Character and
Translator: Mahmoud Ahmadi
Afzadi
Sadr-al-Mutaallihin and Mirdamad can be
put in the third group. While Mulla Sadra's scientific comprehensiveness is clearly visible, Mirdamad's seems more complicated and less visible.
Following Farabi, Arvicenna
and Khwaje Nassir, Mirdamad should be regarded an unrivalled intellectual and
scientist who acquired his uncommon accomplishment of sciences via perseverance
coupled with spiritual endeavors.
It so seems
that Mirdamad set the pattern for Mulla
Sadra to follow'although
the latter felt deeply indebted to Sheikh Bahaii for
his ethical influence on him. It should, of course, be noted that Sheikh Bahaii travelled a lot either as
a member of Shah Abbas's entourage or as an ordinary
tourist who hardly ever failed to make annual pilgrimages en route. This must
have quite often kept him away from Mulla Sadra who found abundant time to spend with a more home-bound
Mirdamad.
It would be
unfair at the same time if we attribute Mulla Sadra's attraction to Mirdamad
solely to his availability.
Undoubtedly
what mostly drew Mulla Sadra
to Mirdamad was Mir's positive attitude to
philosophy. Yet, the adoring Sadra crossed the rather
set boundaries in a student-teacher relationship and took all his questions
whether scientific or spiritual to Mirdamad and their
lives were soon interwoven.
Students
often mature into innovative learners in advanced stages of their studies but Sadra develeped an exceptionally
inquiring mind when he mixed with Mirdamad in his mid
twenties. Having failed to meet a student so aptly fitted to learn before, Mirdamad for his part spared no effort to generously pass
down his entire knowledge to the trutworthy Sadra.
Such
relationships are extremely rare these days. The ever-growing number of
students has made them more listeners who have very little or no spiritual
connection with their teacher. The student of older times could accompany the
teacher upto the door of his home and even live with
him; this way, the two would test each other's reliability.
This
educational tradition was inherited from ancient Persian and Egyptian schools
where elementary learners were first given lessons of ethics. If passed, they
were taught theoretical sciences. I never hesitate to blame Aristotle for the
damage he inflicted on this form of education by giving superiority to
theoretical sciences over ethics and triggering soulless lexical games, namely
what he called philosophy.
Thereafter,
wisdom which was coordination between the Micro Anthropo
and the Macro Anthropo gave its place to the
so-called philosophy which surveyed metaphysics through observation of the
physical world. Aristotle's insufficient reasoning in this regard later led to
the elimination of studies on metaphysics in the west's philosophical circles -
a vacuum which I believe has not yet been filled.
The
illuminative wisdom of ancient Persia, however, survived the blow ,owing to the
efforts of scholars like Avicenna, Suhrawardi, Khwajeh Nassir and last but not least Mirdamad
who passed down the heritage to Sadra.
Mirdamad's characteristics: first - having a multi-dimensional
view on scientific and philosophical research'he
built a mental system which analyzed every issue from all dimensions i.e., when
reviewing an issue of logic for example, he would consider it from the
viewpoints of gnosis, tradition, interpretation and discourse as well. This
procedure which was later adopted by Mulla Sadra was unprecedented before Mirdamad.
As far as I
know, no other philosopher has had such an inclination to study an intellectual
case in a multi-dimensional system i.e., a system based on two or more schools
of thought.
Even Avicenna in his famous philosophical books such as Al-Shifa, Isharat and Nijat does not show an inclination towards illumination ,although he has written a book about the
issue. Likewise, he has never mixed jurisprudence with philosophy despite
having a full command of both. A scholastic philosopher, Fakhr
Razi is another such example who raises philosophical
questions in his reasoning - based books but never retreats from his strong Ash'arite position which regards philosophy as a rather
limited subject.
Suhrawardi who is an outstanding representative of ancient
Persian philosophy introduces the Illuminative philosophy in a traditional way
also. Even Khwajeh Nassir
with his miscellaneous views on scholastic philosophy avoids mixing those
views. Although his famous book of Tajrid-al-Kalam is
based on philosophy, it remains well within the framework of scholastic
theology.
Second -
Paying utmost attention to the Quran and hadith Mirdamad has been a
renowned jurist and scholar of hadith. Historians say
he was unrivalled in jurisprudence and jurists from all over the country took
their professional problems to him. His vast knowledge of hadith
and interpretation as well as his great reliance on the Quran
enabled him to use traditional proofs alongside intellect and arguments when
dealing with philosophical issues.
Mulla Sadra and Seyyed Ahmad Ameli later adopted
the same procedure.
Third-Innovation, not interpretation and imitation. Mirdamad is mostly reputed to have been a Peripatetic with
brilliant interpretations of Avicenna's books; yet a
closer look at his life reveals that he is far from being a mere follower of
other scholars but is rather innovative. This has given him a distinguished
style in philosophy and logic.
Fourth -
Spiritual Journeys and illumination. Spiritual journeys became significant in the
Safavid era and were sometimes mistaken for Sufism.
Scanning the half-hidden corners of Mulla Sadra's life especially his living in self-exile in Kahak, a village near the central city of
Fifth -
Developing an appreciative taste in literature. Owing his great interest in
literature to both his own aptness and the traditional love for poetry among
the people of his birthplace, Khorasan, Mirdamad was also destined to have emerged in the golden
age of poetry in the Safavid era. What further
persuaded scientists and scholars to use the language of poems was the power of
theoretical and practical gnosis at that time. One can conclude that most of
the philosophers and even jurists expressed their thoughts in the form of
quatrains or odes therefore softening their otherwise complicated and subtle
language. Mirdamad's privilege in this connection was
that he could use Farsi and Arabic equally well, and his odes in Arabic have
won appreciation of Arab scholars.
His
pseudonym, Ishraq'meaning illumination has made
several European orientalists believe he had a
tendency to illuminative wisdom. While not rejecting the assumption, I prefer
to connect it to his interest in illumination as divine irradiations and not -
at least solely - as a philosophical term. Trying to find as many links as
logical between Mirdamad and Mulla
Sadra, I would say that Sadra's
tendency to composing mainly quatrains which are the poetic marks of Mir'is another indication of his close ties with him.
Correspondence
- Strangely enough, neither of the two men has said words in praise of the
other in his books. The only book which barely leads us to their spiritual
relationships with each other is a preface Sadra has
written for Mir's Arsh-al-Taqdis; and even that
praises the book itself and not its author. What clearly reveals Mulla Sadra's special fellowship
with Mirdamad are his letters, though very few. The
letters, none of them dated, have been written in the then literary Farsi
portraying a vivid picture of their mutual association. The words used by Sadra in praise of Mir are exclusive and cannot be seen in
any letter he's sent to others including the top government officials and even
Sheikh Bahaii.
Two of the
longest and fortunately most intact letters reveal very interesting points
about the two men's social and scientific lives: These points include:
- Mirdamad had
officially held chairs of philosophy and jurisprudence and been regarded by his
contemporaries as a highly credited source.
- Based on a refrence
to Mirdamad as "the sun of the wisdom of
faith" most probably used in opposition to Peripatetic and illuminative
wisdom, we can judge that Mulla Sadra
considers Mirdamad as the real founder of the
Transcendent Wisdom.
- Elsewhere, Sadra
refers to Mir as "the light of the paradise of
- In another sentence Sadra
lashes out at "the so-called scholars of this time who are covered with
the dust of immorality". This confirms the idea that the rigid jurists of
- The lines of the letters also speak of threats to Mirdamad-even an abortive assasination attempt by Shah Abbas.
Based on
philosophical consideration, illumination has been the focal point of Suhrawardi's ontological argument. To better comprehend the
argument, this essay has elaborated on issues such as light, supreme light and
dominant lights. Light is first defined and then discussed as opposed to
darkness. Elsewhere, light is viewed within gnosiology.
Suhrawardi, regards light in two respects: once as something
in itself and for itself, and then as something in itself and for something
else; Since light is bound up with illumination, there cannot be the option in
something else as opposed to in itself.
The highest stage of being is the supreme light which is referred to by Suhrawardi also as the encompassing light, primal light and holy light. Beyond this light, there is nothing else. The existence of the supreme light precedes the authenticity of light and its analogical gradation. Likewise, it takes precedence over the dependence of the infra light ranks on the ultra light ones, as well as the division of light ranks to immaterial lights. It is finally inferred that the immaterial light is in need of another immaterial light which is superior to it; the superiority circle might continue endlessly or there might be a supreme light as the cause of causes.
Mulla Sadra says that
"intellect" is a polysemous word and takes
meanings as a)
instinct which separates man from animals b) basic sciences c) intellect as
defined in books of ethics d)power of reasoning e) intellect as viewed in the
discussion of soul including intellectus in actu, intellectus in habitu and intellectus adeptus f) intellect as viewed in theology.
Emphasizing
the high status of intellect, Mulla Sadra points to one hadith which
names intellect alongside with prophets as the two proofs which help man find
the right way. Moreover, based on a transmission from Imam Hussein, the third
Imam of the prophet's household which says "intellect is always the
pathfinder of believers" Mulla Sadra states that to approach God, one has to obtain
intellectual perfection.
On the
essence of his philosophical school, there are different views sometimes
opposing each other. In one view, his school is an eclectic one i.e., it is a
rewording of the previous schools and has therefore nothing new in itself.
The second
view, however, stresses that the idea of the Transcendent Wisdom is quite
innovative and satisfies both gnostics and
philosophers. They maintain that Mulla Sadra by estblishing new and
consolidated principles in philosophy reached conclusions that were clear - cut
and surprisingly mapped onto religious teachings and even helped better
understand the basics of Islamic weltanschauung.
Advocates of
a third view believe that the Transcendent Wisdom owes its sublimity to its
superior language. Based on new semantics, they try to find a logical advantage
for the transcendent Wisdom.
Finally, a
fourth view relies on gnosiology to prove the
Transcendent Wisdom's superiority over other philosophical schools.
Temporal Being and Eternity of Universe
on the
Basis of Trans-substantial Motion
Based on
Trans-substantial Motion, Mulla Sadra
reiterates that "The Universe with everything in it is temporally
contingent because everything in it has been non - existent in time."
According to
Trans-substantial Motion, all beings are essentially changing i.e., universe is
a constant contingency and its existence lies in its non-existence in time.
Therefore, it did not exist before and later became existent. In the
pre-existent world, there has been no time. There is no beginning point for the
creation of the universe and there is no need to postulate a beginning point as
such. Because the entire universe is constantly contingent and the
contingencies never meet in one certain point.
Mulla Sadra says the physical universal
is equal to its components and since its components are contingent, it too
would be contingent
To be on a different wavelength, Asha'rite and Mutazilite theologians see nothing wrong in the vacuum idea maintaing two reasons to prove its existence: first, without vacuum the smallest movement in the universe would change its entire order; second, whenever two equal levels are posited simultaenously vacuum necessarily becomes existent.