Sh?h Ni‘matullàh Wal?:
An Heir to two Mystical Literary Traditions
Dr. Nasrollah Pourjavady1
Nêr al-Dín Shàh Ni‘matullàh Walí (1331-1437) is primarily known as a Sufi and the founder of the order that is named after him, an order which has experienced a revival in the past two centuries in Iran. What has added to Shàh Ni‘matullàh’s fame in Iran in recent decades is the publication of his Sufi treatises, which are almost all in Persian, as well as his dívàn of Poetry. In his prose works, Shàh is obviously a follower and an interpreter of the works of the Andalusian Sufi Writer Muåyi al-Dín Ibn ‘Arabí (d.1240), particularly his Fuæêæ al-Åikam. Shàh’s prose works, in fact, cannot be understood without some knowledge of the concepts and technical terms that were used by Ibn ‘Arabí and his early commentators, particularly ‘Abd al-Razzàq Kàshàní, who compiled a rather extensive list of Sufi vocabulary (istilàåàt) which was developed by Ibn ‘Arabí’s followers.2 In fact, Shàh Ni‘matullàh was one of the first translators of Kàshàní’s Sufi vocabulary into Persian.
The impact of the ideas and terminology of Ibn ‘Arabí’s School on Shàh Ni‘matullàh is not only discernable in the latter’s prose works, but also in his Divan of Poetry, a work of some 14,000 lines, containing lyric poetry (ghazals) as well as short mathnawis and quatrains (rubà‘ís). In fact, it is precisely because of Shàh’s use of Ibn ‘Arabí’s concepts and terminology in his divan that some contemporary writers have criticized Shàh’s poetry for its lack of artistic and aesthetic value.3 These critics believe that Shàh’s ghazals are nothing but expositions of the mystical doctrines of Ibn ‘Arabí, expressed in the technical Sufi terms and metaphors which are alien to the traditional Persian love poetry and ghazals, the type of poetry that one finds, for example, in the Divans of Aììàr, Sa‘dí, and above all Shàh Ni‘matullàh’s contemporary Hafez.
The criticism made against Shàh Ni‘matullàh’s poetry hinges on the assumption that these Sufi technical terms do not sit comfortably with the language of Persian love poetry. This criticism is no doubt true for those poems in which he has heavily used such terminology; however, it ignores the many poems which are composed purely in the classical Persian style, where neither technical terms nor philosophical-mystical concepts of Ibn ‘Arabí’s school feature at all. In fact, it can be argued that Shàh, as a poet, was not only under the influence of Ibn ‘Arabí’s school, but rather he was also following the tradition of classical Persian love poetry, the tradition which was developed by poets such as ‘Aììàr, Sa‘dí, and Fakhr al-Dín ‘Iraqí. In this paper, I shall try to show by way of some examples how Shàh drew on these two traditions in his ghazals.
The central idea in many of the verses of Shàh Ni‘matullàh’s divan is that of the transcendent unity of existence (waådat-e wujêd). It is repeatedly stated by Shàh, through different metaphors, that there is only one Real Existence, namely God or the Truth/Reality (Åaqq), while everything else that has the appearance of reality is nothing but imagination. In fact, the whole cosmos, according to Ibn ‘Arabí and his followers, is made up of images, even though they are created by the Real. Shàh Ni‘matullàh expresses this idea quite explicitly in a great number of verses. To cite only two examples:4
We are all nothing but images,
and yet in reality we are Him.
How can there be any other being in this world
and the hereafter except the One Being.5
The whole universe is but His Imagination,
And in that Imagination His Beauty can be perceived.6
Shàh Ni‘matullàh expresses the same idea using the metaphor of the ocean or the all encompassing sea (daryà-ye muåíì) and the bubbles or waves forming on the surface of it.
We are all nothing but images
and yet in reality we are Him,
We are all bubbles,
yet in our essence we are the sea.7
We are drowned in the all encompassing sea,
We are the waves and the bubbles,
yet our essence is water.8
The waves, the bubbles, the water, and the sea,
All four of them, for us, are but one.9
The bubble or foam is water and a part of the ocean, yet there is something in it which gives it its separate identity, as it were, and makes it distinct from the Ocean. The cause of the bubble’s identity is nothing but the air inside it, and the air is nothing tangible or substantial, and for this reason it is a good symbol of the imagination. Human beings, who are like bubbles on the ocean of Being, think that they each have their own identity, and independent existence. But in reality they are all parts of the ocean of Being; or for that matter, they cannot even be said to be parts, for they are in complete unity with the One. If human beings think that they possess an independent existence and their own identities, it is because of the air in their head, i.e. their imaginations. Each person imagines a separate existence for his or herself, but it is only a figment of imagination.
The whole world is like a reflection on the surface of water,
like a dream which appears in sleep.10
Another metaphor which Shàh uses to express the oneness of Being is that of the cup and the wine. The air inside the bubble which imagines an identity and being for itself is the cup, while the essence (dhàt) of the bubble, which is water, is like the wine inside the cup.
For us, the waves and the sea are both essentially water,
You may think of the wine and the cup as the bubble.11
In another ghazal, Shàh interprets the meanings of the cup and the wine, by saying:
If you want to know the meaning of the terms ‘cup’ and ‘wine’,
Then consider one as the body, the other as the soul.12
In his divan, Shàh has also barrowed from Ibn ‘Arabí’s school the doctrine of the Divine Names and Attributes. The whole world of creation, according to this doctrine, comes to be as the result of the Divine Names and Attributes, and every entity in this world is a locus of the manifestation of a Divine Name or Attribute. Shàh Ni‘matullàh uses the metaphor of a mirror to represent this idea. Thus every object is a locus or a mirror in which a particular Divine Attribute is reflected.
In every mirror you can seek Him,
Search for the One Named in all the names
Read well the description of the Divine Names (in books)
But seek their meaning in the Book of things.13
Divine Names and Attributes are many, but since they have all originated from the Divine Essence, they are essentially one. Thus, the Divine Essence, which gives unity to the Names and Attributes, is reflected in everything through these Names and Attributes.
With every Attribute Your Essence is a Name
Observe one Reality in several Names.
Thus, see unity and multiplicity together,
One Reality reflected in many things.14
The verses we have quoted so far bear witness to what the contemporary critics of Shàh’s poetry claim. Even more so are verses in which our Sufi poet tries to express his dogmatic beliefs. Shàh particularly expounds his creed in his qasidahs and mathnawis, such as the mathnawi entitled “Manzêma-ye imàniyya”.
In some of his ghazals also, Shàh expresses this type of belief. An example of such verses is:
If the skeptic has doubts in the One
How can the Unitarian have such a doubt.15
In the following verses, Shàh Ni‘matullàh expresses his belief in the Sunni doctrine:
O, You who love the people of Ali,
You are a perfect believer, unequalled.
Tread on the way of Sunnism, which is our path,
Otherwise you will be lost, wandering, and in fault.16
In the poem we have quoted, the mystical aspect of Shàh’s ghazals are mostly under the influence of Ibn Arabí’s ideas and terminology, such as unity, multiplicity, the essence, names and attributes of God, etc. We have also seen how Shàh Ni‘matullàh uses certain metaphors and images to express these ideas. Many of these metaphors are in fact borrowed from traditional Persian ghazals, particularly the metaphor of cup and wine, the tavern, the mirror, the sea and the bubble, metaphors that were already established for the expression of mystical doctrines, outside of Ibn ‘Arabí’s school. Therefore, the criticism of the above mentioned contemporary writers who claim that Shàh’s poetry overuses Ibn ‘Arabí’s technical language is ill-founded. In fact Shàh extensively employs two sets of metaphors which were common in classical Persian love poetry, namely the terms related to the tavern (kharàbàt) and wine-drinking, on the one hand, and to metaphorical love (‘ishq-e majàzí) and the beloved (shàhid) on the other.
We have already cited examples of poetry in which Shàh has used the first of these two sets of metaphors (i.e. the tavern and win-drinking), and we have seen how he makes it clear that he is using these metaphors to express mystical ideas. Similarly he uses the second type of metaphors related to love and love-making in a mystical way, making it clear that by love he means hot human but divine love. To cite an example from one of his ghazals:
You are the heart’s beloved, comfort of the soul—what can be done?
You are the Sultan of the universe—what can be done?
In a pure heart the reflection of Your face appears.
In that mirror You see Yourself alone—what can be done?
You are our king, and we Your obedient slaves;
Whether You summon or dismiss us—what can be done?17
In the above verses, Shàh is speaking as a lover, composing lyrics to his divine Beloved, and it could be that this ghazal and others similar were composed while he was still young, for Shàh has other love poetry in which he speaks not as a lover but as the beloved, when he is claiming to be a spiritual guide and master. In the language of love poetry, he claims to be the cup-bearer himself, not the lover who begs the cup-bearer for wine.
I am the drunken cup-bearer in the tavern of the Universe,
The King in the winehouse of the soul.
I am the water of life in the stream of existence ,
I am the essence of the spirit that gives life to the body.
I am the cup and the wine, the form and essence,
I am the treasure and talisman, the manifest and the hidden.
So strange it is, I am my own beloved, my own lover,
I am the very object of my seeking.18
Though this ghazal obviously uses metaphors of wine-drinking and love, there is no doubt that it is a mystical poem. In love poetry, whether it is mystical or not, the poet is the lover who speaks of the pain of love and his or her separation from the beloved. If the poet is a Sufi and speaks of the cup-bearer and handsome youth (shàhid), regardless of the kind of love he has in mind, be it metaphoric or divine, both the Sufi and non-Sufi reader will have his or her own reading of the poem. But in the above ghazal and others similar to it, the reader can understand it in only one way, because there is no ambiguity; he is talking about divine love. In the last line, as we can see, Shàh is claiming to be a spiritual master and the beloved, and this type of claim is one that a non-Sufi reader, or even a Sufi who is not in the poet’s own spiritual order, (taríqat), might not appreciate or find appealing. Readers of love poetry, in general, expect the poet to be in the role of lover, and speak of a human beloved, whether metaphorically or not.
Since Shàh rarely uses the metaphors of human love and the poetic motif of shàhid-bàzí (playing games with a handsome youth), detailed descriptions of the beloved are hardly found in his divan.
In the following ghazal, Shàh speaks of getting completely drunk, breaking his vow of repentance and seeing his beloved in a dream and being captured by his curl. All the images in this poem are used to convey a mystical meaning, yet aesthetically it is one of the most appealing ghazals in his divan, precisely because it has been composed in the style of Persian Sufi love poetry.
Blind drunk I have collapsed in the Magian tavern,
Breaking my vow of repentance, I have drowned myself
in wine,
Fancying that he might come to me in my dream,
I fixed the image of him in my mind as I went to sleep.
I submitted my heart to his curl and he’s dragging me along,
Like those curls of his, I’m being twisted this way and that,
The sun of his favour gently treats me,
My states are radiantly clear, for I am in the sun.
In the quarter of love, there are a hundred thousand like me,
Who have given up their lives for the beloved.19
In the above ghazal, none of Ibn Arabí’s technical terms have been used, neither does the poet claim to be the spiritual guide or beloved, yet throughout the ghazal one can see the depth of mystical meaning. There are not many ghazals in Shàh’s divan in which every line shows such poetic skill and touches the heart of the reader. However, in most of Shàh’s ghazals, one can find verses which are composed in this poetic language of love and wine-drinking. It may very well be that if a selection of Shàh’s ghazals were made, the artistic value and beauty of his poetry would be better appreciated.