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1 Character And
Mulla Sadra A Historical
Perspective
By: Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Khamenei
Translated By: Jamshid Pejman Novin
Abstracts: 3 Particular Theology in Aviceniian Philosophy (Part II) 4 Mental Being, A New
Perspective 4 Sadr al-Muta'allehin's
Philosophical Innovations 5 Kamal al-Din Mahmoud Bukhari and The Riddle of
The... 6 The Corporeal Resurrection in Transcendent Theosophy 6 Trans-substantial Motion in Connection with the... 7 An Exposition about the 7 The 8 The Realm of Imagination in Accordance to Jalal al-Din Rumi and Ibn Arabi
Character and
Mulla
Sadra By Ayatollah seyyed mohammad khamenei It seems that Mulla Sadra's scholarly reputation had not penetrated the realm of the royal family or the mass public. Mulla Sadra insisted on academic secrecy and enjoyed a private life. His writings were studied only by a particular group of enlightened scholars. For these reasons, his legacy is absent from historical and popular works of his time.In order to understand Mulla Sadra from a historical perspective we need to examine some of his letters to his teachers, Mir Damad and Sheikh Baha'i. Mulla Sadra, unfortunately, did not date these letters, but we can deduce their approximate date based on the content of the letters. The following letter is believed to be Mulla Sadra's first letter to Mir Damad for three reasons:First- His remarks, opinions, and yudgements on the famous philosophical works, Shifa', and al-Isharat.Second- His desire to continue to benefit from his enlightened teacher's knowledge through correspondence. Mulla Sadra sought the permission of Mir Damad to pose philosophical questions and opinions in this manner.Third- Mulla Sadra explained his preoccupation with the family life and the reason for his lack of correspondence. The following is an excerpt from his first letter to Mir Damad:
My mind has been preoccupied
with various employments during the course of my pilgrimages to the holy city
of In the same letter Mulla Sadra mentioned that one of
the scholars from the city of We can deduce several
biographical factors from this letter. Mulla Sadra could not have been living in cities such as Kashan or In his second letter
to Mir Damad, Mulla Sadra,
wrote about his seven to eight years departure from his mentor. Mulla Sadra finished his
Commentary on Ayat al-Kursi
around the yeaj 1606 in We also know from
this letter that Mulla Sadra
took many pilgrimages to the holy city of We can also assume
that Mulla Sadra at the age
of thirty, 1589 or 1591 AD., finished his ten to twelve years studies in The second and third
letters also contain some information that needs to be examined. In the second
letter, Mulla Sadra stated,
"I have been deprived from seeing you for the past seven to eight
years". In his third letter to Mir Damad, he
stated, "In the past ten to twelve years...".
Mulla Sadra in both of
these letters complained about the ignorant scholars and the intellectuals of
his time. He also mentioned his spiritual exercises and the inspirations that
he had received during the period of his seclusion and invocation (zikr). We can trace the
origin of both of these letters to one city (such as I have tried, thus
far, to present an approximate date of Mulla Sadra's biography in the different cities based on the
available letters. Although it is important to have an approximation
of these dates, but more important is to investigate his spiritual journey and
his school of philosophy. To understand Mulla Sadra's life, his spiritual journey and personal
characteristics, we need to examine the four distinct stages of his life: First
stage: His academic journey from Second stage: The
period of teaching and studying philosophy and other traditional sciences. His relation with other people as a student of sciences.
This period can be titled, the period of blossoming. Third stage: The
period of disappointment and despise. He was disappointed by the behavior of
theologians and philosophers and the pseudo- scholars who pretended to have
knowledge. During this period Mulla Sadra turned towards seclusion and sought knowledge of the
self. Fourth stage: The
period of spiritual purification and inspiration. Allowing the message of God
and the Holy Quran to enter his heart and finding his
way to the Throne which healed, saved and guided him. I will later examine these stages and their relation to the stages stated in his magnum opus, al-Hikmat al-muta'aliyah fil-asfar al-aqliyyat al-arba'ah (The Transcendent Theosophy Concerning the Four Intellectual Journeys of the Soul).
Abstracts Translated by :
Jamshid Pejman Novin
Particular Theology in
Avicennan Philosophy (Part II)
By : Amir
Shiraz
Ibn Sina
(Avicenna) after proving God's unity (tawhid) mentioned the issue of multiplicity and matter
under the title of "fa'adih". He believed
that if a genus or a differentia has different members, that thing must be due
to matter and if there is no matter, then it cannot have any members.
From the point of view of
Ibn Sina, the Necessary Being (wajib al-wujud) is one unity (wahid).
Ibn Sina believed that the
Necessary Being cannot have a single unified
meaning along with different
(variant) objective (meaning that two or more Necessary Beings would create a
conflict of objectives). The reality of being needs to be the same in all
things and meanings. Necessary Being exists equally in
all things. If things were to have essential variances among themselves, either
in corporeality or category, in kind or in accident, this would cause conflict
with the Necessary Being, which is necessarily One and
United (among all things).
Mental Being, A New
Perspective
By : Reza
Akbari
Mental being has always been an issue of paramount importance and
interest to Muslim philosophers. The first philosopher to raise
mental being as an independent philosophical case is Fakhr
al-din Razi. Others including Khwaje
Nassir Tusi,
Katebi Qazwini,
Taftazani and Mulla
Sadra have also used various reasons to prove the existence
of mental being. In his famous book of Asfar,
Mulla Sadra introduces three philosophical
reasons:
a) Istibsar i.e. envisaging possible beings which are
non-existing as well as impossible beings
b) Celestial
revelation; he considers mental being a heart-felt reality revealed to him through
inspiration. c) Tanbeeh i.e. envisaging things which have once been possible but are presently impossible such as miracles
Sadr al-Muta'allehin's Philosophical Innovations
By : seyyed
Mohammad Entezami
Mulla Sadra
perceived motion (harakat) as an external gradual
change of a thing (ashya') from potentiality to
actuality. The issue of motion is on the one hand potentiality (quwah) and on the other hand actuality (fi'l);
for a thing that has potentiality in every way does not need motion, and the
thing that in every way possesses actuality does not have external existence.
The main question is in what category does motion belong
to. Prior to Mulla Sadra,
motion was categorized in four different ways according to quantity (kam) and quality (kayf).
Philosophers of the past had commented upon motion in the category of substance
(jawhar), but it was Mulla
Sadra who was able to prove such a phenomenon. Past
philosophers had perceived motion in the category of substance as impossible.
In their opinion motion requires a substratum and an active object. They
believed that if material substance (jawhar
maddi) were to be like motion then we could not have an
object and apply motion to it. Mulla
Sadra, however, believed that since the trans-substantial
motion (harakah jawharyyah)
occurs in being and not quiddity, it does not require
a revolution in essence. Mulla Sadra
asserted that this change occurs gradually and the relation and connection of
things is the reason for its (motion) unity and individuation.
Several proofs were
presented by Mulla Sadra in
relation to trans-substantial motion. The first illustration was to prove the
alteration and transformation of motion through generation (kawn)
and corruption (fisad). This transformation and
corruption
(such as the
transformation of a sperm and an egg into a being) occurs gradually. This transformation
and alteration cannot be anything but motion. Another proof asserted that since
motion is a gradual phenomena, it must have a cause
that is close and representative and possesses the same characteristic. Natural
and material essences are the only things that possess these characteristics.
Based on the principle of general resemblance, cause must possess the same
characteristics as motion and be able to bring about motion in accidents.
The proof of the
trans-substantial motion also brought upon a new analysis of time (zaman). In Transcendental Theosophy time was to be the
fourth dimension of material beings. Mulla
Sadra solved many cumbersome issues in philosophy by
solving the aforementioned issues. Foremost amongst these issues were; the
issue of corporeal resurrection, the relation of alternating and stationary
things, and finally the relation of the creation with the Necessary Being.
Kamal al-Din
Mahmoud
Bukhari
By : Ahad
F.Ghara Maleki
The second half of
the tenth century (in the lunar calendar, 16th Century A.D) marks the transfer
of the Shiraz School of Philosophy to
The increasing popularity of Isfahan School of Philosophy and the diminishing popularity of Shiraz School of Philosophy was affected by the social and political atmosphere of the time. The works of Mir fazulallah Astarabadi, Kamal al-Din Mahmoud Bukhari and the treatise of Fakhr al-Din Hosseini are some of the best of that era. Astarabadi's treatise, Si Muqalitat (The Thirty Fallacies), is divided into three sections. The first section is about five fallacies in language, the second section is on twenty logical fallacies and the last section investigates five proofs on fallacies. The Riddle of the Incommensurable Root is discussed as the eleventh fallacy in the second section. In Kamal al-Din Bukhari's thesis, Muqalitat (Fallacies), explicates this riddle in two sections. The first section is concerned with general fallacies and the second section is concerned with specific fallacies. The second section deals with the different sciences and their specifications. The first section is further divided into two sections, the coincidence of contradictories (ijtama' naqizin) and the removal of contradictories (irtafa* naqizin). Fakhr al-Din Hossein's thesis, Adab Monazerah (The principles of Disputation), is based on the most important elements of argument and dispute. The treatise in its fifteen sections investigates The Riddle of the Incommensurable Root and in the eighteenth section explicates logical riddles..
The
Corporeal Resurrection in Transcendent Theosophy (Part II)
By : Mohammad –reza
Hakimi
Mulla Sadra's
philosophy has elements of Peripatetic Philosophy as well as the true foundation
of Illuminationism. Mulla
Sadra was able to combine his intellectual intuition with
gnosis and derive the meaning of "being" (wujud).
He further joined this meaning with thesophical
principles and based it on a logical foundation. It seems that the issue that
Mulla Sadra was most preoccupied
with was the corporeal resurrection. Mulla
Sadra finally solved this issue in his celebrated book,
Asfar. He laid the foundation for this principle and with
precision unraveled his intentions.
What determines his
Transcendent Theosophy is the following eleven principles: The principality of
being (asalat al- wujud),
unity of the gradation of being (wahdat
tashkiki wujud), motion in the
category of substances or trans-substantial motion (harakat
jawhary), simple or non-composite reality (basit al-haqiqih), the principle
of the unity of the soul (qa'adih wahdat
al- nafs), the unity of the intellect and the
intelligible (wahdat aqil
wa ma'qul), the immateriality of
the faculty of imagination (tajarud
quwwah khi'yal), and the three
grades of being and their ascending relations (a'walim
sih ganih
wujud). Mulla Sadra
has asserted that these principles were established to prove the corporeal
resurrection of man. He mentioned that some of these principles were invented
by him and others were merely confirmed by him.
Sheikh
Sadra in his book al-Hashr (Tarh al-kawnayn
fi hashr al
alamayn) also wrote about resurrection. In this
treatise he gave a detailed account and proof of every step of creation from
birth to resurrection; he even mentioned the resurrection of nature and of the
first species. Mulla Sadra
emphasized the three grades of being and the spiritual journey.
Trans-substantial
Motion in Connection with the Formation of the Rational Soul and its Relation with the Body (part II)
By : Mansour
Imanpour
The relation of soul
and body can be examined through the rational soul. The Peripatetic
Philosophers see this relation as a relation of cause (ta'thir)
and effect (ta'athor). In their opinions the soul is
originated due to the contingency of the body, yet there is no causal
relationship between the two.
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) believed that the soul merely employs the body.
This explanation, however, did not clarity the relation of the two. How can
these two different entities create this thing we call man? Mulla
Sadra was the first philosopher who clearly unraveled
this issue using trans-substantial motion as his basis. He believes that the
soul at the outset of creation is contingent and belongs to an ambiguous. quiddity. In the course of various stages the soul
takes its specific form. In the opinion of Mulla Sadra, the soul is not in conflict with the body, it is rather a continuation of the body's existence. After the body proceeds from an inanimate stage to a vegetative and finally to an animal stage it becomes more complete. After this last stage it is ready to accept the blessing of God the Almighty. The unification of the soul to the body completes the corporeal phase of the body and begins its spiritual phase. The spiritual phase is augmented through the trans-substantial motion. Once the unification of the body and soul is intensified, intellect is manifested and becomes one with the body and the soul.
By:Mohammad Tahir Yusufi
This right in Islam,
Overall the belief in
discovering corporeal attributes is based on human perception. Man believed
that the basis of intellect is not corrupted by the changes in societies and the
reign of different governments. The natural and instinctive belief is of such
nature. Islamic doctrine has not taken this route and cannot be compared with
physiocratic methodology. There are at least three different interpretations about the relation of
the intellect and the Divine Law (as they relate to essence and accidents, good
and evil): 1)
Maturidis, who believed that things have
essence and accidents instinctively, but do not accept the relation of the
intellect and the Divine Law. 2)
Muta'zilites, who
believed
in the existence of essence,
accidents, and their perception by the intellect. 3)
Ash'arites, who did not believe in the
existence of essence and accidents in things, they believed that these things
are dependent upon the Divine Command.
The
By:Abbas Taremi
Mulla Abdullah Modarres Zonuzi (1855-1928 A.D.)
was born in
Mulla Zonuzi
is a distinguished scholar of Transcendent Theosophy of Mulla
Sadra. He has established some new principles and
explanations of Mulla Sadra's
philosophy. Some of his insights and analyses on principality of being and
quiddity were novel and unique in his day. He believed that
from this point of view cannot be part of the three principles and cannot
equate it to the "non-condition as a division" (la bisharti maqsami).He had very
modest and warm personality. He had a distinct love for the the
leader of the faithful, Ali (Peace be upon him) and sought intellectual and
moral salvation through Ali and his purified family.
The Realm of
Imagination According to Jalal al-Din
Rumi and Ibn Arabi
Rumi's mystical journey was
a difficult and a dangerous one. He, after years of meditation and spiritual
purification ascended to a high mystical stage at the age of forty.
Jalal al-Din had a special devotion towards his teachers
and believing men. He believed that one's relation with the Truth (haq) is not possible without discovering and annihilating (fana) oneself in the perfect man (in'san
ka'mil). Rumi in his book
of poetry (Mathnawi) illustrated two modes of
devotion, one is a spiritual love and the other is an enlightened (or relieved)
mind. In his opinion, man's universe and kingdom is made of his actions, words
and attributes which are all part of the realm of imagination. In his
Mathnawi, Rumi expounded this
concept with clarity and wisdom.
Ibn Arabi
was exposed to the "secrets of the inner heart "
(mukashifah) at an early age. He considered the realm
of imagination as the vastest world in which even the most impossible and
absurd acts become possible. In a way a corporeal being can exist in two places
simultaneously. In this realm it is even possible to imagine the form of the Necessary
Being (wajib al-wujud).
Imagination can interfer with sensible and
intelligible faculties, this can be considered mystical knowledge and a
discovery by the imagination. This kind of change and alteration is possible
only in the realm of imagination . Man's desires take
form in the realm of imagination and not in the realm of feeling. In the hereafter,
since the intrinsic aspect of man takes the place of his physical appearance, there
will not be a distinction between imagination and feeling. With all the vastness and capability that the realm of imagination presents, it has still some limitations. Moral issues, as well as issues of relations (nisab) and additions (izafat) cannot be formulated or addressed in this realm. In this realm one cannot make a mistake, for mistake is based on (disobeying or wrongly performing) a command, and a command is not part of the realm of imagination. |