Author
Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran
Abstract
A number of Muslim mystics believe that knowledge consists of the truths which man’s soul has learned or acquired before being trapped by man’s body and becoming a prisoner in the veils of this material world. This was called the remembrance theory in the philosophy of Plato, and it was based on the acceptance of the immateriality of the soul, a certain relationship between soul and body and the priority of the soul to body. The prophets and the divine saints have come to notify the people and to make them remember those truths in man’s life which he has forgotten because of the veils covering his soul. The reason for the revelation of the Qurān which is called “remembrance” is also emphasizing this fact. The mystic, who moves in the path of Allāh, when coming out of the veils of his body, attains Self- knowledge, a kind of knowledge which is the knowledge of all truths and knowledge about God himself. The present article deals with the differences between Muslim mystics on this issue according to their theoretical and tasting foundations; also the explanation and analysis of “the resemblance theory” in Sufism are examined. Before explaining this theory, we have given a brief explanation of the founfations of this theory such as “the reality of the soul”, “the relation between the soul and the body” and “the priority of the soul to body".
Keywords
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