Comparative Study of Love in Writings of Bakharzi and Jami by Focusing on the Analysis of Love Tract and The Seven Thrones

Abstract

Saif Al-din Bakhzari and Abf Al-rahmanJaami are two of well-known mystics who were born with the time distance of two centuries in the same geographical region, Iran’s Khurasan. These two had enormous impact on the viewpoints of Persian speaking mystics. In Islamic mysticism, love is one of the concepts which heavily influences other issues. It has also been a sparkling issue in the oeuvre of these two famous mystics. Saif Al-din Bakharzi in Love Tract and Abd Al-rahmanJaami in The Seven Thrones have discussed these topics, and comparatively studying them can lead to a better understanding of the concept of love. In Bakharzi’s system of thought, love is the humanity’s essences in humans, and due to the hardship that the love of a human being to another human being (virtual love) can inflict, it may lead to the refinement (=keeping purity) of the self (=the self that invites the one to commit sin=ego), and transform into the God’s love. According to Jaami’s viewpoint which is indebted to IbnArabi’s thoughts, love is the cause of creation all over the universe’s phenomena, and virtual love (human’s love toward God’s creatures) can act like a bridge to the real love (human’s love toward God). Keywords: love, Saif Al-din Bakharzi, Abd Al-rahmanJaami, Love Tract, The Seven Thrones.