Gnosticism in the Words of Sheikh Mahmoud Shabestari

This article attempts to deal with Gnosticism in the words of Sheikh Mahmoud Shabestari in addition to investigating the mystical themes and philosophical works of him. It can be claim that Sheikh Shabestari made the best and finest Gnostic and theological implications into poetic form. He was impressed by three philosophical-theological schools including the philosophy of Ibn Arabi, the theological school of Ash'ari and the romance of Sanaee. The first part of the study focuses on the Gnostic concepts and terms in the words of Sheikh Shabestari. In the following sections, we discuss the Gnostic concepts and the theory of pantheism in the words of Sheikh. Gnosticism in the words of Sheikh Mahmoud Shabestari, is one of the most important issues in the field of Gnostic mainstreaming in the speech of philosophers and famous mystics of Islam. To understand Gnosticism in the words of Sheikh Mahmoud Shabestari, it is necessary to philosophically investigate and analyze schools and Gnostic and philosophical movements before him which have influenced him. Therefore, in this study we have tried to talk about schools influencing him in addition to describing Gnosticism in the words of Sheikh Mahmoud Shabestari. Apart from this, we investigate how the Gnosticism of Sheikh Shabestari revolves around a main idea that is pantheism.


Introduction
Saadeddin Mahmoud bin Abdul Karim Yahya Shabestari was born in the second half of the seventh century, in Shabestar, a small village in the northwest of Tabriz, a few kilometers from Urmia Lake, in Azerbaijan (Loizen, 2010: 11). We do not know anything about the details of Shabestari's life and the notes of biographers and commentators of his works have not usually provided anything more than brief and vague as well as suspicious and unstable references. The story of Sheikh Mohammed Lahiji, the commentator of "Golshan-e Raz", writes: "His name was Sheikh Maulana Saadeddin Mahmoud Shabestari, and Shabestar is a place eight miles far from Tabriz, and is the burial and birth place of him" (Lahiji, 1992: 721).
Some researchers have divided the works of Sheikh into two categories of poetry and prose: poetic works of Shabestari include "Golshan-e Raz" and "Saadat Nameh" and prose works include "Haq-ol Yaqin", "Maraat-ol Mohaqqeqin". The book "Haq-ol Yaqin" refers to a treatise called "Shahed" which "is a treatise explaining the mysteries of love and mania, that we do not know exactly if this is the treatise which the researchers call as Shahed Nameh or not" (Movahhed, 2009: 35).
Treatise "Golshan-e Raz" is actually a Sufi poetry which was interpreting Sufi ideas and languages in various issues related to the mind, soul, wisdom, unity and multiplicity of worlds, modes, existence, bearing, closeness, and journey in the souls with the utmost precision and brevity. However, "by the grace and precision used in expressing it, it has been such accepted by Sufis that was occasionally considered as an elite of all the teachings of Sufism in the Safavid era and many of those interested in knowledge attempted in the description and interpretation of content and unclear points and attempted to solve the problems" (Zarrinkub, 2006: 313). So, as we mentioned, among the mystics, the first person who has considered pantheism as the basis of his teaching and theory, was Muhiddin Ibn Arabi. The philosophy system of Ibn Arabi has usually been called as pantheism. The concept of "pantheism" by Ibn Arabi includes a consistency and intrinsic and real connection between God and the universe. But in the thought of Ibn Arabi, a super-elite class, such as nature of the preserved matter, God is beyond all constraints and characteristics, they are not him, and does not manifest himself only through names and his nature. His nature is not perceived and experienced in his territory. This means that the creatures are not similar to God in their real existence, but are manifesting his characteristics (Shimel, 1995: 438-439).
Sheikh Mahmoud Shabestari was the fan of pantheism like Ibn Arabi. He believes that "the sense of freedom that the human owns, it means as something other than God due to his sense of self. And human is a privation or destroyed matter, and therefore there is no need to attribute any authority to him" (Sharif, 2010: 354). In addition to theoretical mysticism of Ibn Arabi, Sheikh Shabestari has received deep influences from the traditional Sufism of Ash'ari and the romantic mysticism of Attar and Moulana. This time, we are looking for the roots of Gnosticism of Sheikh Mahmoud Shabestari in three Gnostic schools mentioned above.
Meanwhile, our main goal is to investigate intellectual and Gnostic concepts of in the words of Sheikh Shabestari. To achieve such a goal, we mostly focus on "Golshan-e Raz" treatise in addition to investigate all his works either poetry or prose. Because "Golshan-e Raz" is a work which has indicated the Gnostic words at its peak. In this research, we are looking for the answer of these questions that by whom and by what Agnosticism schools is the Gnostic of Sheikh Mahmoud Shabestari affected? How far do Quran, hadith and Islamic narrations affect the greatest mystical work of Shabestari that is "Golshan-e Raz"?

Assumptions
a. Gnosticism of Sheikh Mahmoud Shabestari is affected by three schools of Gnosticism: the traditional mysticism of Ash'ari, theoretical mysticism of Ibn Arabi and the romantic mysticism of Attar.
b. "Golshan-e Raz" of Sheikh Mahmoud Shabestar is heavily influenced by the Quran, Hadiths and Islamic narrations.

Methodology
Regarding data analysis, this study is a descriptive-analytic study. In this study, we analyze the data using the existing documents and documentations. In this study, in order to achieve the theoretical foundations and basic concepts as well as access to documents and information available on the subject, the library method was used. For this purpose, we study books, articles, Hadiths, documents, databases, etc.

Definitions and concepts
Sheikh Saad al-Din Mahmoud bin Abdul Karim Ben Yahya Shabestari is one of the famous Gnostics of the eighth century. He was born in Shabestar in 687 AH at the time of Gayḵātū and died in 720. It seems that he became famous in the era of Oljaito and Sultan Abu Saeed and he was considered among the Sufi celebrities. Edward Brown, in his Literary History of Persia writes about the birth of Sheikh Shabestari: "Shabestar village near Tabriz in Azerbaijan, is the birthplace of a famous mystic who was born in the mid-seventh century and is known as Saadeddin Mahmoud Shabestari" (Brown, 1994: vol. 3, 187). But the exact date of his birth has been stated as in Shabestar village, near Tabriz in 687 AH in most resources and biographies, and this is not consistent with what Brown says and he should have referred to the end of the seventh century. He was born in 687 AH in Shabestar, one of the villages near Tabriz (Safa, 2000: 763). And it has also been stated that: He died in 720 AH, and his lifetime is stated as thirty-three years, therefore, he must have been born about 687 AH (Movahhed, 2013: 2).
What gives beauty to Shabestari's word, and gives his words both inner and outer beauty, arises from her attitude of the universe. According to Sheikh, the concrete world which we can see, has a truth beyond itself that cannot be observed except with the heart, therefore, in his opinion, the tangible world is a shadow of the real world: You see in a dream and this dream is an example of what you have seen, when you get up on resurrection day, you will find everything as dream and thought (Shabestari, 1992: 371-471 B).
In mysticism, we are trying to keep the spirit of mystery and allegory alive. The function of code interpretation is applicable in all forms and manifestations of human nature and earthly life and spiritual events. From this perspective, aspects of nature and human events and inner states of the self, symptoms and as the Quran says, are symptoms of divinity. The mystic penetrates into the manifestations of his nature and soul, and reaches the similar spiritual and religious truths. The Mystic, used decoding in "The Book of Genesis" or the "Book of codification", and in other words, either in the "codified Quran" or "Genetical Quran" or "small world" means self or "the Great world" that is the world of creation" (Nasr, 1973: 108-109).
The theme of "guardianship" has been largely considered by Muslim scholars in Islamic jurisprudence especially in Shiite jurisprudence from the very beginning, it has been applied in verbal categories, Hadiths and interpretation of the Quran by the master of science and pen.
"Guardianship", is in fact, the center of gravity and common point where religion, spirituality and truth have come to a common viewpoint. The term guardianship and its derivatives have found their place in Sufi language from the very beginning of asceticism and mysticism, so that it became one of the integral pillars of behavior and the infrastructure of the belief of mystics, including moderate and extremist ascetic mystics. Ali bin Usman Hajviri stated in Kashf ul-Mahjub that: "Know that the base of the Sufi path and knowledge is on its guardianship and its confirmation that all leaders agree on approving it" (Hajviri, 2004: 317).
Prophet-hood is taken from the term prophecy and means as news, and means the fact that some human beings are called and chosen by God to lead the people. Prophecy has been divided into two types of public and private: general prophet-hood lacks mission and the revelation of a new law, but the private prophet-hood is along with mission and law, the messengers are called as private prophets. In fact, the prophet is one who has attained human perfection and this is by the guardianship that connects him to the position of unity. Prophecy has been considered as the inside of prophet-hood and that is why prophets have the power of miracles and occupation in manifestations. Saints are also able to perform miraculous acts in terms of guardianship light; the difference of the saints' miracles with those of the prophets is merely in their names; miracle is only done for the justification of claiming prophet-hood under the permission of God and in an obvious way, but miracles of saints are not the reason to prove their guardianship and unlike miracles, they must be hidden and not expressed. With these descriptions, what is issued from the prophet as a miracle, is an extraordinary force the source of which is the guardianship of the prophet and not his prophecy; because prophecy is just the expression of laws, not stating facts.
All interpretations and descriptions to humans, as the elite and excerpt of the universe, such as the small world, God, Mokhtasar-ol Sharif, comprehensive sum of facts, the perfect opportunity, creature right, Abdullah and the God of the universe, Naib-ul-Haq, Muallim-ul Mulk, permanent accident and eternal permanence, the intermediary word of the community and … have been used in words of Ibn Arabi and other mystics and are overseeing the whole mankind and humanity of light, not the animal-like and physical human; therefore, this much of respect and importance and power in thought of Ibn Arabi and Shabestari is in terms of human spirituality and his ownership of act and rational soul. Ibn Arabi states in conquests: "the perfect ecstatic that has appeared in human beings is the ecstatic of human, because the complete human being has been created on the face (God created man in His own image) (not the animal human) and the face has perfection, but this does not mean that he must be supreme and superior to God, but he is perfect because of the total integrity" (Ibn Arabi, 2013: vol. 2, 247) Although Sheikh could answer the questions in prose and to the testimony of his works, he states that: "Several books can be made by prose" (Shabestari, 1992: 151). He selected poetry and made it a better media to convey his subjective meanings. Because poetry has great abilities and lingual capacities in comparison to prose. He wants to take advantage of the capacity and integrity of the poetic words in his mystic findings which is the essence of the spiritual perceptions of human from the being and easily convey his perceptions to the audience. Because verse is close the poetry and poetry is the result of the main influence of spirituality and intellectuality on the matter and nature of the language. This principle is also connected to the way of inseparability with cosmic coordination and the associated rhythm with it that is observed in the manifestation of the universe (Nasr, 1996: 90). In other words, poetry has some feature through which Shabestari can better reflect the truth and "makes possible the natural link of human with the spiritual principle and the things with intellectual principle" (Nasr, 1996: 90).
Islamic mysticism is taken from Quran and Hadiths and the Sira of the prophet and Imams. A dozens of ‫"ﻳﻌﺮﻓﻮﻥ"‬ and ‫"ﻳﻔﻘﻬﻮﻥ"‬ and ‫ﻳﻔﻘﻬﻮﻥ"‬ ‫"ﻻ‬ has been used in the holy Quran. According to Shahid Motahari "one of the sciences born, grown and evolved by the Islamic culture is the science of mysticism" (Motahari, 2001: 70). Also in "the dictionary of words and idioms and mystical interpretations" about Gnosticism, it has been stated that: Gnosticism is the act of determining and intention of the identification of right, and is the scientific name of divine sciences the subject of which is knowing the truth of the divine names and attributes of God and the way that the people of God have selected to identify the right. Gnosticism and identification of the right is possible in two ways: one, by reason from the effect to effective, from verb to characteristic and from attributes to the nature, and this is for scholars; and the second is the way of purifying wrong and discharging the mind from the others and the discharge of the soul through knowledge especially the prophets, saints and mystics, and this discovery knowledge and intuitive knowledge is not possible from anyone except the absolute engrossed, unless due to the obedience and form, soul, heart, secret, hidden and purposeful worshiping of creating a world of intuitive knowledge (Sajjadi, 2004: 130-133).
Masnavi of Golshan-e Raz, written by Sheikh Mahmoud Shabestari is one of the finest Persian poetries. Numerous commentaries have been written on this book during five centuries, due to exemplary brevity, in addition to being richness and allegorical character.
One of the oldest and most complete commentaries about Golshan-e Raz is the commentary called as Hadiqt-ol Ma'arif by a Shirazi scientist known as Shoja'-ol Din Karbali. By an intermediary, he is the henchman of Shah Qasim Anwar (738 AH) and he has probably received these thoughts. The book has been written in 768 AH with the name of Sultan Jahan Shah Qaraqoyunlu (208-278 AH).

Intuitive knowledge in Golshan-e Raz
Certainly the most important intellectual leap of Sheikh Mahmoud Shabestari in the field of Gnostic ideas can be considered related to the study of the works of Ibn Arabi. He was completely dominant to Mecca conquests and Fosous-ol Hekam of Ibn Arabi. But he was troubled in understanding some of the Gnostic secrets of Ibn Arabi that for releasing this trouble he was asking for help from Sheikh Amin-ol Din and he was seeking to understand the meanings (Lahiji, 1992: 21). Loizen also believes the same and states in the book "beyond belief and disbelief" that Sheikh was spending a long time to solve complex ideas of Ibn Arabi (Loizen, 2010: 203). The secret of popularity and complexity of Ibn Arabi undoubtedly lies in his short, compact and gnostic sentences. He has a sense full of repetition and verbosity, and these specifications make the interpretation of his words possible in some ways (Ibn Arabi, 2013: 55).
But undoubtedly, the most important thing in the Gnosticism of Ibn Shabestari and Ibn Arabi and many famous mystics is the intuitive knowledge. Knowledge means literally as to identify and in mystic terms it is a science that is based on discovery, intuition and purification (Rajai Bukharaee, 1985: 577).

Shabestari and philosophical thought
Sheikh Mahmoud Shabestari is a mystic thinker and poet of the eighth AH century and one of the elders of Persian literature, criticizing many of the concepts and principles of the peripatetic philosophy. He not only did not reject thinking, but he was one of the critiques that has helped the formation of new ways of thinking in Iran. But about the idea of Sheikh Mahmoud Shabestari and his philosophical thinking, two things should be considered. First, he does not accept the epistemology of peripatetic. That is, he does not know the truth as a concept in comparison to the peripatetic philosophers (such as Farabi and Ibn Sina) that is abstracted in the mind through tangible forms of the same perception and the relationship between them is done with the rules of formal logic. The truth is objective for him, but not tangible in exactness, but is in divinity and is discovered for the man. For Shabestari, the truth is the origin, destination and lifesaving objective that saves the man from this world and the area around the divinity and becomes evident for the mystic in introspection and during a long bearing. Whereas it emerges for the philosopher from the sensitive perception of the creatures and coming into mind of the concepts and finally the truth and coordination between the subjective and the objective of the truth. The truth is learnable in philosophical thought and philosopher knows the world as the subject of knowledge, whereas in mystical thought, the truth is acquired and the subject is the knowledge itself (Eilkhani, 2008: 3). Among the Christian philosophers there is someone like Agostinos who believes that truth is the love of God and the philosophy is not the truth in itself but a means to an end which is the knowledge of God (Mojtahedi, 2011: 58). In Augustine's thought, intuition and inner knowledge has a much higher and more honorable position than abstraction.

Guardianship in Golshan-e Raz (secret garden)
This refers to a perfect human which is -Imam Mahdi-according to some exponents' interpretations and explanations and is mentioned few times in this short poem. Most importantly there is a focus on some questions: How was the passenger? Who is the passerby? Whom can I call a perfect man?
In answering these questions, Sheikh Mahmood Shabestari first considers human cycle manners from a rigid body to the rank of "being with God" (Moulana, 2013: fourth book: verse couplet 152). Then he discusses the prophet-hood and compares it with guardianship and that guardianship shows itself in prophet-hood and is broader than it. In comparison of guardianship and prophet-hood it can be said that: "the source of non-prophet guardianship is prophet-hood and there is an absolute difference between prophet and guardian; that is, each prophet must of course be a guardian; however, it is not necessary for a guardian to be a prophet, like the guardians of Muhammad's nation -Peace be upon him-that are guardians without being a prophet (Nezami, 2009: 24).

Aesthetics in philosophical poems of Golshan-e Raz
Doubtlessly, Golshan-e Raz couplet poems, with low volume and profound meaning are an exact example of brevity-which itself is a category of rhetoric and beauty. Shabestari calls this book "answer letter in word brevity" (Shabestari,verse couplet 62). However, it is worth mentioning that letter means "a world of meaning in few words" (Shabestari,verse couplet 93). In fact, the brevity and compactness of Golshan-e Raz make its description necessary.
Undoubtedly, from among the extant descriptions, Mafatihol Ejaz is the best written description of Golshan-e Raz. Abdolrazag Lahiji has clearly described this poem by bringing the hidden layers of meaning and delicacies of Sheikh's speech to surface and has manifested Sheikh's attitude and sense of existence and mind's journey from "knowledge" to "insight" very clearly.
In other words, in his description, Lahiji like the forgotten language translator, eloquently invokes the necessary condition of reviving each couplet in the mind of the reader (Luizen 2000: 142). In fact, Shabestari's concept of existence gives beauty to his speech and gives an inner and outer later to his words. In Sheikh's idea, the tangible and perceptible world in front of us, has a fact beyond itself which can't be seen without heart. Therefore, in his idea, the tangible world is a shadow of a real world: (Shabestari, 1987: 173-174).

Sheikh Mahmood Shabestari's numinous inheritance
After the 7P th P century, the history of Gnosticism and Sufism has been under the influence of two prominent figures who appear at two peaks looming on the spiritual thought horizon.
Without any exaggeration, it can be said that Molavi Balkhi and Muhiddin Arabi are the two unparalleled mystics in the history of human thought. Most of the mystics after the 7P th P century have been under the influence of these two exceptional figures in a way. In this vein, the growth and spread of Ibn Arabi's thoughts among all other Iranian mystics are salient and impressive.

Pantheism
The theory of pantheism suggests that existence is the same as unity, but this unity is not a numerical, generic or a typical one. The unity of creatures is valuable because of the existence of the an absolute unit, which is the reality and conscious of everything and there is no reality without unity and existence is only one reality; that is the reality of a unique person which appears with various levels and ranks in the world. This problem is one of the thought foundations of Sheikh Mahmood Shabestari in his prominent work "Golshan-e Raz".
Considering history and study of family ancestors, pantheism has a long history in Greek and Indian philosophy. For example, Aflutben considers reality as one unit and knows uniqueness (Allah) as the origin of all things and creatures. He considers all creatures as permeates from the first principle and thinks that the ending of all creatures will be back to the same principle.
However, in the Islamic world, the roots of unity must be sought in the very first centuries.
"The most obvious type of pantheism which had a high regard for diving origin is found between the stoics and Platonists" (Shoaei, 2012: 72).
According to Sheikh Shabestari, thought means understanding the reality that existence is specific and limited to Allah and whatever is beyond Allah, is only an expression and epiphany of Allah. That is, Allah is a sheer existence and signs and works of Allah, which are the creatures, neither are like Allah, nor are different than Him and in Asharian's words "Allah's characteristics are neither Allah, nor something different".

‫ﭘﻨﻬﺎﻥ‬ ‫ﺍﺳﺖ‬ ‫ﭘﻴﺪﺍﻳﯽ‬ ‫ﺯ‬ ‫ﻭی‬ ‫ﺍﻧﺪﺭ‬ ‫ﺣﻖ‬ ‫ﺩﺍﻥ‬ ‫ﺣﻖ‬ ‫ﻧﻮﺭ‬ ‫ﻓﺮﻭﻍ‬ ‫ﺟﻤﻠﻪ‬ ‫ﺟﻬﺎﻥ‬
Just like Ibn Arabi, Shabestari believes that Allah is the eternal absolute existence and nothing is perfect except Allah and Allah creates existence. "All researchers believe that in universe, there is no other being except Allah and other existence depends on Him as well" (Ibn Arabi, 2002: 363, 1).

Quran and Hadith in Golshan-e Raz
Considering literature, Golshan-e Raz verse-couplet of Sheikh Mahmood Shabestari, apart from its excellent philosophical and gnostic concepts, is one of the best gnostic Persian poems. Literally and aesthetically, Golshan-e Raz is one the most important works in Gnostics and Persian literature realm. Considering the methods of literary influence, this book is highly dependent on Quranic verses and traditions. These methods of literary influence are to be followed in three areas: adaptations, ensuring, and allusions. We will refer to some examples of this influence in the three mentioned areas.

a. Adaptation
This word with a root of gabs, means piece of fire, and has been used in several places in Quran. Like Hadid Surah: "we quote from your light" (Hadid Surah, verse13).

b. Ensuring
Ensuring from the Arabic infinitive of tafil, means to include. However its expressional meaning in new science is: "when the poet includes a verse of Quran or Hadith or a couplet of previous or contemporary authors and poets in his poem" (Halabi, 2006: 60).

c. Allusion
Allusion means to look, to reveal and to see and in new science it refers to a story or a poem that doesn't include all the story or the poem (Shamsia, 1987: 56).

Conclusion
There is no doubt that love is the subtle essence of Gnostics. The central core of Sufism is Gnostics. Gnostics is a way that one can understand reality by revelation and self-refinement and the purpose and destination of mystics in this journey is only Allah. Gnostics seeks truth in the spiritual business and transaction and does not prefer anything other than knowing and joining to the beloved. The devotee seeks the beloved in each thought and behavior and is only satisfied by sinking in the beloved's affection and charm. Shamseddin Lahiji, in description of Golshan-e Raz, describes Gnostics as: "mystic is a person whom Allah has given His true witness, name and characteristics and this has been appeared by revelation not by knowledge only". In this vein, Mollasadra Shirazi declares that: "the perfect mystic is a person who passes stages one by one, and passes each stage and the levels in each stage by a full knowledge of that stage till he completes the total cycle with all its descent and ascent and reaches Allah, who is the absolute knowledge and absolute wisdom".
According to researchers and philosophers, mystic is a person who has disappeared from his virtual existence. Besides, mystic is a person who has found demise in truth and hasn't yet reached survival and has journeyed from adherence rank to the predication. And prays Allah because he knows Allah deserves praying, and doesn't do so because of the outwardly rewards and apprehension, however, the transaction doing group prays for the otherworldly rewards only. Therefore, mystic is a person who has passed the cultivation and purification stage of his soul and has found the secrets of truth and has disappeared from his existence.
Therefore the real mystic is a perfect person. Indeed, a mystic lives from his heart and consistently goes through high levels of perfection. He isn't calm a second and is always looking at the beloved's beauty. He doesn't exchange a beloved's glance with all secular and otherworldly pleasure. He prefers a pure nature to a devoutly and sophist appearance. He has such a high level of ego that doesn't fit into any gown. His spirit is so pure and delivered that nothing can penetrate into it, but only the truth kindness. If one wants to recognize a sophist, a pure heart and a luminous nature are the signs.
In this vein, however, Sheikh Mahmood Shabestari, the famous mystic, thinker and poet of the eighth century, who is one of the prominent figures in Persian literature, not only does not reject thinking, but also is one of the critics who has assisted the formation of new thinking ways in Iran, by criticizing the concepts and foundations of peripatetic philosophy. By writing "Golshan-e Raz", Sheikh Mahmood Shabestari could place high concepts of Gnostics and Islam into form of a poem. Considering Gnostics, he was under the influence of three philosophical-theological schools before him. That is, Ibn Arabi philosophy, Ashari theological school, and loving and mystic poems of Attar. But the basis of Sheikh Shabestari's thoughts must be seen in pantheism theory. In fact, this theory belonged to Ibn Arabi that had manifested its foundation in a perfect human. Many poets and philosophers like Eragi, Shabestari and Jami followed Ibn Arabi's school. Ibn Arabi described pantheism as: "existence is a unique and eternal truth, which is Allah, and the realities of various appearances of this truth is unique". He believed in inherent determinism and he and his followers accepted the transcendence and purification. In their opinion, everything is manifestation of truth and a perfect human is an aspect of the great name (Allah) in universe.
Ibn Arabi and his followers consider five levels for the truth outburst which are called the Five Divine (Hazarate Khoms). However by reading their ideas and those who publish the ideas, it can be concluded that there is a common and shared opinion between them in the important concepts of Gnostics. The truth of pantheism is of utmost importance to Ibn Arabi.
Fakhraddin Eragi reminds this truth many times in the first and fourth part of his brightness book. In addition, in first few couplets of "Golshan-e Raz", Shabestari also knows only one line from the beginning to the end of the world. Grace, expression, archetypes and fate has been also considered similarly by these thinkers. Apart from Ibn Arabi, Attar has also influenced the loving and mystic concepts of Sheikh Shabestari's poems. Yes, Sheikh Mahood Shabestari, under the influence of these thinkers, created a mystic masterpiece. In fact, he was effective in two directions: first in manifesting the great capacity of poem in clarifying the complex mystical concepts and then in progression and penetration of Persian literature in philosophical and theological schools which were mostly in Arabic language. Therefore, the exalted position of Sheikh Mahmoud Shabestari in Persian literature and Gnostics must be respected, and maintain his name as one of the greatest Iranian mystics, forever.