Religions and Mysticism

Religions and Mysticism

Epistemological and Dialectical Analysis of Reason in the Thought of Sultan Bahu A Critical Reading of Aql-e Bidar (The Awakened Intellect)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
1 Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran.
2 PhD Student, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
This study examines the epistemological and dialectical understanding of reason in Sultan Bahu’s thought, focusing on his treatise Aql-e Bidar. Although Bahu is known chiefly for his poetic language and mystical depth, a systematic reconstruction of his theory of reason remains absent from contemporary scholarship, which has concentrated on literary, devotional, or historical dimensions and overlooked the logical structure underlying his reflections on reason. Employing qualitative content analysis with critical hermeneutics, this article reconstructs Bahu’s conceptual framework within broader epistemological debates. The analysis shows Bahu advances a two-level epistemology: reason as divine light — an ontological principle — and as a cognitive faculty through which humans acquire, organise, and verify knowledge. A key distinction between “particular” (ordinary) and “universal” (intuitive) reason implicitly critiques instrumental rationality and anticipates present-day concerns over calculative reason; rather than rejecting rationality, Bahu redefines it, calling for its elevation through spiritual discipline. The study identifies three major internal tensions — divine endowment versus human free will, the absence of precise criteria for distinguishing levels of reason, and friction with intense asceticism — which nonetheless form a dialectical structure of dynamic interaction between reasoning and mystical discovery, opening avenues for dialogue between Eastern and Western epistemology.
Keywords
Subjects

Adorno, T. W., & Horkheimer, M. (2002). Dialectic of enlightenment: Philosophical fragments (E. Jephcott, Trans.). Stanford University Press. (Original work published 1944)
al-Ghazzālī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad. (2004). Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn (Muʾayyad al-Dīn Muḥammad Khvārazmī, Trans., 4 vols.). ʿIlmī va Farhangī. (in Persian)
al-Sarrāj al-Ṭūsī, Abū Naṣr ʿAbd Allāh. (2001). al-Lumaʿ fī al-taṣawwuf (M. Mohabbati, Trans. & Ed.). Asāṭīr. (in Persian)
Amin, A. (2006). ʿIrfān va adabīyāt-i ʿirfānī dar shibh-i qāra (2nd ed.). Amīr Kabīr. (in Persian)
Bāhū, Sulṭān Muḥammad Akbar. (2001). ʿAql-i bīdār [Manuscript]. Kitābkhāna-yi Markazī-yi Dānishgāh-i Panjāb. (in Persian)
Bāhū, Sulṭān Muḥammad Akbar. (2021). Maḥakk al-fiqār-i kalān (G. M. Qaderi, Ed.). Akādimī-yi Islāmī-yi Pākistān. (in Persian)
BonJour, L. (1985). The structure of empirical knowledge. Harvard University Press.
Chisholm, R. M. (1982). The foundations of knowing. University of Minnesota Press.
Dionysius the Areopagite. (2006). Āthār-i kāmil (M. R. Jouzi, Trans. & Ed.). Hermes. (in Persian)
Fairclough, N. (2013). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Fakhr al-Rāzī, Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar. (1990). al-Maṭālib al-ʿāliya min al-ʿilm al-ilāhī (A. al-Saqqa, Ed., Vol. 9). Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī. (in Arabic)
Gadamer, H.-G. (2004). Truth and method (J. Weinsheimer & D. G. Marshall, Trans.; 2nd rev. ed.). Continuum. (Original work published 1960)
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Aldine.
Hegel, G. W. F. (1977). Phenomenology of spirit (A. V. Miller, Trans.). Oxford University Press.
Hosseini, S. M. (2016). Muqāyasa-yi maʿrifat-shināsī-yi Ghazzālī va Sulṭān Bāhū. Quarterly of Falsafa va Kalām-i Islāmī, 49(2), 125–148. (in Persian)
Ibn Rushd, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad. (2005). Tahāfut al-tahāfut (A. A. Halabi, Trans.). Samt. (in Persian)
Ibn Sīnā, Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh. (1984). al-Shifāʾ: al-Ilāhiyyāt (I. Madkour, Ed.). Kitābkhāna-yi Āyatullāh Marʿashī Najafī. (in Arabic)
Khan, M. A. (2015). Sultan Bahoo: Life and teachings. Ferozsons.
Krippendorff, K. (2018). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology (4th ed.). Sage.
Lackey, J. (2008). Learning from words: Testimony as a source of knowledge. Oxford University Press.
Mawlavī, Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad. (2008). Mathnavī-yi maʿnavī (R. A. Nicholson, Ed.). Hermes. (in Persian)
Mesbah-Yazdi, M. T. (2013). Jabr va ikhtiyār az dīdgāh-i ʿaql va naql. Pizhūhish-hā-yi Falsafī-Kalāmī, 15(3), 1–28. (in Persian)
Nasr, S. H. (2013). Taṣavvuf va ʿirfān-i Islāmī: Taʾammulātī dar sunnat-i maʿnavī. Suhrawardī. (in Persian)
Nicholson, R. A. (1999). Dar taṣavvuf-i Islāmī va tārīkh-i ān (M. R. Shafiei Kadkani, Trans.). Sukhan. (in Persian)
Plantinga, A. (1993). Warrant and proper function. Oxford University Press.
Plato. (1971). Māʾinū (R. Kavyani & M. H. Lotfi, Trans.). Ibn Sīnā. (in Persian)
Plato. (1997). Meno. In J. M. Cooper (Ed.), Complete works (pp. 870–897). Hackett. (Original work written c. 380 BCE)
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. (1987). The complete works (C. Luibheid, Trans.). Paulist Press.
Roberts, R. C., & Wood, W. J. (2007). Intellectual virtues: An essay in regulative epistemology. Clarendon Press.
Sayyid, A. H. (2011). Ṣūfīyā-yi Panjāb: Muṭālaʿa-yi taṭbīqī. Sang-i Mīl. (in Persian)
Schimmel, A. (1975). Mystical dimensions of Islam. University of North Carolina Press.
Schimmel, A. (1996). Tajallīyāt-i ʿirfānī dar Islām (A. Govahi, Trans.). ʿIlmī va Farhangī. (in Persian)
Sells, M. A. (1994). Mystical languages of unsaying. University of Chicago Press.
Sharif, J. (2010). Sufism in the Punjab: Mysticism and politics. Oxford University Press.
Sobhani, J. (2007). Taḥlīl-i intiqādī-yi naẓariyya-yi kasb-i Ashʿarī. Journal of Falsafa va Kalām-i Islāmī, 40(1), 5–32. (in Persian)
Sosa, E. (2007). A virtue epistemology: Apt belief and reflective knowledge (Vol. 1). Oxford University Press.
Suhrawardī, Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā. (1996). Ḥikmat al-ishrāq (H. Corbin, Ed.). Muʾassasa-yi Muṭālaʿāt va Taḥqīqāt-i Farhangī. (in Arabic)
Trimingham, J. S. (1971). The Sufi orders in Islam. Clarendon Press.
Wolfson, H. A. (1976). The philosophy of the Kalam. Harvard University Press.
Zagzebski, L. T. (1996). Virtues of the mind: An inquiry into the nature of virtue and the ethical foundations of knowledge. Cambridge University Press.