Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Shiraz University
Abstract
The present study investigates shathiyat (ecstatic utterances) in light of modern theories of interpretation and decoding. Its central concern is how the layered meanings and liminal mystical experiences, expressed in the Sufi tradition through paradoxical and metaphorical language, can be re-read and understood within contemporary theoretical frameworks. Accordingly, the three foundational poles of Islamic mysticism—Truth (Haqq), the Self (Nafs), and the World (Alam)—are conceptualized as a triangular relational system from which diverse forms of relations and manifestations emerge. These forms serve as interpretive nodes, each analyzed through the lens of a modern theoretical approach: Ricœur’s hermeneutics of suspicion and meaning, Barthes’ discourse analysis, Eliade’s phenomenology of the sacred, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and William James’ psychology of religion. Methodologically, the study treats shathiyat not merely as literary texts but as testimonies of extreme experiences characterized by passivity, paradox, and a rupture from ordinary linguistic logic. Modern hermeneutics, applied as interpretive steps, enables traversal from symbolic representation to deeper psychological, existential, and discursive layers. This approach results in an interdisciplinary model that situates Islamic mysticism in a productive dialogue with philosophy, psychoanalysis, and contemporary linguistic studies. The study’s innovation lies in reconstructing Ruzbihan Shirazi’s shathiyat within a comparative decoding framework rather than a purely historical or literary reading. This framework facilitates a renewed understanding of mystical experience as an intersubjective, multilayered construct that is simultaneously sacred and psychological, offering new insights into the cognitive, existential, and symbolic dimensions of Sufi ecstasy.
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