ادبیات عرفانی (Aug 2020)
Convergence of Two Jurisprudential and Theosophical Discourses in Hadiqah al-Haqiqah, Mantiq al-Tair and Masnavi Ma’navi
Abstract
In Statement of the Problem, we refer to the meaning of jurisprudence and its role in Islam. Jurisprudence means knowledge in general and knowledge of Islamic rules in particular, which is known as minor jurisprudence and is generally divided into Imamiyya or special jurisprudence and Sunni and Jama'at or public jurisprudence; each of these two branches has several subdivisions. In general, faqih means scientist, as Iranians usually call the community of faqihs scholars or people of science. It could be inferred that where Shams Tabrizi said to Rumi, “leave science and pursue insight” he meant abandon the science of jurisprudence and become a Sufi. In general, independent publications relevant to the subject of this article were not found among Persian books and articles; however, concerning certain subjects, some writings and articles have been printed, such as Molavi Nameh by Jalaluddin Homayi which discusses nine jurisprudential headings mentioned in Masnavi. Abdolhossein Zarrinkoob also refers to the jurisprudential characteristic of Rumi in his book Serre Ney. Mohammad Reza Shafiei Kadkani in his articles "Sufi jurisprudence" and "Sufi Hajj", in the book The Language of Poetry in Sufi Prose, has talked about the issues of jurisprudence in the speeches of Sufis. Also, the articles "The function of jurisprudential discourse in Masnavi Ma’navi" written by Habibollah Abbasi and Gholam Ali Fallah; "The relationship between jurisprudence, ethics and theosophy" by Morteza Javadi Amoli; and "Introduction to the influence of Sufism from jurisprudence" by Hadi Adalatpour show the deployment of jurisprudential concepts by Sufis in their works. Nonetheless, they do not make a mention of the interaction of discourses or discourse transformation, and their points of discussion in these three Masnavies are not the concern of the present article either. The research method adopted in this study is a descriptive-analytical one, relying on the theory of discourse analysis, and it is delimited to three anecdotes about “judgeship” and “judge” and some jurisprudential terms that have been used in all three Masnavies. The Discussion section begins with an explanation of “discourse”; continues with a study of theosophical poetry and a brief reference to its history; and finally focuses on the triad of Persian theosophical poetry wonders, namely Sanai Ghaznavi, Attar Neyshabouri and Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi with references to their biography and works. Explanations have also been provided about the three Masnavies, Hadiqah al-Haqiqah, Mantiq al-Tair and Masnavi Ma’navi. All three theosophical Masnavies, which are the subject of this article, have been composed by poets who deployed a variety of discourses; these discourses both embody the mentality of the poets and display the nature of religious, social and political interactions of their era. Besides the theosophical discourse, which is the dominant discourse, one of the main discourses used in these Masnavies is the jurisprudential discourse which has a prominent and important presence. The jurisprudential sub-discourse in all three Masnavies often turns into a theosophical discourse in interaction with the theosophical discourse. This change does not occur due to the difference or conflict between the two discourses, but in tandem, convergence, and interaction with the jurisprudential discourse in the theosophical discourse. In some cases, it becomes a theosophical discourse, and in some cases, it retains its jurisprudential characteristic and is used only to prove theosophical content. Based on this, we traced the process of interaction and transformation of jurisprudential and theosophical discourse in Hadiqah al-Haqiqah, Mantiq al-Tair and Masnavi Ma’navi via examining three anecdotes with the jurisprudential themes of “judgeship” and “judge”. An anecdote about the justice of kings from Hadiqah, the anecdote about the mystic Vaseti in a Jewish cemetery from Mantiq al-Tair, and the anecdote of a judge complaining and arguing with his deputy about the difficulty of the job of judiciary from Masnavi Ma’navi were selected and analyzed and the process of discourse transformation from jurisprudence to theosophy was explained. Also, the four jurisprudential terms of purity, peace, Hajj (pilgrimage) and repentance, which have been used in all the three Masnavies, were selected and their relevant verses were extracted and analyzed, and their process of discourse interactions was explained briefly. After analyzing the anecdotes and the aforementioned jurisprudential terms, the findings of the study were explained. It was shown that both jurisprudential and theosophical discourses represent a different view of existence as well as a different interpretation of its events. This difference in the orientation of these two discourses with that of Sharia institution and its premises causes the identification and distinction of these two discourses. For example, the jurist's view of religion and its categories is like a biologist's view of a cypress tree, but the Sufi approach to theology is an artistic one resembling a painter's look towards the beauties of a cypress tree. In this article, we observed the varied encounters of jurists and mystics with religious phenomena. Relying on his intuitive knowledge, the mystic presents a new reading of religious concepts, adopted from the reading of the jurist, which indicates the interaction between and convergence of jurisprudential and theosophical discourses. We have also observed that as we move from the stage of development of theosophical poetry to the stage of its elevation and evolution, this convergence of discourses becomes more artistic. As Rumi was both a jurist and a perfect Sufi, he has displayed the issue of discourse interaction or transformation in his Masnavi in a more literary and artistic way.
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