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Mulla
Sadra's Life, works, and Philosophy 3- Umm Kulthum Mulla Sadra's first child (his eldest daughter) was called Kulthum or
Umm Kulthum. She was born in 1019(A.H. lunar) in Mulla Sadra's school and household followed this tradition too, since
he was a strict follower of the prophetic and Ahl-al bayt's traditions. The
training of girls in this tradition has a long history; for example, Sakinah
(a), Imam Husayn's (a) daughter, was one of the most prominent literary women
of her time. It has explicitly been written in some biographies that "she
learnt philosophy and other different sciences from her father and then
continued her studies under the supervision of her husband (Mulla 'Abd
al-Razzaq)". She is even said to have had some debatcs with scholars in
formal meetings.[2] Some believe that Umm Kulthum was Fayd Kashani's wife; however,
according to certain sources,she was Mulla 'Abd al- Razzaq Lahiji's wife.[3] On
the basis of available evidence, we can say that they married in 1034 or 1035
(she was 15 or 16 years old at that time), but Fayd's married life started in
about 1038 (A.H. lanar) and this date is more compatible with the age of
Zubaydah, Mulla Sadra's second daughter, who was almost 15 years old at that
time. If it is proved that Mulla 'Abd al-Razzaq lived for 70 years (1002-1072.H.H.Luner),
he was a little older than Fayd and, apparantly,he must have married the elder
daughter. It has been quoted from the Mawalid wa wafayat (Risalah fi) (The Treatise of the Dates of Births and Deaths), by Fayd's son (the
manuscript is available in Ayatullah Mar 'ashi Library) that his mother's death
was in Kashan, 1097 (A.H.lunar), while Umm Kulthum's death has been recorded in
1090 (A.H.lunar), and this confirms the earlier claim.[4] 4- Zubaydah Zubaydah, or
according to some unreliable sources, Zaynab, was Mulla Sadra's second
daughter. It is said that she was most probably born in 1024 (A.H.lunar) in In line with most
historians, we believe that she is Mulla Muhsin Fayd's wife and 'Alam al-Huda's
mother. However, in some books it is written that it was Umm Kulthum who was
Fayd's wife and Zubaydah was Fayyad Lahiji's wife. There are a host
of praising attributes used in describing this benevolent lady such as
"philosopher, theologian, scholar, worshipper, and pious".[5] Like her
sister, she must have deeply benefited from her father's ocean of knowledge and
perfections of which Fayd is only one example. One of the most
noteworthy points in the history of Islamic and Iranian culture is woman's
contribution to scientific and spiritual perfections specifically scholars'
daughters. This point not only represents the importance of women's social
roles and their human and civil rights in Islamic laws, but also indicates the
equality of men and women in Islam and Islamic culture, as well as providing evidence
that those who are trained in this school pay equal attention to the education
and perfection of their sons and daughters. The Holy Prophet
(s) himself had a daughter such as Fatimah Zahra (a), in whom he confided his
divine knowledge. The commander of Faithful Ali (a), trained his daughter,
Zaynab, at the side of his sons. Imam Husayn (a) had a daughter such as Sakina,
who used to protect scientists, literary men, and poets. It has been narrated
that nobody could compete with her in criticizing Arabic poetry and prose. The elegant
history of Shi 'i is abundant with knowledgeable, scientist, literary,
jurisprudent, theologian, philosopher, and gnostic women. This is because one
of the old traditions of Shi 'i scholars was to train and educate their daughters.
It has also been frequently said about scholars, jurisprudents, and
philosophers that they sent their daughters to school along side with their
sons or taught them themselves. It is a pity that
wrong social traditions and the misunderstandings of those who claimed to know
religion perfectly led them to put aside this longstanding and praiseworthy
Islamic tradition and deprive women from learning and studying hikmah, philosophy, and literature, and
have a return to the age of darkness and ignorance. It didn't take a long time
before the invasive western culture imposed itself upon the old culture by
force and violence. Though the western culture awarded the freedom of education
to women, which was admirable, as a gift coming from abroad, the westerners
introduced it as a product of atheism and anti-religious movement in the west.
They pictured Islam as a religion against any kind of training or education for
women and their learning and teaching of philosophy, literature, and other
sciences. It has always been the policy of western missionaries and violators
of Islamic and eastern cultures to unload the nations' memories from their
glorious ancient past and load them with their fake but ornamented ideas. Of
course, they introduce these ideas as divine gifts and claim that their own
culture and traditions bear the message of liberty for different nations.
Through these deceptions, they will be able to exploit them and ravage their
wealth. In his notes on
the dates of births and deaths of his relatives, Fayd's son, 'Allamah
'Alam
al-Huda Muhammad, writes about his mother in this way: "my dignified
mother... died in 1097(A.H. lunar), if the lady referred to here is Zubaydah
(as written by the author of Mustadrak-i
a 'yan al-shi 'ah), her death must have naturally been in the same year.
Abstracts
Mulla Sadra's Relevence to
Modern philosophy
Dr. Reza Davari Ardakani The present
article briefly refers to two points, one positive and one negative, shared by
both Mulla Sadra and Kant concerning the issue of knowledge. It also draws on a
big difference between their ideas in this regard. The great
difference between them is that, according to Mulla Sadra, knowledge is firstly
acquired by means of the active intellect. Secondly, the knowledge of objects
conforms to the very objects themselves. However, Kant not only believed that
knowledge is the product of man's intellect and limited to everything whose
matter is perceived through the senses and experience, but also conceived of the
conformity between knowledge and external objects as a dogmatic proposition.
Therefore, in Kant's view, one can never obtain the knowledge of world and is
only able to confirm its existence.
The Existence of Copula
(rabit)
Dr. G.H.Ebrahimi Dinani This article is
devoted to the study of the nature of copula and the ways to recognize it. It
also aims to provide an answer to the question of whether there is anything in
this world which is free from any kind of relation and belonging. Those who have a
realistic view of this world reply that what is exposed to man's thought
inevitably enjoys some kind of relation. The reason is that if we can conceive
of an existent free from any kind of relation, that existent undoubtedly
becomes a part of our knowledge and requires a kind of relation between the
knower and the known. Islamic
philosophers have divided existence into two types: copula and dependent, and
the issue of the relation between the subject and the predicate has raised a
great number of discussions among researchers. In Mulla Sadra's
Transcendent philosophy all the existents of the possible world, from the
sovereignty to the dominion, are the same as relation and have absolute
dependence upon the Truth. The existence of a
relation could be dependent on both sides (categorical relation) or it could be
dependent on one side (illuminative relation). It should be taken into
consideration that the relation, while being a reality, is not capable of
having an independent existence. In Mulla Sadra's opionion, the world of
possibles has a kind of illuminative correlation with the absolute being of the
Truth.
The Subject of Metaphysics
Dr. M.J.Rezai The writer has
divided the article into four parts: A) Determining the
subject of metaphysics B) Defining the
subject of metaphysics C) Demonstrating
"existent qua existent" and the "separate existent" as the
subject matters of metaphysics D) Demonstrating
the existence of the subject of metaphysics In the first part,
the writer has tried to analyze Ibn Sina's ideas with respect to determining
the subject of primary philosophy. According to Ibn Sina, "the subject of
metaphysics is neither God nor the final four causes of objects; rather, the
subject of metaphysics is "the existent" qua existent since it has
existence, and God and the four causes are among the problems of metaphysics. In the second
part, the writer states that the existent is a self-evident concept and cannot
be defined. And, in the third part, he presents the necessary reasons for
demonstrating that "existent qua existent" and the "separate
existent" are the subject matters of metaphysics and criticises it at the
same time. In the fourth part, he argues that confirming the existence of a
subject for metaphysics, that is, the existent, as well as its conception, is a
self-evident issue. Therefore,
confirming the principle that "there is a reality" is neither
demonstrable nor deniable, since bringing reasons necessitates accepting this
principle a priori.
Epistemology and the
Transcendent Philosophy
Dr.A.Shirvani The present
article reviews the place of epistemology in the Transcendent Philosophy. In
this regard, the author deals with mental existence and its history. There are
two claims in the discussion of mental existence: 1. The Division of
existence into concrete and mental types 2. The essential
agreement between the concrete and mental existence The author is of
the view that the proofs for mental existence, as presented in the Transcandent
Philosophy, only confirm the first claim and are inadequate for explaining the
second one; however, Mulla Sadra does not agree with this idea. By referring to
issues such as the principiality of existence and the non-principiality of
essence, trans-substantial motion, the abscence of essence in the truth of the
concrete existence, imkani faqri,and the
copulative nature of things other than God, and the personal unity of being,
the author concludes that we can comprehend being not through acquired
knowledge, but through knowledge by presence. He emphasizes that what is
attained by acquired knowledge only consists of the concomitants and effects of
being.
The Soul in Mulla Sadra's
Philosophy
Prof. S.M.Khamenei This article
presents the different ideas concerning the soul in the history of philosophy.
Accordingly, four centuries ago, there were only two well known ideas in this
regard; however, Mulla Sadra posed the third one. He believed that unlike Plato
and Illuminationists' views, man's soul is material and corporeal in its
origination, permeates from the matter of the body, and constructs a form for
itself. Besides, contrary to what the Peripatetics said, the soul is not a
static and motionless substance; rather, it is a substance which, like time,
has motion and time is basically a result of its motion. Mulla Sadra
stipulates in Asfar that he has in
fact reconciled the opinions of Plato and the Peripatetics concerning the issue
of the origination and eternity of the soul through presenting his own idea. The writer provides
a summary of Mulla Sadra's ideas in five parts: 1) What is the
soul? 2) How did the
soul come into being? 3) The relation
between the soul and the body 4) The faculties
of the soul 5) The end of the
soul In conclusion, he
writes that to complete the discussion one should resort to Islamic mysticism (irfan) This area profoundly attracted Mulla Sadra and he
frequently referred to it in the discussions related to the love of existents
for perfection and absolute beauty.
The Principiality of
Existence and the
Natural Universal
Dr. S.M.Yousef Sani The discussion of
the natural universal is directly related to the discussions related to the
principiality of quiddity or existence. Believing in the principiality of
quiddity is in fact the same as believing in the existence by essence and the
natural independent universal in the outside, while the pricipiality of
existence is inconsistent with any belief in the real existent and the natural
and original universal. In this article,
the writer does not intend to study the reasons related to the principiality of
quiddity or existence; rather, he
intends to justify multiplicity on the basis of the principiality of existence
and clarify the relation between the theory of natural universal and the
principiality of existence. Following this issue, the author poses these
questions: If the reality of principiality in the outside belongs to existence
and quiddity is considered as its limit and end and is a mental abstraction,
"What is the basis of this abstraction?" and "How is it that
this abstraction emerges in mind sometimes as an essential classification and
sometimes as the different grades and levels of existence?". The most important
divisions in the gradation of existence are vertical and horizontal gradations.
In the vertical gradation, due to the unity of the criteria for difference and
commonality, a unitary entity emerges at different grades. On the other hand,
at the level of one, where there is no word of intensity or weakness, existence
will possess some kind of multiplicity which our mind perceives in the form of
different quiddities. Here the question
is why the existence at the level of one, for example the level of inanimate
things, is exposed to a kind of multiplicity which has no unity with the issue
of the grades and levels of existence. The philosophers have provided different
replies to this question which the author has extensively discussed in the
article.
The Features of Effusion (fayd) and Existential Activity
in Mulla Sadra's
Transcendent Philosophy
(Part 3)
Dr.S.Rahimian In this part, the
author refers to two philosophers who claimed to have demonstratively resolved
the dispute over origination (huduth) and eternity (qidam): 1. Mir Damad,
relying on the theory of atemporal origination (huduth dahri as discussed in appendix B). 2. Mulla Sadra,
relying on the existential analysis of effusion (fayd) and the theory of
trans-substantial motion. Mulla Sadra
divides the discussion into two different domains as follows: 1. With regard to
the first domain which is the sphere of the immaterials and pure inventions (ibdaiyyat), he believes in the eternity and durability of effusion (fayd) and the effused (mustafid). 2. With regard to
the second domain which is the sphere of the material and the corporeal, he
believes in the eternity of effusion and origination of the effused. In the discussion
of effusion, after referring to five premises, Mulla Sadra concludes that there
is a fundamental difference between the immaterials and the materials with
regard to origination and eternity. Though "the durability of
effusion" is proved in both immaterial and material beings, in the former
it results in "the durability of the effused" while it is not the
case in the latter, since time is a property essential to corporiality and
gradation is a part of its ipseity. As a result, on
the basis of trans-substantial motion, no existent is immortal in the material
world, let alone be eternal. Thus, Sadra considers
the effused as being originated, that is, as being in perpetual origination and
decline. In order to clarify his point, he brings many illustrative examples
and assimilates the dependance of this world on God to that of speech to the
speaker, and that of light to the sun. If the sun stops shinning for even a
single moment, darkness will spread everywhere. The sunlight only indicates the
appearence of the sun and is not an equivalent to it; likewise, the world is
not a part of Him and is purely a sign of the manifestation of the Truth or His
very Effusion.
A Comparative Study of the
Objective Unity of Being
in Ibn Arabi and Meister
Ekhart
Dr.Q.Kakai The author's main
aim in the present paper is to carry out a comparative study of Ibn Arabi's
views and those of Meister Ekhart's on the objective unity of Being. He holds
that Ibn Arabi considers Being the same as God, and so does Meister Ekhart. In
this regard, he refers to certain quotations from their works. The important
point here is Ibn Sina's considerable influence upon both of them.However, for
some reasons, Ibn Arabi, never cites the name of Ibn Sina, while Meister Ekhart
does so.
The Role of Middle Term in
Conjunctive Syllogism
A.S.Amiri In the present article, the author deals with the role of the middle
term in the four figures of conjunctive syllogism. In this regard, he refers to
the views of logicians such as Ibn Sina, Fakhr al-Din Razi, Muhaqqiq Tusi,
Urmawi, Athir al-Din Abhari as well as Mulla Sadra. The author is of the view
that many difficulties in syllogisms arise out of linguistic deficiencies. By resorting to Mulla Sadra's view, the author concludes that we are
not compelled to divide the syllogism to its traditional four forms, for on the
basis of the Sadrian view, the only condition for the productivity of all forms
of syllogism is the repetition of the middle term. Therefore, with regard to
the mechanical deduction of the conclusion of premises, it seems unneccessary
for us to distinguish the figures of a syllogism from each other.
Mulla Sadra's View
Concerning the Names and
Attributes of the Quran
A.Nukhodiyan Esfahani The starting point for studies on the revealed books has always been a
discussion on their names and attributes. Although some of these books such as
the Torah and the Bible had specific titles from the very beginning, others
have been generally referred to as Tablets or Books. However, concerning the
Holy Quran, we should say that in spite of all the attention and efforts of
Islamic researchers, some say that it is not quite clear what the collection of
the Divine Revelations was called at the time of the Holy Prophet. Contrary to the common tradition among the scholars of Quranic
sciences, Mulla Sadra believes that the Quran has numerous names and
attributes, each of which referring to a level of the reality of the Quran. Although the Quran enjoys a single reality, it has various levels and
stations, and these names have been chosen for referring to them. Therefore, for each particular level or station there is a specific
name. The key to getting familiar with and developing a fondness for the reality of the Quran is to purify the heart and create existential homogeneity with it. In order to be successful in this regard, one should have God's love and seek help from God's favorites, like Ahl al-bayt. 5- Ma 'sumah Mulla Sadra's third daughter, and apparently his fifth and last child,
was called Ma 'sumah. She was born in Shawwal 1033 (A.H.lunar) in In this regard, Mar 'ashi writes: "The knowledgeable literary
woman, Ma 'sumah Khatun, was the wife of al 'Allamah al-Mirza Qawam al-Din
Nayrizi. He was one of the most distinguished disciples of her father and wrote
some glosses on al-Asfar...".[6] Although the source of the above-statement is not mentioned, historical
evidence confirms it. According to these preliminary remarks, this daughter of Mulla
Sadra, too, was a master of literature and philosophy. This is not surprising
because one who has been trained in Mulla Sadra's school of philosophy should
be considered a gnostic, wayfarer, and pious person. There is no questioning about this lady's knowledge and perfections.
However, it is not easy to accept that she had a comprehensive study of
philosophy under her father, since if Mulla Sadra's death was in 1050
(A.H.lunar), she was 16 or 17 at that time, and if his death was in
1045(A.H.lunar), she was 12 years old. Therefore, like her sisters, she must
have acquired some of her knowledge in philosophy and gnosis from her husband
(who was one of the rightful substitutes of her father) to have attained such a
highly elevated philosophical status. Qawam al-Din Muhammad Nayrizi Shirazi is said to be her husband. He was
one of the well-known students of Mulla Sadra, who wrote some glosses on al-Asfar. Some have referred to him as Qutb al-Din Muhammad (or Ahmad) Nayrizi
(d. 1173 A.H.lunar), who was one of the leaders of Dahabieh, was one of the
students of Mulla Muhammad Sadiq Ardistani (1134 A.H.lunar). There is a big
time interval between his period and that of Mulla Sadra. In Tadhkirah-yi
Nasrabadi, it is written that Mulla Sadra's third
son-in-law was Mulla 'Abdul-Muhsin Kashani (the nephew of Akhund Nura Mulla Dia
al-Din Kashi). He was Mulla Sadra's student and had some degrees in philosophy
and gnosis, and was involved in teaching in Kashan. Nasrabadi writes about him
in this way: " Shah Abbas sent a call for him since he had heard about his
justice. Kashi was Shah's companion in his journeys. After Shah's death, he
spent his time in worship or teaching sometimes in Qamsar and sometimes in
Kashan. He left a collection of poems consisting of about 10,000
couplets". This story does not seem to be true, and it is highly unlikely that
instead of the famous scholars of the time, Shah Abbas invited Kashi, who must
have been very young at that time, as the "justest man of the time".
It is also highly unlikely that Shah Abbas and most of the rulers of the
Safavid Dynasty, who spent most of their lives in indulgence, to keep company
with men of justice, scholars, and scientists. Perhaps by Shah the writer means the second Shah Abbas. In this case
the narration comes closer to reality. The weakness of this historical
quotation, makes his first quotation (that he was Mulla Sadra's son-in-law)
dubious, and it can be considered rejected. In the same source, reference has been made to a fourth son-in law for
Mulla Sadra called Muhammad Sami '. However, it is not clear who Mulla Sadra's
fourth daughter was and why her name has not been mentioned in any historical
documents. |