Mulla Sadra's Life, Works, and Philosophy


Prof. S. M. Khamenei

 

Fayd's Works

The scientific and literary works that a scientist and literary man leaves behind are like his true offsprings. Although a child is apparently considered a part of man's flesh and blood, the real child of every man is what comes into existence from his mind and hearty passion and remains for ever.

Therefore, Fayd was a scholar with several real children (a prolific writer). His writings consist of more than a hundred books, treatises, commentaries, and summaries. Some have even said that they amount to a hundred and twenty six. Some of his books are technical and written on philosophy, gnosis, jurisprudence, theology, hadith, and interpretation. At the same time, he wrote a number of books for ordinary people, some in Arabic and some in Persian, so that everyone could benefit from them. Some of his works are long and, sometimes, written in several volumes, and some of them are short and written in the form of a treatises.[1]

His famous books are as follows: Mafatih al-sharaye‘ on jurisprudence, Wafi on hadith, Safi and 'Asfa on interpretation, ‘Ayn al-yaqin and Usul al-ma‘arif on philosophy and gnosis, al-Mahajjat al-baydah on ethics. All these books are in Arabic and are of interest to scholars and philosophers at all times. He also left a collection of poems (Diwan), consisting of odes, lyrics, and quatrains, which has been published in three volumes. Some or Fayd's booksre present a selection of parts of books or poems written by others, such as a selection of poems of Mathnawi and Rumi's Lyrics by Jalal al-Din Qunawi, a selection of Futuhat al-Makkiyyah by Ibn Arabi, and a selection of Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa which was the legacy of  Batiniyyah  and Isma'ilis.

From Fayd's writings, we can infer his attention to and interest in the hadiths and culture left from the Prophet's dessendants in addition to knowing his conduct and behavor. A list of his books is available in the books written on this illustrious scholar.

 

Children

It is said that Fayd had six children, three sons and three daughters, all from the same mother and all were grandchildren of Mulla Sadra.

His first son was called Muhammed and nicknamed as Alam al-Huda. He was extremely famous for his knowledge of jurisprudence, hadith, philosophy, theology, and other common sciences of his time even during his father's lifetime in Kashan. He was a man of literature and art and had a beautiful handwriting and a subtle taste for spotting elegance in everything. It is written that he was born in Rabi' al-awwal in 1039 A.H. in Qum and passed away in Jamadi al-awwal in 1115 A.H. in Kashan.[2]

Fayd's second son was also called Muhammed and nick-named as Nur al-Huda. He was also a distinguished scholar, jurisprudent, and muhaddith. Presumably, he was born in Safar 1047 A.H.; however, the time of his death is not known to us.[3]

His youngest son, who was also one of the well-known scholars of his time, was called Ahmed (or perhaps Muhammed) and nicknamed as Mu‘ in al-Din. He was born in 1107 A.H. in Qamsar in Kashan.

It has been quoted from one of Fayd's grandchildren that he had two sons. [4] That is why we are not sure whether his third son (if there was one) was called Muhammed or Ahmed.

History books have recorded the names of Faydh's daughters as follows:

1. ‘Alliyyah Banu, nicknamed Umm al-Khayr, born in 1037 AH in Kashan and deceased in 1079 A.H.

2. Sakinah Banu, nicknamed Umm al-Barr, born in 1042 A.H. in Kashan.

3. Sakinah, nicknamed Umm Salamah, born in 1053 A.H.

*    *    *

 Teachers

 Fayd is one of the scholars who studied under several knowledgeable masters. We do not have access to a complete list of their names; however, some of the most distinguished ones are as follows:

1. His father, Mawla Murtada Kashani, known as Shah Murtada.

2. His uncle, Nur al-Din Muhammed. He was one of the prominent muhaddiths of his time and planted the first seed of hadith in his nephew's mind.

3. Mulla Sadra. who played the main role in developing his character and knowledge and helped him to reach a sublime station among all thinkers and scholars.

4. Shaykh Baha al-Din ‘Amili. in hadith.

5. Shaykh Muhammed, Shaykh Thani's grandson. In hadith.

6. Sayyid Majid Bahrani. In hadith.

In addition to the above scholars, we find other names such as Mir Damad, Mawla Khalil Qazwini (deceased in 1089 A.H.), Mawla Salih Mazandarani (deceased in 1081 A.H.), and even Mawla Muhammed Tahir Qumi (deceased in 1081 A.H.). It appears that having the permission for transmission of hadith, which was quite common among same-level friends, had nothing to do with being a master or a student.

Due to limitations of time and place, we cannot delve more into Fayd's character and station. Therefore, we have to suffice to what we said so far and hope that our young researchers continue this line of study and provide a more detailed account of this illustrious thinker's life, character, and works in near future.

  
 
Fayyad Lahiji

 

One of Mulla Sadra's other well-known students is Fayyad Lahiji. He is considered the fruit of his master's tree of knowledge.

This student's first name was ‘Abdulrazzaq (the son of Ali Ibn Husseayn). Rizq means food in Arabic. It seems that the All-Provider Merciful (the Razzaq) had left his spiritual rizq at Mulla Sadra's door. He received the nickname ‘Fayyad' (gracious) from Mulla Sadra. He is known as Lahiji; however, he sometimes said that he was from Qum. He wrote his poems under the pseudonym ‘Fayyad'.

Like a great number of Iranian scientists and philosophers, ‘Abdulrazzaq Lahiji has not received the appreciation he truly deserved. There is little information in historical books and biographies about his seventy years of life. This is the very disgrace that has stained the pages of our history, particularly, concerning our philosophers and sages, and concealed Muslim's cultural treasures and legacies or, rather, the world of wisdom and knowledge from the eyes of the offsprings of this land.

The place and time of his birth are not known to us; however, available evidence suggests that he was born in Lahijan. Although he spent most of his life in Qum, everyone knew him as being from Lahijan, a town in Gilan province (however, there have also been some thinkers such as Muhaqqiq Qumi, who was originally Gilani but stayed in Qum and was not known in the name of his hometown). Fayyad's family name and those of other well-known thinkers, such as Hazin, most probably come from their birth places.

The date of his birth has not been mentioned in any historical sources or biographies, yet the little existing evidence indicates that he was older than Fayd. The writer believes that he was Mulla Sadra's first son-in-law (the husband of Lady Umm Kulthum, born in 1019 AH), and that Fayd (the husband of Lady Zubaydah, born in 1024 A.H.) married in about 1038 A.H. Accordingly, we can guess that, due to the age difference between the two sisters, there might have been some age difference between the two son-in-laws as well. Moreover, Fayd died about 20 years after Fayyad. However, none of the above can provide us with pure truth in this regard. We believe that Fayd was born before or about 1004 A.H. Thus a rational and acceptable date for Fayyad's birth could be 1000 A.H. or a few years before that. Nevertheless, we cannot present the readers with an accurate date on the basis of the scarce data we have access to.

We are completely in the dark as to his family and the spiritual and material atmosphere in which he spent his childhood and adolescence. We do not know where he completed his preliminary education. However, since there were most probably some seminaries employing a number of knowledgeable but unknown masters in Lahijan and some of the towns in the North of Iran and the shores of the Caspian Sea, the young Mulla ‘Abdulrazzaq might not have rushed in leaving his hometown and might have, as well, studied the lessons of the preliminary and secondary periods in the same town and its suburbs. As we know, some prominent philosophers and scholars were trained in Lahijan at that time. Fayyad's presence in Qum's seminary and his acquaintance with Mulla Sadra goes back to years after his studies in Lahijan.

As we saw in the first volume of this book, Mulla Sadra lived in Kahak and Qum in the first half of the third decade of the 11th century, that is, between 1020 to 1025 A.H. or a few years before that. He stayed there until the end of the third decade of that century, i.e. the time of his return to Shiraz.

 

Abstract

 

Atemporal Createdness (al-Huduth  al-Dahri) and Mulla Sadra's Transcendent Philosophy

Seyyed Mohammed Khamenei

 In order to solve the problem of the relation of created beings to the pre–eternal, which had occupied the minds of philosophers for a long time, Mir Damad developed one of his most famous philosophical theories, i.e. the theory of ‘al-huduth al-dahri' (atemporal createdness). With reference to the idea of unquantifiable–separable priority' versus ‘quantifiable separable priority' and by considering the ‘atemporal world' as the middle term, he acknowledged that God is free from any kind of change and then placed the entire changing world within the ‘atemporal world'. In this way and on the basis of a number of self–evident premises accepted by all Islamic philosophers, he tried to prove his own theory to solve this great problem of philosophers. However, due to certain reasons, such as his obedience to the outwards of the narrative proofs and commitment to the principle of perpetuity of effusion, as well as believing in the trans-substantial motion, Mulla Sadra, though not explicitly, did not agree with his master's theory. Nevertheless, this disagreement between the master and the pupil could have originated in their holding two different viewpoints concerning the permeation of existence and the principles of creation.

 

Key words:

essential createdness                            atemporal createdness

temporal createdness                            relation of the created to the pre-eternal

trans-substantial motion                        cause and effect

cutting movement                                  emanation of effusion

unquantifiable separable priority          absolute non-existence

 

Sadrian Transcendent Philosophy:

The Philosophy of the Present and Future

Hamid Reza Ayatullahi

 A number of historical and geographical reasons, as well as the ontological capabilities of a school of philosophy determine the ways philosophers' ideas might affect human thought. The same issues underlie the dynamism of constructive elements of philosophical theories.

The particular attention paid to the dynamism of the elements of Sadrian philosophy in recent years indicates the high ontological capability of this school for the present and future. Accordingly, we can not only employ it for solving today's problems but also use it as the key for bringing the dark angles of human thought into light in future.

Sadrian philosophy will prove its being a philosophy of all times in more interaction with contemporary philosophical thoughts.

 Key words:

 

Sadrian Transcendent Philosophy           Hermeneutics

philosophy of the present and future      contemporary philosophy

time                                                           human thought

categories of understanding                     secondary philosophical intelligibles

 

Ontological Argument in Leibniz's Philosophy

 Ali Fath Tahiri

  From among the arguments adduced for God's Existence, the ontological argument is of prime importance. Since long ago, prominent western philosophers have written important papers and books for or against this argument. Leibniz, who is one of the supporters of the ontological argument, claims that through removing the defect of the ontological argument posed by Anselm and Descartes, it can be transformed into an argument comparable to mathematical ones in terms of certainty and conclusiveness.

In this paper, in addition to the history of the ontological argument, we will explain Leibniz's view concerning its defect and inquire into his solutions in this regard.

Key words:

ontological argument                                   eternal truths

certain argument                                          absolute perfect being

mathematical arguments                              Leibniz

argument of the righteous (Siddiqin)        prior harmony of the basis

Human Soul's all-Comprehensiveness and Manifesting Nature

Mukhtar Taba‘a Izadi

According to philosophers and gnostics, man's soul is the loci of God's theophany, for it reflects its creator in terms of essence, attributes, and acts. They have clarified this reality by resorting to some hadiths such as: ‘One who knows himself has certainly known his God'. However, there is still great room for more work to be done in this regard in gnosis, since ‘the perfect man' is one of the most important issues discussed in this field. Besides, philosophers and gnostics believe that man's existence is compatible with the entire world. Accordingly, they consider it as the microcosm, which is compatible with the macrocosm. Some of them view man as the macrocosm and the world as the microcosm, as well.

The emanation of extraordinary acts from man's soul is one of the important topics which philosophers and gnostics have extensively discussed. They have also tried to interpret and justify the prophets' miracles in the light of this reality.

 Key words:

philosophy                                                    gnosis

soul                                                                spirit

theophany                                                      macrocosm

microcosm                                                   extraordinary

 

Development of Ethics in Islamic System

 Manijeh ‘Amili

 Ethics is derived from the word ethos which mean the inward and attributes assigned to human conduct and states concerning its definition it is said that the soul possesses a faculty that can easily emanate act without depending on a thought. Scholars of ethics have referred to this field of knowledge by means of various terms and expressions. A study of such terms can reveal the different views held by thinkers as to the science of ethics.

As one of the most efficient existing frameworks, the system of Islamic ethics evaluates the ethical ‘oughts' and ‘ought nots' causing man's proximity to or distance from true happiness on the basis of the ultimate criterion, Allah.

The issue of ‘good and evil' is one of the most important problems of Islamic ethics, giving rise to heated debates among Islamic theologians, e.g. Asha‘erites, and ‘Adliyyah since long ago. In spite of their differences concerning whether ‘good and evil' is a rational or Shar‘i problem, the followers of these schools agree on the point that a good or bad act is performed on the basis of a specific evaluation or purpose.

It is necessary in Islam to acknowledge the principle of Allah – orientedness in all ethical issues. However, in certain cases, we require a criterion of a lower station to introduce ethical duties in a more sensible way. Through evaluating ethical acts in the light of such strategic principles, we could connect to the ultimate criterion, i.e. God. Thus considering the relation between man and God in Islam, man is considered as the focal point of discussion in Islamic ethics. After all, gaining God's consent and pleasure lies in respecting human beings.

 

 

Key words:

ethics                                                      axiology of behavior

knowledge of communicative behavior     good and evil

Allah – orientedness                                Islamic ethics

  God's differentiated Knowledge of things

 Qasim Ali Kuchenani

 Plato held that God's Knowledge of things consists of self-subsistent external forms, i.e. the same Ideas. This view has been criticized by Mulla Sadra and other thinkers. Ibn Sina maintains that since God Possesses the Knowledge of His Essence, which is the perfect cause of things, He Has also the knowledge of things as well. This Knowledge is a universal in nature one in the sense that it does not change with the change of the known. The philosophers succeeding Ibn-Sina criticized him on the grounds that his theory necessitates the imperfection of God's Essence.

It also requires His Knowledge to be of the acquired type. Shaykh Ishraq holds that the Almighty Has the knowledge of all things, including all immaterial abstract entities and material objects by their objective existence.

Ibn Sina has also been the target of other objections. For example, his ideas as to the presence of material things before the Almighty is criticized on the ground that materiality and presence cannot come together. Mulla Sadra demonstrates God's differentiated Knowledge on the basis of the principle of ‘ the truth in its simplicity contains all things' and argues that the Almighty Necessary's knowledge of all things is realized at the level of His Essence before the existence of objects. ‘Allamah Tabataba'i demonstrates the same issue on the basis of God's ontological Absoluteness, which is required for the necessity of essential existence.

Key words:

differentiated knowledge                            God

Plato                                                              Ibn-Sina

Shaykh Ishraq                                                Mulla Sadra

‘Allamah Tabataba'i                                      perfect cause

acquisition

A Study of the Expressions of the Relations of Uncertainty on the Basis of the principle of causation

 Mohammed Gowahi

This article is an attempt to study certain scientific and philosophical terms concerning the relations of Heisenberg's uncertainty on the basis of the principle of causation. Since this principle is one of the most fundamental and unchanging principles of the world of being, the expressions of all phenomena, including ncertainty, should be compatible with it. Consequently, those expressions that inextricably pertain to uncertainty but are against this principle should be amended.

 Key words:

uncertainty                                                    the principle of causation

causal necessary                                           perfect cause

imperfect cause                                             efficient cause

 

A Study of the Ontological and Epistemological Place of Horizontal Intellects in Ishraqi Philosophy

Nafiseh Sadat Musawinejad

 According to the principle of ‘From the ones is not emanated but the one', only one being is emanated from God, Who is One in all respects. Now, considering the existence of many beings in the world, one might ask, ‘How could we attribute them to that Single Being?

Suhrawardi posed the theory of horizontal intellects to explain the emanation of many material beings. This theory is inspired by Plato's theory of the Ideas. Horizontal intellects (the controlling lights o archetypes) consist of a chain of separated lights which are at the end of vertical intellects and parallel to each other. In other words, they stand in no cause-effect relation to each other. Each of the horizontal intellects is the archetype of a material species and responsible for the making and formation of its individuals. Ontologically speaking, horizontal intellects are caused by vertical lights, as well as by contingent lights, directions, reciprocities, and existing relations in the world of lights, sensibles, and souls. Suspended images, too, are caused by horizontal lights.

In Ishraqi philosophy, intuitive perception, which is based on the knowledge by presence, is the main road leading to perception. In fact, the soul perceives through the intuitive perception of horizontal intellects. Rational perception is also a consequence of intuitive perception of such intellects. Sense perception refers back to the knowledge by presence. Horizontal intellects play the role of manifesting the forms before the soul. 

Key words:

 unity                                                              plurality

ontology                                                        epistemology

vertical lights                                                contingent lights

Platonic Ideas                                               horizontal lights

 

A Study of the Shi‘i Nature of Islamic Wisdom

 

Mohammed Amin Shahju'i

 

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the important and determining role of Shi‘i leaders' invaluable teachings in the development and expansion of rational sciences, including the divine wisdom and Islamic theology. In order to accomplish this purpose, the writer has done a thorough study of the philosophical hadiths of Imam Sadiq (A) and their commentaries. Such hadiths discuss the universalities of the world of being, its beginning and end, the Oneness of God's Essence, and the knowledge of His Good Names and Sublime Attributes in the most accurate way possible. They also explain the levels of the perfection of humanity and the degrees of proximity to God and wilayah (guardianship) and unveil the inward meaning and hidden mysteries of divine revelation. These hadiths are based on the general issues in the divine wisdom and cannot be clarified and justified unless in the light of their consequences in Islamic wisdom.

The result of this research will provide answers to the questions of why Shi‘i thought enjoys such a high station in the collection of what is called ‘Islamic Wisdom', and how the scientific resources of Shiah have provided the context and structure for the divine wisdom so that a rational and social atmosphere is created for Islamic thinkers to become involved in philosophical thought. What attracts the attention here is the philosophical creativity witnessed in the words of Imams, particularly, those of Imam Sadiq (A), and their role in later philosophical studies.

 

Key words:

 

Divine wisdom                                             Shi‘ah

Sufism                                                           Mulla Sadra

Esoteric and spiritual Islam                        circle of guardianship

gnostic and Ideal hermeneutic interpretation    guardian of the Qur'an

 *    *    *

 

 

[1]. al-Dharri ‘ah.

[2]. For more information refer to the introduction of his book, Ma‘adin al-hikmah.

[3]. Introduction of Ma‘adin al-hikma.

[4]. Introduction of Fayd's Wafi.