The Hereafter in the Context of ？Alā？ al-Dawla al-Simnānī’s Understanding of Mystical Training

The hereafter, one of the main pillars of Islam, has been discussed by both theologians and ？ūfīs from various angles and interpreted in many different ways. Although there is consensus on the main subjects, there are a lot of controversies in details. One of the ？ūfīs who authored on diverse problems over the hereafter is ？Alā？ al-Dawla al-Simnānī (d. 736/1336). He was a Kubrawī shaykh during the īlkhānid era. He inclined towards the ？ūfī path after serving the Buddhist ruler Arghun (r. 1284-1291) for ten years, thanks to a spiritual experience he had. He met with Nūr al-dīn ？Abd al-Ra？mān al-Isfarāyīnī (d. 717/1317), a Kubrawī shaykh based in Baghdad, and became a disciple of him, granted ijāza (a certificate of authority) from him. Upon his shaykh’s order, he turned back to his hometown and spent his life until his death, in his ？ūfī lodge raising disciples and writing works. He had contributed greatly both to his own order and to the literature of ？ūfism with his disciples and written works. As regards to the hereafter, his opinions on the reality of this world and its position against the next, death, the doomsday and its kinds, the existence of the paradise and the hell today and their present location are remarkable. In this article, his views over those problems are discussed in the context of his understanding of mystical training. Summary: ？Alā？ al-Dawla al-Simnānī (d. 736/1336) lived between the second half of the seventh century (h.) and the first half of the eighth century, in today’s Iran, during reign of the īlkhānid’s. Thanks to the connection of his family to the īlkhānid court, his father and uncle’s administrative positions at the court and his will and efforts, he started to serve Arghun (r. 1284-1291) around the age of fifteen and gained his personal intimacy. After serving him for ten years, he experienced a spiritual transformation and inclined towards a mystical life. He left Arghun for his hometown Simnān, on the pretext of his disease that courtier doctors could not treated, but under the condition that he would turn back after he recovered from the disease. He got better just after a while but did not return. He arrived Simnān at the beginning of a holy month of Ramadan, took off his formal clothes and began to mystical training himself based on Abū ？ālib al-Makkī’s Qūt al-qulūb. After a while, he met with one of the disciples of Nūr al-dīn ？Abd al-Ra？mān al-Isfarāyīnī (d. 717/1317) and wondered about him. Then left Simnān for Baghdad with the intention of visiting him. However, Arghun was informed about this and prevented him