According to the Public Relations Office of IICT, the book “Social Mysticism in the Hussaini Movement,” authored by Hojjat al-Islam Mohammad Javad Rodgar, has been recognized with an Honorable Mention at the Second Biennial Ashura Book Awards in the category of “Analysis and Interpretation of Ashura.” This research, by analyzing the actions of the infallible (a) and the various small and large events of Ashura and the Karbala movement from the perspective of social mysticism, presents a novel view of Imam Hussein’s (a) uprising.
The IBNA news agency conducted an interview with the author, who is also a faculty member of the Department of Mysticism and Spirituality at the Institute. Below is the first part of this conversation.
You chose the title *”Social Mysticism in the Hussaini Movement”* for your book. What is social mysticism, and how does it relate to the heritage of Islamic mysticism?
Social mysticism is a form of mysticism that emerges from the heart of authentic and pure Islamic mysticism. Essentially, the origin and growth of social mysticism lie within Islamic mysticism itself. In other words, social mysticism is the natural offspring of Islamic mysticism. This means that mysticism inherently has a social dimension that is present throughout the stages of spiritual journeying, from the first to the fourth journeys, manifesting throughout the spiritual stations and stages of the journey.
We interpret and explain the social aspect of mysticism as it relates to serving God’s creation, referred to in our traditions as “the family of God” (Iyal-Allah), both before, during, and after the spiritual journey. In Islamic mysticism discourse, serving God’s creation and alleviating people’s difficulties is a fundamental principle that fills many gaps in the spiritual journey, from before the journey begins, during the journey, and then reaching the stage after the journey. However, the pinnacle of social mysticism occurs in the third and fourth stages of mysticism, or the third and fourth spiritual journeys. After an ascetic achieves an internal and profound transformation in the first journey, “From the creation to the Truth,” or the transition from multiplicity to unity, they reach the second stage, which is the journey “From the Truth to the Truth by the Truth.”
This journey involves traversing the Divine Names and the attributes of God’s saints. This journey is unending, in which annihilation in God (Fana Fillah) and subsistence through God (Baqa Billah) can be conceptualized and explained. After passing through these stages, those mystics who possess a high and elevated capacity begin the third and fourth journeys. In the third journey, the journey is “From the Truth to creation by the Truth,” meaning from unity to multiplicity, by unity. This journey can also be called the journey of perfection. Then comes the deeper journey with greater scope and breadth, the fourth journey, which is “From creation to creation by the Truth.” In reality, this journey is the journey of completion and is specific to the great Prophets of God, the Holy Prophet of Islam (s), and the infallible Imams (a) in the most perfect, complete, and beautiful manner. However, some degrees of this truth or truths can be conceptualized and affirmed for other mystics as well.
Here, social mysticism encompasses three principles: “Guidance,” “Education,” and “Guardianship.” The mystic appears first as a guide, then as a mentor, and third as a guardian. That is, the mystic also takes on the social-political guardianship or the management of cities and the politics of cities. When the mystic is a guide, there is intellectual guidance and the role of intellectual and ideological leadership. In the role of a mentor, the mystic assumes ethical, moral, and educational leadership.
Or, as another verse states, *”Men whom neither trade nor sale distracts from the remembrance of Allah” (Nur: 37)* this indicates that the logic of Islamic mysticism is not in conflict or contradiction with social engagement, political involvement, or social living. In other words, spirituality and sociality are intertwined in Islamic mysticism. They are not mutually exclusive and are fundamentally interconnected. Thus, it seems that if we correctly interpret practices such as seclusion, spiritual retreats, solitude, early rising, remembrance, asceticism, night vigils, and supplications, the dualisms disappear. The dualisms of asceticism and life, remembrance and life, spiritual journey and politics, and various other dualisms that have formed in our minds, these disappear in Islamic mysticism. Most of our Muslim mystics were mystics who felt social responsibility and concern for society, and in this regard, according to their existential capacities, firstly, and according to the exigencies of time and circumstances, secondly, and according to the manner and method of fulfilling their social responsibilities, thirdly, they played a role. Even some of our mystics, who were spiritual companions and confidants of the Prophet (s) and the Imams (a), such as Salman al-Farsi, Kumayl ibn Ziyad al-Nakha’i, Rashid al-Hajari, Uways al-Qarani, Hujr ibn ‘Adi, and others, played active social roles and were mystics who combined mysticism with activism. Many of the great mystics, for example, the mystics of the Najaf school, sometimes led social and political revolutions. This is a very important point. Sometimes they acted as revivers of religion and sometimes as social reformers. Figures like Sayyid Jamal al-Din are manifestations of the Divine Name “Wali” and one of the friends of God, when they manifest comprehensively under and in the shadow of the Name “Wali,” it is there that they take on the responsibility of city management and politics at the existential level. The mystic also maximally assumes four general and major components in this regard: one, rationality; two, spirituality; three, freedom; and four, justice, as the mystic seeks to establish justice and uphold social justice.
In the book *”Social Mysticism in the Hussaini Movement,”* we discussed the topic of social mysticism in the Hussaini movement in three stages: “Definition,” “Explanation,” and “Realization.” It should be noted that this book is, in fact, an abstract-concrete research that was published after a purely abstract research titled *”Social Mysticism: Its Nature, Principles, and Functions.”* Although they were developed somewhat in parallel, *”Social Mysticism: Its Nature, Principles, and Functions”* is an independent book that precedes *”Social Mysticism in the Hussaini Movement.”* I have extensively explained the definition of social mysticism, the explanation of the components of social mysticism, and the fundamental elements governing the definition of social mysticism in both the first and second books in the three stages I mentioned: the stage of definition, the stage of explanation, and the stage of realization.
Mysticism is fundamentally a personal matter, and mystical experience is an individual encounter. Historically, the biographies of mystics are mostly focused on these personal moral or mystical aspects. From this perspective, the combination of “social mysticism” seems somewhat paradoxical. How is the social aspect of mysticism realized, and how can it be evaluated?
Yes, mysticism is a personal matter, and mystical experience is an individual encounter. However, this mysticism, which is personal, individual, and introverted, is, at the stage of witnessing, based on a series of spiritual practices or traversing spiritual stations and stages, which have their own requirements and conditions. But we must consider that our perception and understanding of authentic Islamic mysticism must be corrected. Because in authentic Islamic mysticism, although the mystic, in the stages of witnessing and experience, first in the journey and then in witnessing—where the peak of mysticism is at the stage of “Ain al-Yaqin” and “Haqq al-Yaqin,” and beyond at “Bald al-Yaqin”—achieves it, as Ibn Sina mentioned in the ninth chapter of his *”Al-Isharat,”* “The mystic is courageous; the mystic possesses a unique kind of courage, and this courage gives them a spirit of struggle and epic.” During the spiritual stations, the mystic reaches a stage where they feel responsible and obligated towards God’s creation, towards others, and towards their fellow humans. Not only a sense of responsibility towards individuals in a one-on-one sense, but beyond that, they feel responsible towards the entirety of society. In Islamic mysticism, the mystic defines and organizes four relationships within their existential being during spiritual stations.
One: the relationship with God,
Two: the relationship with oneself,
Three: the relationship with God’s creation,
Four: the relationship with creation.
In Islamic mysticism, the mystic has both a concern for God and a concern for God’s creation. However, they feel the pain of God’s creation for God’s sake because, having reached the highest spiritual and mystical stations, they view everything from this perspective. In other words, they are the manifest example of the verse
قُلْ إِنَّمَا أَعِظُکُمْ بِوَاحِدَه أَنْ تَقُومُوا لِلَّهِ مَثْنَی وَفُرَادَی ثُمَّ تَتَفَکَّرُوا
*”Say: I exhort you only to one thing, that you rise up for Allah’s sake in pairs or singly, then reflect”* (Saba: 46).
The mystic rises for the sake of God. This rising for God might be introverted, it might be extroverted, or it might be introverted with an extroverted outlook, and this third approach is very important.
Figures like Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, who was a student of Mullah Husayn-Quli Hamadani, exemplify this blend of mysticism and social activism.
Many of our great scholars in the realm of mysticism were also jurists (fuqaha) and played pivotal roles in social and political movements. For instance, during the struggle against British colonialism in Iraq, some of these mystics issued fatwas for jihad, leading the resistance against both external imperial forces and internal tyranny. There are numerous examples of this kind of engagement, which I’m not listing exhaustively here. However, this tradition culminated in figures like the late Ayatollah Shahabadi, who was the mentor of Imam Khomeini, and Imam Khomeini himself, who perfectly combined the highest spiritual stations with social leadership. Imam Khomeini was a full-fledged social mystic. This demonstrates that social engagement and mystical practice are not mutually exclusive. Though these concepts might appear paradoxical, they are not contradictory. To use modern terminology, they are “paradoxical” but not “incompatible.”
In fact, within the framework of Islamic mysticism, the practices of the spiritual path (tariqa) rooted in the law (sharia) aimed at reaching the ultimate truth (haqiqa) can coexist and even reinforce each other. This is something that needs to be properly understood and appreciated. To sum up, the essence of social mysticism, as detailed in the book *”Social Mysticism in the Hussaini Movement,”* lies in integrating the personal spiritual journey with a profound sense of social responsibility. The mystic is not isolated from society but is deeply involved in it, guiding, educating, and leading the community towards justice and righteousness. The legacy of Imam Hussein (a) and the events of Ashura are viewed through this lens as the ultimate manifestation of a mystical journey that culminates in the highest form of social engagement and sacrifice for the sake of upholding divine values and justice.
In addition, mystical and ethical aspects that seem to be individual also have social dimensions. Even in Islamic ethics, we have social Islamic ethics. The same is true in spiritual ranks. In repentance, we have individual repentance and social repentance. We have individual piety and social piety. We have individual asceticism and social asceticism.
We have individual reliance on God and social reliance on God. We have individual submission to God’s will and social submission. We have individual contentment with God’s will and social contentment. This means that if we analyze the key concepts in the domain of spiritual ranks and interpret them actively and dynamically, rather than passively, we can derive a social and jihadist mysticism from them. This is a very important and novel point, though there is much more to say on this subject, but we will suffice with this amount.
