Character and School of Mulla Sadra

By: Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Khamenei

Sadra and Mir Damad

Most of the Safavid kings were in fact no less than their counterparts in other countries in terms of corruption. As an Arabic saying puts it "kings set patterns for their people"; that is how the court behavior spread to the man in the street in the Safavid era. A hard-bitten ruler, Shah Abbas, I like many of his predecessors, spared no effort to protect the throne going as far as ousting and jailing his father, and killing or blinding his brothers whom he viewed as potential claimants to the kingdom.

History portrays the mighty king as a person with plebeian habits and a faint belief in religion; although that never prevented him from wrongdoings, typical of a king of that time.

I would even say that what forced Shah Abbas to fall short of ignoring the religion totally was his strong anti-Ottoman sentiments and also the presence of influential jurists and to some extent Sufis who had become an immense social power.

He, of course, was a successful militarist and an all-powerful shadow of God within the country's borders; but when it came to international matters, Shah Abbas would turn into a naive politico. His miscalculations paved the way for Britain to gain ground in Indian Peninsula, thus influencing the entire region including Iran for centuries. Unable to look for commonalties with the Muslim Ottomans, the Iranian king failed to form a regional alliance. Neither was he willing to hold the European governments to ransom against the neighboring Ottomans who time and again threatened Iranian national sovereignty.

His excessive optimism towards incoming European visitors provided an appropriate atmosphere for missionary activities in Iran. Documented evidence shows that these travellers who were mainly British, French, Italian, Spanish and Portugese played an extra-national role by helping propagate the Holy-See or Saint-Siege idea. These so-called traders and military consultants without exception prepared precise geopolitical maps of the key roads stretching eastward to India and China. The ailing economy was another problem caused by the inexperienced king.

Despite enjoying a relative welfare, ordinary citizens were not involved in foreign trading which was the virtual monopoly of the capital Isfahan's Armenians and other foreigners residing in Iran. Shah Abbas's open-arms policy let the foreigners take away parts of the country's cultural heritage including priceless scripts and archaeological finds, and this trend continued to exist until very recently. Owing to the Safavid kings, the Jewish community emerged as the most economically-prosperous stratum of society.The French tourist, Tavernie, who witnessed the situation writes that the majority of the Iranian population were involved in jobs such as farming, silk production, carpet weaving and handicrafts but the real profit went to Armenian and Jewish businessmen who exported these items to Europe. Counting out all such weaknesses of the Safavid rulers, the era can as well be viewed from another angle. The stable political situation was a blessing for scholars who grew in number more than ever before. The king's respect for religious authorities including jurists and even philosophers led to the formation of a religion-friendly society. The prevailing religious freedom, however, did not bring immunity for all scholars. Petrified jurists found the time ripe to outlaw the activities of those scholars who did not feel themselves in the grip of traditional beliefs, and innovative Sadr-al-Muta'allehin and Mir Damad were no exception.

In the preface of his book Sirat-al-Mostaqeem, Mir Damad refers to the harassment caused by the court jurists. Elsewhere, he writes about the "the light of science being put out", a probable reference to Sheikh Bahai's death that set the stage for MirDamad and Sadra's opponents - the Tradionists - to become more active.

 

Philosophy of Mir Damad

Among  Mir  Damad's   philosophical   endeavors  those   listed below are the most outstanding:

- The theory of Hoduth Dahri or contingency through perpetual duration plus consideration of a time-free being which he names "the perpetual being"

- Verification of the theory of "the primacy of being"

- Justification of Bada' or change in an earlier Divine decree

- A new interpretation of Mosol-e-Nuriyyeh or Illuminated Ideas.

Hoduth Dahri

The theory is the prime feature of Mir Damad's famous book of Qabasat and has become an important discussion in his other books such as "Al-Sirat-al-mostaqim", "Al-Ofoq-al-mobin" and "Al-Imazat".

' The theory helps to understand the relation between the material world's time-bound things which are everchanging and God who is Eternal and Subsistent; yet, it does not contradict the principle of the cause and effect.

'I<tie question is: if all beings are contingent, their cause will also be contingent, but the cause i.e. God is Eternal. Likewise, since God is Eternal, the effectsshall be eternal and this too is impossible. One traditional solution to the problem has been to assume a mediating role for "movement". Philosophers who lived before Mulla Sadra found the much-needed movement in the celestial sphere and Mulla Sadra looked for it in the nature and essence of things.Mir Damad suggests a third possibility: the existence of a mediating world i.e. a supratemporal duration bridging the material world and the perpetual creator.

He considers the everchanging and time-bound world as a container of time (Ve'aa-e-Zaman) which is connected to Sarmad i.e. the everlasting divine world via an intermediary i.e. a container of Dahr or the perpetual duration.Though convincing, the theory was not recognized by Mulla Sadra. He, of course, was too polite to explicitly announce his disapproval. Others including Aqa Jamal Khansari were not as considerate though. Hoduth-e-Dahri is often said to have had roots in Avicenna's ideas about being. Avicenna believed that intellect can hypothesize being in three types:

a) "being" within time (this type of being is constantly on the move).

b) "being" alongside time i.e. Dahr (this type of being is not confined to time; it rather encompasses it).

c)   "being"   as   an   eternal   existence   (this   type   of   being encompasses Dahr and is called Sarmad).

Mir Damad seems to have used the second type of being to be his mediating container of Dahr. Justifying his theory, he states that the third type of being is immune from privation and, therefore, no contingency may occur. Naturally, we must look for any privation and contingency in the remaining beings. Mir Damad expounds on essential and temporal contingencies to infer another contingency which is neither essential nor temporal, i.e. Hoduth Dahri.

Outcomes of the theory of Hoduth-e-Dahri

The theory finds a demonstrable answer to the long-standing question on how to prove the temporal creation of the world. Still, it helps to figure out some intriguing philosophical puzzles including the hiding-and-appearing theory.

Hiding and Appearing Theory

The theory is attributed to Nazzam Ibrahim-ibn-Sayyar, a scholastic Mu'tazilite philosopher who says that God created all beings simultaneously but hid some of them inside some others so as to make them appear later in the course of time. Thus, God does not wait for the right time for every being to create. Mir Damad considers "hiding" as compatible with the existence of things in the container of Dahr saying that they are thought to be hidden because they have not yet entered the temporal world where they become actual beings.

The Bada' theory

Owing to Hoduth-e-dahri, another philosophical problem i.e. bada' vanishes. Verified hadiths confirm the existence oihada' or change in an earlier divine ruling. It, however, contradicts the Divine Will which is stationary. Bada', Mir Damad maintains, should not be regarded as a deviation of the Divine Will. He believes that the container of Dahr (where no being is bound to change) is free from Bada'. Any change must, therefore, happen in a stage before i.e. the container of time.

The Knowledge of God

Here, too, Mir Damad affords to settle the question through the theory of Hoduth-e-Dahri. He says that God's Knowledge is not an acquisition. His Knowledge of a thing stems from His very presence in every single atom of that thing? In other words, that thing is a reflection of God's Knowledge and the latter, a constituent of it.The thing lies within the container of Dahr and fails to cross to the container of Sarmad. In a later stage, it enters the container of time where it begins to move constantly.

 

Abstracts

Translator: Mahmoud Ahmadi Afzadi

 

The Issue of Causality in Locke's and Berkley's Philosophies

Sheikh Sho'aee

Judging failed attempts by Descartes in explaining existence, John Locke develops the philosophical school of empiricism which has since been traditionally viewed as a contrast to Descartes' rationalism. He first rejected the so-called innate principles introduced by Descartes' rational school and then referred to sensation and reflection as two major sources of recognition. Locke believed that these two sources lead us to simple and compound concepts. The latter, he says, includes conceptions of substances and relations. Here, the relational compound is a conception made up of two other conceptions. One of the two is the causality issue.

It so seems that Locke considers causality as a conception prompted by a comparison between the conception of substance and accidents.

Though a mental conception, causality, Locke maintains, has a visible abstraction. Based on his argument, prime matter's existence is provable via four causes: creation, making, innovation and changing.

While confirming the cause-and-effect relation in the real world, Locke makes out that there is absolutely no way to clearly perceive causuality and the only perceivable thing is the relation or power of affection, and that should be fair enough to believe that an agent i.e. a cause does exist.

 

The Course of Time from Aristotle to Mulla Sadra

Seyyed Sadroddin Taheri

Time, place and movement are three commonly-used terms in philosophy. By no means, however, are they the simplest concepts despite being bungled by shallow philosophers.

Perhaps the oldest and yet one of the most credited explanations of time belongs to Aristotle. He defines time as a real, accidental thing with a continuous quantity which can be predicated by incorporeal beings.

The Aristotelian time is merely a movement of spheres which cannot have the slightest effect even on its own trend.

Avicenna's explanation of time is similar to that of Aristotle's in many ways; his time is an unstable continuous quantity with "moment" being a hypothetical part of it.

Suhrawardi divides quantity into stable and unstable types saying that "the thing which cannot be but renewal is time." The idea is endorsed by Mulla Sadra who like Suhrawardi believes that the quiddity of time is dependent on the issue of movement.

In his Asfar, Mulla Sadra proves the existence of time with natural and philosophical reasons. He gives a comprehensive explanation of time through several principles on existence of time, quiddity of time, and God's precedence over time and movement.

 

Good and Evil in Transcendent Wisdom

Mohammad Gharaguzlu

Mulla Sadra in all of his works views good and evil from the angle of existence and non-existence. In Shawahid-al-Robubiyyah he says, "existence is equal to all; it is light in every being while darkness is equal to non-existence. The real evil is the same as the negative entity and for this reason lesser evils have entered the world of existence, by the decree and ordinance of God."

In Asfar he writes, "That which desires and by which it attains perfection is the pure good." Elsewhere, based on good and evil he divides beings into four groups: pure good i.e. the necessary existent, the good which prevails over evil i.e. the being utterly devoid of non-existence, the evil which prevails over good i.e. defective beings which are subject to change, and pure evil which is the same as pure non-existence.

Mu'tazilites like Shi'ites also believe that God is devoid of any evil, and a human being is free in his deeds which are justified on the basis of punishment, reward and obligation.

 

Comparative Ontology

Mahmoud Navali

In Islamic philosophy, "being" is the most important issue discussed in the realm of theosophy, which forms the basis of epistemology or the truth of theosophy. The Islamic theosophers have considered the foundation of the world and the creatures as "being" as a general concept. They have considered this widespread "being" as being one with the God's being and in this manner they have opened the way of gnosticism to philosophy.In the philosophy of Mulla Sadra and Heiddeger, "being" is not defined. But in the Philosophy of Mulla Sadra knowing "being" has been changed to knowing the issues related to being, i.e. the "common predicables". But in the philosophy of Heddeger ontology has inclined towards phenomenology.In the philosophy of Mulla Sadra the main principle is that knowing being is possible. But the ontology of Heiddeger with all his interest in this regard, finally results in a limited knowledge of being. His ontology begins from human being. For, as he himself states: man is the only place and time, where understanding of being in its general sense is probable. Thinking about being always comprises of the thinking of the intellectual man about being.It is due to this fact that in the human essence there exists a basic principle for understanding the truth of being. Understanding of being is a determination of the human "being". In the viewpoint of Heiddeger the human specifications include:

1. being in the world

2. state of passiveness i.e. ability-being

3. understanding which is accompanied and proceeds with freedom.

Heidegger considers man's relation with general being or being in its general sense as existentialite and his innovations and transcendent moves as existential. He, Heidegger maintains, who possesses this genuine human status, would also possess the above mentioned Dasien features.

Categories such as care, transcendence, temporality, intention and anguish are from amongst categories of interest to Heiddeger.

Care, in view of Heiddeger is the basis of theoretical and practical methods and both of them are included in the framework of the facilities of mankind's special being.

Temporality brings about a unity for care based on which are established the elements which bring about the nature of care. Those elements are the past, present and future. Notwithstanding the kind of any special being accepted by man, he relates himself to the past, present and the future.

The German philosopher says transcendence is passing the existing situation which always appears with understanding. If this does not take place man will be imprisoned in the realm of ontology.

Heidegger believes that being, in its general sense, can be discovered with the help of transcendence. Therefore, the world is a place where the human beings can transcend.

 

Sadr-al-Muta⁴allehin's Philosophical Innovations

Mohammad Entezam

Mulla Sadra's philosophical innovations are best reflected in his views on ontology, epistemology, theology and psychology.

One conspicuous novelty in his interpretation of ontology concerns basicality of being which, he believes, influences the Transcendent Wisdom. Principality of being revolves around the argument that being is a reality essentially and quiddity is attributed to being only when it comes with accidental being.

Mulla Sadra raises the graded unity of being emphasizing that all beings from the highest rank i.e. the infinite being to the lowest i.e. the mere potentiality owe their existence to The One Existent.

Other innovations of Mulla Sadra regarding basicality and unity of being include,

- quiddity is mentally prior to being.

- making belongs to being not quiddity (unlike the opinion of the adepts of the Illuminative Wisdom).

- quiddity is not qualified by being (unlike the opinion of the Peripatetics).

- being is the same as individuation.

 

"Should" and "Should Not"

Massoud Omid

The terms "should" and "should not" almost in all languages from the lexical point of view convey command and prohibition; yet in some cases they do not, in the real sense of the word, command or prohibit any thing.In ethical propositions, should and should not are postulates of two realities outside the mind i.e. they refer to a certain act and its end. This is in contradiction to the logical "should" and "should not" which simply reflect the relation between concepts inside the mind. The ethical "should" and "should not" or the Philosophical necessity only refer to those predicates which exist in reality. It is, therefore, a deductive necessity i.e., a deduction is made from a certain act and its end and then the necessity of their relation becomes meaningful.

 

Theology in Avicennan Philosophy

Amir Shirzad

Peripatetics   use   the   terms   "necessary   existent"   and   "first principle" to define God on the basis of dividing existents into necessary and possible. They also state that the chain of the possible existents leads up to a non-caused cause. According to Peripatetics, there is no way to learn about the nature of God and the most which can be done is to perceive God via terms such as "necessary existent" and "first principle".

Still, they emphasize, that this very perception cannot and should not make us think of a quiddity in this connection for all quiddities need a cause.

Avicenna says that existence in God cannot be the same as existence in other beings for the latter is much less in intensity; God's necessity of existence, he maintains, is the same as its intensity and that forms the reality of the Almighty's nature.

On the use of demonstrations to prove God's existence, Avicenna believes that demonstrations as such are either a priori or a posteriori; since God has no cause, the a priori demon stration which begins with a cause to find an effect does not work here.

As for the a posteriori demonstrations, he can be credited with one that expounds on essence to prove the existence of God.

Based on Avicenna's demonstration, an existent if necessary is self subsistent and if possible ends up in the necessary existent, and any other option leads to a vicious circle which is out of the question.

 

The Theory of Layers' World or Types of Simultaneous Material Worlds

Amirhossein Bankipour Fard

The material world may be viewed in three ways. One outlook considers it as an integrated body which encompasses various components. Based on another outlook, every component of the material world falls in a group and that group is in turn a component of yet another group. Therefore, no component can exist in the absence of the other ones.

A third view portrays the material world in the form of a disintegrated body with absolutely independent components each of which is a world in itself. In this way, the material world is made up of an infinite number of separate worlds with no correlations.