With the beginning of the Revelation and immediately after some verses of the Holy Qur’an were descended, some questions were raised.

And this causes the most generous Prophet (S.A.W.) to begin to answer the questions and describe the Holy Qur’an verses; and from that time, the first steps in Qur’an exegesis, which later were called “Hadith” came to existence.

After the Prophet (S.A.W.), Hadith were being transmitted to people, in two ways:

First: by Ahl-al Beyt (the Prophet’s special progeny); and these Hadith were explained, mainly by Amir al-Mo’menin (the commander of the faithful), Ali (A.S.) who was the Prophet’s bridegroom, and by the presence of Fatimah Zahra (A.S.) the Prophet’s daughter and Ali’s spouse. These Hadith were passed to ten successive generations in Shi’ite Imams (leaders).

Second: by the Prophet’s friends (Azhab). And at that time, commentary on the Holy Qur’an was limited to quote the Prophet’s exegetic Hadith.

In the later centuries, technical and analytical or literary commentary became common; and three main schools or methods of exegesis (theological exegesis of Shi’ite, Mo’tazele, and Ash’arites) appeared; and schools such as exegesis school of Medina, Mecca, Kufa and Basra, some of which paid attention to creed and theological issues, and some others to jurisprudential and legal issues, and some to its rhetorical and literary or gnostic issues, became famous.

In the contemporary ages, some persons, even, investigated it from the point of view of experimental sciences and modern findings. And certainly, closer the commentary to the contemporary age, more complete the exegetic methods; and an outstanding example of the complete commentary on the Holy Qur’an is “Al Mizan fi Tafsir al-Qur’an” by the well-known contemporary philosopher and commentator, Allame Tabataba’i who commented the Holy Qur’an by Qur’an in a scientific and technical way; and his commentary, consisting of 20 volumes in addition to literary points, has philosophical and social and narrative issues, too.

Mulla Sadra’s hermeneutics – without alluding to the great commentator of the Holy Qur’an

Mulla Sadra Shirazi, investigation of the exegetic methods of the Holy Qur’an will be imperfect; since, in fact, his method in exegesis is one of the best exegetic methods of the Holy Qur’an.

Sadr al-Din Muhammad Shirazi (979-105/1571) entitled as Sadra al-Muta’allehin and known as Mulla Sadra is one of the greatest Iranian and Muslim philosophers like Avicenna. He lived in the Safavid age. He has written near fifty books in philosophy and exegesis and hadith; the most famous between them in Al Asfar al-Arba’a (the Four Intellectual Journies) – a complete course in philosophy – consisting of 9 volumes, which is considered as a textbook.

In philosophy, he has a well-known school, called the Transcendental Wisdom (Hikmat-e Mute’alliye), in which he has mixed important elements of peripatetic and illuminative schools and Iranian ancient philosophy and sufism and Islamic philosophy as a single school, and at the same time, being inspired by the Holy Qur’an and Hadith, he has brought the Islamic philosophy to its culmination.

Mulla Sadra’s commentary consists of exegetic segments. He has begun from Ayat al Korsi (approximately 1025 AH) and Nur verse (1030 Ah) and continued with commenting Yasin, Al-Hadid, Al-Vaqi’e, Al-A’la, Al-Tareq, Al-zalzal verses, and finally lately in his life, decided to make a complete commentary on the Holy Qur’an and commented some verses of Al Baqara chapter; but death didn’t allow him to bring this book to a conclusion.

Mulla Sadra’s method in exegesis isn’t monotonous. In commentaries such as commentaries on Nur verse (1030 AH) and Ayat al Korsi (1025 AH), he has written in his youth, he has been depended, mostly on gnostics and sufis points, and at the same time has paid attention to Hadith; and he has not been so interested in literary and verbal points.

But, since after complete settlement in Shiraz, he decides to write a complete and inclusive commentary on the Holy Qur’an, from the beginning to the end, his slightly hasty method is replaced by Qur’an commentators usual method. That is, firstly he discusses the word and its exterior, and its meaning(s) and derivatives. Being indifferent to the majority of issues, common among the commentators and theologists of that time and before, he describes its gnostic and Qur’anic meaning, based on his special and personal intuitions.

To avoid repeating his own gnostic and intuitive points, he wrote Mafatih al Gheyb (keys to the unseen)[1], before beginning to comment, so that he would refer to it as an introduction to or a philosophy for commentary on the Holy Qur’an, and base some of his compendium points on this book.

As though he seems not to have paid attention to the majority of commentaries on the Holy Qur’an, but sometimes he has pointed to Fakhr Razi, Neyshabouri and Zamakhshari’s commentaries free of pre-justice, and quoted their points to complete his own points (Tafsir, Vol.1, p. 176). And, also sometimes he has disproved them (ibid, p. 191)

Mulla Sadra’s commentary is, basically, a gnostic one; but since he was expert in all of sciences of his time, sometimes he has paid attention to some other subjects, the other commentators investigated; and since he was well educated in Arabic literature, sometimes he has discussed literary points.

Mulla Sadra believes since the verse Look at the heavens and the earth is a command, then it is a duty. So, cosmology and recognizing the apparent and hidden realities of the world is, religiously, necessary. Therefore, commentary of the Holy Qur’an must demand for finding the realities of the world and the issues of the man’s spirit. And the commentators who look for literary and exterior meanings in the Holy Qur’an, in fact, descend the Holy Qur’an to the level of a pure literary work (Asrar al-ayat . 6).

On the other hand, just as ignorance of the realities of the world causes the ignorance of their creator; ignorance of God is, also, in fact, ignorance of all things, and considered as exodus from the human nature. (ibid. p1, p5)

In terms of methods of exegesis, Mulla Sadra divides commentaries on the Holy Qur’an, into some groups.

First – commentaries, which discusses literary techniques and verbal meanings, and rhetorical points of the Holy Qur’an.

Second – commentaries, that used the exterior of the Holy Qur’an for perceiving the knowledge and deriving the jurisprudential and ethical commands, and contended themselves with this.

Third- commentaries, that, turning away from the exterior of the Holy Qur’an have imposed what they liked t the Holy Qur’an and called Ta’wil (interpretation) or gnostic commentary.

Fourth – commentaries, that accepting the exterior of the Holy Qur’an, look for its mysteries and secrets and with the help of the intelligence, intuition and the divine illumination, obtain the realities, hidden under the veil of the exterior of the Holy Qur’an. Mulla Sadra is among the fourth group, and he accepts only this kind of commentary and considers it correct. To achieve the depth of his exegetic school his definitions for Revelation, Qur’an and world must be discussed first.

First, the world ranks – Mulla Sadra divides the world of being into three worlds: 1. The material and the physical world

As we will describe in this paper, all there is in material world is, in fact, an idea or symbol of non-material world, which is the place of the realities; and that reality, which is in non-material world, has an idea or symbol in the world of matter. For example, the term “pen”, mentioned in He taught by the pen verse, is in the material world in one form, and in the world beyond the matter, i.e. the other world, in another form, while in both the worlds, the pen is the same, and in fact, it is something. (Mafatih al-Gheyb, p. 95)

Second, the man’s rank, in addition to five senses, the man has other ranks and worlds, too, which must be divided into three groups: 1, the rank of sense and sensing with the instrument of five senses, 2. The imaginative or ideal rank, in which also the same senses exist, but without the material instruments, and man can see without eye and hear without ear, 3. Intellectual or universal rank in which the realities of the objects exist, free of matter and time and idea, and it is the highest rank of the man’s soul, and next to the world of heaven intellects.

Third, the rank of Revelation – since the Holy Qur’an is Revelation and God’s speech, the meaning of Revelation must be known, also. According to the definition of the Holy Qur’an (51:42) the Revelation is direct and immediate speaking of the Exalted God to the Prophet. Hence, the Revelation is called God’s Speech, also. And according to mentioned verse, the speech is solely in three kinds. It must be known that God’s Speech isn’t separate of its “comprehension” and the “speech” is united with the Prophet’s spirit (Mulla Sadra, Asfar 8/7). But for other than the Prophet, God’s speech is always indirect and through words and writings; and it can be said that people can only deal with God’s Book and not with His Speech.

Mulla Sadra says God’s speech is other than His Book. It seems that his intention is other than what nowadays some of the hermeneutists say and for some reason make a distinction between writing and discourse.

In Mulla Sadra’s opinion, God’s Speech is simple and far from combination, and from the command world (a stage, in which the matter is absolutely non-existent, and has no involvement in it); and it is timeless and all-at-once, not gradual. But, on the contrary, the writing or divine book is of a lower and material world, and it is issued and descended in combination and gradually; and what is in the Holy Qur’an in God’s Book, not divine speech (Asfar 10/7)[2]

Despite declaring this opinion, Mulla Sadra finally accepts the unity of writing and speech and says that this duality is externally and hypotatized and the result of mind analysis; and it isn’t real. Just as, in fact, there is not distinction between speech and writing in the man. His explanation for the unity of the speech and writing or separation between them, is as follows: since, one end of writing is always connected to the author and writing isn’t separate from the author and speech from the speaker, and in the philosophical words, it (writing) is in the rank of necessity. But since the other end is connected to other than the author or speaker (e.g. paper and book and its reader) , it can be considered separate from the author and in philosophical words, it is in the rank of possibility. He considers this phenomenon true, both in divine essence and in the man. And he adds that the unity of speech and writing, despite of their separation is one of his own intuitions.

The Revelation is an intricate and non-material phenomenon. It undergoes stages until it appears as the Qur’an before people. Mulla Sadra says “When the Prophet, given the man’s soul and world rank, passes from the material and sensible stage with his spirit and heart, and, also, passes from the imagination rank and idea world, and after being released from the matter, and going away from time and materials and dimensions, and observes the signs of the Exalted God’s heaven and travels in it, a light of knowledge will shine in his heart, its incarnated form is the holy spirit, or Gabriel of religions (Asfar, Vol.7, pp. 24-25). And in Al-Najm Chapter (53:verses 2 to 18) he describes and introduces Gabriel and calls him Shadid al-Qova (very strong) and this is what is called the “active intelligent” in philosophy.

After observing the Holy spirit or Gabriel (or in philosophical words, union with the active intelligent) the Prophet receives and hears the divine speech and Revelation with the words, can’t be heard by apparent ear and through air waves. And then, in the same way that he has gone to the world of intellects, he will return to the world of matter; and passing through the world of idea, will be transmitted to the material world.

The words heard by the Prophet also, in each stage of the world of idea and the world of matter, come in a form, suitable for that stage. And once arrived to the world of senses and the physical area of the world, all that Revelation and spiritual words take the form of human words and the shape of writing; and people hear and see it.

As mentioned in Al-Najm Chapter, and as seen and heard by the Prophet with interior eye and ear, the Divine Speech is pure reality, and there is no suspicion of error in it.

Fourth, Qur’an ranks – According to definitions of the world and the man, and the Revelation phenomenon, Qur’an – that is, Divine Speech and writing – also, isn’t merely what is seen or heard. Rather, according to the triple stages of the world of being; and the man’s interior; and travel of the Revelation in spiritual stages, until arriving to the physical world, it has also ranks and stages. And as the man, who has body and spirit, Qur’an also, has a spirit, in addition to expression and paper and cover, that can be said it is interior, or seven interiors. (It is introduced in prophetical Hadith, that Qur’an has intricate layers, or in Hadith words, interiors (Mulla Sadra, Mafatih al Gheyb, p. 45)

The exterior of the Holy Qur’an can be understood by the man’s exterior and body; but its interior can be understood only by the beyond of human senses or the man’s interior (as we will describe). Paying superficial attention to the words and their exterior meanings is the exterior of the Holy Qur’an. Of course, this has legal and jurisprudential validity, and in jurisprudents’ words, it is exterior proof (Hujjat). But, beyond this exterior, there are conceptions in the Holy Qur’an which understanding them isn’t possible for everyone, who is familiar with the Arabic language; and it is specified for them, who can pass from the limit of words and exterior senses (five senses).

Mulla Sadra believes that, as the worlds have three physical, other worldly and supra-otherworldly ranks, Qur’an, also, has spiritual and conceptual ranks and degrees, since it is the “symbol” of all these three worlds. Its first degree is of the word category, and all those who are familiar with Arabic, understand it. But, the other degrees are spiritual and hidden or “esoteric” and understanding them is possible in a realm other than the realm of words.

To present the spiritual ranks and degrees of the Holy Qur’an, Mulla Sadra likens the Holy Qur’an with foods table, descended from the heaven. And, in the following poems, describes it so: Qur’an is like foods, which from the heaven, have been descended for nourishing. Since the food is similar to the nourished one, donkeys and cows don’t like except moles, the oil and the cores are for the man. Its shell, not its seeds are for animal.

Mulla Sadra calls the Holy Qur’an, the light, as the Holy Qur’an calls itself so; it is the detector and discloser of the hidden realities and in this paper we shall mention to this point. Mulla Sadra’s exegetic method – After getting acquainted with the four phenomenon, the world, the man, the Revelation and the Holy Qur’an, it is turn of Mulla Sadra’s exegetic method.

He believes that the best method for commenting on the Holy Qur’an is so: just as the Holy Qur’an has been descended to the Prophet as the Revelation, and undergone different degrees and stages, and come from the world of intellects to the world of souls and ideas, and then come to the material (physical world), and heaven meanings changed their forms and taken the shape of earthly words, the commentator, also, has to follow this path, for understanding the depths of the Holy Qur’an. That is, firstly, he has to begin from the exterior meanings and understand them; and then, leaving the bodily senses and asking help from the interior senses and the man’s soul – and even, leaving the body temporarily (khale badan) and using the power of spirit - travel to the heaven and obtain the meaning of the Holy Qur’an, transparent and without veil, through unveiling.

Most of the existents of the material and physical world can be understood and senses by five senses. But, with these senses, one can’t go to the other ranks. There are ways and instruments for understanding each one of these three physical and metaphysical worlds. Material and non-material realities are corresponding – or, in Mulla Sadra’s words “coincident” (Mutatabeq) with each other, but they aren’t like each other, and there is a great difference between them.

Hence, for understanding all the Qur’anic realities, or in common expressions, “for commenting on the Holy Qur’an”, one must not be contented to its exterior and verbal meanings. Rather, he must plunge to the never-ending depth of these meanings, since, just as non-material world is hidden for the masses of people; the Holy Qur’an, that is, the manifestation of those worlds, also has esoteric intelligibles and meanings and a deep interior, which are hidden for the man’s exterior senses; and so, understanding and commenting on the mere exterior of the Holy Qur’an can’t be considered as the true and inclusive understanding and commenting.

One, who is contented to words, or literary or artistic aspects in commenting on the Holy Qur’an, can only understand the beauty and music of the words, and its literary and verbal arts; or at the most, obtain the legal and jurisprudential aspects to find jurisprudential and actual statements, from the exterior of the worlds. Or imagine hand and eye and throne and chair for God, as Ash’ari and Mo’tazele theologists or some of the Hanbali jurisprudents do (Asfar 9/299).

Following the Iranian illuminative school, Mulla Sadra considers the “light” as a non-material reality and same as the “being”. He says ‘the light and the being are the same, and their difference is in conception; and since, the Holy Qur’an is also light (Qur’am 7:157, 5:15, 4:74), therefore, this book is a symbol of the world of being and contains its unseen and seen (Qur’an 6:59), Asrar al-Ayat, p. 35). In other words, four centuries before the new European hermeneutics, Mulla Sadra’s hermeneutics has brought the interpretation of the text (and commentary on the Holy Qur’an) from the words area to the existents and the phenomenon of the world; like those, who, nowadays, consider the interpretation equivalent to recognizing the phenomenon is society and history, he has considered the Holy Qur’an exegesis equivalent to the interpretation of the world and the man, and hidden and apparent realities.

Gnostists, and among them Mulla Sadra, believe that the world o existence has taken all its existence from the divine command, by the world “Kon” (become!) (according to the Holy Qur’an verse), and they call this word “ontological Kon”, that is, with a simple connective the existence and the divine speech turn to the same thing. And they put the existence equal to the light. Therefore, the divine speech is a light, that shines on external non-existents (however, known for God), and makes them apparent, incarnated and existent.

The “wujud” (existence), which is cognate with the “wojdan” (finding and having), sometimes is taken synonymous to it, by Ibn Arabi. Mulla Sadra, also, considers the knowledge and recognition of the Holy Qur’an, as an opening to the world of realities. And for this reason, he believes that every existent has knowledge, to the extent of its existence; and what has knowledge, will be mustered. So, all the objects, even minerals, will be mustered (Resala ap-Hashr).

The knowledge, the commentator finds about the interior of the Holy Qur’an, is, in fact, seeing them with interior senses, and in other words, it is a kind of unity and coupling with the world of existence, the ancient gnostists called the world ‘cosmos’, and the divine speech “logos”.

Perhaps, according to gnostists and Mulla Sadra each person can find a meaning from the Holy Qur’an, apart from those found by the others. And each person capacity, finds something in the Holy Qur’an, according to her/his capacity. And this is the point, some of hermeneutists believe in, the only separation between Mulla Sadra and hermeneutists in that, hermeneutists don’t believe in intuition as Mulla Sadra believes in it; and Mulla Sadra doesn’t believe in personal perceiving, which he calls the reason, especially, if it is stranger to the text and far from it. Here, it is worth to examine the principle of Ta’wil (interpretation).

Esoteric exegesis of the Holy Qur’an – The term “Ta’wil” is employed several times in the Holy Qur’an. The literal meaning of the term is to return to the origin of the word. In contemporary hermeneutics, sometimes the interpretation of the text – or, understanding the intention from the text – goes out of the realm of speaker’s will, and goes under the reader’s control.

Undoubtedly, interpretation, in this sense, is not correct for Mulla Sadra and Muslim commentators. And we shall say that he doesn’t allow exodus from the words of the text in the Holy Qur’an. According to him, commentary must be so that the meaning doesn’t go out of the word circle and its realm; and the common sense approves it as a meaning suitable for that word. In other words, the commentator of the Holy Qur’an (or perhaps, any other religious text) is its trustee and must observe the terms of trust.

According to Mulla Sadra, Ta’wil, in his intended meaning, is a necessity for exegesis, since, according to what is said, it has connections with the world of existence, beyond the verbal and exterior meaning of the Holy Qur’an. There are many secrets, mysteries and meanings, which can’t be understood or explained by verbal commentary; and the exoteric meaning of the words don’t afford to comment on those intricate and mysterious realities (Tafsir-e Ayat-al Korsi, p. 176). Therefore, a true commentator has to interpret those words, i.e. to plunge to the depth of their meaning and “interiors”. And, even, sometimes, he has to draw aside the veil of material world and exterior senses, and obtain those important, or more important, meaning by the reason or intuition or the other experiments; the elegant meanings, the Prophet’s special progeny (commander of the faithful), Imam Ali (A.S.) and his descendants have explained only for confidents and true gnostists. The interpretation of the Holy Qur’an is not opposite to its exterior, rather it is its supplement, and the meanings of the Holy Qur’an are like the core of the seed; and its exoteric meanings and words are like the shell of the seed (Tafsir-e Ayat al-Kursi, p. 176). On the basis of this, undoubtedly, Ta’wil isn’t a free or tastefull interpretation, or going out of the exterior of the words, or commenting according to one’s opinion; rather, it is the real and deep commentary on the word or sentence. The Holy Qur’an, says that “the Qur’an explains everything for us” , whereas, if in commentary on the Holy Qur’an we are contented to its verbal and exoteric meanings, everything or “Kolle Shay’e” can’t be perceived of it. Then, the real Qur’an requires the real exegesis or Ta’wil.

But, Ta’wil, in the correct sense of the term, is, approaching to the Holy Qur’an and plunging to its depth and different layers, and interior of its meanings. The correct Ta’wil is passing from the exterior of the words to the other meanings, hidden beyond the veil of their exterior meanings.

[1] Here by “unseen” he means the hidden part of the world and the hidden meaning of the Holy Qur’an

[2] In another point, he says that the Holy Qur’an is God’s Speech, but the other divine books are only God’s books

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