world” If love is complete all else is excluded

In the children of Israel there was a worshipper who prayed at night, and did his prayer under a tree on which a bird sang beautifully. A revelation came to the Prophet to go and say to him, “Thou hast mingled the love of a melodious bird with the love of Me; thy rank among the saints is lowered.” On the other hand, some have loved God with such intensity that, while they were engaged in devotion, their houses have caught fire and they have not noticed it.

The sixth sign is that worship becomes easy to him and its hardship is removed for him. One said, “During twenty years I performed my night prayers with great difficulty, then in twenty years I enjoyed them.” When love is strong no joy is equal to the joy of worship, for how can it be hard?

The seventh sign is that he loves his servants who are obedient to him and is merciful and compassionate to them, and hates all the disbelievers and the disobedient, as it (the Qur’an) says: “They are strenuous against the unbelievers and merciful to each other.” One of the prophets once asked. “O God, who are Thy saints and lovers?” and the answer came, “Those who as a child is infatuated by his mother, are infatuated by me, as a bird seeks refuge in it’s nest, take refuge in My remembrance, and as a leopard who fears naught becomes angry, they become angry when one sins.”

These signs and the like of them are numerous and those whose love is complete have all these signs, and those who have some of these signs, their love is also to that extent.

Rumi says the following in regards to love:

“Choose the love of that Living One who is everlasting, who gives thee to drink of the wine that increases life.

Choose the love of Him from whose love all the prophets gained power and glory.

Do not say, “We have no admission to that king.” Dealings with the generous are not difficult.” (Mathnawi, book1, verses: 219-221).

“Love is the All-subdeure, and I am subdued by love: by Love’s bitterness I have been made sweet as sugar.

O fierce Wind, before Thee I am (but) a straw: how can I know where I shall fall?

Whether I am (stout as) Bilal or (thin as) the new moon, I am running on and following the course of Thy sun.

What has the moon to do with stoutness and thinness? She runs at the heels of the sun, like a shadow.

The lovers have fallen into a fierce torrent: they see their hearts on the ordinance of love.

Like the millstone turning, day and night, in revolution and maoning incessantly.

Its turning is evidence for those who seek the River; least any one should say that the River is motionless.

If you do not see the hidden River, see the turning of the celestial water-wheel.

Since the heavens have no rest from Him (Love), thou, O heart, like a star, seek no rest.

See the giddy wind howling; see the billows surging at His command.” (Mathnawi, book six, verses: 902-905, 910-914 and 918).

Hafiz says:

“With the love’s eye one can behold the face of our Beloved.

The sea of love is a sea which there is no shore for it.

There the lover should be drowned; he should submit himself to Him.”

The assistance of the traveller on the path to God is by the love not by reason; reason is not capable of leading the traveller to the unity of God.

Qushayri in chapter Love of Al-Risala said that the Messenger of God said:

“Whoever loves to meet God, God, too, will love to meet him; and whoever does not love to meet Him, God, too, will not love to meet him.”

XVI: The Stages and Journeys of suluk

We conclude this paper with a discussion of the stages of the Path. The salik (seeker) goes through numerous states, positions and waystations from the beginning to the end of his procession toward God.[lxviii] There are various views regarding the number of such stages. Shaykh Mahmud Shabistari (d. 1337), says in his book, the Gulshan-i raz (The Rose garden of secrets):

“Two steps to a salik’s path
But nine perils they contain
Loss of identity comes first
Next to cross the wilderness
Known as life’s domain.”

However, prominent mystics contend these positions are seven. Abu Nasr al-Sarraj (d. 988), in his authoritative book al-Luma‘, discusses seven stages, namely, repentance, abstinence, asceticism, mendicancy, patience, trust, resignation or consent.[lxix] In his Mantiq al-Tayr (Language of the birds), Farid al-din ‘Attar (d. ca. 1221) considers the following stages: begging, love, knowledge, independence, monotheism, mendicancy and annihilation (fana) or ceasing to exist. The highest figure for a salik’s positions and stages provided in the books Sad Maydan (One hundred Fields)[lxx] and Manazil Al-Sa’irin (Stations of the wayfarers),[lxxi] by Khwaja ‘Abd Allah Ansari (d. 1089) is one hundred as follow: Al-Bidayat/The Beginning, Alabwab/The Doors, Al-Muamilat/The Bargains, Al-Akhlaq/The Morals, Al-Usul/The Principles, Al-Audiya/The Valleys, Al-Ahwal/The States, Al-Walaya/The Guardianships, Al-Haqayeq/The Realities, Al-Nihaya/The Extremities.[lxxii] The main reason for this discrepancy lies in the mystics’ elaborations or in their summarizing or in the differences of their statuses and points of destination. Or, they may each have posed the issue from a different view.

“From the expanse of oneness
A word was heard, saying:
“I am the Lord”
Another went by distance covered
By boats near and far
Yet another remarked
Of the tress, the mole and line Of the Beloved by candle and wine
When destination came to the fore
Men of understanding reasoned no more.”[lxxiii]

Finally, we conclude our short paper and shorter excursus on mystic states with a summary of the states, stages and way-stations that a salik must go through as given in Suhrawardi’s Adab al-muridin:

1-Awakening (intibah) from the torpor of neglect.

2-Repentance (tawba), which is returning from all that is not of God after having gone astray and to maintain a state of constant repentance.

3-Inabat is going back to the remembrance of God. Some have said that repentance is by fear and inabat is by desire and choice. A third group maintains that repentance is external and inabat is internal.

4-Wara‘a is foregoing something about which a doubt has risen. It means abstinence and self-restraint.

5-Taking stock of oneself and examining one’s soul (muhasabat al-nafs), reflecting upon one’s actions.

6-Sincerity implies tolerance of pain and forsaking comfort.

7-Renunciation (zuhd) is turning away from things that are permissible or religiously sanctioned and to guide or re-channel the desires and passions.

8-Mendacity (faqr) involves absence of self and property and removing from the heart all that leaves the hand.

9-Truthfulness (sidq), both external and internal.

10-Tassabur, or tolerance is forbearance of bitterness and these are the final positions or stages of the novitiates (muridan).

11-Patience (sabr) that relinquishes complaints.

12-Submission is the enjoyment of mishap.

13-Ikhlas (sincerity) implies forcing men out of the Lord’s business.

14-Resignation or trust (tawakkul) means relying upon Him, who destroys lust for all except Him. [lxxiv]

Endnotes:

[i] 1-Mahmud Shabistari, Gulshan-i raz, ed. ¯. Muvahhid, Tehran: Tahuri 1368 Shamsi, first stanza. On this theme in his thought, see L. Lewisohn, Beyond faith and infidelity: The Sufi poetry and teachings of Mahmud Shabistari, Richmond: Curzon Press 1995, pp. 217ff.

[ii] Al-Qur’an, al-mu’minun (The Believers) 23: 115.

[iii] Ibn ‘Arabi, al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya, Cairo: Bulaq 1911, vol. II, pp. 231-32, 310; Muhammad al-Khwarizmi, Sharh Fusus al-hikam, ed. S.J. Ashtiyani, Tehran: Intisharat-i Hikmat 1364 Shamsi, pp. 285, 242; Qadi Sa‘id al-Qummi, Shar¦ Tawhid al-Saduq, ed. N. Habibi, Tehran: vol. I, pp. 40; 54, 101, 507, 686, 703; Javadi Amuli, Tahrir Tamhid al-qawa‘id-i Sa’in al-Din ‘Ali Ibn Muhammad al-Turka, Tehran: Intisharat-i Zahra’ 1372 Shamsi, p. 510. Cf. A. Schimmel, Mystical dimensions of Islam, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press 1975, pp. 139, 189, 268, 291, 382; W. Chittick, The Sufi path of knowledge: Ibn ‘Arabi’s metaphysics of imagination, Albany: State University of New York Press 1989, pp. 66, 126, 180, 204, 250.

[iv] Al-Qur’an, al-Dhariyat (The scattering winds) 51: 56.

[v] Al-Qur’an, al-Hashr (The resurrection) 59: 19.

[vi] Al-Qur’an, al-Hijr (The Rock) 15: 26.

[vii] Al-Qur’an, al-Tin (The Fig) 95:

[viii] Shabistari, Gulshan-i raz, couplet 151.

[ix] Qur’an, al-Ahzab (The Confederates) 33: 77.

[x] Al-Qur’an, al-Isra’ (The Night Journey) 17: 70.

[xi] Al-Qur’an, al-Baqara (The Cow) 2: 31 and al-‘Alaq (The Clot) 96: 6.

[xii] Shabistari, Gulshan-i raz, couplet 329.

[xiii] Amidi, Ghurar al-hikam wa durar al-kalim, ed. J. Urmawi, Tehran: Tehran University Press 1366 Shamsi, vol. V, p. 108, Hadith # 7569; Maytham al-Bahrani, Sharh mi’at kalima, ed. J. Urmawi, Beirut: Mu’assasat al-A‘lami li l-matbu’at 1996, pp. 52ff; Haydar Amuli, Tafsir al-Muhit al-A‘zam wa l-bahr al-khidam, ed. S.M. Musawi Tabrizi, Tehran: Vizarat-i farhang va irshad-i Islami 1374 Shamsi, vol. I, p. 249;

[xiv] Shabistari, Gulshan-i raz, couplet 411.

[xv] Shabistari, Gulshan-i raz, couplet 395, referring to the hadith

My heavens and My earth embrace Me not, but the heart of My believing servant does embrace Me.

See Ghazali, Ihya’ ‘ulum al-din, Cairo: Bulaq 1908-09, vol. III, pp. 1, 12; Ibn ‘Arabi, al-Futuhat, vol. I, p. 216 and vol. III, p. 250 inter alia; ‘Allama Majlisi, Bihar al-anwar, 3^rd edition, Beirut: Dar ihya’ al-turath al-‘arabi 1983, vol. LV, p. 39; Qummi, Shari Tawhid, vol. I, p. 414. Cf. Chittick, The Sufi path of knowledge, pp. 107, 276, 339-40, 348, 379; Schimmel, Mystical dimensions, p. 190.

[xvi] Ibn ‘Arabi, Rasa’il, ed, N.M. Hiravi, Tehran 1369 Shamsi, p. 70; eadem, Futuhat, vol. II, p. 262; Qummi, Sharh Tawhid, vol. I, p. 491; Majlisi, Bihar, vol. LV, p. 44, hadith # 9-13. Cf. Schimmel, Mystical dimensions, p. 96; Chittick, The Sufi path of knowledge, pp. 217, 328, 364; al-Ghazali, The niche of lights, tr. W.H.T. Gairdner, New Delhi: Kitab Bhavan 1991, p. 44.

[xvii] Ibn ‘Arabi, Rasa’il, p. 29; eadem, Futuhat, vol. II, p. 553; Kulayni, al-Kafi, ed. ‘A. Ghaffari, Tehran: Tehran University Press 1957-60, vol. II, p. 352; Majlisi, Bihar, vol. LXVII, p. 22; Qummi, Shar¦ Tawhid, vol. I, 29-30, 702. Cf. Chittick, The Sufi path of knowledge, pp. 176, 326-29; Schimmel, Mystical dimensions, pp. 43, 133, 144, 277.

[xviii] Qummi, Shar¦ Tawhid, vol. I, pp. 736-37; cf. Schimmel, Mystical dimensions, p. 136.

[xix] Shabistari, Gulshan-i raz, couplets 397-99, 402, 409, 410.

[xx] Schimmel, Mystical dimensions, pp. 98-108.

[xxi] Lewisohn, Faith and infidelity, pp. 274-77, 304ff.

[xxii] See the classic work of Shi‘i Sufism on this topic, Asrar al-shari‘a of Sayyid Haydar Amuli (d. after 1385), tr. A. Yate as Inner secrets of the Path, London: Element Books for the Zahra Trust 1991.

[xxiii] Shabistari, Gulshan-i raz, couplet 455.

[xxiv] Shabistari, Gulshan-i raz, couplet 575-580.

[xxv] ‘Abdul Husayn Zarrinkub, The value of the Sufi heritage, Tehran 1362 Shamsi, p. 101.

[xxvi] Murtada Mutahhari, ‘Ulum-i Islami, Tehran: Intisharat-i Sadra 1366 Shamsi, vol. II, pp. 94-95.

[xxvii] Cf. the hadith in Mirza Husayn Nuri, Mustadrak al-wasail, Qum: Isma‘iliyan n.d., vol. XI, p. 173; Amuli, Tafsir, vol. I, p. 195 and pp. 227-28 for discussion; Schimmel, Mystical dimensions, p. 99. 34.

[xxviii] ‘Aziz-i Nasafi, Kitab al-Insan al-Kamil, ed. M. Mole, Tehran: Tahuri 1362 Shamsi, p. 3.

[xxix] Rumi, Mathnavi-yi Ma‘navi, ed. R.A. Nicholson, London: Gibb Memorial Trsut 1925-40, preface to Book Five.

[xxx] On these concepts, see Martin Lings, The book of certainty, Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society 1992, pp. 1-11.

[xxxi] Al-Qur’an, al-An‘am (The Cattle) 6: 162.

[xxxii] Ibn Sina, al-Isharat wa l-tanbihat with commentaries, ed. M. Shihabi, Qum: Nashr al-balagha 1375 Shamsi, vol. III, p. 369.

[xxxiii] ‘Attar, Tadhkirat al-awliya’, ed. R.A. Nicholson, London: Gibb Memorial Trust 1905-7, vol. II, p.

[xxxiv] ‘Attar, Tadhkirat al-awliya’, vol. II, p. 34.

[xxxv] Murtada Mutahhari, ‘Ulum-i Islami, vol. II, pp. 87, 90-91.

[xxxvi] Shabistari, Gulshan-i raz, couplet 121; Muhammad Lahiji, Mafatih al-I‘jaz, eds. M.R. Khaliqi & ‘I. Karbasi, Tehran: Intisharat-i Zavvar 1371 Shamsi, pp. 66-72. Cf. Lewisohn, Faith and infidelity, pp. 228-37.

[xxxvii] Ibn Siina, al-Isharat wa l-tanbihat, vol. III, p. 375.

[xxxviii] Nasafi, Insan-i Kamil, pp. 12-3, 84.

[xxxix] Nasafi, Zubdat al-haqa’iq, ed. Haqq-vardi Nasiri, Tehran: Tahuri 1985, p. 111.

[xl] Sayyed Mahdi Bahr al-‘ulum, Sayr va suluk, ed. S.M. Husayni Tehrani, Tehran: Intisharat-i Hikmat 1981, p. 131.

[xli] Bahr al-‘ulum, Sayr va suluk, p. 131.

[xlii] Jamul al-Din Khwansari, Sharh ghurar al-hikam, ed. J. Urmawi, Tehran: Tehran University Press 1366 Shamsi, vol. I, p. 260, hadith # 1040 and vol. IV, p. 191 hadith # 5792.

[xliii] Nasafi, Insan-i Kamil, p. 86.

[xliv] Abu Hafs ‘Umar Suhrawardi, ‘Awarif al-ma‘arif, tr. Q. Ansari, Tehran n.d., p.

[xlv] 104. Cf. The ‘Awarif al-ma’arif, tr. H.W. Clarke, Lahore: Mohammad Ashraf 1979 repr., pp. 44-45, 72-73.

[xlvi] Ibn ‘Arabi, Rasa’il, p. 11.

[xlvii] Khwansari, Sharh ghurar al-hikam, vol. VI, p. 3 hadith # 10471.

[xlviii] Ibn ‘Arabi, Rasa’il, p. 15-6.

[xlix] Bahr al-‘ulum, Sayr va suluk, p. 150.

[l] Amidi, Ghurar al-hikam, vol. VI, p. 163 and 166 hadith # 9918 and 9942.

[li] Kulayni, al-Kafi, vol. II, p. 225; Majlisi, Bihar, vol. XV, p. 140; cf. Bahr al’ulum, Sayr va suluk, p. 161.

[lii] Bahr al-‘ulum, Sayr va suluk, p. 151-53.

[liii] Ibn ‘Arabi, Rasa’il, p. 13-14; Amidi, Ghurar al-hikam, vol. VI, p. 124 hadith # 9758.

[liv] Ibn ‘Arabi, Rass’il, p. 17-8.

[lv] Al-Qur’an, al-Isra’ (The Night Journey) 17: 79.

[lvi] Al-Qur’an, al-Muzammil (The Shrouded One) 73: 1-3. ==57-‘Izz al-Din Mahmud Ksshsni, Misbah al-hidaya, ed. J. Huma’i, Tehran: Majlis 1946, p. 314.

[lvii] Suhrawardi, ‘Awarif al-ma‘arif, p. 147.

[lviii] Suhrawardi, ‘Awarif al-ma‘arif, p. 147.

[lix] Javad Maliki Tabrizi, Sayr ila Llah, tr. M. Tahirchi, Tehran 1984, p. 106.

[lx] Javad Maliki Tabrizi, Asrar al-salat, tr. R. Rajabzada, Tehran 1985, p. 457.

[lxi] Mulla Sadra Shirazi, al-Asfar al-Arba‘a, ed. R. Lutfi et al, 3^rd edition, Beirut: Dar ihya’ turath al-‘arabi 1981, vol. I, p. 13.

[lxii] Mulla Sadra Shirazi, al-Asfar al-Arba‘a, vol. I, p. 13, scholia of Muhammad Rida Qumshehi.

[lxiii] Abu Najib Suhrawardi, Adab al-muridin, tr. M. Shirkhan, Tehran 1363 Shamsi, p. 72. Cf. A Sufi rule for novices: Kitab Adab al-muridin, tr. M. Milson, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press 1975, p. 37.

[lxiv] Tabarsi, Majma‘ al-bayan, Beirut: Mu’assasat al-a‘lami 1995, vol. X, pp. 86-7.

[lxv] Al-Qur’an, ‘Abasa (He frowned) 80: 38.

[lxvi] Suhrawardi, ‘Awarif al-ma‘arif, pp. 108-20.

[lxvii] Ibn Bazzaz. Shaykh Safi, p.546

[lxviii] Cf. S.H. Nasr, “The spiritual states in Sufism,” in Sufi essays, Albany: State University of New York Press 1991, pp. 68-83; Schimmel, Mystical dimensions, pp. 98-129.

[lxix] Al-Sarraj, Kitab al-luma‘, ed. R.A. Nicholson, Leiden: Gibb Memorial Trust 1914, p. 42. Cf. Nasr, “The spiritual states,” p. 76.

[lxx] Khwaja ‘Abdallah Ansari, Sad maydan, ed. Q. Ansari, Tehran: Tahuri 1360 Shamsi. Cf. Chemins de Dieu, trois traités spirituels, tr. S. de Laugier de Beaureceuil, Paris: Sindbad 1985.

[lxxi] Khwaja ‘Abdallah Ansari, Manazil al-sa’irin, ed. A. ‘Atwa, Cairo: Maktabat Ja‘far al-Haditha 1977; cf. French translation by S. de Laugier de Beaureceuil, Cairo: IFAO 1962.

[lxxii] Ravan Farhadi, Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Richmond: Curzon Press 1995; S. de Laugier de Beaureceuil, Khwadja ‘Abdullah Ansari, mystique hanbalite, Beirut: Dar el-Machreq 1965.

[lxxiii] Shabistari, Gulshan-i raz, couplets 25-30.

[lxxiv] Suhrawardi, Adabb al-muridin, pp. 775. Cf. A Sufi rule, p. 38.

Endnotes:

[ii] Al-Qur’an, al-mu’minun (The Believers) 23: 115.

[iv] Al-Qur’an, al-Dhariyat (The scattering winds) 51: 56.

[v] Al-Qur’an, al-Hashr (The resurrection) 59: 19.

[vi] Al-Qur’an, al-Hijr (The Rock) 15: 26.

[vii] Al-Qur’an, al-Tin (The Fig) 95:

[viii] Shabistari, Gulshan-i raz, couplet 151.

[ix] Qur’an, al-Ahzab (The Confederates) 33: 77.

[x] Al-Qur’an, al-Isra’ (The Night Journey) 17: 70.

[xi] Al-Qur’an, al-Baqara (The Cow) 2: 31 and al-‘Alaq (The Clot) 96: 6.

[xii] Shabistari, Gulshan-i raz, couplet 329.

[xiv] Shabistari, Gulshan-i raz, couplet 411.

[xv] Shabistari, Gulshan-i raz, couplet 395, referring to the hadith

My heavens and My earth embrace Me not, but the heart of My believing servant does embrace Me.

[xviii] Qummi, Shar¦ Tawhid, vol. I, pp. 736-37; cf. Schimmel, Mystical dimensions, p. 136.

[xix] Shabistari, Gulshan-i raz, couplets 397-99, 402, 409, 410.

[xx] Schimmel, Mystical dimensions, pp. 98-108.

[xxi] Lewisohn, Faith and infidelity, pp. 274-77, 304ff.

[xxiii] Shabistari, Gulshan-i raz, couplet 455.

[xxiv] Shabistari, Gulshan-i raz, couplet 575-580.

[xxv] ‘Abdul Husayn Zarrinkub, The value of the Sufi heritage, Tehran 1362 Shamsi, p. 101.

[xxvi] Murtada Mutahhari, ‘Ulum-i Islami, Tehran: Intisharat-i Sadra 1366 Shamsi, vol. II, pp. 94-95.

[xxviii] ‘Aziz-i Nasafi, Kitab al-Insan al-Kamil, ed. M. Mole, Tehran: Tahuri 1362 Shamsi, p. 3.

[xxix] Rumi, Mathnavi-yi Ma‘navi, ed. R.A. Nicholson, London: Gibb Memorial Trsut 1925-40, preface to Book Five.

[xxx] On these concepts, see Martin Lings, The book of certainty, Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society 1992, pp. 1-11.

[xxxi] Al-Qur’an, al-An‘am (The Cattle) 6: 162.

[xxxii] Ibn Sina, al-Isharat wa l-tanbihat with commentaries, ed. M. Shihabi, Qum: Nashr al-balagha 1375 Shamsi, vol. III, p. 369.

[xxxiii] ‘Attar, Tadhkirat al-awliya’, ed. R.A. Nicholson, London: Gibb Memorial Trust 1905-7, vol. II, p.

[xxxiv] ‘Attar, Tadhkirat al-awliya’, vol. II, p. 34.

[xxxv] Murtada Mutahhari, ‘Ulum-i Islami, vol. II, pp. 87, 90-91.

[xxxvii] Ibn Siina, al-Isharat wa l-tanbihat, vol. III, p. 375.

[xxxviii] Nasafi, Insan-i Kamil, pp. 12-3, 84.

[xxxix] Nasafi, Zubdat al-haqa’iq, ed. Haqq-vardi Nasiri, Tehran: Tahuri 1985, p. 111.

[xl] Sayyed Mahdi Bahr al-‘ulum, Sayr va suluk, ed. S.M. Husayni Tehrani, Tehran: Intisharat-i Hikmat 1981, p. 131.

[xli] Bahr al-‘ulum, Sayr va suluk, p. 131.

[xlii] Jamul al-Din Khwansari, Sharh ghurar al-hikam, ed. J. Urmawi, Tehran: Tehran University Press 1366 Shamsi, vol. I, p. 260, hadith # 1040 and vol. IV, p. 191 hadith # 5792.

[xliii] Nasafi, Insan-i Kamil, p. 86.

[xliv] Abu Hafs ‘Umar Suhrawardi, ‘Awarif al-ma‘arif, tr. Q. Ansari, Tehran n.d., p.

[xlv] 104. Cf. The ‘Awarif al-ma’arif, tr. H.W. Clarke, Lahore: Mohammad Ashraf 1979 repr., pp. 44-45, 72-73.

[xlvi] Ibn ‘Arabi, Rasa’il, p. 11.

[xlvii] Khwansari, Sharh ghurar al-hikam, vol. VI, p. 3 hadith # 10471.

[xlviii] Ibn ‘Arabi, Rasa’il, p. 15-6.

[xlix] Bahr al-‘ulum, Sayr va suluk, p. 150.

[l] Amidi, Ghurar al-hikam, vol. VI, p. 163 and 166 hadith # 9918 and 9942.

[li] Kulayni, al-Kafi, vol. II, p. 225; Majlisi, Bihar, vol. XV, p. 140; cf. Bahr al’ulum, Sayr va suluk, p. 161.

[lii] Bahr al-‘ulum, Sayr va suluk, p. 151-53.

[liii] Ibn ‘Arabi, Rasa’il, p. 13-14; Amidi, Ghurar al-hikam, vol. VI, p. 124 hadith # 9758.

[liv] Ibn ‘Arabi, Rass’il, p. 17-8.

[lv] Al-Qur’an, al-Isra’ (The Night Journey) 17: 79.

[lvi] Al-Qur’an, al-Muzammil (The Shrouded One) 73: 1-3. ==57-‘Izz al-Din Mahmud Ksshsni, Misbah al-hidaya, ed. J. Huma’i, Tehran: Majlis 1946, p. 314.

[lvii] Suhrawardi, ‘Awarif al-ma‘arif, p. 147.

[lviii] Suhrawardi, ‘Awarif al-ma‘arif, p. 147.

[lix] Javad Maliki Tabrizi, Sayr ila Llah, tr. M. Tahirchi, Tehran 1984, p. 106.

[lx] Javad Maliki Tabrizi, Asrar al-salat, tr. R. Rajabzada, Tehran 1985, p. 457.

[lxi] Mulla Sadra Shirazi, al-Asfar al-Arba‘a, ed. R. Lutfi et al, 3^rd edition, Beirut: Dar ihya’ turath al-‘arabi 1981, vol. I, p. 13.

[lxii] Mulla Sadra Shirazi, al-Asfar al-Arba‘a, vol. I, p. 13, scholia of Muhammad Rida Qumshehi.

[lxiv] Tabarsi, Majma‘ al-bayan, Beirut: Mu’assasat al-a‘lami 1995, vol. X, pp. 86-7.

[lxv] Al-Qur’an, ‘Abasa (He frowned) 80: 38.

[lxvi] Suhrawardi, ‘Awarif al-ma‘arif, pp. 108-20.

[lxvii] Ibn Bazzaz. Shaykh Safi, p.546

[lxviii] Cf. S.H. Nasr, “The spiritual states in Sufism,” in Sufi essays, Albany: State University of New York Press 1991, pp. 68-83; Schimmel, Mystical dimensions, pp. 98-129.

[lxix] Al-Sarraj, Kitab al-luma‘, ed. R.A. Nicholson, Leiden: Gibb Memorial Trust 1914, p. 42. Cf. Nasr, “The spiritual states,” p. 76.

[lxx] Khwaja ‘Abdallah Ansari, Sad maydan, ed. Q. Ansari, Tehran: Tahuri 1360 Shamsi. Cf. Chemins de Dieu, trois traités spirituels, tr. S. de Laugier de Beaureceuil, Paris: Sindbad 1985.

[lxxi] Khwaja ‘Abdallah Ansari, Manazil al-sa’irin, ed. A. ‘Atwa, Cairo: Maktabat Ja‘far al-Haditha 1977; cf. French translation by S. de Laugier de Beaureceuil, Cairo: IFAO 1962.

[lxxii] Ravan Farhadi, Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Richmond: Curzon Press 1995; S. de Laugier de Beaureceuil, Khwadja ‘Abdullah Ansari, mystique hanbalite, Beirut: Dar el-Machreq 1965.

[lxxiii] Shabistari, Gulshan-i raz, couplets 25-30.

[lxxiv] Suhrawardi, Adabb al-muridin, pp. 775. Cf. A Sufi rule, p. 38.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The Active Role of the Iranian Geo-strategy The Persian Gulf as a ground for Hot Debate

admin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 04:26:34 +0000

The Active Role of the Iranian Geo-strategy

The Persian Gulf as a ground for Hot Debate

Mahmoud Haidar

Director of the Delta Center for In-Depth Research – Beirut

Editor-in-chief of “Madarat Gharbiya” magazine – Beirut/Paris

©International Peace Studies Centre (IPSC)

peace-ipsc.org

Any talk on and about Iran, 30 years after the Iranian Revolution, assumes raising the level of discussion to the status that this country occupies a heavy and influential place in international strategies.

This assumption will lead us to work on the Iranian geography considering that it is a vital field in and around which realities and turning points are made in the world of ideas as in that of politics, culture, economy and the strategies of war and peace.

Talk about Iran’s presence inside the regional and international realms is not dependent on how its current image appears to be, rather it goes back to the moment of transformation when the world witnessed the fall of the monarchy and the rise of the Islamic Republic led by Imam Khomeini in 1979.

In the fall of 1978, late French philosopher Michel Foucault travelled to Tehran to document his impressions in the Courier de la Sierra on the rising popular demonstration against the regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Foucault, famous for his philosophical analyses on the history of prisons and insanity, knew little about the Persian history and about Islam. He also never worked as a journalist or a reporter before. However, after he was asked about the reason for his travel to Iran he answered with the following meaningful phrase: “We have to be there at the birth of ideas”…

At that moment, the French philosopher’s statement summarized a great amount of questions that the western intelligentsia did not know about political Islam after the collapse of the Ottoman caliphate. And we find how the research institutes and decision-making bases in the West started to deeply study what the “political religious geology” could result in, in terms of transformations that exceeded the Iranian plateau with their repercussions and effects.

In the first part of this study, we will try to shed light on Iran’s geo-strategic position. This position was established, crystallized and expanded in an accumulative and gradual manner but in a way that is laden with complications and that is inseparable from a large group of internal and external sources of threat. Domestically, the international game, opposed to the regime in Iran, did not stop betting on the internal geopolitical movement since the presidential elections in the summer of 2009 launched it to its maximum limits. Abroad, eyes did not, for a moment, stop looking suspiciously at the Iranian escalation or finding the means that can contain the Islamic regime, weaken it and destabilize it.

On both sides of the confrontation, the Iranian leadership saw that the clash with the United States and its allies was inevitable. And if the frequencies of this clash had reached their climax after the events of September 11, 2001, the Iranians showed how their country entered an unstoppable geo-strategic track. After the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and after the soil and waters of the Persian Gulf was filled with armies and fleets, the Iranian national security entered the great circle of danger, placing the leadership before the merit of seeking to dig a counter track of the confrontation. It had to make use of all national capacities and new conditions that resulted from the failures of the American-western project.

The strategy of the place:

We wouldn’t have used the term geo-strategy while talking about the case of Iran had it not been an evident and essential definition of the situation it reached today.

Iran is a state for a nation in the classical meaning agreed on for the concept of state/nation. Today, it exceeds being a geo-political entity limited to events of power inside its closed citadel. This is because– due to the major changes that took place at the level of the central-Asian sub continent – it became an essential matter of world affairs. As such it genuinely acquires the term geo-strategy which imposes itself among the cases that are concerned with conflicts among states or among political powers that consider themselves as hostile to each other. Therefore the invasion of Kuwait, for example, Saddam Hussein’s war on Iran and the war – one time cold another hot – that the Americans and their allies are operating against Iran from the Persian Gulf and Middle East stretches only enter the range of the geostrategic movement.

In return, the term geo-strategy, in some conflicts, indicates the significance of geographic facts that are then considered major bets. Famous examples to that are what happened and is happening in the Mediterranean area, the Persian Gulf, the Oman Sea, the Middle East, the great oil reserve in the Persian Gulf geography, the Gibraltar Strait, the Suez Canal, the Aden-Djibouti crossway and the Hormuz Strait. For decades and centuries, these examples have been the subject of geostrategic rivalries. (1)

If Iran is behaving on the basis that it has really achieved a geostrategic location, this is based on a political-religious culture that has a preventive and defensive trait. And this is what the Iranian leaders underline in any occasion related to the ongoing debate over the roles of their country. This is why Iran’s pursuit for power does not mean – according to this assertion – weakening other regional countries or threatening any country. Iran’s acquisition of power – in its leaders’ opinion – is linked to the Iranians’ natural talent in a completely new manner. It is an Islamic way of life and in Iran’s geopolitical and geo-economic logic. According to this different logic, it is possible that the vocabulary of the Iranian political language today differs from that of the United States. “But our goals and aims are to service the Iranians and to adhere to their ambitions and their national sovereignty.” (2)

And because the geo-strategic rhetoric is often used in the heat of debates and sentencing, the parallel view does not find in using the geo-strategic power on the part of Iran a defensive act, rather an expansion of influence and a subjugation of the hostile part. This is what the two researchers at the Royal Academy of International Affairs in London, Robert Louis and Claire Spencer, concluded. They found in their joint research entitled “Factors of Iran’s Geostrategic Power” that the Iranian foreign policy interests are focused on the following causes:

- Regional hegemony, especially the economic and cultural, within its circle of influence.

- Expanding the circle of its regional influence.

- Preserving regional stability.

- Seeing a united Iraq without it being able to pose a military threat on Iran.

- Understanding the United States, despite the vagueness over how to deal with it.

In all of the above mentioned areas, the Iranian influence – according to Louis and Spencer – poses a strategic threat to the neighboring Persian Gulf countries. As the nuclear issue and Israel’s conflict with its neighbors escalate, an existential threat to the influence and hegemony of the United States on this vital region is growing and expanding. (3)

In any case, friction in the geostrategic space is often focused on facilitating the execution of taken strategic decisions. Iran is not far from this understanding when it comes to the fields of cold wars in Afghanistan, Iran and the Arab-Israeli conflict or when it involves the open rush over the nuclear program.

Here we are faced with the following obvious question:

How do the Iranians behave according to their geostrategic position?

If the geographical nature of any country pushes it to adopt a special political behavior that conforms to this geography, there is in the experience of the Iranian Islamic Republic what represents a unique example to this rule. Iran’s presence – with and after the Islamic Revolution -became a geostrategic phenomenon with an actual impact on the near, medium and long ranges. Over three decades, there will be political, cultural and security impacts that will make the regional and international surroundings saturated with the predispositions of interaction, response and vulnerability with the developments of the internal environment.

A necessary reminder is that the foreign policies of any state originate from what is stored in its internal establishment. For example, the weaker a country’s national power is, according to international standards, the greater its vulnerability to international movement. On the other hand, the greater its size, area and national strength, the more complicated are its vulnerability and influence.

In order to understand, in a more credible manner, the concept of the impact of the internal systems of the foreign policy, three variables are underlined:

The enshrined political culture.
The social, intellectual and class nature of the main elements (powerful and rich individuals).
Wide targets and strategies

According to strategic analysts of complicated and highly sensitive international affairs such as Iran, variable (c) – i.e. the targets and strategies – is considered an inevitable outcome of variables (a) and (b). In other words, if we extract the wide targets of some country, we would have understood the truth, the enshrined political culture and the intellectual and class structure of its elite. Therefore, the behavior and reactions and the system of incentives for a people are present elements in its political culture. This means that the intellectual nature of the elite is what drives the society and determines its destination while society leaders represent the juice of its social and political behavior. This is why it is only obvious that the Iranian Islamic Republic cannot be excluded from this rule. (4)

As an example based on the aforementioned rule, we will notice the manners by which the constituent factors of Iran’s geostrategic position were formed. The wide targets of the Iranian Islamic Republic are deeply rooted spreading in the Islamic Revolution’s political and cultural heritage: They are the roots that led to the victory of the revolution and turned into principles and structures from which the goals of the foreign policy can be derived. According to the Constitution and the Iranians’ performance the wide targets can be divided into three parts:

1- Growth, economic expansion and preservation of the land’s unity and national sovereignty.

2- Defending Muslims and liberation revolutions and opposing Israel and the West especially the United States.

3- Establishing an Islamic society based on Shiite principles. (5)

Despite thevisible contrast in combining the three targets, since each has its context, mechanisms and special formats, and this is what normally happens in traditional countries, the Iranian leadership was able to place them in one pot. The behaviors of the ruling political and ideological elite showed its ability to absorb these targets and manage the complications that faced their implementation. This combination, with the consequent expensive political, security and developmental prices, could be one of the most significant paradoxes that will strengthen the Iranian presence, since the establishment of the Islamic Republic to date. Perhaps, one of the good reasons in the abovementioned paradoxes, is that the concept of political independence and the ideology of economic and social liberality have deep national and ideological* roots, and that this concept will last for many years to come, at the time when the Iranians are exerting obvious efforts to balance the interaction with the world and to try and enrich confidence building inside the country with the passage of time. (6)

Geo-strategy as Foreign Policy

During the decades that followed the rise of the Islamic Republic of Iran, strong ties were built between the geographic location and the political one. It is this relation that would produce what the geopolitics experts call “scope sensitivity”. The sensitivity and awareness of the elites about state and society policies are as much important and vital as the place where they are active.

Based on the geopolitics goals, the most essential dimension in the geostrategic process is that the geostrategic state turns into a living being. In fact, the state that acts within a geostrategic range succeeds in making its geographic scope effective in international and regional politics, and of impact on its orientations. But this primarily depends on the awareness of active elites in that state about the importance of the scope and further, their recognition of the importance of the location of land that they manage within the conflicts surrounding it.

The German geographer Frederick Ratzel (1844-1904) shows in his referential study entitled Anthropogeography that the soil (land) is the founding and strong fact around which peoples’ interests are concentrated. He goes beyond that to suggest that history’s movement is already identified by soil and land. This is followed by another conclusion drew by Ratzel on the basis of the evolution theory, that the state is a living being, yet a being deep-rooted in soil. For him, the state is composed of the earth’s surface, the area dimension and the popular awareness about both. Thus the objective geographic fact, and the general national personal awareness of this fact which is expressed in politics, are reflected in the state. Ratzel sees that the “natural” state is the one that organically combines the changeable quantities of the nation: the geography, the demographics and the ethno-culture. (7)

The Iranians base their foreign policies on their recognition of the intimate link between the land where they live and the politics they practice. That’s why the geographic location of Iran is described as “the golden middle” that lies between Asia and Europe. Bordering the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, Iran serves as the intersection between all transport lines, including water ones, whether from north to south or from west to east with respect to Eurasia.

The geographic location of Iran in the middle of Eurasia, and being in contact with two sources rich in energy, the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea, make it also well positioned in its relation with great powers. Iran has always been an international country influenced by any change in the world order that also affects its fate. During the rise of the bipolar system in the twentieth century, the Middle East was the pillar of this system and Iran was the axis of balance there. The past decades of changes showed that Iran had become a geostrategic path for the region and the world for its geopolitical status. This shows how much this position is effective in international calculations and power relations, that cannot be neglected neither in economic security affairs nor in war and peace ones. The Iranian leadership realizes very well the importance of its national geography and that there is no replacement to this status and that thus it cannot be marginalized in any world order.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the absence of one of the bipolar system’s major powers, a new world order of competition, challenges and regional and local wars could be seen to the north of Iran. These new geopolitical circumstances required that Iran be part of both systems, the Persian Gulf and Central Asia and the Caucasus. Perhaps an examination of Iran’s location between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf and as a crossroad between 15 countries that have a population of almost 500million, shows the geo-economic significance of Iran as a center of the world energy reserves. More importantly, it connects theCentral Asia and the Persian Gulfmarket, as a third market is being set up beyond the Atlantic and the Pacific. The membership of Iran in those systems, particularly the Persian Gulfsystem, and being a meeting point with the world order provide it with many opportunities, while creating lots of obstacles.

Regarding its regional and international position and its geopolitical distinctiveness, however, Iran could defend its sovereignty and the unity of its lands despite the wide American embargo, and the attempt of some great powers to submit it to an economic and political isolation. It also managed to earn the Islamic states’ confidence despite the severe psychological war and be one of the most important oil exporters in OPEC, an active cultural player in the world and the promoter of a civil society in a troubled Middle East. (8)

Thus this reflects the apparent flexibility in the thought of the ruling Iranian elites as they managed during the last era to combine the religious and ideological basics of the regime and the volatile international political circumstances.

Regardless of the nature of the moving policies shaped by the authority after each presidential election in Iran, there are four permanent, unchangeable characteristics in the Iranian foreign policy. Therefore, each Iranian government should definitely consider them in shaping and implementing its policy:

- Geopolitical logic of Iran;

- Iran’s location within a region that holds 80 per cent of world gas and oil reserves;

- The Iranians’ strong sensitivity towards national sovereignty;

- The complicated structure based on Iranians’ personal understanding of their cultural identity. (9)

Iranian researchers and historians suggest that one of the challenges that face Iran’s foreign policy is a historical fact that all the illuminating, religious, and social anti-colonization and despotism renaissances have focused during the last two centuries on “the national sovereignty”. They were also related to a national mood based on a tendency toward applying the idea of “managing our country ourselves”.

The other suggestion by some of the strategic experts in Iran says that every Iranian wants to be Iranian with his self-awareness while being religious and to learn from the positive aspects of the western culture. Normally, Iranians wants to be a combination of the three, and the different governments can’t impose an artificial cultural identity on their citizens. That’s why Pahlavi regime attempts failed to eliminate the religious side of the Iranian personality. The big gain the Iranian society earned during the Islamic Revolution is that the Iranians can decide now for themselves, and that their policies are homemade, even though globalization implications are well seen in the national programs of state governance (10), mainly in Iran. Moreover, according to some Iranian analysts, the so-called “Islamic rationalism” is behind the pragmatism in Iranian management of their political problems.

This rationalism represents the cornerstone of Iran governments and their foreign policies. The preamble of the Constitution of the Iranian Islamic Republic (articles 152-155) includes the fundamentals of the Iranian foreign policy which are derived from two sets of values: first, “the Islamic values”, and second, “internationally recognized civil values”. Therefore, the Iranian foreign policy systems are committed to activities based upon “the Islamic rationalism” through available “democratic capacities” and “international relation frameworks”. (11)

Geo-strategy of possible coalitions

Some believe that it is impossible or difficult for the Iranian political regime to build regional and international coalitions. The long time experiences, however, proved otherwise despite the barriers and complications. Thus, relying on the diplomacy of handling problems in international relations, Iran could undertake forging coalitions based on the direct – or distant -interests according to the conditions and circumstances that govern the geostrategic communication rules with any state.

For centuries, the Iranian focus and vision were oriented towards the West. Since they are of Indo-European race, the Persians are proud of their ancestry’s distinctiveness in the region. The ruling Persian families from Safavids to Pahlavi focused their aimed policies on Europe and the United States of America. Their connection to the West was verydeep, particularly during the Pahlavi modernization campaign in the twentieth century. Iranian writer Jalal Al Ahmad penned a book entitled Gharbzadegi (Plagued by the West) that deals with cultural dependence and the fact that “Iran is plagued by the West and its technologies”.

But a historical turning point would change this situation with the fall of the royal family regime and the rise of the Islamic Republic. As a breakup from this deep connection with the West,Iran’s oscillating international indicator took a different course at the height of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and Imam Khomeini adopted a policy (neither eastern nor western) where it worked hard to liberate Iran from US policies as well as from the impact of the Soviet Union ideological policies. But the economic consequences of isolation, along with the war with Iraq that lasted eight successive years pushed Iran in early 1990s into a quest for a regional integration. In 1995, Iran asked US oil company Conoco to develop its oil fields, a move that reflected its desire to improve its relations with Washington.Pressure by Congress, however, forced then President Bill Clinton to issue an executive order that banned the development of petroleum products in Iran for reasons related to the US national security. This opened the way to the 1995 sanctions act against Iran that imposed sanctions against every company investing more than $20 m in the Iranian energy sector. But an exception in 1998 would allow investment in Iran by Gazprom, Total and Petrofac even though Iran found itself obliged to find other trade partners because of the strict procedures.

Yet the paradox that emerged all along the efforts aimed at counterbalancing the US international interests is that the administration asked the Congress not to resist tougher sanctions on Iran to maintain the unity between allied countries. Nicholas Burns, then under secretary of state for political affairs, told the Senate banking committee: “We want to turn our attention to the Iranians and not to our allies, because we don’t want to weaken the international coalition we built.”(12)

On the other side of the West-US coalition against Iran, the latter was generous in exclusively creating forms of international coalitions and lines of communication. Perhaps the vertical and horizontal divisions in the world order, notwithstanding the US apparent domination, allowed Iran a wide opportunity to achieve this. The intense permanent debate about Iran’s nuclear program shows to what extent the Iranian diplomacy can get through the isolation walls and pursue alliances that may in a certain time gain a strategic aspect.

Some analysts conclude that the “coalition” principle is the way to achieve a lot of these fundamentals in foreign policy. The coalition does not only provide confidence in cooperation, but also limits the threats at the national security and enriches the national wealth. (13)

Now the question is how the Iranian geo-strategy dealt with the crises that have been striking the Persian Gulffrom1979 till our days.

Iran and Persian Gulf geo-security reality

Since the fall of the Pahlavi regime, the geography of the Persian Gulf entered a new more controversial phase at the security level. Everything for the governments of countries located within this geography would forecast alarming developments. The political, ideological and religious system set up in Iran never converges with the systems that govern the behavior of governments or regulate their vision of the regional security.

Yet the Persian Gulf region, notwithstanding all of this, remained a vital scope of weight in the Iranian geostrategic prism. Therefore the Iranian national security can’t be seen beyond this scope, and thus beyond the challenges that face the Middle Eastern political and security geographies, primarily those of the Israeli-Arab conflict and the direct American and Western military presence in Iraq, Afghanistan and the warm seas.

“Heavy Water” geopolitics

The Persian Gulf region has a world importance at many levels. Since the nineteenth century, strategic historians and thinkers spoke repeatedly and continually about the vitality of the region. In the theory of Halford Mackinder (1861-1947) published in a 1904article entitled “The Axis of History’s Geography”, the Persian Gulf was part of a crescent-like region called the Heartland and included Eastern Europe and Central Asia (during the tsardom of Russia). Spykman considered the Persian Gulf as the “Rimland” and that its control was more likely as the rule of the entire world. But in the modern geopolitical theories, the region was called “the axis”, or as Lohazen calls it the “center of the center”. In his book “Empires and the Power of Geopolitics” published in 1996, Boris Von says: “The Middle East is the center of the ancient world. And at the heart of Middle East there is the Persian Gulf with his ancient land that is located at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates, and is the center of the center. Thus every tension there would have its impact on Europe and Africa”. (14)

During the cold war, the Persian Gulf region was one of the three strategic fronts along with Europe and Southeast Asia, where at the time, the two poles of conflict were contending. The geopolitical stability in the region was central to the strategic balance between those powers. But in the new world order and under the balance of future powers, the power that controls the geo-economic regions will have the upper hand. Edward Luttwak and John Schreiber, the geo-economy researchers, agree with this point of view and think that the control of Persian Gulf region is a prelude to the control of the world. Therefore by setting up this new order, the US aims at controlling energy sources, especially in the Persian Gulf region.

It is true that the Persian Gulf is of great importance for several reasons; yet the most important reason is that it contains 66% of crude oil reserves and 33% of gas reserves. Out of the 1003 billion oil barrels that represent all the proved oil reserves in the world, there are 663 billions of barrels in the Persian Gulf, which is equivalent to 66%. As for the other proved reserves, there are 158 billion barrels (15.7%) in the Americas, 62 billion barrels (6.2%) in Africa, 76 billion barrels (7.6%) in Europe and 43 billion barrels (4.3%) in the Middle East and Oceania.

Yet the important thing about the Persian Gulf oil is that it has considerable advantages: the high quality, the large reserves in each well, the possible discovery of new reserves, the low production cost and the low shipping and transport cost. The oil reserves in each of the Persian Gulf wells amount to about 260 million tons while in Venezuela there are 20,000 tons of oil reserves and about 600 tons only in the United States.

According to the forecasts of the International Energy Agency in the 2020 General Future Vision on World Energy, oil production will be up from 62.7 million barrels per day in 1996 to 78.9 million barrels per day in 2010, and it will fall again to 72.2 million barrels per day in 2020. Oil production outside the Persian Gulf will also drop from 45.5 million barrels per day in 1997 to 27 million barrels in 2020. The Persian Gulf oil production will rise by 162.7% (from 17.2 to 45.2 million barrels per day), which means more US and European dependency on Persian Gulf oil. Currently, US oil imports in 2000 accounted for 57%, oil imports to Europe 88% in 2005 and to Japan 100%. According to related studies, the Persian Gulf would provide 60% of the overall oil production in 2020. In the middle of the twentieth century, oil exportation will be limited to the biggest five oil states: Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. Thus it is clear what prompted Kissinger to lay out plans for seizing Persian Gulf oil in 1975.(15)

Iran’s vision of the Persian Gulf

To identify the global Iranian vision of Persian Gulf geopolitics, Iranian experts point out three basic elements:

- Exploiting natural resources, i.e. oil and gas, and maritime ones.

- Insuring the security of waterways.

- Living peacefully and calmly with neighbors.

The strategic geographic (geo-strategic) location of Iran, they think, led to a deep connection between its security and the Persian Gulf’s. Thus Iran and the rest ofPersian Gulf states become bound to consolidate their cooperation in the social, cultural and economic domains, as well as interconnect their common interests so that to create the right circumstances for a durable security in the region. As they draw a rational picture of the neighborhood relations with Persian Gulf states, Iranian experts see that the right and useful way to reach that goal is to include the collective security of all states in the international decisions and laws and to stay away from monopolization and domination policies. When a security system based on “collective cooperation” is adopted throughout the region, the national sources will be set free and the journey of the national evolution begins. Moreover the establishment of a collective security system and a regional cooperation will make the attraction of the foreign investment and technology easy. (16)

Arms race fever

The most dangerous thing that happened in the Persian Gulf since the 1980s, through the Kuwait invasion to the Iraqi occupation in 2003, is the Persian Gulf States rushing to enter the arms race. Persian Gulf States spent heavily on armament because their concerns over the region’s strategic location, its abundant resources and the international conflict over them. For example, Saudi Arabia was ranked second in the world, in 1976, for military spending, while it was ranked 33^rd in 1967, where its total military expenditure reached about 167 billion dollars within seven years between 1980 and 1987. (17)

It can be said that most of the military spending in the Persian Gulf Arab Countries was linked, directly or indirectly, to the American wars in the region and the real and virtual fears from Iran (to which fighting terrorism was later added).

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait covered the biggest part of losses Iraq has suffered in its war against Iran and which reached 452.6 billion dollars since the Iraqi government was unable to keep financing war expenditures few years after it was waged. It is important to note that after the end of the war with Iran, Iraq found itself in front of a beleaguered oil sector and the historical war of legal processes that reached its utmost during the Kuwait invasion in 1990.

However, “the military bill” paid by only three countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council; Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and UAE, as a contribution in the American military effort in Desert Storm and Kuwait’s liberation, was, at minimum, 125 billion dollars. (18)As a result, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries have spent around 400 billion dollars to support Iraq in its war against Iran as well as the American military effort to liberate Kuwait. The paradox is that these states did not wage any effective war against Iraqor against Iran. Despite the big military spending, they rely on the American protection provided by the military bases spread throughout the majority of the Persian Gulf Arab Countries.

It is possible to notice, through a quick comparison between the military spending and the number of forces and weapons in the Persian Gulf, the illogical difference between its states in this regard, the disproportion of spending and its relation with the protection from the virtual “threats” against these states.

On October 31, 2007, BBC Arabic published on its site that Saudi Arabia was one of the ten states that spend the most on weapons in the world, and it was in the vanguard in the Middle East as well as the most important client for western arms companies. The website added that the Saudi arms spending might exceed 50% of its income, and that the United States lagged behind Saudi Arabia in the matter of arms spending of its national income, as the latter spends around thirty billion dollars per year.

Although weapons are available in large numbers, military analysts consider that the Saudi army cannot be a combatant force; however, armament is still one of Saudi Arabia’s priorities as the Iranian regional power rises. (19)The Sunday Telegraph reported, in its issue of February 2007, that Saudi Arabia allocated 50 billion dollars in 2007 for arms’ purchases. (The wider discussion centers on the presence of the Saudi technical cadre that will deal with these sophisticated weapons, the absence of military technical workshops that can contain this amount of arms, and the expiration of these weapons after years of accumulation. On the other hand, some consider that the 2.250.000 km²kingdom needs to be secured with what the state possesses to prevent any strategic vacuum that could be exploited by the enemies).

Along with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates came in the third place among the top five countries importing weapons, following China and India. It has alone contributed with as high as 7% of the world’s total arms imports, and thus surpassing each of Greece and North Korea that were ranked fourth and fifth respectively.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies’ report in 2007 considered that UAE’s military spending is “incredible”, reflecting Abu Dhabi’s concern about the tensed atmosphere in the Persian Gulf. UAE spent more than 39.6% of the total government expenditures, while the world average of military spending is no more than 10%. On the other hand, Iran expended 6.6 billion dollars; i.e. 4.6% of the GDP (for a country that entered a war with Iraq for eight years and is intimidated with war by the United States and Israel…).

A study by the Center of Strategic and International Studies in Washington, among a series of reports about the military capabilities of the Middle East countries, showed that Qatar spent around 3 billion dollars on defense in 2005. It also depleted 32.5% of its total expenditure between 2000 and 2004 in favor of its military forces. However, the study also mentioned that 70% of the servicemen in the Qatari forces were foreigners and did not hold the Qatari nationality, as the number of 18-year-old men was no more than 7 to 10 thousand persons. Besides, the Qatari military does not have the capacity to confront any great military force in the region, such as Iran or Saudi Arabia.

Most of the military reports from different sources show that Gulf Cooperation Council countries, in general, spend tens of billions of dollars on armament. Though the number of their naval, air and land forces doesn’t match the amount of that continually accumulated military arsenal, especially that the majority of Persian Gulf country population who work regularly are non-citizens and do not hold the nationality of the states where they have worked and lived for many years. Thus, it’s impossible that the armament and the large military spending provide a balance in the confrontation with Iran which does not always possess the same sophisticated weapons acquired by the other Persian Gulf States.

On the other hand, Iran has a population of 70 million (which is twice the number of natives in each of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait …). The number of its reservists is around 600,000 soldiers, in addition to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and the Basij trained by the Guards and that can have several millions of volunteers. Iran expanded, during and after the war with Iraq, the main structure of its military industry and established modern factories in collaboration with Russia, China and North Korea.

It owns about 240 arm factories and 12 thousand workshops for military production that includes mainly sites, machine guns, munitions and various-range missiles (most important of which is Shahab1, 2 and 3 that can reach deep into the Israeli territories). Moreover, Iran could also provide around 75% of its domestic needs of tanks and troop carriers. This all means that more armament will not achieve any balance between Iran and the other Persian Gulf states; neither will it lead to stability and security (particularly after Iraq was no longer a part of the power balance against Iran). For the same reason, we can conclude that Iran does not need a military nuclear power to impose its control on the Persian Gulf since it seems that it has already that capability even without this nuclear power. (20)

- Suggestions for a secure Persian Gulf

During the last three decades of the cold war (1971-1981), the United States has been pushing the region’s countries to conclude security agreements. Saudi Arabia followed this course by holding two conferences for foreign ministers in the Persian Gulf States, excluding Iraq and the South of Yemen, in 1974 and 1976, but not for long. On the other hand, Oman called the Persian Gulf States, including Iraq and Iran, to hold a conference at a foreign ministerial level in 1975, and suggested the following:

- Respecting the sovereignty of states and not to interfere in their internal affairs;

- Avoiding using the force of threat and resolving disagreements peacefully;

- Organizing ships’ traffic and permitting sailing in Persian Gulf water;

- Keeping the region away from international conflicts.

All countries agreed to participate in this conference with the exception of Iraq which considered then that the suggested articles contradict its policies, and consequently, the conference was declared failed. The same thing happened the following year and for the same reason.

The second phase started in 1981 with the formation of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The security issue was put at the top of goals and procedures. Therefore, the following clauses were stated as main laws for a secure Persian Gulf:

- Not to intervene in the internal affairs of the states;

- To find a peaceful solution to end the conflicts, and to accept the principles of peaceful coexistence and the collective security of member states;

- To keep the region away from the foreign influence by following the non-alignment policy.

Thus Iran was influenced by the global positive environment revealed by the Gulf Cooperation Council. The Islamic Republic leadership thinks that its security and that of the Persian Gulf are inseparable and thus adopted the following policies in its Persian Gulf regional behavior:

- Insuring the continual transportation of oil from the Persian Gulf region to the international markets;

- Taking interest in the political independence of the Persian Gulf countries regardless their ruling body;

- Rejecting any foreign control over the countries of the region;

- Rejecting every attempt or endeavor from any state in the region to overcome another state;

- Reducing and eliminating the tension and promoting an ambience of confidence between the region states, especially through dialogue;

- Resolving all the conflicts over land and sea frontiers between the region states peacefully;

- Allowing foreigners to sail in the Persian Gulf continually. (21)

According to Iranian experts, the Islamic Republic, with its 1259 km long coast in the Persian Gulf, i.e. more than 45% of this international waterway, thinks that it is highly responsible for maintaining the security in this region. During the last three decades, it adopted decisions to deal with the member states in the Gulf Cooperation Council based on the Islamic teachings, the radical policies and the long-term principled policies it follows. The decisions are as follows:

-To adopt a tension-renouncing policy as a permanent policy and not a temporary tactic;

- To take confidence-reinforcing measures;

- To hold regular and continuous talks in the various cooperation domains;

- To sign bilateral security agreements with the majority of these states;

- To commonly combat drug smuggling, terrorism and organized crimes;

- To propose the economic cooperation measures;

- To propose signing the non-aggression pact;

- To suggest collective security arrangements between coastal countries. (22)

Uses of American pragmatism

The United States succeeded, especially during the neoconservative era, to put the global policies of the Persian Gulf countries in a state of concern about the Iranian neighbor.

Yet it can be said that the techniques of the US political propaganda aimed at creating a virtual enemy for the Arabs, Iran, worked. To achieve its goals, it spread first rumors about the conclusion of strategic security deals between Washington and Tehran at the expense of the Arab national security. Secondly, it stirred up sectarian and ethnic conflicts and planted the seeds of fear of a comprehensive Iranian project aiming at creating a Shiite imperial crescent led by Iran, stretching from Iraq, through the Persian Gulf Countries to Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.

Thus, Washington spared no media, political or military effort to propagate the idea of the New Middle East. It also threatened many states in the region after it occupied Iraq in 2003 and made Israel wage a war against Lebanon in 2006 that would be, as the secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, “the birth pangs of a New Middle East…”.In addition, the United States linked between the overthrow of the authoritarian regime in Iraq and the promotion of democracy, so that the “New Iraq” would be an example to emulate by the region’s people with the cooperation of the United States.

With this strategy, it started to exert pressure on the Persian Gulf countries as well as other (friendly and allied) countries to make various reforms and allow everyone to participate in elections. However, after many electoral attempts, the victory was often in favor of the Islamic powers which are hostile to America. Thus, the American administration found itself in a state of double confusion because the allied governments totally refused “the reform imposed” from outside after the victory of their opponents in elections on one hand, and because of the strategy of “change through democracy” on the other hand. (23)

The vision of Persian Gulf security is not restricted to only one dimension, the military dimension (the deployment of US military bases in most Arab countries, the Iranian nuclear project and the concerns about its goals and effects on the power balance among the Persian Gulf countries)… Yet some consider “terrorism”, for example, as one of the threats against this security, while others take into account the economic security and the flaws in population structure and their effects on the Persian Gulf countries (the flow of foreign workers). The future of the Iranian role, however, is the main concern of the Persian Gulf Arab countries over their security future.

Nevertheless, Iran is concerned about the American military bases deployed in the Persian Gulf, in the presence of a U.S.-Iran tension and an American threat of waging a war and overthrowing the Islamic regime on the pretext of the Iranian nuclear program, which means that any Saudi-Iranian agreement can ease the tension over the security affairs and other problems in the Persian Gulf. However, this is unlikely to happen if the concerns of Washington and the whole western world over the security of oil, its flow and the free passage of its tankers to them were not taken into consideration, even though all of this implies the intervention of this international power either in promoting the stability between the Persian Gulf countries (as during the Shah regime), or in preventing it (just as happened after the Iranian Revolution and the occupation of Iraq…)

The nuclear power, the end of the tunnel

While the Persian Gulf security geography is the focus of a hot debate on both of its nuclear fronts, there are other parallel fronts that sparked a contentious debate, mainly the Iranian nuclear program.

The general picture of the Iranian conduct and rhetoric shows how the Iranians faced the intense changes that continue since 2001:

First: For Tehran, the open confrontation with the West is not limited anymore to the nuclear project. There are other issues of geostrategic nature that become the heart of negotiation and the ground of research for common and stable solutions.

Second: Iran addresses now to the founders of the world order, especially the USA, from its crucial and influencing position on the geostrategic level. In fact, these countries cannot disregard the Iranian influence on the series of crises spreading out from Afghanistan to the Iraq, through Palestine and Lebanon to the strategic straits in Hormuz and Bab-el-Mandeb.

Third: the Iranian rhetoric is based on the basis of a proportioned dialogue with the West, and is the result of two internal and external correlative contexts:

The first context: the regime’s ability to end the internal debate that the West extremely betted on after the presidential election in the summer 2009.

The second one: the capability of the Iranian administration to contain the security, political and economic pressures that accompanied the dialogue facts over the nuclear program in more than a decade (24)…

Some found that Tehran’s logic was based on what is considered as postulates, since the West was weak and unable to resume offensive initiatives or preventive occupation wars in the region. Others considered that the West was currently standing on the negative defense line in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon. According to these postulates, it’s illogic to speak about a negotiation process and then violate its terms. Therefore, Tehran doesn’t see itself obliged to adapt to the rules of a no longer valid game, and even the so called “smart sanctions” are no more important for it because this means of pressure, as the Iranian officials think, doesn’t draw an international consensus anymore.

Does this indicate the beginning of a new phase of confrontations between Tehran and the G6 over the nuclear issue?

The next developments are likely to go in this direction. And as the administration of Barack Obama failed to take an initiative that could reverse the rules of the game, Tehran appears to be widening its circles of power on the geo-strategic level. If the Persian Gulf region is to be the most troubled in the coming years, this will be definitely one of the main Iranian concerns about the national security, which makes the principle of dialogue with its Southern neighbors, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf countries, the best and possible solution to maintain the strategic security in the region…

End Notes:

1- Yves Lacoste – The Geopolitics and Geostrategy – Center for Strategic Studies, Research and Documentation – A series of articles translated into Arabic (1) – Page 11 – From: Startegie N0.50 2eme trimestre 1991

2- Ali Larijani – Iran’s Nuclear Program – Challenges and Solutions – A lecture at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies “Tehran” on November 21, 2005

3- Robert Louis and Claire Spencer – Factors if Iran’s Geostrategic Power – From the website of the Royal Institute of International Affairs – London – December 26, 2007

4- MahmoudSariolghalam – The Iranian National Security – A lecture in a seminar titled “Developing Arab-Iranian Relations” held in the island of Kish in Iran on January 24-27, 2002

5- Idem

6- MahmoudSariolghalam. Understanding Iran: Getting past Stereotypes and Mythology. The Washington Quarterly Fall-winter 2003

(*)What is meant here is reference to the Shi’ite’s Imamite as an established and active ideology in the society, state and political system in Iran

7- Alexander Dugin, Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia.

8- Mohammed Jawad Asaych Seraj, Iran foreign Policy towards its Neighbors.

9- Seraj – Idem

10- Idem

11- Idem

12- Sanam Vakil – Iran: The Theory of Balancing the East against the West – “Madarat Gharbiya” journal – Fall 2007 – From “The Balancing Quarterly” journal – Translated by Janette Abi Nader

13- Mahmoud Sariolghalam, Iran national security, an aforementioned reference.

14- Mohammad Jawad Asyach Seraj.

15- Idem

16- Idem

17- Talal Attrissi, Geostrategia al Hadaba al Iraniyya – Ishkaliyyat wa Bada’il, The Civilization Center for the Development of Islamic Thought, Beirut, 2009 (p. 215)

18- Abdul Jalil Zaid Marhoun, ‘Amn Al Khaleejba’ad al Harb al Barida, Dar AnNahar, Beirut, first edition, 1997, p.97-101

19- BBCarabic.com, October 31, 2007

20- Talal Attrissi, idem, p.220

21- Mohammed Jawad Asaych, idem

22- Mohammed Jawad AsaychSeraj, idem

23- Talal Attrissi, Geostrategia al Hadaba al Iraniyya – Ishkaliyyat wa Bada’il, an aforementioned reference, p.211

24- Mahmoud Haidar, Al I’itiraf bi Iran Nawawiyya, Awan Kuwaiti newspaper, 29/3/2010

Let’s remind the Arab states that Israel is the arch enemy in the region, not Iran Let’s remind the Arab states that Israel is the...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Let’s remind the Arab states that Israel is the arch enemy in the region, not Iran

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 07:38:55 +0000

Let’s remind the Arab states that Israel is the arch enemy in the region, not Iran

Seyed G Safavi

International Peace Studies Centre (IPSC)

peace-ipsc.org

The West’s efforts to portray Iran as the arch enemy are aimed at creating discord among regional states. At present, most Arab states have taken refuge with the US and even Israel to escape the (so-called) threat posed by Iran. In addition to having dangerous results, this move poses a serious threat to regional peace, security, and stability. Many Persian Gulf and Middle Eastern states distrust Iran and erroneously believe that by supporting the opposition, the Islamic Republic is bent on changing regimes in regional countries. In turn, Iran distrusts the Arab states’ strategic ally, namely the US, and deems the US and Israel as highly perilous for Middle East peace and security.

Most Arab states are of the view that Iran intends to become a regional hegemonic power that will support the Arab opposition. An important theme of the Annapolis Conference which was unfortunately ignored by Iranian officials was the US, Israel, and a major part of Arab states coalescing against Iran. This Conference presented Iran, rather than Israel, as the biggest threat to the region. In addition, the US has launched a new phase of efforts by finalizing its missile defense project and arms shipment to the Persian Gulf states. Prior to this, of course, Patriot missiles had already been stationed in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain. Based on new agreements, more arms will be shipped to the Persian Gulf states.

On the other hand, the Arabs’ distrust of Iran has created new power arrangements in the region, resulting in the Persian Gulf and Middle East regions to face greater instability. Iran is a rival to the Saudi Arabian and Egyptian governments in the Persian Gulf and Middle East. These states consider Iran’s role in Palestine contrary to their influence over Palestine and over the region in general. They do not like Iran to play an effective role in the Middle East. Iran’s influence over Lebanon and support of Hezbollah is contrary to the interests of Saudi Arabia and Egypt. These states are of the belief that Middle East issues such as Palestine, Hezbollah, and Iraq are Arab issues which Iran has no right to interfere in. In response, the Islamic Republic states that if the issue of Palestine is purely an Arab concern, why is it that the Egyptian administration, in tandem with Israel, works against the people of Gaza and lays siege to this region? How is it that the Saudi administration which calls itself the “servant of the holy shrines” fails to take any measures against Israel for bombardment of Gaza? If the issue of Palestine is an Arab issue, what role do the Arabs play (in trying to solve it)? Why have the Arabs left the Palestinians alone (and failed to help them)? And if the issue is a purely Islamic and humanitarian one, all countries, including Iran, should collaborate to resolve it.

Another issue that some Arab states bring up every now and then based on a fully erroneous perception is Iran’s creation of a Shiite security belt and its support of Muslim freedom movements in order to promote Shiism. This is while Iran’s most prominent efforts are aimed at supporting the Palestinian people who are Sunnis. Iran has all along paid heavily for supporting the Sunni Palestinians vis a vis Israel and the
West. As a result, the notion of Shiite supremacy over the region is a misconception. In principle, the Shiite – Sunni rivalry is a colonialist issue which benefits only the Western colonialists. Iran’s support of the two Sunni nations, namely Bosnia and Afghanistan, in the past and present flagrantly counters the above – mentioned misconception. In the case of Lebanon, too, Iran’s support is geared toward supporting the interests of the people of Lebanon. Iran opposes religious and ethnic sectarianism and has constructive ties with most players involved in the Lebanese issue irrespective of their religious tendencies. Iran also supports Iraq’s territorial integrity without regard for sectarianism. Iran, moreover, has friendly ties with Sunni Kurds, as well as Arabs who are independent of US colonialism, irrespective of what sect they are.

In the Middle East region, Iran is in rivalry with Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Other regional states are in no position to compete with or take measures against Iran. Small Arab states have different approaches to Iran and Saudi Arabia policies as they are impacted by both. For instance, due to many problems with Saudi Arabia, Qatar has simultaneously established ties with the US, Israel, and Iran and pursues a policy to create balance among these three important countries vis – a – vis Saudi Arabia. Kuwait mainly pursues policies that are in tandem with those of Saudi Arabia while it distrusts Iran. Bahrain is of the view that some in Iran do not recognize Bahrain’s independence, keep calling Bahrain part of Iranian territory, and by supporting the opposition in Bahrain attempt to bring the Shiites to power there. With a population less than one million, Bahrain, due to its fear of Iran, has turned to the US and Saudi Arabia. Recently, though, Bahrain has made efforts to expand its friendly ties with Iran. Mutual visits by both countries’ officials indicate that the two governments are eager to improve their relations.

Arab lobbies and representations at the United Nations and other international bodies, as well as the Arab media, are of prime importance and should not be overlooked. Iran and Arab states should keep in mind that the US and Israel are the main threats to the Persian Gulf and the Middle East. Since 1948, Israel has waged six major wars against Arab and Muslim states, while Iran has never initiated a war against any Arab state. Iran even supported the Kuwaiti people and administration in the face of Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait. This is while in all Israel – Palestine – Arab conflicts, the US has consistently and unilaterally supported Israel’s illegitimate interests. Since the culmination of the Islamic Revolution, Iran has always been supportive of the Arab nations. Unfortunately, the Arab states’ aloofness from Iran has been coupled with their closeness with Israel and the US.

The region’s elites and peace activists should adopt a strategic diplomacy to inform Arab states and nations of the disadvantages of Arab convergence with the US and Israel. On the other hand, Arab states are fearful of war between Iran and the US as they know they would be the first victims of any military confrontation between Tehran and Washington. Based on my knowledge, the Arabs do not encourage the US to launch a military attack on Iran. This is what differentiates the Arab policies from those of Israel since Israel believes that Iran is the main problem in the Middle East and that if the US had attacked Iran instead of Iraq, all regional problems would have been resolved.

Arab states are unanimous with Israel and the US in demanding a halt to Iran’s nuclear proliferation. Unfortunately, Iran has not as yet made effective efforts to neutralize Western plots and inform the Arabs of its friendly stances. Arab states have had relations with the US for years and cannot be disengaged from Washington in a short time span. They can, however, be enlightened about dangers posed by Israel and about the fact that Iran does not want to bring about a regime change in Arab countries. Iran recognizes the independence of Arab states and has no intention to dominate these countries. As such, Muslim countries in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East can engage in open, transparent, and constructive dialogs, as well as a wise, rational, and scientific diplomacy based on mutual interests in order to settle mutual issues and to turn destructive rivalries into beneficial convergence. Under such conditions, all regional states will benefit from the new status quo while chances of regional peace, stability, and security will increase.

The Active Role of the Iranian Geo-strategy The Persian Gulf as a ground for Hot Debate The Active Role of the Iranian Geo-strategy The Persian Gulf...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Perfect Man in Rumi’s Perspective

admin — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:51:02 +0000

Perfect Man in Rumi’s Perspective¹

Dr Seyed G Safavi

philosophy@iranianstudies.org

London Academy of Iranian Studies – SOAS, University of London

23^rd to 27^th of June, FIDEM 2009 – Palermo, Italy

Abstract:

This article seeks to clarify the perspective of Rumi (1207-1273), who is one of the greatest Persian and Muslim Sufi poets of all time, on some of the dimensions of ‘Perfect Man’. These include: 1) ‘his position in existence’; 2) ‘his attributes’ and; 3) ‘the mutual relations between Perfect Man and the spiritual wayfarer’.

One of the most important concepts of Rumi’s spiritual thought is that of Perfect Man, which is in relation to God, existence, spiritual wayfarering and guidance.

The Perfect Man is the vicegerent of Allah and is the reflection of His Essence. He is the ‘alchemist’, ‘elixir’, ‘spiritualist’, ‘the antidote of separation’, ‘the door of Divine mercy’, ‘the shadow of God’ and ‘the lion of Truth’.

All of the different dimensions of Perfect Man are in the state of perfection; these dimensions include ‘good speech’, ‘good acts’, ‘good ethics’ and ‘unique and exalted intuitive knowledge’. He has annihilated in Allah and has gained subsistence in Him. He is the symbol of patience, bravery, chivalry, generosity and justice.

Perfect Man is responsible for leading and guiding humanity. The spiritual wayfarer must heed to the commands and teachings of Perfect Man, and must be ‘observant of manners’. Five spiritual manners that the spiritual wayfarer must observe in relation to the sheikh or pir or Perfect Man are: 1) Purity of intention in relation to the pir; 2) Accepting the speech of the pir with desire and certainty; 3) Concealing the secrets of the pir; 4) Submitting to and having patience towards the commands of the pir; 5) Not objecting to the speech, acts and states of the pir. The Perfect Man cares about the spiritual wayfarers and guides them to the straight path.

Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, ‘Ali, Hassan, Hussain and the Mahdi of Fatima are evident examples of Perfect Man. In each era, one Perfect Man must exist for leading and guiding humanity; the rest of the Divine Saints are his vicegerents in different places and societies.

Introduction:

The Position of Perfect Man in Existence:

Mystics consider Perfect Man as the main centre of the world⁵. Heaven and Hell are considered as elements of the reality of Perfect Man and are respectively opposite to Divine wrath and mercy. The reality and status of Perfect Man is above any form of thought or imagination, and is beyond the sphere of the thinking of regular human beings.

In the inner home of Divine Saints there is naught but Haqq (Allah). Therefore, neither the reality of Perfect Man is known and evident to the understanding and intellect of regular human beings, nor the Essence of Allah. Perfect Man is the complete and perfect manifestation of Allah, apart fromEssential Neccessity which is exclusive to Allah. The life of Perfect human beings before becoming manifested in the material world has been present in the infinite sea of Divine existence and generosity, and their spirit before entering this material world has benefited from Divine attention; thus, they have been acquainted with the realities and secrets of existence and, as such, are worthy of being the vicegerents of Allah. The spirits of Divine Saints were present before Allah’s consultation with the angels about the creation of human beings. When the angels were attempting to prevent the creation of human beings, the spirit of the mystics discreetly mocked them as the angels did not have the potential to understand the status of the vicegerent of Allah, for the spirits of the mystics were aware of the creations of Allah before their creation and were aware of their quiddity.

The spiritual reality of Perfect human beings is one. In terms of reality they are one, although in terms of their power of infleunce and their spiritual power, they are varied; just as the waves of the sea multiply and diversify by the wind, mystics are also diverse in terms of their bodies, although this diversity does not in any way affect their spiritual unity. In reality, the human spirits are a unified light, which after becoming appointed to different bodies, appear diverse and multiple. The one who pays attention to the diversity of bodies becomes afflicted with doubt concerning the reality of spirits, whereas spiritual dispersion and disunity is specific to animal spirits. The spirit that Allah blew into the human being, however, is the spirit of Perfect Man which is united; therefore, the spirits of Prophets and Divine Saints, which are devoid of the desires of the soul, are united.

As Allah has shone His light upon His creations, whoever receives this light goes to the right path and whoever does not receive it goes astray and into darkness. Thus, the whole of existence is a manifestation of the unified existence of Allah.

The heart of Perfect Man is a mirror in which Divine reality is reflected. The Prophets and Divine Saints are aware of the realities of the world and the reality of everyone and everything is evident to them, just as the daylight is a reflection of their inner light and the dark night is a reflection of their state of concealment, which conceals the faults of human beings. The illumination of Prophet Muhammad’s heart is to the extent that in the Holy Qur’an Allah has sworn upon the day light, as a manifestation of the spiritual light of Prophet Muhammad, for Allah never swears on anything transient. When Allah swears on the night in the Qur’an, it is also because of Prophet Muhammad’s attribute of concealment, and because his body concealed his inner light from people.

In each era there is a Perfect Man and the chain of the wilayah of the Prophet will continue till the Day of Resurrection. According to the Shi’a, Imam Mahdi of the children of Imam ‘Ali, is alive as the Perfect Man and will rise by the command of Allah for the protection of the Divine religion. Perfect Man, like Divine light and intellect, is the messenger of Allah. Perfect Man transfers the realities and wisdoms to the next wali and benefits the next wali by his light, for Divine Saints, in terms of their states of spiritual wayfaring and the degrees of discovering the Truth, have ranks which end in the Perfect Man. By reaching the high ranks through asceticism, the spiritual wayfarer, following the removal of the 700 fold veils, will reach a stage where he is present in the presence of Allah. By passing all the stages of the perfection of the soul and passing all the veils, the spiritual wayfarer becomes like the Sea of Divine Unity.

The world is never denied the presence of the vicegerent of Allah and the Perfect Man. In all eras amongst all nations, a Perfect Man is present as the warner and the giver of glad tidings, who establishes peace and destroys oppression. Perfect Man, by uniting lives, causes the purification of hearts and defeats war and enmity. As such, human beings become compassionate towards each other like a mother, as the Prophet addressed all of the Muslims as one person. Through the barakah of the presence of Prophet Muhammad, Muslims became a unified soul, without the presence of which they would have been each others’ enemies. For example, the ancient feud between the tribes of Aws and Khazraj was removed by the barakah of the being of the Prophet and the light of Islam, and by following the Divine teaching that “the believers are brothers to each other” they became each other’s brothers. Further, by destroying their diversities, they became like a unified body, just as the grapes which in appearance are separate from each other, by squeezing become a unified liquid. Perfect Man and imperfect man are opposed to one another, thus, through gaining perfection, imperfect man becomes a worthy companion for Perfect Man.

The degree of discovering the Truth for the Divine Saints is relative to their closeness to Allah; when they are closer to the Divine court, they reach the Divine grace without intermediation, as the world reaches the Divine grace through Perfect Man.

The reality of the Prophets and Divine Saints is the Muhammadan light, which is the symbol of the Divine names and attributes. By benefitting from this light the Prophets reach the state of fana (annihilation) and baqa (subsistence) and unmediated meeting with Allah, and the mystics, with the aid of the Muhammadan light, come to possess countless ranks and kiramat (miracles).

In the state of greatness Perfect Man is like the shining sun, the warmth of whose being warms the heavens and the spiritual wayfarers.

The sun of this world is limited to rising and setting at a specific place, whereas the Sun of Haqq is unlimited and infinite. The beings of the world are portrayals of the light of Haqq, for the being of Haqq does not have a sunset and sunrise and is constant. Although human beings are like the smallest particles of the Divine ray, in both worlds they are such radiant suns that nothing can place a shadow over them, darkening them. Yet still, Perfect Man rotates around the Sun of Reality and is in need of it.

With the attention that the Sun of Reality (Allah) pays the Perfect Man, He separates Perfect Man from other things and makes him aware of Himself. The Sun of Reality is aware of all the causes; losing hope in Him and cutting off from Him is impossible, as the separation of the human being from the sun and the fish from water is impossible. As such, the spiritual life of Perfect Man is also completely dependent on the Sun of Reality and it is not possible for Perfect Man to sever himself from Him, for the Perfect Man knows that without being aware of Haqq, he will reach nowhere.

Allah is always with the Perfect Man. The spirit of Perfect Man, which is in constant connection with and nearness to Allah, is connected to his body, although the two are not of the same genus.

Common sense or sensual perception is a phenomenon which is present in all human beings, regardless of whether they are good or bad. The reason for the spiritual perfection and strength of angels in comparison to regular human beings is that they are above common sense, but the spirit of human beings is stronger and more perfect than that of angels, and this was the reason for the prostration of the angels to Adam, for that which is superior never prostrates to that which is inferior.

All the realities and secrets are congregated within the human being, whereas angels do not possess such comprehensiveness. The spirit and life and realities of all the creations follow the life which surpasses the limits of the intellect and intuition and joins infinity. As such, the fish of the sea become the needle of the clothes of the mystic Ibrahim Adham, just as the string follows the needle. Hence, the grades of beings which have life are animals, human beings, angels and Perfect Man, who is superior and better than all of them. The Perfect wali, by relying upon his wilayah and infleunce, places all the beings that are below him under his influence.

The context of the twelfth discourse of the second book of Mathnawi⁶ is the stage of Haqq al-Yaqin of Perfect Man. The unity of knowledge, knowledgeable and known becomes clear through Divine wisdom, and the best human being reaches unity with Haqq. Reaching ‘Ayn al-Yaqin is conditional on belief in the science of ta’wil (esoteric interpretation), and moving from the exoteric to the esoteric. The function of this stage is the creation of social and spiritual unity within the society of believers despite having outward differences.

The Attributes of Perfect Man:

Perfect human beings do not need the tools of empirical thinking, for they are drowned within the sea of Divine ma’rifah. They reach salvation and spiritual success through love, asceticism and by intuitive ma’arifah. In this way, from the appearance of sensory phenomena the mystics reach beyond sense, whereas this form of sensory perceptions for non-mystics is simply an outward observation, for their thought belongs to the past or the future. However, since Perfect human beings are free from the limits of time and their thinking is not limited to a specific time, the problem of knowing is solved for them and they do not require the tools which are needed by regular human beings. As such, the spirit of the mystics, which is free from the limitations of time, is capable of the observation of the being of objects before their creation. Perfect human beings see all beings in any state, before their appearance in the world of meaning, and know of the good and bad of everything; in reality, their spirit has drunk from the pure Divine drinks before creation. They see the opposite of each thing in its being and are aware of its effects and outcome before its appearance, and have seen existence when it has been non-existent. The heavens revolve lovingly along the axis of Perfect Man and the sun gets is light and illumination from the being of Perfect Man. Perfect Man is the axis of the world and as long as he exists in the world, the world is protected and established.

The Perfect mystic is never separated from Allah, for he considers his own attributes as the Divine Essence and attributes, and his separation from Haqq is impossible.

What the seekers of exoteric knowledge and empirical knowledge gain after years of bearing hardship and spending a life time on this path is evident to Perfect human beings from the beginning.

Allah has been exemplified in the Perfect Man and he is the reflection of Divine attributes. As the Ana al-Haqq (I am Haqq) of Manthur, which was the result of his journey away from the realm of self-seeing and egocentrism, turned to light, the Ana al-Haqq (I am Haqq) of the Pharaoh, which was out of egocentrism and forgetfulness of Haqq, was a lie and a corrupt speech.

As the different parts of the body have different forms and qualities, Perfect human beings also have different forms and qualities, but the mind of regular human beings is unable to understand these different states and qualities. The result of the manifestation of the Divine Essence upon the spirit of human beings is the advent of Perfect Man, who is the ultimate reason of creation. As Lady Maryam became pregnant with Jesus, the life of Perfect Man also benefits from the manifestation of Divine light. Through Perfect Man’s life benefitting from Allah and receiving Divine wisdom and knowledge, all the beings of the world gain life, for the Perfect Man enriches and benefits lives, such that even the world benefits from the existence of Perfect Man.

The world of the Perfect Man as a result of receiving Divine wisdom and knowledge is constantly being annihilated and again reappears, till the moment of his final resurrection arrives, which is the separation of the Perfect Man from the material world and his connection to the Divine reality, which is the essence of the one God. The story of the thirsty man who was sitting on a wall which prevented him from reaching the water, and by hearing the sound of the water as the result of a brick of the wall falling into it, losing himself and considering it as the granting of his prayer, is the story of the spirit which is happy for the breaking and destruction of its material desires and wishes, for in reality they prevent reaching and meeting the Haqq. In reality, this sound for those who are thirsty for union with the Divine is like the sound of Israfil who resurrects the dead, or like the days of paying the zakat for the darwish, or the freedom from poverty for the destitute, or the hearing of the glad tidings of freedom for the prisoner. This sound is like the Divine breath which reached the Prophet from Yemen from one of his companions, or like the scent of Prophets which causes the intersession of the Prophet for the sinners on the Day of Judgement, or like the scent of Yusuf’s which gave Jacob his sight back.

Regular human beings only see the outward form of objects. Perfect Man, however, is a vehicle for the manifestation of the Divine secrets and sees the quiddity of objects.

The highest form of knowledge belongs to the pure Sufis and those free from the chain of sensualities, for this means knowing the Haqq by the Haqq without the intermediation of other causes; this kind of knowledge belongs to the Prophets and Divine Saints.

In this regards, Imam Sajjad says that: I have known You by Yourself and You guided me towards Yourself and called me towards Yourself, and if You were not, I would not have known who You are⁷.

The mystic who has reached union knows that the phenomena is not essential, rather, it is noumen which is essential, for he knows that there is only one Being and the rest are reflections of Him. Further, he does not see a world unless he sees the relation of causality between the world and its creator, for he only sees the Universal Essence in which he is drowned.

Some of the signs of the spiritual wisdom of Perfect Man have been stated in discourse ten of the second book of the Mathnawi⁸, some of which are opening paths, creating positive existential transformation, patience, giving selflessly and chivalry becoming part of the character of the mystics. The mystics are the kings of the world of the hearts, but the temporal kings rule on their thrones. The beginning of the illumination of mystics by the unseen light in the stage of Haqq al-Yaqin is because of the freedom of their attention from the chains of the soul; at this stage Divine attributes replace spiritual talents. In the stage of ‘Ayn al-Yaqin the mystic sees clearly the realities; this kind of seeing is firm and is opposite to other forms of knowledge, which are debatable. The reality which is discovered at the stage of ‘Ayn al-Yaqin is a universal issue and is not only an individual experience, as some of the western scholars have stated, for it is experienced by all the Divine Saints and also because they have informed others of it and have stated it for the worthy in a manner understandable to them. Further, the door and path for reaching such a spiritual knowledge is open to everyone; it requires “wanting”, “need”, “hard-work” and a “master”. The reality of the Sheikh and his light does not have an end or limit.

Disbelief (kufr) is the symbol of the veil of darkness and deductive belief is the symbol of the veil of light. The disbeliever is covered from the Truth, and also the person who has stopped at the rank of deductive belief and ‘Ilm al-Yaqin is also veiled. It is only Perfect Man who has reached the stage of seeing reality and certain knowledge which is the stage of Haqq al-Yaqin and, as such, is freed from the veils.

Yahya and Jesus, in discourse twelve of the second book, are the symbol of Perfect Man and Prophet Muhammad is the symbol of the best Perfect human being.

The Mutual Relations of Perfect Man and the Spiritual Wayfarer:

The spiritual wayfarer reaches the intention and the destination with the guidance of the guide, thus, if the guide is an imperfect human being he will cause the spiritual wayfarer to deviate and go astray from the path of Haqq. The spiritual wayfarer, by making his actions and states compatible to that of the guide, will also become perfect in the end, whereas becoming compatible and socialising with imperfect human beings will lead to the decreasing of the intellect ⁹.

Perfect Man distances himself from ignorant people, as the Great Name of Allah which gives Prophets and Divine Saints the power of miracles can cause the destruction of the ignorant. Those who seek to learn the Great Name must have a soul which is more pure than rain and an understanding which is greater than that of the angels, and must have never sinned. Desiring to reach such a stage requires a very long time, so that the soul of the human being becomes pure and his prayers become accepted, and for Allah to consider him as trustworthy in keeping the Divine secrets so that he can reach the stage of being the Divine Trustee. This is portrayed by the cane becoming a serpent in the hand of Moses because of the purity of his spirit and soul, whereas it would have been useless in the hands of a regular person.

The best way of spiritual wayfaring is benefitting from the presence of a spiritual guide, for being present in the presence of the Perfect Man protects the spiritual wayfarer from the temptations of the devil. In reality, the heart of the mystic is a book for accepting Divine inspirations and miracles and is devoid of letters and words. The result of the work of thinkers is their writings, yet the result of the work of the mystic is the knowledge that, on the one hand, is the result of spiritual wayfaring (acquired knowledge), and on the other hand is the other wisdoms that are revealed to his heart from Allah through revelation (intuitive knowledge). Thus, for reaching reality, the first knowledge is not sufficient; rather, through asceticism with the guidance of Perfect Man, spiritual wayfaring will become complete and the wayfarer will reach the objective.

Intuitive knowledge is superior to acquired knowledge for reaching the stage of Perfect spiritual wayfarer. In the beginning, the spiritual wayfarer is in search of a guide and by finding him and making use of his teachings and guidance, after a while the love of union with Allah creates such a joy in him that he will walk the path till he reaches the stage of liqa’ Allah (meeting Allah).

When the spiritual wayfarer becomes aware of and grateful for the valuable gift of the Perfect Man as the guide, as a result of this gratitude the Divine blessings and compassion increase, and he will understand the reality without intermediation and will join the ranks of the people of Truth. The wayfarer that walks the path with love is much more exalted than the wayfarer who walks the path by imitation. The heart of the wayfarer becoming familiar with the Divine realities is like the opening of the doors of the Heaven of reality. Such a heart, that is the treasury of Divine secrets, is an open door for seeing Divine attributes and is like a valuable gem for the mystic, whereas for others it is like a stone wall.

The lovers of the world who do not accept the invitation of the people of Truth and consider it as deception, are not aware that the wayfarers of the path of Truth are not in need of their world and are constantly moving towards their original abode, which is the Divine Heaven. The world-worshipers accuse the people of Truth of wanting to throw them out of the kingdom of their beloved, as they said to Musa, and they deny the friendship of the people of Truth with Allah, as they asked the Prophet for the signs of his friendship and closeness to Allah and the power that Allah had given him. This is because they are ignorant that this world and whatever is in it is created because of the sacred being of Perfect Man and the wayfarers of the path of Truth. Perfect human beings and the wayfarers of the path of Truth pass the stages of spiritual wayfaring one after the other, and free many human beings from the chains of the material world and worldly desires. The purpose of their socialising with world-lovers is in order to guide them and intercede for them with their Lord. The person is prosperous who, as a result of the guidance of Perfect Man is guided towards the path of Truth, and as a result of companionship with him becomes a wayfarer of the path of Truth; for in such a state he will definitely be blessed by the blessings of Allah, and will not be alone and without a helper, and Allah will grant his prayers. Perfect Man follows the Divine Will; by the command of Allah he guides human beings in this world, and whenever Allah calls him towards Himself he gladly moves towards Allah. Perfect Man is the manifestation of Allah, but at the same time is not of the same genus as him. However, he is illuminated by the Divine light and considers himself naught in the presence of Allah. Although Divine Saints are not of the same genus as Allah – as Allah is Eternal and Self-Subsistent, while they are accidental and their existence is dependent upon the Divine Will – because they have annihilated their existence in Allah and because of His Eternal and unlimited existence, they also are subsistent and the signs of Allah are evident in them. Therefore, those who desire such a rank must annihilate within Allah so that they may reach the stage of liqa’ Allah.

The wayfarers of the path of Truth understand the teachings of Perfect Man based on their spiritual potential. The effect that is created in the heart of spiritual wayfarers as a result of the influence of the pir and the Divine wisdom and knowledge will be destroyed if the wayfarer loses the light of guidance, and his heart will become afflicted by disbelief and corruption and the water of life that flows in his being will turn into blood. As a result of the light of Haqq being shown to the mountain, the mountain gains life and becomes fragmented, so how is it possible that the effect of Haqq is without effect on people? The life of such people will not become illuminated by the Divine light, they will never become of the Men of Allah, they will not reply to the call of Allah with Love, and the purity of Divine love and compassion cannot be seen in their being. However, it is possible for such people that by asceticism and worship and through overcoming the desires of their soul, their hearts can be illuminated by the Divine light and they can be saved.

When the Perfect Man destroys the mountain of egocentrism and humanity in the being of the spiritual wayfarer, the worldly and physical desires of the wayfarer are destroyed. The spiritual revolution that is created in the heart of the wayfarer of the path of Truth by the Perfect Man is far greater in comparison to the Day of Judgement and is like a cure for a wound, for this cure protects the wayfarer from the wound of punishment on the Day of Judgement and even evil-doers become good-doers by witnessing this.

Socialising with the Perfect Man results in happiness and spiritual illumination, even in the hearts of those with a wilted heart. People do not know who resides in the inner house of Divine Saints, so whatever form of rudeness that they commit towards the Divine Saints is due to their ignorance. The mystic who has reached union and is a guide must guide the spiritual wayfarers by his speech and action according to their potential and talent so that they do not believe something false about themselves which will lead to them being led astray.

A person who is ignorant of the belief of Perfect Man and does not himself have such a belief is a disbeliever. A person who is not aware of the life and the spirit of the Perfect Man is dead, for the life and spirit of the Perfect Man is like the manifestation of Allah, and whoever is unaware of that true life has, in reality, died by ignorance and forgetfulness.

The belief of the mystic is the true perception of Divine Unity, and without this vision spiritual life does not exist. The reason for the perfection and superiority of human beings in contrast to animals is their higher degree of awareness and knowledge.

Perfect Man is complete good, and accusation and saying bad things about others, for them, is exactly like having gone astray. Perfect Man is an infinite elixir. The mystic, by the mediation of his elixir of love and knowledge, transforms the copper of the being of spiritual wayfarers to spiritual gold. People who have not been guided cannot in anyway damage the esoteric knowledge of the Perfect Man and decrease from his status.

The fire of lust and desires of the soul is afraid of the guide who is after putting it out, but Perfect Man, who is the source of pure water, has no fear of animalistic attributes and lust and soulful desires. Those who worship themselves are seeking to find a mistake in the complete moon of the being of Perfect Man. The heart of the spiritual wayfarer is like Heaven, but those who are prisoners of the desires of the soul are seeking to find a thorn in that Heaven, although they will find no thorn other than the thorn of their own being. Those who follow their nafs attempt to veil the Sun of the Reality of the wali of Haqq by denying it and seeking faults in it, but they will fail at this. By appearing in the presence of Perfect human beings and serving and accompanying them, the blessings of Allah will encompass the life of the human being, while jealousy towards the Divine Saints will result in the Divine grace and mercy being cut off from the individual.

In Rumi’s Mathnawi, The Prophet of Islam said: Allah has removed any form of evil from the Prophets and Divine Saints, and has purified their place of prostration (sujud) till the seventh level of Earth¹⁰.

Jealousy of the Prophets of Allah and the Divine Saints results in the human being transformed into the devil in this world. If the mystic benefits from the world, the world will not corrupt his spirit, but if worldly people drown in worldly blessings, they will lose themselves.

For Perfect Man has annihilated his human attributes and has become the manifestation of Divine attributes and lights, and all his actions have become Divine, thus he has become like the Divine grace and the fires of his nafs have transformed into the light of knowledge. Further, their power is derived from Divine power, just as the birds of Ababil by benefitting from Divine power killed the elephants; however, their power was exclusively from Allah.

People should not be rude towards the Divine Saints, fight them, consider themselves as their equal or abuse their humbleness, for they will be punished.

He who is not a Prophet must follow the path that the Prophet has shown him, and until having reached the stage of becoming a sheikh, must follow the Perfect Man so that he can be freed from the well of egoism and the appetitive soul (nafs al-ammarah), and reach an exalted spiritual rank.

Those who are not the kings of the path must follow and obey a pure king, and those who are not captains of the ship must not go towards the Sea of Reality alone; rather, they must follow a person who is knowledgeable of the knowledge of the path, so that the wind of temptation does not destroy their ship.

The individual who is at the stage of learning and is being guided must accept the speech of Haqq by remaining silent, and until he has become the tongue of Haqq and has learnt directly from the Absolute Being, he must learn from Perfect human beings who have learned from Haqq and are the manifestations of Divine revelation and inspiration. He must speak to the Divine Saints as a beggar and must be humble before the Saints of the Divine path, so that he does not act with arrogance and enmity and is not afflicted by forgetfulness and lust.

In reality, regardless of how much the wali reveals of his esoteric knowledge, what he says is like a drop of rain in comparison to the sea.

For Perfect Man who is free from boundaries, even the principle of moderation is relative, for moderation applies to issues which have a beginning and an end. However, Perfect Man who has reached union with the Divine speaks of the Divine secrets and realities which have no beginning or end. They are filled with Divine secrets and knowledge; however, they only bestow parts of those Divine secrets and knowledge based on the state and rank of their followers.

The Perfect mystic and the pir open the path for the seekers of Haqq and Reality with pure and sacred intentions. Even the wayfarers who have not reached the highest degrees of perfection are not afflicted with mistake, let alone the most perfect of them. The sound of Divine Unity of the men of Haqq sets fire to doubt. The spiritual wayfarer who is a beginner but is under the guidance of the Perfect guide is much more superior to a wayfarer who has travelled on the path for years without a guide.

Conclusion:

Therefore, according to the teachings of Rumi, in a Semantic methodology Perfect Man is placed in a square/triangle geometrical form. The centre of this form is Allah, the sides of it are the “universe”, “people” and “guidance”, and the perfect man is its “diameter”, which relates the different sides to each other and creates “a light and reflective relation” between the centre, which is Allah, and the sides, and Perfect Man is the “Caliph” and the “representative” of Allah.

Bibliography:

A. Nasafi, Al-insan al-kamil,Tahuri, Tehran, 1362.

F. Lewis, Rumi Past and Present, East and West, One World Publisher, Oxford, 2000.

Imam Sajjad, Sahifeh Sajadieh, Ansaryan, Qom, 1386.

J. Rumi, Mathnawi, Hermes, Tehran, 2007.

M.Ibn Arabi, Al-Insan al-kamil, Jami, Tehran, 1386.

S.G. Safavi, Rumi Teachings, Xlibris, Philadelphia, 2008.

S.G. Safavi, The Structure of Rumi’s Mathnawi, London Academy of Iranian Studies Press, London, 2006.

S.G. Safavi and S. Weightman, Rumi’s Mystical Design, SUNY press, Albany, USA, 2009.

W. Chittic, The Sufi Path of Love, SUNY Press, Albany, USA, 1983.

Rumi and Mulla Sadra on Theoretical and Practical Reason HU Rumi and Mulla Sadra on Theoretical and Practical...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Rumi and Mulla Sadra on Theoretical and Practical Reason

admin — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:47:56 +0000

Rumi and Mulla Sadra on Theoretical and Practical Reason

By Prof. Seyed G Safavi

London Academy of Iranian Studies

philosophy@iranianstudies.org

www.iranianstudies.org

SIEPM, XII International Congress of Medieval Philosophy,

Palermo, Italy, 16-22 September 2007

Abstract

Rumi (1207-1273) great Persian sage has used around 34 terms on Reason in his masterpiece Mathnawi that may be categorised into 3 main types:

1- Meta Theoretical and Practical Reason, which are Universal Reason and First Reason.

2- Theoretical Reason, which is for perception of truth and untruth. These are faithful reason, perfect reason, honourable reason and Divine seeing reason.

3- Practical reason, which is for distinction of Good and Evil. These are material reason, resurrection reason, partial reason, popular reason, and brief reason.

According to Rumi everyone has Reason, which, upon finding a perfect man, may help him to transcendent from Particular Reason to Universal Reason.

According to Mulla Sadra (979-1571) great Iranian Muslim philosopher, there are 4 types of Theoretical and Practical Reason, based on perfection. Theoretical Reason ascends from “material reason” (‘aql hayuluni), “reason by proficiency” (‘aql bi al-malakeh), “reason in act” (‘aql bi al-fi’l) to the “acquired reason” (‘aql bi al mustafad).

Practical reason may be divided into the following: polishing/refinement of apparent/outer part, polishing the inner part, illuminating the heart, annihilation of soul from its essence.

According to Mulla Sadra’s transcendent philosophy, which is based on “principality of Being” (asalat wujud).each act of knowledge involves the being of the knower and the hierarchy of the faculties of knowledge correspond to the hierarchy of existence. Reason is in its essence a Divine light.

——————————————————————————————————————-

In contemporary Western languages the essential difference between intellect (intellectus) and reason (ratio) that one finds in the Middle Ages Christian philosophy is generally forgotten and word intellect is used for all practical purposes as the same of reason. (On the distinction between intellect and reason, see Nasr, “KNOWLEDGE and THE SACRED”, chapter 1 and 4). In Islamic languages a single word ‘aql , is used to indicate both reason and intellect, but the difference between the two as well as their interrelationship and the dependence of reason upon the intellect is always reserved in mind. Al ‘aql in Arabic language is from root ‘ql, which means to bind. It means it is the faculty that bind man to the Truth, to God, to his Source and Beginning. ‘Aql is also used as reason and intelligence.

In Islamic thought, practical reason is the use of reason to decide how to act. This contrasts with theoretical reason (often called speculative intellect) which is the use of reason to decide what to believe. For example: scientists use practical reason to decide how to build a telescope, but theoretical reason to decide which of two theories of light and optics is the best.

Rumi (1207-1273) the great 13^th Persian ‘Arif/sage, has used around 34 terms on Reason/Intellect in his masterpiece Mathnawi that may be categorised into 3 main types:

1- Meta Theoretical and Practical Reason, which are Universal Intellect/Reason and First intellect/Reason. God generates the First intellect. The universal intellect/ ‘AQL KULL is the first creation of God, through which He then creates the universe.

2- Theoretical Reason/Intellect, which is for perception of truth and untruth, and differentiates truth from falsehood, right from wrong. These are faithful reason ‘AQL-E IMANI, perfect reason ‘AQL KAMIL, honourable reason/’AQL SHARIF and Divine reason/ ‘AQL RABANI

According to Rumi the origin of intellect is Universal Intellect ‘AQL-E KULL. (See Rumi, Mathnawi, book 1, verses 1906-1910).

Faithful intellect is the intellect which is based on faith and looking for knowledge and perfection. (R.M.B4, V1987, 1983-1992). It has deep and strong connection with spiritual world.

‘AQL KAMIL/perfect intellect (R.M.B5,V739) is seeing truth and looking towards the Absolute Truth and the Creator of the Universal Intellect. It is receiving knowledge from the Absolute Wise / ‘Alim.

The honourable reason / ‘AQL SHARIF (R.M.B2.V 3514 and 3514-3520), which is the intellect that has capacity to find and see the truth. NAFS AMARIH/ carnal soul and physical senses are its opposites. They try to stop it to access to truth. This intellect is NUR-E LATIF/ fine light. ‘AQL JALIL/the glorious-great intellect (R.M.B1, V 3325), which is the intellect travelling towards God (SAYR-E ILA ALLAH)and able to understand secrets of HAQ is another term that Rumi used, which is very closed to the ‘AQL SHARIF.

The Divine reason /‘Aql Rabani, which is intellect that never sees anything without seeing God therein.

The divine intellect is the intellect of the mystic who has reached union with God and who has submerged his intellect in the universal intellect and has therefore become divine.

The divine intellect is capable of understanding and discovering the realities of the the material/physical world and the Divine/metaphysical world, and existence as a whole.

The process of the transformation and perfection of the particular intellect into the divine intellect is by the revolution, changes and transformations that occur in the mystics understanding and spiritual needs, the necessary requirement of which is severing one ties and attachments to the world. ( see Discourse five to eight in The structure of book 3 in Rumi’s Mathnai as a whole, Seyed G Safavi, Rumi International Conference, Istanbul, May 2007).

3- Practical reason, which is for distinction of Good and Evil. These are material reason, resurrection reason, partial reason, popular reason, and brief reason.

The discursive reason ‘AQL MA’ASH (R.M.B1.V. 1065), which has only attention to the material world and gaining benefit from material issues. ‘AQL MAASH, which is superseded by ‘AQL MA’AD. ( See Discourse four and eight in The Structure of Rumi’s Mathnawi, Safavi),

The resurrection reason /‘AQL MA’AD (R.M..B1, V.14- IN HOWSH), which is in contrast with the material reason, that is reason which always has attention to God for all of his acts and manners in personal and social life. This reason is connected to the spiritual world and its judgments are according to divine values. That is for those who have escaped from the bondage of the carnal or discursive reason/ ‘AQL MA’ASH. ( See Discourse four and eight in The Structure of Rumi’s Mathnawi, Safavi),

The partial reason ‘AQL JOZEI (R.M.B1, V 2881, 3503, B3, V.15590, 3585, B4, V.1247, 3031, B5, 460-468), which is the reason that only thinks of the material life. Particular reason can accomplish the control of the NAFS-I AMARIH, with the clear example in the story “the Caliph, the Arab of the Desert and his wife in book one of Rumi’s Mathnawi” of the ‘AQL/ intellect being taken in by NAFS/soul and being infected with worldliness. ( see Discourse one to four in The structure of book 3 in Rumi’s Mathnai as a whole. Seyed G Safavi, Rumi International Conference, Istanbul, May 2007).

The popular reason/ ‘AQL ‘AWAM (R.M.B4, V. 3287 and 3288-3300), which is reason that can’t understand transcendent and divine’s values.

The brief reason /‘AQL MOKHTASAR (R.M.B4, V. 2174, 2170-2178), which is reason that doesn’t distinguished between pure and tainted/ impure acts.

According to Rumi everyone has Reason, which, upon finding a perfect man, may help him to transcendent from Particular Reason to Universal Reason.

According to Mulla Sadra (1571-1641),the great 17^th century Iranian Muslim philosopher, Nafs-e Natiqeh (rational soul) is the distinguishing factor between mankind and animals. This faculty can understand KOLYYAT/ universals and JOZEIYAT/particulars and is also MOTOSARIF/ possessing in meanings and forms. This faculty has two sub-faculties/QOWEH which are called the Theoretical Intellect and the Practical reason, because of mankind potentiality to learn knowledge from his superior which is the “world of intellects”/ ‘ALAM-E ‘UQUL or the Active intellect and his ability to manage that which is inferior/MADUN to it. Theoretical intellect understands TASAWORAT//ideas and TASDIQAT/judgments and is able to identify truth and falseness Practical reason comprehends mankind’s acts and manners and identifies good and bad acts and manners. There are four types of Theoretical and Practical reason, based on perfection. (Mulla Sadra, ISHRAQ 8 ,MASHAHD 3 in Al-Shawahid al-rububiyyah,.Mulla Sadra, Mathnawi,.Mulla Sadra, Fi Itahad-I al-‘aqil wa al-m’qul, in Majmieh Rasael Falsafi-I Sadr al-Mot’alehin,)

Theoretical Intellect ascends from “material reason” (‘aql hayuluni), “reason by proficiency” (‘aql bi al-malakeh), “reason in act” (‘aql bi al-fi’l) to the “acquired reason” (‘aql bi al mustafad). The human being possesses intelligence in virtuality. The four devisions of the theoretical reason are as follows: the first division, is called material or potential intelligence / BIL-QUWWAH, on accounts of its similarity to prime matter-HAYULA- in being devoid of intelligible an with respect to its potentiality in relation to all forms. The second, is As the soul grows in knowledge the first intelligible forms are placed in the soul from the above, and man attains to the stage of the habitual intelligence/ BI ALMALAKAH, which is the plane wherein it understands self-evident concepts (TASAWWURAT) and judgments (TASDIQAT); for the knowledge of self evident matters (BADIHIYAT) precedes the knowledge of speculative matters (NAZARIYYEH). The third, Further on, as the intellect becomes fully actualised in the mind, man reaches the stage of actual intellect / BI LF’IL, which understands speculative matters through the mediation of self-evident concepts and judgments, though some of them are based on the other; and the fourth, as this process is completed, the acquired intelligence /MUSTAFAD, which is the intellect that partakes of all self-evident and speculative intelligibles corresponding to the realities of the higher and lower realms of existence by virtue of having all of them present before it and its actual consciousness of them is reached. Thus it is a “knowledge world” similar to the external world. Finally above these stages stands the Active intellect ‘aql-I Fa’al., which is Divine, and illuminates the mind through the act of knowledge. (see Mulla Sadra, ISHRAQ 9-12, MASHHAD 3 in Shawahi al robobyyeh and Allameh M.H. Tabatabaei, the elements of Islamic Metaphysics, chapter 7 and chapter 6, part 11 in Nihayat al hikmat, Nasr, Islamic Philosophy from its Origin to the Present, Chapter 6).

Practical reason may be divided into the following: firstly, the polishing/refinement of apparent/outer part, secondly, polishing the inner part, thirdly, illuminating the heart, and finally the annihilation of the soul from its essence. (see Mulla Sadra, ISHRAQ 13, MASHHAD 3 in Shawahi al robobyyeh).

The first is practicing the orders of divine messengers. Such as praying, fasting, avoiding wine, free sex, gambling, theft, killing people and etc.

The second is to get far a way from bad moral activity which could transfer the light heart into the dark heart such as, DOROGH/lying, TOHMAT/accusation, defamation, GHAYBAT/backbiting, GHOROR/pride, KEBR/ arrogance, anger, selfishness etc.

“‘AQLHA DYDAM BISAN-I NURHA ## LIK PINHAN GASHTIH DAR NAR-I HAWA”

“CHASHM-I ‘AQL AR CHAND BASHAD ‘EIN-I NUR ## KHAK-I SHAHWAT SAZADASH DAR GUR KUR”

“CHASH ‘AQL AR CHAND BASHAD NUR-I PAK ## KUR MIGARDAD CHU DIL BANDAD BIH KHAK”(Mulla Sadra, Mathnawi, p162).

“عـقــل ها ديــدم بسـان نــورهـا لـيـک پنـهان گـشتـه در نـار هــوی

چشم عقل ار چند باشد عيـن نور خاک شهوت سازدش در گور کور

چشم عقل ار چند باشد نور پاک کور می گردد چو دل بندد به خاک”

(Mulla Sadra, Mathnawi, p162).

“ I have seen intellects the like of lights

But they are hidden by the fire of lust

The eye of intellect although like light

Blind it is turned in the grave by the soil of lust

The eye of intellect although pure light

Blind it is turned when it falls for soil” (Mulla Sadra, Mathnawi, p162).

“‘AQL U SHAHWAT ZIDD-I YEKDIGAR BUWAD ## CHUN KELID U QUFL BAR YEK DAR BUWAD”

‘AQL-I TU KHAOBID CHUN SHAHWAT BIKHAST ## ZANKIH SHAHWAT ZIDD-I ‘AQL AST U SAKHAST”

“SHAHWAT BAR KHAOST ‘AQL KARD KHAOB ## ‘AQL KHAOB ‘ALUD ,KEY BASHAD SAWAB”

“SHAHWAT ASKHAK AST U ‘AQL AZ KIRDIGAR ## KIRDIGAR U KHAK RA BA HAM CHEKAR” (Mulla Sadra, Mathnawi, p163).

عقـل و شهـوت ضــد يکــديگـر بـود چـون کلـيـــد و قـفــل بــر يـک در بــود

عقل تو خوابيد چون شهوت بخاست زان که شهوت ضد عقل است و سخاست

شهـوتت بـرخـاست عقـلت کـرد خــواب عقـل خواب آلـود، کـی باشد صـواب

شهـوت از خاک است و عقـل از کـردگار کـردگار و خـاک را با هـم چـه کار

(Mulla Sadra, Mathnawi, p163).

“Countering each other intellect and lust

As luck and key on one door they are

Once lust awoke your intellect slept

As countering intellect and generosity is lust.

Your lust awoke and your intellect slept

When is a drowsy intellect right

Lust is from soil and from the creator is the intellect

What are the creator and soil to one other”(Mulla Sadra, Mathnawi, p163).

The third, is the illuminating of the heart is by the light of “knowledge forms” (SOWAR-E ILMIYYEH) and praiseworthy attributes. and the fourth, is the annihilation of the soul from its essence which can only be achieved by having attention to God and His holy presence. (see Mulla Sadra, Shawahi al rububeyyeh, Ishraq 13).

According to Mulla Sadra’s transcendent philosophy, which is based on the “principality of Being” (asalat wujud).each act of knowledge involves the being of the knower. And the hierarchy of the faculties of knowledge correspond to the hierarchy of existence. Reason is in its essence a Divine light and practical reason is based on Theoretical intellect which in essence is the illuminative intellect.

“NAFS CHUN KAMIL SHUD AZ ‘ILM U ‘AMAL ## ‘UQDEH GITY BAR U GARDAD HALL”

“HAR DU QUWAT RU BEH ‘ILLYYN NIHAND ## JOMLIGI JISM U RAWAN RA JAN DIHAND” (Mulla Sadra, Mathnawi, p165).

“نفس چون کامل شد از علــم و عمــل عقــده گـيتـی بـر او گـرديـد حــل

هــر دو قـوت رو به عـليـيـن نهـنــد جملگـی جسم و روان را جان دهند”

(Mulla Sadra, Mathnawi, p165).

“Once the soul is perfected from knowledge and act

Solved for it is the problem of the world

Both attributes are eminent

As they both give life to the body and soul” ” (Mulla Sadra, Mathnawi, p165).

Conclusion:

Intellect makes no mistake. It’s that other thing that makes mistakes.(Chittick, Me and Rumi, The Autobiography of Shams-I Tabrizi, p22, see also Chittick’s point of view on intellect according to Rumi in p 381).

Purification of the soul/heart from its material defilement, TAJARUUD/catharsis is of utter importance for both Rumi and Mulla Sadra, for having pure theoretical and practical reason. Also both emphasised that only by connecting to the universal intellect, man’s intellect can guide him to the truth/HAQIQAT and to good acts/’AMAL HASAN.

Both believe that the purification of the intellect is by spiritual love. And ‘AQL/intellect and JAN/RUH/spirit are used by both to denote the Divine Essence under different aspects.

In Islamic thought, a millennium of discussion on the relations between demonstration / BURHAN related to the faculty of intellect/reason, mysticism/ ‘IRFAN related to the faculty of the heart/intellect associated with inner intuition and illumination, and Qur’an or revelation related to the prophetic function reaches its peak in the synthesis of Mulla Sadra’s transcendent philosophy.

Note. Abbreviations: R. Rumi, M.Mathnawi, B.book, V.verse.

References:

1-Rumi,Mathnawi, edited by Estelami, Mohammad, Tehran, 1379.

2-Rumi, Fihi ma Fih, edited, Foruzanfar, Badi’al Zaman,Tehran, 1983.

3-Shams- Tabrizi, Me & Rumi, translated by Chittick, William, Kentucky, 2004.

4-Shams- Tabrizi, Maqalat Sham-Tabrizi, edited by Movahhed.Mohammad.Ali, Tehran, 1369.

5-Mulla Sadra, Al-Shawahid al-rububiyyah, Tehran, 1987.

6-Mulla Sadra, Mathnawi, edited by Fayzi, Mustafa, Qum.1376.

7-Mulla Sadra, Fi Itahad-I al-‘aqil wa al-m’qul, in Majmieh Rasael Falsafi-I Sadr al-Mot’alehin, edited by Naji Isfahani, Hamid, Tehran, 1996.

8-Tabataba’i, Allamah, Sayyid Muhammad Husayn, Bidayat al-Hikmah, traaslated to English by Qara’I, Sayyid Ali Quli, London 2003.

9-Tabataba’i, Allamah, Sayyid Muhammad Husayn, Nihayat al-Hikmah, Tehran, 1370.

10-Tabataba’i, Allamah, Sayyid Muhammad Husayn, Usul Falsafeh wa Rawish Realism, commentarh by Mutahhari, Murtaza, Qum.

11-Nasr Seyyed Hossein, Knowledge and the Sacred, New York, 1981.

12-Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, Islamic Philosophy from its Origin to the Present, chapter 6, New York, 2006.

13- Safavi, Seyed G, The Structure of Rumi’s Mathnawi, London, 2006.

14-Safavi,Seyed G, The structure of book 3 in Rumi’s Mathnai as a whole, Rumi International Conference, Istanbul, May 2007).

15-Safavi, Seyed G, .Rumi’s Thought, Tehran 2003,

16-Safavi, Seyed G, Perception according to Mulla Sadra, Tehran,2002..

Perception According to Mulla Sadra Perception According to Mulla Sadra Edited by Seyed G Safavi,...
Mulla Sadra & Comparative Philosophy on Causation Mulla Sadra & Comparative Philosophy on Causation Edited by...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Transcendent Philosophy Journal

admin — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:22:51 +0000

Volume 10 . December 2009

Volume 9 . December 2008

Volume 8 . December 2007

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Islamic Perspective Journal

admin — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:16:01 +0000

Number Three, 2010

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The Situation of Islamic philosophy in Present Time

admin — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 03:39:42 +0000

The Situation of Islamic philosophy in Present Time

A discussion with Professor Seyyed H Nasr. By Dr Seyed G Safavi, 2003, 60pp, £4.(written by farsi & English)

A Comparative Study on Islamic and Western Philosophy A Comparative Study on Islamic and Western Philosophy Edited by...
Mulla Sadra & Comparative Philosophy on Causation Mulla Sadra & Comparative Philosophy on Causation Edited by...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

A Comparative Study on Islamic and Western Philosophy

admin — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 03:38:36 +0000

A Comparative Study on Islamic and Western Philosophy

Edited by Seyed G Safavi, 2002, 192pp, £9.

The present book consists of 8 articles, concerning Comparative Study on Islamic and Western Philosophy. The articles are written by scholars from Asian, European and American universities.

Mulla Sadra & Comparative Philosophy on Causation Mulla Sadra & Comparative Philosophy on Causation Edited by...
Perception According to Mulla Sadra Perception According to Mulla Sadra Edited by Seyed G Safavi,...
Dialogue among Civilisations Dialogue among Civilisations Edited by Seyed G Safavi, 2003, 398...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Perception According to Mulla Sadra

admin — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 03:37:41 +0000

Perception According to Mulla Sadra

Edited by Seyed G Safavi, 2002, 334pp, £13.

The present book consists of 19 articles, concerning perception according to Mulla Sadra. The articles are written by scholars from Asian, European and American universities.

Mulla Sadra & Comparative Philosophy on Causation Mulla Sadra & Comparative Philosophy on Causation Edited by...
A Comparative Study on Islamic and Western Philosophy A Comparative Study on Islamic and Western Philosophy Edited by...
Dialogue among Civilisations Dialogue among Civilisations Edited by Seyed G Safavi, 2003, 398...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.