Abstract:
Although freedom and slavery are opposite concepts, they have real connection with each other in Islamic mysticism. Freedom and slavery have degrees and in any degree of devotee’s travelling and behavior, he achieves a portion of it and at the end finds out the real concept of slavery and freedom. Hafez states this in his Divan clearly and indicates that freedom is the result of true slavery manifestation. Hafez belives that there is just one way of slavery. He named it ‘lovely slavery’ which gives freedom to man. A Lover is a free man that releases himself from all limitations by slavery and becomes a free slave. This article examins some of sufia and mystic beliefs in terms of mental bases of connection between freedom and slavery in Islamic mysticism, it also studies lovely slavery concept, degrees of it and its relation with freedom from Hafez’s point of view.
Machine summary:
But before we examine this subject from Hafez's perspective, it is necessary to make a brief mention of the position of servitude, lordship, and liberty in the views of Sufis and Muslim mystics and their stages and connection to one another.
From the perspective of Islamic mysticism, Lordship (rububiyyat) and Divinity (ulūhiyyat) are two levels of existence, one of which precedes the other, and Ayn al-Quzat believes that servitude is the fruit of Lordship, which manifests through the abandonment of humanity; however, remaining in this stage is not permissible, and one must reach Divinity, otherwise the girdle of polytheism (shirk) appears (Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani, 1373: 276).
Among them, only a certain group believes that although the servant is liberated from determined existence during the stages of spiritual journey (Sair wa Suluk), they do not reach the reality of freedom except by annihilating their own essence and attaining subsistence in the Essence of the Truth, thereby transcending servitude and Lordship.
Therefore, considering the meaning of Rind in Hafez's poetry, it can be said that the lover Rind, from Hafez's perspective, is a free and indifferent (la-abali) person who has stepped beyond the stages of servitude (ubudiyyat) and divinity (rububiyyat) and has reached the station of complete liberty (hurriyat-e tam).
Whether in the sense intended by the predecessors of this group or in the sense held by Ibn Arabi and the mystics after him, liberty possesses stages in which, at each stage, not only is servitude more manifested in the human being, but he also reaches the station of divinity and, by releasing himself from determinations, takes hold of management, ownership, and existence.
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