Method and Mysticism: Cosmos, Nature and Environment in Islamic Mysticism

In this pioneering work, Seyyed Shahabeddin Mesbahi offers a new methodology for approaching Islamic mystical concepts by examining the importance, place, and manifestation of the concepts of cosmos, nature, and environment in Islamic mysticism. The study presents a framework for understanding the exoteric and esoteric dimensions of these concepts, within selected stations (maqamat of the mystical path tariqa), and how, in a reciprocal interaction, they weave a "symbiotic whole." This work also reexamines the concept of "mystical experience" with regards to the Islamic mystics' approach toward the concepts of cosmos, nature, and environment, especially in the thoughts of great masters, such as Hallaj, Bayazid Bastami, Ghazali, Ruzbihan Baqli Shirazi, Ibn 'Arabi, Rumi, and Mulla Sadra.