Character and
Translator: Mahmoud Ahmadi
Afzadi
Sadr-al-Mutaallihin and Mirdamad can be put in the third group. While Mulla Sadra's scientific comprehensiveness is clearly visible, Mirdamad's seems more complicated and less visible. Following Farabi, Arvicenna
and Khwaje Nassir, Mirdamad should be regarded an unrivalled intellectual and scientist who acquired his uncommon accomplishment of sciences via perseverance coupled with spiritual endeavors.
It so seems that Mirdamad set the pattern for Mulla
Sadra to follow'although
the latter felt deeply indebted to Sheikh Bahaii for his ethical influence on him. It should, of course, be noted that Sheikh Bahaii travelled a lot either as a member of Shah Abbas's entourage or as an ordinary tourist who hardly ever failed to make annual pilgrimages en route. This must have quite often kept him away from Mulla Sadra who found abundant time to spend with a more home-bound
Mirdamad.
It would be unfair at the same time if we attribute Mulla Sadra's attraction to Mirdamad
solely to his availability.
Undoubtedly what mostly drew Mulla Sadra
to Mirdamad was Mir's positive attitude to philosophy. Yet, the adoring Sadra crossed the rather set boundaries in a student-teacher relationship and took all his questions whether scientific or spiritual to Mirdamad and their lives were soon interwoven.
Students often mature into innovative learners in advanced stages of their studies but Sadra develeped an exceptionally inquiring mind when he mixed with Mirdamad in his mid twenties. Having failed to meet a student so aptly fitted to learn before, Mirdamad for his part spared no effort to generously pass down his entire knowledge to the trutworthy Sadra.
Such relationships are extremely rare these days. The ever-growing number of students has made them more listeners who have very little or no spiritual connection with their teacher. The student of older times could accompany the teacher upto the door of his home and even live with him; this way, the two would test each other's reliability.
This educational tradition was inherited from ancient Persian and Egyptian schools where elementary learners were first given lessons of ethics. If passed, they were taught theoretical sciences. I never hesitate to blame Aristotle for the damage he inflicted on this form of education by giving superiority to theoretical sciences over ethics and triggering soulless lexical games, namely what he called philosophy.
Thereafter, wisdom which was coordination between the Micro Anthropo
and the Macro Anthropo gave its place to the so-called philosophy which surveyed metaphysics through observation of the physical world. Aristotle's insufficient reasoning in this regard later led to the elimination of studies on metaphysics in the west's philosophical circles - a vacuum which I believe has not yet been filled.
The illuminative wisdom of ancient Persia, however, survived the blow ,owing to the efforts of scholars like Avicenna, Suhrawardi, Khwajeh Nassir and last but not least Mirdamad
who passed down the heritage to Sadra.
Mirdamad's characteristics: first - having a multi-dimensional view on scientific and philosophical research'he
built a mental system which analyzed every issue from all dimensions i.e., when reviewing an issue of logic for example, he would consider it from the viewpoints of gnosis, tradition, interpretation and discourse as well. This procedure which was later adopted by Mulla Sadra was unprecedented before Mirdamad.
As far as I know, no other philosopher has had such an inclination to study an intellectual case in a multi-dimensional system i.e., a system based on two or more schools of thought.
Even Avicenna in his famous philosophical books such as Al-Shifa, Isharat and Nijat does not show an inclination towards illumination ,although he has written a book about the issue. Likewise, he has never mixed jurisprudence with philosophy despite having a full command of both. A scholastic philosopher, Fakhr
Razi is another such example who raises philosophical questions in his reasoning - based books but never retreats from his strong Ash'arite position which regards philosophy as a rather limited subject.
Suhrawardi who is an outstanding representative of ancient Persian philosophy introduces the Illuminative philosophy in a traditional way also. Even Khwajeh Nassir
with his miscellaneous views on scholastic philosophy avoids mixing those views. Although his famous book of Tajrid-al-Kalam is based on philosophy, it remains well within the framework of scholastic theology.
Second - Paying utmost attention to the Quran and hadith Mirdamad has been a renowned jurist and scholar of hadith. Historians say he was unrivalled in jurisprudence and jurists from all over the country took their professional problems to him. His vast knowledge of hadith
and interpretation as well as his great reliance on the Quran
enabled him to use traditional proofs alongside intellect and arguments when dealing with philosophical issues.
Mulla Sadra and Seyyed Ahmad Ameli later adopted the same procedure.
Third-Innovation, not interpretation and imitation. Mirdamad is mostly reputed to have been a Peripatetic with brilliant interpretations of Avicenna's books; yet a closer look at his life reveals that he is far from being a mere follower of other scholars but is rather innovative. This has given him a distinguished style in philosophy and logic.
Fourth - Spiritual Journeys and illumination. Spiritual journeys became significant in the
Safavid era and were sometimes mistaken for Sufism. Scanning the half-hidden corners of Mulla Sadra's life especially his living in self-exile in Kahak, a village near the central city of
Fifth - Developing an appreciative taste in literature. Owing his great interest in literature to both his own aptness and the traditional love for poetry among the people of his birthplace, Khorasan, Mirdamad was also destined to have emerged in the golden age of poetry in the Safavid era. What further persuaded scientists and scholars to use the language of poems was the power of theoretical and practical gnosis at that time. One can conclude that most of the philosophers and even jurists expressed their thoughts in the form of quatrains or odes therefore softening their otherwise complicated and subtle language. Mirdamad's privilege in this connection was that he could use Farsi and Arabic equally well, and his odes in Arabic have won appreciation of Arab scholars.
His pseudonym, Ishraq'meaning illumination has made several European orientalists believe he had a tendency to illuminative wisdom. While not rejecting the assumption, I prefer to connect it to his interest in illumination as divine irradiations and not - at least solely - as a philosophical term. Trying to find as many links as logical between Mirdamad and Mulla
Sadra, I would say that Sadra's
tendency to composing mainly quatrains which are the poetic marks of Mir'is another indication of his close ties with him.
Correspondence - Strangely enough, neither of the two men has said words in praise of the other in his books. The only book which barely leads us to their spiritual relationships with each other is a preface Sadra has written for Mir's Arsh-al-Taqdis; and even that praises the book itself and not its author. What clearly reveals Mulla Sadra's special fellowship with Mirdamad are his letters, though very few. The letters, none of them dated, have been written in the then literary Farsi portraying a vivid picture of their mutual association. The words used by Sadra in praise of Mir are exclusive and cannot be seen in any letter he's sent to others including the top government officials and even Sheikh Bahaii.
Two of the longest and fortunately most intact letters reveal very interesting points about the two men's social and scientific lives: These points include:
- Mirdamad had officially held chairs of philosophy and jurisprudence and been regarded by his contemporaries as a highly credited source.
- Based on a refrence
to Mirdamad as "the sun of the wisdom of faith" most probably used in opposition to Peripatetic and illuminative wisdom, we can judge that Mulla Sadra
considers Mirdamad as the real founder of the Transcendent Wisdom.
- Elsewhere, Sadra
refers to Mir as "the light of the paradise of
- In another sentence Sadra
lashes out at "the so-called scholars of this time who are covered with the dust of immorality". This confirms the idea that the rigid jurists of
- The lines of the letters also speak of threats to Mirdamad-even an abortive assasination attempt by Shah Abbas.
Based on philosophical consideration, illumination has been the focal point of Suhrawardi's ontological argument. To better comprehend the argument, this essay has elaborated on issues such as light, supreme light and dominant lights. Light is first defined and then discussed as opposed to darkness. Elsewhere, light is viewed within gnosiology.
Suhrawardi, regards light in two respects: once as something in itself and for itself, and then as something in itself and for something else; Since light is bound up with illumination, there cannot be the option in something else as opposed to in itself.
The highest stage of being is the supreme light which is referred to by Suhrawardi also as the encompassing light, primal light and holy light. Beyond this light, there is nothing else. The existence of the supreme light precedes the authenticity of light and its analogical gradation. Likewise, it takes precedence over the dependence of the infra light ranks on the ultra light ones, as well as the division of light ranks to immaterial lights. It is finally inferred that the immaterial light is in need of another immaterial light which is superior to it; the superiority circle might continue endlessly or there might be a supreme light as the cause of causes.
Mulla Sadra says that "intellect" is
a polysemous word and takes meanings as a) instinct which separates man from animals b) basic sciences c) intellect as defined in books of ethics d)power of reasoning e) intellect as viewed in the discussion of soul including intellectus in actu, intellectus in habitu and intellectus adeptus f) intellect as viewed in theology.
Emphasizing the high status of intellect, Mulla Sadra points to one hadith which names intellect alongside with prophets as the two proofs which help man find the right way. Moreover, based on a transmission from Imam Hussein, the third Imam of the prophet's household which says "intellect is always the pathfinder of believers" Mulla Sadra states that to approach God, one has to obtain intellectual perfection.
On the essence of his philosophical school, there are different views sometimes opposing each other. In one view, his school is an eclectic one i.e., it is a rewording of the previous schools and has therefore nothing new in itself.
The second view, however, stresses that the idea of the Transcendent Wisdom is quite innovative and satisfies both gnostics and philosophers. They maintain that Mulla Sadra by estblishing new and consolidated principles in philosophy reached conclusions that were clear - cut and surprisingly mapped onto religious teachings and even helped better understand the basics of Islamic weltanschauung.
Advocates of a third view believe that the Transcendent Wisdom owes its sublimity to its superior language. Based on new semantics, they try to find a logical advantage for the transcendent Wisdom.
Finally, a fourth view relies on gnosiology to prove the Transcendent Wisdom's superiority over other philosophical schools.
Temporal Being and Eternity of Universe
Based on Trans-substantial Motion, Mulla Sadra
reiterates that "The Universe with everything in it is temporally contingent because everything in it has been non - existent in time."
According to Trans-substantial Motion, all beings are essentially changing i.e., universe is a constant contingency and its existence lies in its non-existence in time. Therefore, it did not exist before and later became existent. In the pre-existent world, there has been no time. There is no beginning point for the creation of the universe and there is no need to postulate a beginning point as such. Because the entire universe is constantly contingent and the contingencies never meet in one certain point.
Mulla Sadra says the physical universal is equal to its components and since its components are contingent, it too would be contingent