خردنامه ، شماره 1

Philosophy And Its Educational And Social Function

If we personify the society, as is common, it will be possible to think of institutions and organizations as his organs; furthermore, we can postulate thought, insight and knowledge for him. Every society, apart from the individual insight of its members, also includes some kind of general or common insight, which is often referred to as "the society's culture". At a certain juncture, this very culture appears as "public opinion".

Evidently, people's voluntary behavior stems from their culture: in other words, a person's behavior is a mirror of his culture. Similarly, a society's culture and way of thinking make up its collection of behaviors. What represents the common thought of the majority of people or public opinion in every social or political event is the "social reaction." There is, therefore, no wonder that every society's social behavior depends on the long-standing culture of its members. In return, the culture of a society's members can be visible through studying social events and their group activities. Such a "behavior-making" culture can even lead us to the personality of a society. As a criterion it helps us divide the human societies into developed and underdeveloped, civilized and savage and good or bad-natured. The major question is what makes up the culture of human societies.

Divine religions and prophets have undoubtedly played the most important role in the establishment of man's culture and civilization throughout history. The intellectuals and scholars of a society, too, have had a determining part in building the culture of human gatherings. Their tongues and pens enable them to infiltrate sagacious ideas into a society in the form of pieces of advice, lessons and historical examples. According to the history of human civilization and culture, the more a society has had wise people and scholars, the stronger the personality and social behavior of that society have been. The weak personality of some western societies is to be blamed on the lack of true intellectuals within those societies. An inhumane and ill-natured society is a direct outcome of misleading instructions and culture; such a society poses a serious threat to humanity and that is exactly what is happening in some countries that are under the corruptive impact of their so-called open-minded men, who are mostly racist or followers of the unreal and deviated Judaism or Christianity.

A mere look at the history of civilization reveals the profound effect of Islamic and Quranic though"t and wisdom on the minds of members of the Muslim Ummah. This has been manifested as "wisdom" leaving a lasting influence on the efforts of Muslim scholars and intellectuals in the Islamic society and in Iran in particular. Persian literature, too, has been adorned with this pervasive school of thought throughout the 14 centuries of Islamic history.

Wisdom, as some people might think, is not like alchemy an activity detached from the outside world. Although most men of literature and wisdom spend their lifetime at schools or home, they act as the roots which bring life to the body of a tree. Their private endeavors bear fruits in the culture of a society. Eastern culture owes its comprehensiveness to the divine religions as well as the illuminating efforts of its prominent figures.

As mentioned earlier, wisdom and logical sciences that have originated from Quranic philosophy and gnosis have had a practical function in Iran and to some extent in other Islamic countries. It can, therefore, be concluded that ethics (which under the title of functional wisdom is a subcategory of philosophy) unlike in the western societies, is not a theoretical question to indulge scholars and writers; it rather is viewed as more of a stable social institution that influences people's social conduct and, consequently, their ordinary life.

This signifies the sensitive role of wise men and intellectuals of a society and leads every community to identification and commemoration of such personalities. Any negligence towards historical and cultural background of a nation and their outstanding figures whose lives have enlightened the public, will definitely shadow their socio-cultural understanding.

Mulla Sadra is one of those prominent intellectuals who, through his innovative approach, associated logic with Sharia', mysticism with reasoning and Quranic wisdom with human thought. He is regarded not only as a promoter of Iranian culture who shed light on Quranic understanding and the learning inherited from the holy prophet's progeny, but also as a philosopher who, for his part, dissociated philosophy from the Aristotelian and Greek dominance by founding a kind of wisdom that is based on human nature and Islamic understanding. Mulla Sadra's priceless heritage can be rightfully considered an Islamic or even Shi'ite-Iranian philosophical system.

In order to lead the society toward the right path, the elite should responsibly treasure this heritage and spare no effort to familiarize the present generation and posterity with it.

Sadr-al-Mutaallehin's life

Sadr-al-din Muhammed Qawami Shirazi was the only son of a well-known and publicly-respected family who occupied governmental positions in Shiraz, the capital of Pars province. He was born to his father, Khaje Ibrahim-ibn-Yahya Qawami who reportedly was a provincial minister, after years of having no child. He was named Muhammed and then nicknamed Sadr-al-din (the head of religion) with the hope that one day he would achieve senior religious status. He was also called Sadra.

Pars province and its capital Shiraz was, at the time, a peaceful and prosperous state and its governor Muhammed Mirza Khodabandeh, a brother of the Safavid Shah Ismael II, was a supporter of religious, scientific and literary men including Sadra's father who held a creditable position in the government and among the public.

The Qawami family besides its political position lived a quite comfortable life and evidently Sadra must have spent his childhood and youth free of hardship. His birth date is reported as 979 (or early 980) according to the Islamic calendar. He himself in his notes on The Unification Of The Intellect and the Intelligible and the book of 'Asfar' in 1036 records his age at 58 years old. Henry Corbin has also verified the above date.

As mentioned earlier, the year 979 coincided with the governorship of the Safavid prince Muhammed Mirza who 6 years later succeeded Shah Ismael II as Iran's ruler. While in Shiraz, the prince, because of his meek and mild nature, posed no threat to the then king and was, therefore, able to establish an autonomous rule in Pars province and keep it away from royal intervention. The so-called autonomous province had a chief minister and a number of secondary ministers including Sadra's father. Pars maintained its autonomy at the time of Shah Abbas the First, under the governorship of Allah Verdikhan and his son Imamqolikhan.

An exceptionally talented boy, Sadra also took advantage of his favorable family position to aspire to a prosperous future. As reported, once his father on the eve of a journey assigned him to take care of household affairs, proving the son's capability to bear such a responsibility. Sheikh Abdollah Zanjani, a well-known researcher, in an essay on Sadra says his father once told him to run his business affairs but upon returning home was surprised to find out that his son had spent a comparatively large sum of money during the day. When asked about it, Sadra told his father that he had given the money away in alms. The money, surprisingly, was exactly as much as Sadra's father had given to the poor when he was born.

Sadra In His Teens

Sadra must have received very good education and training in his teens as it was customary among the noble families to provide their children with the best teachers and learning facilities; the child at the age of 7 or below would attend tutorial classes at home to learn the Quran and write Farsi; the position of Sadra's family, his father and he himself demanded such training; he was talented, intelligent and zealous to learn and, last but not the least, the sole child of his family; his father would naturally spare no effort to materialize his wish of raising Sadra to the highest level attainable by scientists and scholars. Fortunately, the scholarly atmosphere of Shiraz was contributory in this regard.

Thanks to such advantages, young Sadra mastered Persian and Arabic languages and literature. His works reflect his admirable command of both languages; his frequent reference to Quranic verses is also indicative of the point that he must have known the holy scripture by heart. This seems natural since most families at that time awarded their children for memorizing the Quran and poetic verses.

Students who successfully passed Persian literature and Arabic instead of attending traditional schools or tutorial classes would continue their studies at theological schools. Young Sadra was no exception; he took Arabic literature and jurisprudential courses at the theological school of Shiraz.

Shiraz at Sadra's time was far from its golden age, almost empty of the great names in literature and philosophy; nevertheless, the school of Shiraz with its outstanding 300-year-old history still produced prominent scholars and men of letters most of whom are not now well known. It can then be judged that Sadr-al-Mutaallehin learned the intermediate courses of the Islamic sciences in Shiraz during his teenage years.The textbooks varied in each period and those taught today at theological schools were either of less importance or did not yet exist; a limited number of sources including Allame Helli's Sharaye' (religious laws) might have been studied by the students, however; similarly, a number of other sources from highly respected scholars and jurists including Seyyed Mortaza, Avicenna and Sheikh Tusi can be assumed to have been taught to the students. Shiraz school's inclination to the Ishraq (illumination) philosophy confirms the assumption that works and texts by Suhrawardi and Qutb Shirazi were studied at Sadra's time.

Unlike the prevalent procedures at present theological schools, the study domain of the students spanned other scientific branches including medicine, mathematics and astronomy.In Shiraz, because of the influence of Khaje Nasir-al-din Tusi and some other famous mathematicians, mathematics and related sciences were booming. That makes us believe that young Sadra learned those sciences, as well.

In the preface of his Asfar Mulla Sadra makes several references to profound philosophical points. It can, be concluded that he most probably started to learn sapiential wisdom and philosophy in Shiraz.

We cannot estimate how long it might have taken Sadra to pass each of the elementary and intermediate levels, for that depended on personal endeavor and perseverance on the part of the students. Consequently, there is no clue as to when Sadra upon finishing courses in Shiraz left for Isfahan.

One point is worth being considered here; since Sadra was the only child of his family and later took responsibility for household affairs and his father's duties in his absence, he must have left Isfahan after his teenage years, perhaps in the early years of the llth century. It, therefore, seems reasonable to guess his age at the time to have been around 21 years. He is then expected to have learned a considerable amount of the theological and literary issues of his time including Persian and Arabic literature and syntax, logic, philosophy, history and Quranic exegesis.

Departure From Shiraz

Sadra's birth coincided with a period during which the glorious philosophical school of Shiraz that lasted for nearly 2 centuries was no longer in existence. Great philosophers such as Mir Seyyed Sharif Gorgani and Jalaloddin Dawani who later played an important role in Mulla Sadra's works had passed away and Shiraz school was being overshadowed by the school of Oazwin.

The school of Shiraz owed its glory to the regional security prevailing in the autonomous Pars province that hosted scholars and scientists who fled Mongolian rule. The fall of the Mongolian government which led to the rise of the Shi'ite dynasty of the Safavids brought tranquility and security to all of Iran. Large cities including Tabriz, Oazwin, Isfahan and Khorasan attracted scholars and philosophers to their schools. The prosperous situation inside Iran persuaded those scholars including great Shi'ite clerics to migrate to the Iranian land. A number of these clerics such as Sheikh Bahaii and his father who earlier lived in Lebanon were granted senior positions in the Safavid government.

The Safavid capitals gained their flourishing position at the expense of Shiraz schools' decline; that perhaps prompted young Sadra to leave Shiraz for Qazvin and then Isfahan which was under the rule of Shah Abbas The Great and the capital of one of the most stable and powerful governments in the Iranian history.

The history of science is to a great extent subject to the political situation of the time.Science and knowledge have always prospered under powerful central governments. Though a young man perhaps as young as Sadra, Shah Abbas The First had managed to prepare such an appropriote ground for scientific and scholarly contributions. He, like his predecessors, greatly respected scholars, Sheik Bahaii and MirDamad in particular.

Shah Abbas appointed Sheik Bahaii as the chief cleric and Sheikh Lotfollah Ameli as the Court's prayer leader. The mosque he built in his honor demonstrates a magnificent oriental architecture. The presence of these two famous scientists in Isfahan attracted many enthusiastic Iranian and foreign scholars to the then capital.

The great respect paid to scholars like Sheikh Bahaii and MirDamad at Isfahan school turned the central Iranian City into a main center for religious jurisprudence and philosophy . The school was also credited for intellectual sciences which previously did not belong to any particular school.

Interestingly, unlike the later trends, in the early Safavid era the intellectual sciences including philosophy and logic and the traditional sciences such as jurisprudence were closely tied together.

History tells that whenever at a school theology and philosophy were flourishing jurisprudence and related sciences also grew alongside. As a result, whether at the schools of Baghdad and Damascus in the west or those in the east including Herat, Bukhara and Toos and other theological centers in Shiraz,Isfahan and Tabirz,philosophy and logic propspered remarkably. Words of mismatch between philosophy and religion and in fact victimizing reason in favor of jurisprudence originated from an idea which was incompatible to the Shi'ite theology. This notion which sowed the seed of dissidence and discord for centuries among the Shi'ite theological schools emerged from a longstanding difference between the advocates of Asharism and Mutazalism.

Furthermore, it created several jurisprudential schools that extracted logical questions through some inadequate procedures such as disputed hadiths.

The situation was quite different in the Shi'ite jurisprudence,theology and philosophy; The Shi'ite Imams who were of the prophet's progeny in their documented hadiths talked of jurisprudence and wisdom as two closely inter-related domains.Consequently, this had induced the pioneering jurists to apply the term "jurisprudence" (Fiqh) to both philosophical issues and practical questions. To distinguish the two, Fiqh as jurisprudence was referred to as the "lesser Fiqh" and the philosophical side as the "greater Fiqh".

The association between the two "Fiqh"s had caused the great Shi'ite jurists to be distinguished philosophers of their period, as well. The two best-known scholars of the time i.e. Sheikh Bahaii and MirDamad were, on the one hand, the main jurists of the Safavid government, and, on the other hand, possessed the highest status in wisdom and rational sciences.

This continued until the end of the Safavid era making Isfahan the scientific capital of the Islamic community.

The increasing respect paid to jurists by the Safavid kings had roots in some political reasons rather than scientific or religious considerations ;The Royal Court by giving credit to religious figures would maintain stability and unity among the Muslim masses. Furthermore, jurists played an important role in running social affairs including jurisdiction, marital questions, land disputes, etc. Jurists also helped governments strengthen the judicial system all across the country.

Another politically-motivated incentive for the Safavid kings to respect jurists was to overshadow Sufis who had helped bring them to power. The so-called Sufis with disciples and links with the statesmen now posed a threat to the Safavid rule. Only jurists and clerics were able to assist the government in fighting the powerful Sufi movements . Anti-Sufi sentiments grew and spread everywhere to such an extent that even MirDamad despite his social and political influence was afraid that pro-Sufi words be traced in his works. The anti-Sufism row took the route of extremism, and an unspecified movement named "Ekhbarigari" grew to be the arch enemy of Sufism. Under the pretext of backing jurists and jurisdiction,the "Ekhbariun" could gain more power and after Sufism was suppressed at the end of the Safavid period they turned against jurists and fundamentalists.

Sadra's departure for Qazwin and Isfahan coincided with such disturbed conditions. Following the transfer of the Safavid capital of Qazwin to Isfahan, Sadra moved to this new center of political and scientific attention.Very little has been said about his marriage and family. He is believed to have married in Isfahan. Sadra's wife seems to have belonged to an ordinary unscholarly family.

What is definitely known about his married life is that Sadra has had several servants and aides accompanying him and his family. This is indicative of his wealth which carried him through since the beginning of his studies.

Sadra's visit to Qazwin and then Isfahan and his education there was a sensitive period of his life. Kings and rulers for various political or scientific reasons encouraged scholars and granted them financial and spiritual advantages. The capital and other major cities were centers of science, literature and art. Similarly, scientists and men of letters enjoyed high social and even political status.

At the threshold of the llth lunar century, Isfahan hosted the greatest philosophers, poets and artists of the time each one attracting tens of disciples. However, finding the best teachers among them determined the future of the student.

Sadra had access to all these men but a review of his shadowy life reveals that he apparently learned lessons only from MirDamad and Sheikh Bahaad-Din Ameli. Even if he had other teachers upon arriving in Isfahan, they did not leave a considerable impact on their briliant student. After all, had this been true, considerate Sadra would certainly have commemorated them somewhere in his works. No one knows for sure what prompted the young intellectual to limit his

teachers to two persons. That might have been due to his personal taste which preferred only the best ones. History tells us that MirDamad and Sheikh Bahaii were able to adequately meet Sadra's scientific needs at any level. The powerful charismatic characters of these two unique men played an important role in detatching him from those other well-known teachers. While in Qazwin, Sadra first got acquainted with Sheikh Bahaii and is then thought to have gone to MirDamad. Probably, one of the statesmen in Qazwin who knew his father and hosted the son upon arrival in the city had recommended him to Sheikh Bahii. It is also possible that the Sheikh's widespread reputation attracted Sadra to him.

Great people's lives are usually associated with stories some of which can never be verified. There is a story about those early days of Sadra's living in Isfahan or Qazwin and how he happened to know Sheikh Bahaii and MirDamad. As the story goes, one day young Mulla Sadra meets Mir Fenderski, a well-reputed mystic at the town's public bath where citizens used to converse and even discuss scientific questions or trade. MirFenderski shows interest in Sadra's background and when he talks about the purpose of his trip he is recommended to learn wisdom from Sheikh Bahaii and theology from MirDamad. According to the story Sadra took the road to wisdom.

Perhaps it is unfair to limit Sheikh Bahaii and Mirdamad to wisdom and theology but what seems definite is that Sheikh Bahaii has been Sadra's first teacher who left a drastic influence on his life and behavior. MirDamad is also believed to have played a key role in perfecting Mulla Sadra's multi-faceted knowledge.