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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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Mantiqu't-Tair, a description of human love for self-scrutiny and meeting with God, is the most significant mystical work of Attar in the form of allegory of birds in search of Simurgh or phoenix. The contradictory presence of the author as a mystic and a historian at the beginning of the book is astonishing. Although the introduction is short and distinct from the mystical text, it is of great importance owing to the interaction of mysticism and history. The historian tries to discover the truth based on the valid documentations and through a retrospective look into the past and carefully analyzing the accuracy of historical quotes and reviews whereas the mystic avoids politics and analysis. In general, history is independent of mysticism but it is the best support for the mystic. Attar is a creative mystic in the sense of innovating mystical symbols and sometimes creating historical characters out of mystical symbols, while he is oblivious to the judgment of history. Symbolizing the historical figures and disregarding the historical documentations, in addition to invalidating his judgment of the individuals, have other outcomes, including a crisis of reasoning and a rejection of mystical principles that Attar himself adheres to. This study is conducted to prove this claim in the introduction of Mantiqu't-Tair.

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The aim of thisarticle is to depict the true, scholarly and deep interest of Iqbal Lahori, the great Pakistani poet,in Iranian culture and Persian Language and civilization. First a couplet out of his renown Ghazal composed on Iranians, which represents the works in verse and prose attributed to Iqbal Lahori , is discussed to show that he was well familiar with the Iranian culture and even with some particular symbols in Persian literature.Thenthe five subjectsof religion, philosophy and theology, mysticism, reason and love, and Persian language, which are the most important constituents of the Iranian culturalare explained and discussed in relation to the work of Iqbal Lahori.It is concluded that the Iranian cultural components,rites and traditions are blendedthoroughly with his literary and philosophical books. 

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The early mystics were actively involved in Jihads wherein they strove for social and political activism and alsofought the enemies of God. Because of the Islamic conquests and wars against the infidels in the early centuries AD, many Sufis lived in conventson the borders and participated in the war against enemies. Among them the names of Hassan Basri, SufyanSauri, Ibrahim Adham, ShaghighBalkhi, Hatam Assam, Abdullah IbnMubarak, Mohammed ibn Karram and the followers of the Karramiyeh are noteworthy. Also,when Sufis began to write books, many of them concentrated on the issue of Jihad; among these writes we can refer toKolabazi, Tirmazi, Neffari, Sarraj, Makki, Khargushi and Sollam .This article is a library based research and draws on the major primary sources on Mysticism. It aims to study the quality of the presence of the Sufis in Jihads, and the issue of Jihad in books by the Sufis.
 

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Literature includes comprehensive areas and covers various topics and issues. It relates to the numerous studies and we can use different methods for analyzing and studying it. In other words, most of the issues of literature are “multi-ethnic” and have been firmly rooted in diverse sciences such as psychology. The concept of spiritual intelligence is encountered with the issues followed by meanings and values that because of them our intelligence will be shaped in a more enriched context and background of meanings. Although the term “spiritual intelligence” is not considered to be one of achievements in the area of mysticism and it is discussed in the field of psychology, it does not mean that this issue is totally abandoned in mystical works. To be fair, concepts related to spiritual intelligence and their equivalents are represented broadly and fruitfully in our mystical literature. The elements of religion and spirituality, especially spiritual intelligence, are of great significance in the era of mystical poem in Persian literature and Rumi’s poetry. The present study is library-based with a descriptive-analytical method which indicates that faith, peace, altruism and its practice in life and also the tolerance of the adversities of real world, are the prominent elements of spiritual intelligence in Rumi’s Mathnavi.

 

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Searching about the beginning of Sufism in different regions of Iran is an important issue that has received less attention. Due to the division of Sufism into two currents of Iraqi mysticism and Khorasan mysticism and paying attention to the Sufis of these two regions, Other Sufi attitudes were neglected in the rest of the regions. Fars and Shiraz was one of the areas that was neglected. It seems that the presence of more than eighty sheikhs of Sufism in Fars and Shiraz before the appearance of Ibn Khafif and the remarkable growth of Sufism in this region, shows the necessity of investigating about the beginning and development of Sufism in this region. In this research, the names of forty-three Sheikhs of Shiraz who lived before Ibn Khafif or are his contemporaries were extracted and their mystical worldview was analyzed as much as possible based on the little remaining information. From the analysis and explanation of the mystical attitude of these forty-three Sufis, it was found that four main Sufi currents can be seen in this period: First, the flow of asceticism and seclusion, which is the primary form of Sufism, second The flow of the Iraqi school of mysticism, third movement of the Khorasan school of mysticism, and fourth The flow of creators of the Shiraz school of mysticism.
The analysis of the numbers shows that in Fars the sheikhs of the Shiraz school predominate and other currents play a lesser role.