Anwar-e Ma`rifat

In Islamic mysticism, different proposals have been put forward for the stages of man's inner movement towards his perfection, one of which is "the four-Volume Asfar ". The main content of the famous four-volume Asfar are the journeys from creatures towards the Truth" “in the Truth by the Truth "from Truth towards creatures by the Truth", and "in creatures by the Truth". The issue of the journey "towards God" and "in God" has been discussed since the early development of Islamic mysticism. As far, the station of "existence after annihilation" which refers to the two latter journeys, it had not been discussed nor referred to as a journey until Ibn 'Arabi's time. Therefore, the four-fold division of the aforementioned journeys which took from before Ibn 'Arabi only refers to the journey "towards God" and the journey "in God", and did not have any reference to the latter journeys. After Ibn 'Arabi, different accounts of the four-volume Asfar were written and the first one which is most similar to the famous four-volume Afar is 'Afif Al-Din Telemsani's account. After that, Kashani wrote an account of the journeys in his" Manazil al-Sa'erin machining some modification in its content. After Kashani, his pupil, Qaysari, proposed the final and famous form of the four journeys with minor changes in it, an which became famous through Mullāh Ṣadrā and his four-volume Asfar. Many rules and effects are mentioned in the works of the knowledgeable for these journeys, the most important of which is the manifestation of the questions of "guardianship" and "caliphate" for perfected perfect people.