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This paper presents a detailed analysis of the development of mystic poetry through dividing its evolution into three eras. To this end, initially, the first era signifying the age of creation and growth of this trend is briefly examined . The paper, than, proceeds to discuss the second era with particular emphasis on the three prominent poets of that interval, Shah Nematollah Valli, Mohammad Shirin Maghrebi, and Shah Qasem Anvar.

More specifically, the stimulus behind this section of the paper is to pursue why this trend in mystic poetry faded away, despite its heydays when those poets lived. Finally, to be more objective, a corpus including ten lyric verses from each of the abovementioned poets is analyzed at linguistic, rhythmic, and rhrtorical levels.

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In Sufi terminology, Shat'h is a series of aesthetic words expressed involuntarily by mystics during the mystical experiences. There have been multifarious interpretations and judgments concerning these paradoxes ranging from linguistic and epistemic interpretations to religious ones. The Sufis and their opponents have also voiced their diametrically opposing views on  this issue. The present study addresses the traditional Sufi doctrines as well as what has been suggested about the various aspects of  Shat'h including its ambiguity, its relationship to poetry, and its paradoxicality as argued by the contemporaries. The central issue of concern  is whether these aesthetic words carry more emotional or epistemic content. Another impetus behind this research is to probe whether the linguistic expression of these words is indeed a representation of a special form of life. A deep understanding of these words requires a certain affinity and empathy with this form of life without which it's hardly possible to see the hidden meanings of the words. Thus, it is argued that the justification of Shat'h is more importand than its explanation.

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Islamic mysticism and Sufism are among important mental and cultural issues which have influenced Islamic – Iranian culture and Persian language and literature profusely. So the various dimensions of this mental and practical school must be revisited. One way to approach the subject and the end of this school as well as the history and content and changes is to examine the definitions which the pioneers and leading Sufis have provided. In this article, we have a critical look at these definitions in order to know this mental- practical school better and to clarify its hidden dimensions of that. To this end, in addition to referring to the leaders and followers of Sufism, their mental and practical framework will be illustrated.

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The word "fancy" was one of the most frequently used expressions of the theologians before the 8^th century and was not among the common expressions in the texts of Sufism in this period. Ebn-e-Arabi was the first to borrow the term from Ebn-e-Sina and Sohrevardi in order to describe his specific thoughts on the universe and the human relation with God. He uses the term to refer to whatever beyond God and the phenomena which do not have more than imaginary existence. He also uses the term for the Limbo world which is the intermediary between the World of Nature and the Heavenly World. Prior to him,  however, the word "fancy" was used exclusively in the texts of Sufism and was realized through fantasizing like dream trips, legendary events, heavenly creatures' observations, mental mastery over future and distant happenings, and callings of the spirits and individuals all of which make the source of a lot of  Sofistic narratives and miracles.

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Abu BakrShibli (247-334 AH), the eminent and famous mystical Sufi of Bagdad, despite his great status in mysticism and mystical wayfaring is known for his insanity, which made him known as one of the madmen of the prominent centuries of Islamic mysticism. No doubt those who tried to emphasize his greatness could see through the veil of his abnormal and subversive insanity his hidden wisdom and mystical perception. A glance at the personality and character of this Sufi Master and an analysis of the causes of his madness will help us to understand his real but different character. The present article is an attempt to demonstrate howShibliuses insanity as a mask in order to attain true knowledge.

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Hakim Sanāyi Qaznavi (d. 532 AH) who is one of the most influential thinkers and poets of didactic Sufi poetry has always been followed by other poets and mystics of Iran. This paper aims at making a comprehensive study of his Hadiqah and Divān and also intends to explain his opinions about the questions of transcendence or immanence, eternality and contingency, and whether divine Names and attributes are fixed or not and God's intention of creating the universe. The researchers have attempted to compare these opinions with those of other famous theological sects. Therefore, at first the views of the leaders of the Ash'arites, Mu'tazilites, Matoridites, Karrāmits, and 12-Imam Shiites were presented on these issues and then Sanāyi's opinion was analyzed and classified accordingly. This study shows that Sanāyi has used Islamic texts and rational teachings of his era to prove his claims. He has adopted a transcendent and even a negative approach in theology and his positions, contrary to the current views, have been different from those of the Ash'arites, Karāmits, and adherents of hadith, and have been in harmony with those of the Mu'tazilites, Mātoridites, and Shiites.

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There are hypotheses in the history of human culture and civilization in which we can find undeniable similarities and commonalities among them, despite their vastly different cultural and historical contexts. For example, finding commonalities between the language of two artistic aesthetic hypotheses, Sufism and Surrealism, which are very different from each other in terms of context, time as well as cultural and historical emergence, is so difficult. Our main issue in this paper is that there are undeniable similarities between these two hypotheses. This is done by means of a descriptive analytical method and comparative literature approach, particularly in American mode of it, whose aim is to study literature across the borders of given territory and research about the relation among literatures and any other epistemic areas such as art, history and philosophy. We found several common aspects between the languages of these two movements. For example, they use rebelliousness and innovative imagination, symbolism, dream, subconscious mind, love, satire, automatic writing, and madness. They also both guide humans to what is superior and profound.
 

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The general discourse of Islamic Sufism is a sacred attitude that was formed in the context of religion, in response to other opposing discourses such as jurisprudence, scholastic theology, philosophy and asceticism. At the end of the second century A.H., the followers of the Sufi movement incorporated the alchemy of love in the ascetic copper. Unlike other intellectual and religious movements of Islamic culture and civilization that regarded  the text of the Qur'an as a text descended from heaven to earth in a dialectical movement between heaven and earth, they considered the Qur'an to be a text for the movement from earth to heaven, that is, the Sufi ascension. With this in mind, we witness various encounters of Sufism with conceptualizing prominent and frequent signs, especially the floating sign of “trust” in Sufi discourse as well as other works of Sufism including scholastic and intuitive prose texts. In this paper, using the descriptive-analytical method and the approach of Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory, we have demonstrated the metamorphoses of this floating sign in several scholastic Sufi texts in Persian and Arabic, and through this we have explained the interactions of these texts.
 

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In the Sufi tradition, wayfaring in the realm of the way requires a guru who can guide the wayfarer through the obstacles and in the discovery and understanding of mystical knowledge and the experience of truth. Many books, which deal with the rites of this spiritual journey and conduct, have emphasized the necessity of the presence of the guru and the commitment of the disciple to follow him. In this guidance and leadership, a discourse is made between the guru and the disciple. A discourse that the guru tries to guide the disciple by maintaining a discipline to oblige the disciple to do it (rites of the way). Based on Michel Foucault’s theory of power discourse, the purpose of this article is to review the guru-disciple relationship and to evaluate the aspects of “subjugation” and “transformation” of the wayfarer from “known and free subject” to “subordinate and bound subject” in the Sufi culture. This article uses the discourse analysis method. The result of this authoritative discourse and the existence of “bound subjects” can be attributed to the lack of a polyphonic and dynamic culture in the Sufi tradition, guru-worship, and the formation of the ritual collection of “manners of pilgrimage of Sheiks’ shrines”.

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