Kasr al-Asnam al-Jahiliyyah

As its title indicates, this book is on rejecting false Sufism and blaming ignorant and deceptive sufists. In this treatise, Mulla Sadra meticulously tries to introduce the idols of ignorance of the time and his society and emphasizes that as long as these wrong and superstitious ideas, which are the signs of ignorance and deception, are not rejected and removed from people's minds, the truth of religion and true gnosis will not be revealed.

This book consists of four articles, each consisting of some chapters. In the first article, Mulla Sadra says, "For God there is no level higher than that of the knowledge of His Essence, Attributes, and Acts, and the gnostic is the same divine knower. And anyone who is more knowledgeable is a greater gnostic and closer to God." This article has been written in three chapters.

In the second article, he maintains that the ultimate end of bodily prayers and soulish ascetic practice is the acquisition of knowledge and the learning of sciences, but not any knowledge or science. Rather, what is intended here consists of divine knowledge and demonstrative sciences, any negligence and ignorance of which will result in ill fate and everlasting annihilation. This paper has been written in nine chapters. In one of these chapters, Mulla Sadra mentions some of the features and attributes of God's friends including the following:

1. Loving death

2. Demanding solitude and intimacy with God through supplications and reciting God Book

3. Continually following the path of the Friend and seeking proximity to Him through performing supererogatory prayers

4. Loving knowledge and knowers

5. Loving the knowledge of astrology and the chain of the occasions of revelation from God, the knowledge of the magnitude of divine affairs, the intellects, and universal souls, and the science of human psychology and the quality of bodily organs. No one can attain the knowledge of God without these types of knowledge.

6. Loving people and being kind to them. A lover of God should, in fact, be a lover of all creatures because all of them are His effects and creatures, and the love of the Cause is not separate from the love of His effects and concomitants. Rather, the effects' love, since it is the effect, is as effective as love itself.

7. Viewing oneself inferior before the intensity of the greatness and glory of the Beloved and fearing Him. However, this fear, unlike fear of anger and punishment, is not in contrast to love.

8. Avoiding making big claims, denouncing showing off, and loving God.

The third article is devoted to the attributes of the righteous, the benevolent, and owners of gnostic and moral virtues, whose grades are lower than those of favorites of God. This part is organized in nine chapters.

Finally, the fourth article is on philosophical sermons and admonitions, rational advice, and spiritual dialogs entailing blaming the world and its people. In this paper, Mulla Sadra informs the readers that this book is useful only to those who possess sound judgment and wisdom rather than those who, like beasts, lack a spiritual heart and rational life. This is because admonitions and advice are not useful to animals and do not bring the dead back to life; rather, they merely make the wondering alert and wake up the sleeping. This paper is organized in five chapters and a conclusion.

The research work for this book and its edition have been done by Dr. Mohsen Jahangiri, who has also written an Introduction to it.

The book Kasr al-asnam al-jahiliyyah has been published under the supervision of Professor Seyyed Mohammed Khamenei in 334 pages by the Sadra Islamic Philosophy Institute.