The Persian Sufi Tradition and Shams al-Dīn Lāhījī Sufi Metamorphosis

Contents

Notes on Transliterations and Pronunciations

Introduction

Subject Matter

Shams al-Dīn Lāhījī in an Age of Transition & the Research Question

The State of the Current Literature, Research Aims, and Situating the Present  Book

Organisation, Methodology & Primary Sources

1. Ibn al-ʿArabī and the Persian Sufis of Irān-shahr

Introduction

Historical Developments of the Akbarī Tradition Before the Timurid Period (Late        Sixth/Thirteenth to Early Ninth/Fifteenth Centuries)

Transmission of the Akbarī Tradition Towards Irān-shahr During the Timurid/Aq Qoyunlu Period

Conclusion: Evaluating the Impact of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Teachings and His Early Followers Upon the Sufis of Irān-shahr During the Turco-Mongol Period       

2. The Samāʿ of Maḥmūd Shabistarī and Shams al-Dīn Lāhījī

Introduction

Maḥmūd Shabistarī and the Gulshan-i Rāz

A Biographical Sketch of Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ʿIbn Yaḥyā Lāhījī

The Question of Confessional Ambiguity in Relation to Lāhījī

Introduction to Lāhījī’s Commentary and the Different Sources of Influence upon the Mafātīḥ al-iʿjāz

ʿAlīd-loyalism and Shīʿī Millennialism in Lāhījī’s Commentary

Other Works from the Genre of Persian Sufi Literature that Influenced Lāhījī’s Commentary

Lāhījī’s Commentary in Connection to the Akbarī School of Thought

Lāhījī’s Commentary in Relation to the Religion of Love

3. Waḥdat al-Wujūd in Lāhījī’s commentary on the Gulshan-i Rāz

Introduction

The Self-Emanation of the One Absolute Wujūd of God and the Creation of the Cosmos

The Role of the Divine Names and Attributes in Lāhījī’s Sufi Metaphysics and Their Relationship with the Immutable Entities

The Ambiguous Ontological Status of the Possible Beings in the Manifest Cosmos: Do they Exist or Not?

The Perpetual Renewal of Creation and the Possibility that the Creatures Acquire Wujūd from the Real

The Cosmos: a Passing Dream and Illusion for those Humans still Asleep

Conclusion: Lāhījī’s Commentary as an Influential and Comprehensive Akbarī text in Persian During the Timurid Period

4. The Perfect Man and Lāhījī’s Sufi Anthropology

Introduction

The Relationship between the Muḥammadan Reality and the Perfect Man within Lāhījī Sufi Cosmology

The Purpose for the Creation of the Perfect Man according to Lāhījī and His Akbarī Predecessors

The Perfect Man as the Spirit of the Cosmos, and the Cosmos as the Corporeal Body of the Perfect Man

The Perfect Man as God’s Vice-Regent and the Subjugation of Every Existent Thing within the Cosmos beneath the Ruling Authority of the Perfect Man

The Perfect Man and Realised Knowledge of God, and the Divine Mystery on Why Mankind is Superior to the Angels

Conclusion: The Perfect Man, the Key to Unlocking Lāhījī’s Vision of the Cosmos

5. Confessional Ambiguity in Lāhījī’s Sufism

Introduction

Lāhījī’s Explication of Friendship with God and Prophethood

The Identity of the Seal of the Friends in Lāhījī’s Commentary

Lāhījī’s Position on the Issue of Human Free Will and Divine Predestination

Lāhījī’s Refutation of the Muʿtazilites by Resorting to the Arguments and Teachings of the Ashʿarites

The Historical Problem of Lāhījī’s Confessional Identity in an Era of Confessional Ambiguity

Conclusion: Lāhījī’s Sufism Determined by the Confessional Ambiguity of His Age

6. Lāhījī’s Sufi Epistemology

Introduction

The Necessary Qualifications of an Authentic Sufi Master

What the Sufi Path Entails According to Lāhījī

Lāhījī’s Definition of Tafakkur and Maʿrifat and the Impossibility of Attaining True Knowledge of God according to the Way of the Falāsifa and Kalām scholars

True Knowledge of God (Maʿrifat) is Only Possible by Following the Way of the Sufi Friends

Self-Realisation Leads to Realised Knowledge of the Divine Self

Conclusion: Lāhījī’s Advocacy of the Sufi Way and His Rejection of the Greek Logic of the Avicennian Philosophers and Mutakallimūn

7. Lāhījī and the Religion of Love

Introduction

Love as a Cosmic Force that Incites Everything into Motion and Being

Lāhījī’s Exposition on Lover, Beloved and Love in the Framework of His Sufi Teachings

The Human Form as the Ultimate Locus for the Contemplation of Divine Beauty, and Lāhījī’s Encouragement of the Sufi Seeker to Contemplate the Divine Beauty through the Face of a Holy Sufi Master

How Love is Born and Nurtured Into a State of Perfection Through the Witnessing of Beauty

The Lover’s Return to the Divine Essence of Love, and the Lover’s Becoming an Inhabitant of the Tavern of Ruins

Conclusion: The Successful Synthesis of the Akbarī Tradition with the Religion of Love in Lāhījī’s System of Sufi Thought

Conclusion

Index

Biography

Mory So is a sessional academic at Western Sydney University. He currently assists with subjects of study in the History and Islamic Studies majors. His doctorate was conferred in 2022 by Western Sydney University, which focused on the subject matter of the present book proposal. Mory is also proficient in Persian, studying the language for a year in 2017 at the International Centre for Persian Studies at Shiraz University, specialising in the reading and comprehension of classical works of the Sufi genre of Persian literature.

"Morokoth So’s study of the thought and intellectual legacy of the Timurid Sufi figure Shams al-Dīn Lāhījī is a necessary read for all those interested in philosophical Sufism and late classical Persian Sufism. Grounded in close readings of primary and secondary literature, with new and beautifully done translations, So’s monograph offers a fresh look at one of the most influential texts in Persian Sufism after the age of Ibn ʿArabī."

Cyrus Zargar, Islamic studies scholar and the Endowed Al-Ghazali Distinguished Professor in Islamic Studies at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida.

"This is the first work in a European language to explore the life and thought of the most famous premodern commentator on Maḥmūḍ Shabistarī’s Gulshan-i rāz, Shams al-Dīn Lāhījī. The book soars in its ability to situate Lāhījī’s intellectual and spiritual project in its social and historical contexts without losing sight of the big picture, namely its metaphysical context. Self-Transformation in the Persian Sufi Tradition thereby offers a clear account of how a key Akbarian philosopher explicates his worldview in contemplative conversation with, and inebriated immersion in, one of the masterpieces of Persian Sufi poetry."

Mohammed Rustom, author of Inrushes of the Heart: The Sufi Philosophy of ʿAyn al-Quḍāt.