Character and School of Mulla Sadra
In the previous parts of this article we had a glance at the relationship of the two great philosophers of the Safavid
Era, Mulla Sadra and Mir Damad and we had a brief review of two of their letters. What follows is a short discussion of the third letter which mainly deals with the life history of Mir Damad in Sadr-al-Muta`allehin
works. The mentioned letter contains various historical and analytical points which shed light on the then existing situation and the life of Sadr-al-Muta`allehin, as well as the depth of the hearty relations between the teacher and the student, some of which are listed below:
1. Sadra respected his teacher to a great extent, which can be clearly seen in almost all of his letters.
2. He considered his teacher as the reviver of Islamic sciences, which is worthy of consideration taking into account the existence of other scholars during his time.
3. In his letter he has used various terms such as "incompatible" or "ill-orbited spheres" which are signs of his problems not having origin in the mal-behaviour
of the public and the scholars living during his age. It seems that in this state of depression other problems such as material and spiritual ones also had a role.
4. The historical point seen in this letter is that all the problems began when the teacher left Isfahan for another city, giving rise to the mistreatment of the people with him. Based on the family records of Mulla Sadra it seems that he has left Isfahan for Shiraz, or perhaps for Qum.
5. In this letter he has written that he expects a better situation, perhaps due to the fact that previously scholars were respected more, but a stage reached when the situation has become contrary.
6. There was a twelve year gap between the teacher and the student, and it seems that in the year 1023 they have met again.
7. His statements in a part of this letter reveal the beginning of difficult spiritual and physical mortifications.
8. The term "ten to twelve years" used in this letter shows the date he left Isfahan and his first separation from Mirdamad.
9. He has used terms such as "weakness of body" and "old age", which reveal the passage of his young age and the beginning of his old age, and if we consider the date of the letter in 1030, he was in his fifties, and if most probably the date was near 1040, he would have attained his sixties.
10. In the conclusion of his letter it can be deduced that perhaps he was living in Qum and not in Shiraz.
There is a fourth letter also printed by Prof. Ashtiani
in the last part of his book on the life of Mulla Sadra quoting the book "Esbat
al Nabvah" (presently in the library of Astane-Quds Razavi). In this letter, as well, similar to other letters, Mulla Sadra has expressed his deepest respect to Mirdamad. The historical point seen here lies in the use of Dar-al-Mu`menin, the name which was given to Kashan, and it seems that he had written this letter prior to one of the trips of Mirdamad, apparently from Isfahan to Kashan, most probably with his students. It seems that during those days Kashan was a route to Rey and Khorasan, and was credited as a scientific center placing in itself a great number of juristsprudents and scholars. Another point of the historical realities of the life of these two great sages, is that Mirdamad
was a safe abode for Sadra in his scientific problems, and in their personal relations, philosophical and perhaps non-philosophical issues were also discussed. The teacher used to find solutions to his problems, thus encouraging him to take up his lessons as earnestly as ever. This makes the author believe that some of the famous viewpoints of Sadra had their origin in the inspiring works of his teacher. This letter discloses that Mulla Sadra used to correspond with Mirdamad
at any time possible to clear the doubts. Perhaps one of the reasons for Sadra's sound viewpoints is that he did not hurry in disclosing them and hid them from public, except for cases when he deemed writing as his religious responsibility. At least in all these cases he used to get the approval of his teacher. As seen in all these four letters, one can by analyzing them conclude the character and status of Mirdamad as well as those of Mulla Sadra. Sadra went to Isfahan
in 1006 and lived there for about one decade or so, and then chose to stay in Shiraz, Qum and perhaps other cities, till 1041 when we have record of Mirdamad's death. During the reign of Shah Abbass I Isfahan was selected as the capital city. After the death of Shah Abbass I (1052), Shah Safi, an arrogant and ignorant king, came to power, and ruled for about fourteen years. During Shah Abbass the country had real independence, and witnessed the end of the exploitation of the neighbouring Turks and had gained a glory for itself in the international level, achieved fame in Europe and amongst the famous rulers. Sciences such as jurisprudence, hadith, philosophy, gnosticism, mathematics, medicine, astronomy, etc. had greatly flourished. A well established and sound administration system was established which had replaced the nomadic system. A centralized judicial system was also established according to the style of the Ottoman Turks rule. Holding of Friday prayers, and convention of religious gatherings and benefiting from the great Shia scholars of Lebanon and Jebel
Amel for their organization, all in all had provided a new aspect to the country. For the first time, by making use of foreign military experts, tanks and guns were imported to the country and provided to the armed forces, and perhaps their experiences were also used for theoretical and practical training of the experts in different military fields. The economic situation both local and in the international trade field was greatly flourishing, and under correct management and accurate supervision of Shah Abbass I, the security of the roads, cities and public welfare was perfect. But the society during those days from the point of view of prevalence of moral corruption, a heritage of the previous rules of the neighbouring Turks, was in a bad situation, and with the exception of some groups which were followers of religion and shariah, others were drowned in moral corruption. This is why it can be concluded that despite the Safavid's fame for having had a religious rule and following Shah Velayat, and although apparently they respected religion, the political society of those days was not considered as being an appropriate Islamic one. Mostly the kings themselves fueled the fire of these corruptions. During the rulers reign prostitution was considered as being an official occupation, and a part of the government's income was secured in this way.
Abstracts
Sadr-al-Muta`allehin's Philosophical Innovations
Displaying great initiative in connecting thoughts and ideas together, Mulla Sadra uses arguments and intuition to reorder a huge collection of Quranic and traditional sciences putting them into a delicately - organized structure. Even a mere glance at his Transcendental Wisdom reveals the amazing cohesion of the issues discussed. Mulla Sadra stipulates that he came up with the transcendental wisdom only after he liked argumentation to intuition. Ruling out the possibility of discovering divine mysteries through dialectical debates, Sadra proposes argumentation and intuition as the only breakthrough. However, he believes that intuition by itself may not work out the problem; argumentation, he maintains, is a requirement for understanding rationalities. Mulla Sadra blames gnostics for failing to get their ideas understood emphasizing that intuitions, if not supported by arguments, are not reliable. According to Mulla Sadra, true argumentation will never turn out to be against true intuition. Believing that the two perceptions are of the same essence, Mulla Sadra argues that the only thing which makes them look different from each other is how and when they are understood. Among Greek philosophers, he greatly respected Pythagorath, Socrates, Plato and Thales, while in the Islamic world, Suhrawardi and Avicenna fascinated him more than others. The most impressive sources for Mulla Sadra's thoughts, as revealed in his own books, were the Holy Quran, hadiths and traditions. Interestingly, Mulla Sadra has given an account of his philosophical innovations in Resaleh Shawahid-al-Robubiyeh.
By: S.Hossein Vaezi
Soul belongs to body only on a temporal contingency basis and not permanently i.e. at its early stage of existence, soul needs body but later as it goes on living, it stops to depend on body totally. In other words, soul when it first draws breath is an impotent being devoid of any perfection resembling body to a great extent, and at this very stage, soul is something between soul and body and then develops into a completely spiritnal being. Ibn Arabi says soul, body and intellect are connected together in the sense that soul and intellect are breathed into body but each has its own rank. Soul is higher than the body and lower than the intellect. What gives soul further importance is that it is the place for spirit to grow and since spirit can do both good and evil, soul is also bound to change. According to Ibn Arabi, the rational animal (man) owes his rationality to his soul and spirit and without them he does not go far beyond other animals.
By: S.Mahmoud Yusof Thani.
In the second part of Al-asfar (Four Journeys) Mulla Sadra raises the issue that nothingness cannot mediate as copula between two things. He says that the relation of predication is affirmative in all propositions and that negation is not real predication, and there is no real copula in negative judgements but only negation of predication. To support his idea, Mulla Sadra mentions that parts of these propositions differ from each other as to composition, affirmation and negation. The case in point here is whether or not Mulla Sadra has believed that negative propositions do not have predicates and if so, whether he has ever attributed this belief to the preceeding philosophers. With several places in Al-asfar where he clearly confirms the presence of predicate in the negative proposition, we can judge that he cannot have believed otherwise. And what is more, like the preceeding philosophers, he finds that negation and affirmation can both have predicates. Mulla Sadra does not rule out the point that there is no predication and relation in the negative proposition; yet, he maintains that this is not equal to the non-existence of a predicate in such a proposition but is equal to the existence of a predicate which itself negates predication and relation. The renowned contemporary philosopher, Allameh Tabatabaei is the first person among Islamic philosophy experts to say that there is no predicate in a negative proposition. According to his argument, affirmative propositions have predication or predicates. As for negative propositions, since they do not have predication, they inferentially cannot have predicates either.
The least to say here is that if based on Allameh Tabatabaei's argument no predicate exists in the negative proposition and yet there is a subject in it, then how can anything be predicated when there is no predicate at all? It seems that this argument which is an exclusive idea of Allameh Tabatabaei needs a much safer ground to be accepted by the philosophical community.
By: Ahad f. Gharamaleki
The discussion of the problem of the riddle of the incommensurable root has passed through a history full of trials and tribulations among the philosophers and theologians of Isfahan. Most of the philosophers who have dealt with this issue belong to the School of Mulla Rajabali Tabrizi. By the philosophers of Isfahan
we do not merely mean those who belonged to Isfahan
but we have taken into consideration those who are either one of the important members of the philosophical school of Isfahan or are influenced by it. The riddle of the incommensurable root in the school of Isfahan has the following features:
1. The philosophers of this era are heirs of the rich culture of the previous ages.
2. Attraction to the riddle of the incommensurable root of the philosophers of this era is neither similar to the theologians nor to the logicians of the seventh century.
3. In the philosophical school of Isfahan other issues have also been dealt with in addition to the above riddle. In some cases new riddles and paradoxes have been designed and brought under discussion.
4. The tradition of writing only about the riddle of the incommensurable root which began in the Shiraz school of philosophy also continued in the school of Isfahan.
5. The philosophers of
we can make mention of Mirdamad, Morad
Ibn Ali Khan Tafrishi, Aqa Hossein Khansari, Mir Fazlullah Astarabadi, Muhammad Sarab Tonkaboni, Jeylani Isfahani, Sherwani, and Mulla Abdullah Jeylani Barhowi, presented two solutions for the riddle, one of which is thinking about the definition of statement (khabar), which is itself dubious and weak.
The Students Of
By: Qasem Kakaei
Following the demise of Qiyas ad Din Mansour, and due to the political situation and ideological contradictions as well as firmness of the central Safavid
rule, the gathering of the scholars in the capital, on the one side, and the conflicts of Qiyas ad Din and the Safavid
reign on the other side and with due consideration of the enmity shown by some of the rulers towards theosophy and philosophy, a great pressure was exerted on the Shiraz School from various sides which led to the migration of the Dashtaki family to remote countries, such as India, Mecca and Medina. Despite all these events the students of Qiyas
ad Din Mansour tried to promote the school of Shiraz. Although it is said that Mulla Sadra has learnt theosophy in Isfahan
from Sheikh Bahaie and Mirdamad, but most certainly he began his learning in Shiraz through one of the students of Qiyas ad Din and later on he joined the Isfahan philosophical Circle. This article aims at introducing the students of Qiyas ed Din Mansour
who are, in short, as follows:
1. Sadr ad Din Muhammad Thani(II)
2. Mowla Kamal ud
Din Hossein Ardebili, known as Elahi
3. Jamal ud Din Mahmoud
Shirazi
4. Mulla Habibullah Baghnavi, known as Mirza Jan Shirazi
5. Mirza Sharaf Jahan
Qazvini
6. Mir Fakhreddin Astarabadi, known as Sammaki
7. Mirza Qassem Gonabadi
8. Kamal ud Din Hossein
Zeymari Isfahani
9. Moulana Sheikh Ahmad
10. Mowlana Mosleh ud Din Mohammad Ebad Lari
11. Taqi ad Din Bal akhir Mohammad Farsi
12. Sheikh Mansour Baghnavi
13. Mowla Taqi ad Din Mohammad
14. Amir Fathullah Shirazi
15. Mahmoud ibn Muhammad Dehdar, known as Ayani
16. Mohammad Dehdar, known as Fani, etc.
Apparently, after the death of Dehdar Fani the great chain of the students of Qiyas ad Din Mansour in the school of Shiraz broke away. Following this period the philosophers of Shiraz should be considered as being followers of the Transcendent Theosophy of Mulla Sadra.
Philosiphical, Natural, and Scientific Thought in the 9th to 12th. Centuries in Transoxiana
From the 9th to the 12th century A.D. the local people residing in the Transoxiana and Khorasan increased their efforts for liberating themselves from the dependence on the Arab caliph and for establishing independent governments. This era led to positive developments, and important achievements in the cultural life of the mentioned people. Prominent scholars were trained during this period, including: Esmail Bokhari, Abu Nasr Farabi, Abu Bakr Kharazmi, Abu Reyhan Biruni, Rudaki, Abu Ali Sina, Zamakhshari, and Marghinani. Moreover, during this period great achievements were also gained in both the worldly and religious fields, such as mathematics, astronomy, medicine, jurisprudence, The science of hadith, and history. This period can be described as the First Renaissance in the history of the mentioned regions, due to its achievements,development trend, and progress in various aspects. In the philosophical realm, in this era, various treatises have been compiled on concepts including being, beings, stages and states of being, as well as the secrets of human being's thinking, logic and its importance in other sciences. Acquiring knowledge about the perfection of man, achievement of spiritual perfection, establishment of utopia, through the light of knowledge and the importance of Islam in the social and philosophical domains, possessed special features.
Ryle's Linguistic Analysis
By: Saeed Rahimiyan
According to Ryle, terms such as "science" and "will" are often expected to be indicative of an accident or action and this notion, he maintains, is false and misleading. He states that many of the actions attributed to soul are in fact tangible attainments. Any kind of knowledge, for instance, is not a mysterious thing beyond understanding but can be attained under certain circumstances. Ryle's linguistic analysis philosophy considers a large number of current philosophical discussions a result of misusing language. Ryle says that philosophers happen to mix up different areas of study spreading mental and metaphysical terms into empirical domains. Criticizing philosophers' neglect towards the empirical observation principles, Ryle warns against attributing properties of a category like soul to another category like body and vice versa; he rules out referring to science as a mental form believing that observable things cannot and should not be dealt with through mental conceptions under the name of science. Ryle also finds fault with those who think of mental categories as realissues.