The Dialectic of Body and Soul in Islamic-Iranian Mysticism: An Examination of Dialectical Structure and Imagery in Classical Texts

Abstract

Employing a descriptive-analytical approach and drawing on classical mystical texts, this study examines the complex dialectic of body and soul in the Islamic-Iranian mystical tradition and analyzes the imagery through which this relationship is represented from the perspective of mystical rhetoric and figurative expression. The findings indicate that the mystics’ conception of the body was not static but followed a developmental trajectory from opposition toward unity. In the initial stage, within the ascetic paradigm, the body is represented through such metaphors as the “cage,” “prison,” and “sacrificial altar” and is regarded as an impediment to spiritual elevation that must be disciplined through ascetic practice. At the higher stages of love-centered mysticism, however, this approach undergoes a transformation: the image of the body as the “mount of the spiritual journey” and the simile “the body is like Mary, and the soul is like Jesus” replace the earlier view with an acceptance of the body as a necessary passageway for sensory perception. The culmination of this dialectical process is the “alchemical transmutation” of the body, through which the opposition between matter and meaning is transcended in paradoxical formulations such as “suffering became treasure” and “our form became soul,” and the body is transformed into an “imaginal and luminous body.” Furthermore, the study demonstrates that the body acquires profound symbolic functions in several domains: in the ritual sphere, through the symbolism of overcoming gravity in samāʿ; in the cosmological sphere, through its representation as the microcosm and the axis of existence; and in the trans-gender sphere, through metaphors of spiritual birth. Ultimately, the body within this conceptual system emerges not as a passive object but as a dynamic field for the manifestation of the spirit and the transcendence of being.