Namaeh Farhangistan

Namaeh Farhangistan

Attar, The Pioneer of Mollasadra; »Becoming« in Attar’s Reflection

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Mahmoud Abedi 1
Tahereh Bahrami 2
1 Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran
2 PhD in Persian Language and Literature, Corresponding Author, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran
10.22034/nf.2025.349114.1190
Abstract
Becoming« means a gradual change that is common in Persian with the phrase »substantial movement«. The history of the theory of »the Becoming« goes back to the views of the
pre-Socratic scholars, especially to the Greek Heraclitus. According to them, existence is constantly moving and changing and it cannot be considered static. According to Aristotle and the peripatetic philosophers, movement as a gradual change that takes place only in deviations, and movement in substance is of the type of extinction and creation. Our mystics have interpreted movement in the universe as »new creation« or »constant creation«. According to them, the universe according to the divine tradition appears and decline moment by moment, and as a result, it has a momentary existence. Among the Persian-speaking Muslim mystics, Attar Neyshabouri, a mystic of the seventh century AH, has paid special attention to this issue, so that it can be said that he has built his intellectual foundation on this basis. In thought of Attar, movement is the existential journey of the universe; existence in the order of multiplicity changes and transforms, and the change and transformation of matter is due to moving particles that have no physical dimension. The movement of beings from potential to action is in the direction of desire for perfection and purpose. Despite all this, the movement in the viewpoint of Attar, as a fundamental thought, has not been considered by researchers, and in our opinion, it deserves to be studied and considered more carefully. In this paper, the subject of movement in Attar’s thought is examined in a descriptive-analytical manner.
Keywords
Attar Neyshabouri, existence, becoming, movement, particle, journey, constant creation

Subjects

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Namaeh Farhangistan
Volume 24, Issue 4 - Serial Number 98
September and October 2025
Pages 23-38

  • Receive Date 26 June 2022
  • Revise Date 11 July 2022
  • Accept Date 09 October 2022