Document Type : علمی- پژوهشی
Authors
1 Aducated/ Department of Persian Language & Literature، Faculty of Humanities, Tehran, Iran
2 Professor/Persian Literature Groupe،Tarbiat Modarres University،Iran
3 Associate Professor/Imam sadeq University، Tehran,Iran
4 Professor/Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
In the thoughts of Muslim mystics, converting of human attributes, is considered as a key idea, which is the basis for the explanation of further fundamental topics like: The identity of human and the quality of his mystical conduct. Before Hujwiri, the concept of Human being, frequently, has been described as an unknown isthmus between the Animal and the Angel. In the meantime, the Human, by annihilating of his attributes, takes distance from the being of the Animal and gets closer to the concept of the Angel. However, the conceptual convergence between the Human and the Angel, only, evolves over a historical process. During this historical evolution, the thoughts of Hujwiri plays as a milestone, because, for the first time, he formulates the idea of Converting Human Attributes to Angels, in the form of cohesive structure. In Sufias' compilations, the story of Joseph (The Prophet) and the Egyptian women, which origins from Quran, has been used frequently as a narrative context, in order to provide an explanation about the matter of converting of Human attributes. The present Article, plans to provide a historical analysis to reveal the path of evolution of the idea of Converting Human Attributes to Angels. Therefore, with an analytical and historical comparative approach, it studies the mentioned narration, throughout various Sofia's work, before and after Hujwiri. Also, this analysis is centered on Hujwiri's thoght, as an important turning point during the historical evolution of this idea.
Highlights
Analysis of the Idea of Conversion of Human Attributes in Hujwiri`s Thoughts
Aducated / Department of Persian Language & Literature، Faculty of Humanities, Tehran, Iran
Professor/Persian Literature Groupe،Tarbiat Modarres University،Iran
Associate Professor/Imam sadeq University، Tehran,Iran
Professor/Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
The concept of “man” in Muslim mystical thought has always fluctuated between the two limits of “animal’ and angel ‘, although in this conceptual system man was able to reach his point of excellence by way of conduct; however, in the Sufis’ view, human nature was unchangeable; therefore, the transformation of man into an angel from the existential or intrinsic point of view was absolutely impossible; therefore, any change in the path of transcendence was only possible from the point of view of change in attributes. Furthermore, any resemblance to the attributes of man to the attributes of angels had always a negative definition, and was never found to be appropriate. This conceptual system continued until the compilation of the book Kashf Al-Mahjub by Hojviri. With a new formulation of the idea of transforming human traits to angels, Hojviri came to the convergence of the concept of man and angel. This new conceptual system was, in fact, the product of a historical development.
Goals and methods
This article seeks to illustrate how the notion of transforming human traits into angels is first formulated in Hojviri’s conceptual system in the form of a coherent theoretical structure. In this passage, we use one of the most important Koranic verses (Yusuf / 31), which was the reference of many Sufis before and after Hojviri, to show how in the narrative context of the story of Prophet Yusuf (pbuh) and Egyptian women, the concept of transforming human traits into angels was formulated. Hojviri’s views act as a bridge to the next stages of the development of this notion and the idea of converting man into an angel from an existential perspective.
In fact, the significance of Hojviri’s beliefs in the history of Islamic mysticism is that in the pre- Hojviri Sufi conceptual system, it was often emphasized that the sacrifice of animal traits brought one closer to the angels, yet an explanation of human traits in angels would not be given.In this conceptual system, what made human beings resemble angels was exclusively animalistic attributes.Accordingly, the three attributes of man do not resemble those of angels, except in the negative sense. For example, Imam Muhammad Ghazali (505 AH) considers the angel and the animal the two frontiers of the human realm to attain the perfection of the human mind, in pursuit of liberation from the attributes of the soul that are lust and anger (See Ghazali, 2014, vol. 1: 4.). Similar to this approach, in the works of Sufis such as Jenid Baghdadi (298 AH) Abunasr Seraj (378 AH) and Abu Talib Maki (386 AH), can be traced.Hojviri, using his own previous Sufi themes and using a number of key terms such as “Reyni veil”, “Ghayni veil”, “Sufi”, “Purity”, “Clearness”, “Opaque”, “Human traits”, “Spirituality”, “Poverty”, and “Kashf al-Mahjub” strive to present the idea of transforming human traits into angels in a coherent and structured theoretical apparatus.In his view, a Sufi is someone who has fallen into poverty with the sacrifice of human qualities or human opacity, while, at the same time, eliminating the opacity requires spiritual virtue and security, thus establishing Sufism as a phase of the Hojviri’s perspective. It is the evolution of man in which “Purity” overcame “humanity” and liberated him from “the opacity of humanity” and “the pestilence of the soul” (See Hojviri, 2013: 52). At the same time, he regards “Purity” as “mortal”; of course, in his view, technology is not an innate but an attribute. In fact, the significance of Hojviri’s work is that on the one hand he uses “Purity” as an equivalent to the meaning of “poverty”. Moreover, he establishes a dialectical relationship between “Purity” and ‘‘opaque”, the presence of which is another absence. Thus, the definition of human traits is not left without definition, and the trait of every trait in man requires a positive trait in him. Such an achievement had never been made so explicitly and clearly before him. Using the key terms “purity”’, “poverty” and “discovery”, Hojviri shows that Sufi attains purity as a poor person by losing his attributes and achieves the capacity to receive the right and mediates the transmission. The ridge of knowledge turns right into humanity. This action is comparable to the angel’s transmission of God’s message to man by the angel of revelation. From this point of view, Sufi performs the same act of the angel of revelation, and from this stage, we can refer to the stage of “transforming human traits into angels”.
Conclusion
By investigating the Sufis’ interpretation of the pre-Hojviri on verse 31 of Sura Yusuf, the hidden angles of this conception become more apparent. This verse refers to a guest of honorable Egyptian wife in whom the women became perplexed after seeing Yusuf’s beauty and called him an angel. In the interpretation of this Koranic verse, all of the Sufis before Sufism agree on three issues:
(1) Yusuf (as) is one of the verses of the truth and not about himself
(2) Yusuf was not an angel and the possibility of evolution in human nature is invalid
(3) Attribution of human traits to a human being does not necessarily mean the realization of the true attributes in him. The meaning of all the terms used in the interpretation of this verse is to abstain from material devices and to oppose lusts and, if used in such terms as “attributed inexistence” and “purity”, have a predominantly negative meaning and means purification. However, Hojviri, referring to the term “purity”, shows that on one side of the story is Yusuf, who owns purity, and on the other, Egyptian women who are opaque. In addition, as the Sufi rule states “Know things by their contractions”, it is expected that knowledge emerges with the contradictions. The knowledge here is the Egyptian women’s awareness of their poverty. In addition, Hojviri emphasizes the divine sign and light of the Sufi image and the power of his conquest in humanity and the transmission of the divine light through him to the opacity of humanity. As a result, there is a semantic convergence between the two concepts of “man” and “angel” in Hojviri’s ideas, contributing to the development of the notion of converting man to angel from an existential perspective in later Sufi works.
Keywords: Conversion of attributes, The Human, The Angel, Hujwiri, The history of idea.
References
- The Holy Quran, (2014), translated by Ezatullah Fooladvand, second edition, Payame Adalat, Tehran.
- Ibn Kathir Damascus, Abu al-Fada'a Ismail ibn Umar, (1986 AD), The Beginning and the End, Volume One, First Edition, Dar al-Fikr.
- Testari, Sahl Ibn Abdullah (1423 AH), Tafsir al-Testari, edited by Mohammad Basel Ayoun al-Sud, first edition, Dar al-Kitab al-Almiyeh, Beirut.
- Khani, Hamed, (2016), Quranic Studies and the History of Ideas, First Edition, Islamic Azad University, Tehran.
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