Mulla Sadra And Mir Fenderski

By Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Khamenei

There is little registered historical evidence to connect Mulla Sadra to Mir Abulqasem Astarabadi Fenderski who is nevertheless known to have been an influential teacher of Mulla Sadra. Mir Fenderski has been a famous name among teachers of Peripateticism but what made him publicly outstanding was the wonders of his easygoing life that amazed the common people. He is believed to have died in the year 1050 A.H. (the year of Mulla Sadra's death) at the age of 80.

Jalal Homaie, a contemporary academician in an introduction to Sharh-e-Lahiji writes "Although Mulla Sadra was an official student of Mirdamad, he learned many intricacies of philosophy from Mir Fenderski including the trans-substantial motion and the identity of subject and object. Mohammad Mo'een, renowned professor of Persian literature at Tehran University confirms Homaei's statement but both stop short of introducing a reference document in this regard.

Ashtiani says that Mir Fenderski taught intellectual and traditional sciences in Isfahan. My studies show that he also taught wisdom philosophy including Peripatecism as well as mathematics and Avicenna's Al-Shifa and Al-Isharat thus making himself known as an adept Peripatetic. However, referring to the opening verse of an ode by Mir Fenderski in which he seems to have made an implicit mention of illuminated ideas, few philosophers judge that he was an illuminationist. Lack of further evidence to prove Mir Fenderski's Peripatetic inclinations, make the idea rather unconvincing.

He does not conceal his adherence to Peripatetic principles in most of his essays including Resaleh Harkat (the Essay an Movement) where he generously uses Aristotelian deductions.

On a long stay in India where he mixed with the Zoroastrian community there, Mir Fenderski must have met with Azar Keyvan, the prominent Iranian philosopher who fearing for his life which was under virtual threat from the Safavid government had left Shiraz for India in self-exile. But even Keyvan's illuminationist charisma which originated from ancient Persian philosophy did not prevent Mir Fenderski from sternly rejecting the Trans-substantial Motion and Platonic Ideas, the two trademarks of the of illumination school.

Elsewhere in his Resaleh Sanaeeyeh Mir Fenderski elegantly maps Zoroastrian's Ahriman (Devil) onto pure non-existence and passive potentiality i.e. potential vs. act or matter vs. form. This too is against the illuminationist norms that put matter as the last being in the chain of succession. Considering all this I personally am still unconvinced about him being a Peripatetic, because he has sometimes proven to be the opposite (though in very few cases).

Inclining back and forth toward both schools Mir Fenderski in my opinion seems to have been more an interpreter or teacher of opposing philosophical ideas than a lover of them. A survey of his works also shows that he has been most innovative in mathematics and occult sciences.

His books and essays contain a vast range of usually unrelated subjects in Resaleh Sanaeeyeh, he makes an intricate social division of labors putting them into lower and higher categories.

Owing to his stay in India, he wrote books on yoga and alchemy and as some stories say even adopted an Indian-ascetic-type life. That brought Mir Fenderski an aura of prestige and public respect spreading stories of his supernatural power through the community. According to one famous story one day a Hindu governor asks him in despise why Brahman temples stand up to centuries-old erosion and decay while Muslim mosques keep wearing out. He responds that if the prayers in mosques were said in temples they would collapse. When forced to prove his words, Mir Fenderski stands in the middle of an ancient temple and shouts "Allahu Akbar" (Allah is the greatest). He escapes right before the temple comes down.Having been informed about Mir Fenderski's going to some mystic auditions and Sufis' meetings, Shah Abbas discontented with the news asks him, "We have heard that certain great men have been seen among immoral people." There comes the vigilant response from the-under-scrutiny philosopher: "I myself have attended such meetings but never seen immoral people there!"This story has once been told about Sheikh Bahai and historically there is no reason to reject it but it so seems that it is more compatible with Mir Fenderski's way of life. Mir Fenderski had several students who earnestly spread his ideas. One of them is Mulla Rajabali Tabrizi, a zealot advocate of principality of essence who never accepted most of Mulla Sadra's notions including the trans-substantial motion. The others such as Mulla Hussein Khansari, Mulla Mohammad Bagher Sabzewari, and Mulla Hadi and Mulla Ahmad Naraghi became renowned jurists who led the battle between the new idea and the old prejudices by discovering new legal principles. And interestingly unlike most Western researchers understanding of the developments in the Safavid era, none of them lost touch with philosophy and gnosis.

 

Back To Mulla Sadra's Life

As stated previouly, Mulla Sadra met Sheikh Bahai and Mirdamad prior to 1006 A.H. in the then capital, Qazvin and after the royal court moved to Isfahan, he also chose Isfahan's theology school for teaching.

Another theory says that before meeting Mirdamad, Mulla Sadra spent some years in the central Iranian city of Kashan attending the classes of Hakim Zia-ul-din Razi. This should be treated with scepticism because Razi's grandson, Fayz Kashani who married Mulla Sadra's daughter never refers to such an acquaitance between Razi and Mulla Sadra considering the fact that Fayz and his son Alam-ul-Hoda both precisely registered in detail their family events.

A careful survey of Fayz's words shows that he ran into Mulla Sadra in Qom not Kashan and had there been a family relationship between the two, Fayz would have mentioned it. This makes me exclude Kashan from the list of cities where Mulla Sadra chose to stay after his departure from Shiraz but still two questions in this connection should be answered,

a) How many years did Mulla Sadra stay in Isfahan?

b) Where did he leave Isfahan for?                             

No clear answer has yet been found to the first question. Henry Corbin says: 'It is evident that Mulla Sadra came to Shiraz between 1003 and 1010 A.H. and stayed there for about forty years. However, in the introduction to volume four of Mahajjat-al-Bayza' Mulla Sadra's date of arrival in Shiraz has been recorded "1042 A.H."; this is too late and the real date must be some time in between... .' My conclusion is that Mulla Sadra accompanied his teachers to Isfahan in 1006 A.H. and, therefore, 1003 A.H. is when he left Qazwin for Shiraz. To me it is quite illogical that Mulla Sadra has spent only 3 years in Shiraz i.e. between 1003 and 1006 A.H. to learn a complete round of Quran Commentary and hadith courses with Sheikh Bahai and philosophy with Mirdamad. Moreover, no book or written document supplies a clue to his depatrture from Isfahan before 1010 A.H.

Mulla Sadra's first child Umme Kolthum was born in Shiraz in 1019 A.H.

That and other historical clues make me believe that he had married and stayed in Shiraz some years before 1019. Given that he entered Shiraz around 1017 or even earlier, Mulla Sadra must have spent the years before 1016-18 in Isfahan.

As for the second question, (where did he leave Isfahan for?) the only answers are made by pure guesswork. Hakim Seyyed

Abulhassan Rafi'ee Qazwini without referring to any document says that Mulla Sadra went to Shiraz upon completing his studies in Isfahan. In his third letter to Mirdammad, Mulla Sadra mentions the ten or twelve years he lived away from Mirdamad. The letter also reveals a long stay in a major city because,

* he complains about "running a large household and the inconviniences of the time".

In no city other than Shiraz did Mulla Sadra lead a luxurious life; he had his roots there and lived on his father's inheritence.

* he lived in a city where "bigots of the army of ignorance and deception, and dim-witted persons at the stage of denial and hypocricy have diverted from art and science and view perfection as defect and honesty as meanness and think of taking heed of their carnal souls as equal to obeying divine ruling and call their services to the Kings and sultans a service to the divine law;" such a condition is too complicated for smaller cities and towns like Qom or Kahak.

* he complains about "the unfortunate twist of fate and being ignored by those at court...";

by "those at court" he cannot have meant people in a city other than Shiraz where he used to have enormous respect at the time of his influential father.

* some historians say that the governor of Pars and the Persian Gulf islands, Allahverdikhan built the Khan School in Shiraz for his sake; when the school's groundwork was exactly laid remains unknown but we know that its construction ended between 1022 and 1024; to me it is convincing enough to believe that Mulla Sadra left Isfahan for Shiraz at the invitation of Allahverdikhan but when his stay in his hometown flared into an unreasoned persecution by the so-called jurists of Shiraz he was forced to resort to the far-off region of Kahak.

* it was (and still is) a tradition for students to return to their hometowns after they finished their studies in another city particularly Mulla Sadra who had his mother, relatives and wealth in Shiraz.

Translator:Mahmoud Ahmadi Afzadi

 

The Corporeal Resurrection in Transcendent Wisdom

By Mohammadreza Hakimi

In Al-Mabda' wal-Ma'ad, Mulla Sadra underlines resurrection as an important pillar of Islam and a key principle in wisdom saying that "what is resurrected in the hereafter is the very human body with the same qualities. Whoever denies this kind of resurrection has in fact denied the religion and whoever says that another body with different qualities will appear in the hereafter has in fact denied the resurrection."

Khwajeh Nasir believes that such a kind of resurrection is possible. Making use of two rational and empirical premises, Avicenna speaks of the corporeal resurrection as a function of revelation which should necessarily be accepted. Avicenna believes in spiritual resurrection as well. He says that the Mohammadan law makes us needless of having to explain the corporeal resurrection but the spiritual resurrection needs to be proven.

Bringing the long-debated issue of the corporeal resurrection forward in his time, Mulla Sadra emphasizes that to prove the continuation of the existence of soul does not automatically prove the corporeal resurrection.

 

Particular Theology in Avicennan Philosophy

By Amir Shirzad

An essence will not need a cause for existing if its existence is necessary for it. Likewise, if it is contingent, it will need a cause for existing. That explains for God's needlessness to a cause: a necessary existent can do without any cause.

But how can that be? Any being that has existence in its reality will be a necessary existent essentially; its quiddity will, therefore, be equal to its being. It has its existence within its essence whereas other beings cannot have their existence by themselves.

Given that God has a quiddity beside an existence, that existence shall either necessitate or annul the quiddity and either case is impossible. God has no genus and differentia because it has no quiddity. God is no aggregate of units because its existence shall then depend on the units and that contradicts the necessity of its existence. Furthermore, in that case the units or at least some of them will have to exist prior to the whole i.e. God and that, too, becomes impossible.

 

Comparative Analogy of Principles of Philosophical Systems of Avicenna, Ibn Rushd and Mulla Sadra

By Saeed Rahimian

The effects left by Transcendent Wisdom on the discussion on how multiplicity arises from unity can be viewed in the three aspects as follows,

a) an effort to settle the ambiguities related to multiplicity in universe and resolve the differences over the Principle of Oneness

b) emergence of a new argument to the Principle of Oneness

c) an analysis of introducing the all-pervading simple being as the primary emanation

The principle meets a major difficulty resolving the controversy on the emergence of multiplicity: given that the multiple aspects of the first intellect are privative and an abstraction of the mind, how can they play a role in creation? Yet, if these aspects are the same as essence, then how can they leave an effect other than that of essence?

In short, what is the difference between them and the attributes of perfection?

To answer this question, Mulla Sadra focuses on three points:

a) to decide which one of the multiple aspects  can influence creation

b) to determine which category the Divine Attributes belong to

c) to produce a principle of distinguishing the attributes that play a role in creation from those which conform to the principle of Oneness

 

Sense and Soul Perception as Viewed by Sadr-al-Muta'allehin

By Minoo Nobakht

To shed light on Mulla Sadra's judgement of sense and soul perception, it is recommended to first comprehend the views of Ishraqiyyun (adepts of illuminative wisdom) and Mashshaiyyun (Peripatetics) in this connection.

Suhrawardi, the founder of illuminative wisdom, believes that sense materializes in the absence of any mediating agent i.e. as soon as the conditions for sense to exist are provided, human soul which itself is pure perception activates one's vision thus revealing the external existence of things.

However, Peripatetics argue that the sensible form is transferred from outside into the organs and that is when it becomes perceivable.

Sadr-ul-Muta'allehin develops his own theory which, nevertheless, seems to be partially compatible with the illuminative notion.Soul, he says, owing to its abstract existence and qualitative perfection is a manifestation of God Almighty's creativity. Sadr-ul-Muta'allehin considers sense existent, when soul having met certain conditions in the abstract world creates forms of external beings. According to him, soul creates the form of any being simply whenever it deems necessary.Unlike the Peripatetics, he believes that the transference of the sensible form to the organs is philosophically out of the question and sense is no more than a creation of an amazingly powerful soul.

 

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

By Abbas Sheikh-Sho'aei

Locke believes in the existence of the corporeal substance arguing that qualities and attributes cannot be self-subsistent and, therefore, need such a substance to hang on. Nonetheless, Berkeley stresses that qualities even the

so-called 'primary qualities.' are all the same species which depend on the mind of the perceiver. The external existence, Berkeley maintains, is no more than a collection of qualities that are imagained by the perceiver. Locke says that the origin of our perception is an external substance but in view of Berkeley there is a universal soul that emanates such perception and that soul cannot be but God. There is no cause-and-effect relation in Berkeley's philosophy because the sensible world in his opinion is a collection of passive perceptions which annul the existence of any cause. Berkeley states that what is referred to as causality is indication instead.

 

Trans-substantial Motion in Connection with Formation of Rational Soul and its Relation with Body

By Mansour Imanpour

Those philosophers who believe in the abstraction of the rational soul argue for and against contingency and eternity of the soul. Plato goes for the immateriality of soul considering it prior to body. He explains how soul existed alongside God in the transcendental world but dscended to the world of sense thus confining itself in the material body.

To be just the opposite, Aristotle says there is no reason as to why soul should be eternal; it rather became contingent in the wake of the contingency of body. Yet, it does not owe its contingency to form, for it is an absolutely abstract being.

Mulla Sadra's view in this matter stands somewhere in between. He considers soul a multi-faceted being which partly existed prior to its descent to body.

Only after the elements were thouroughly purified and surpassed the vegetable and animal kingdoms, Mulla Sadra maintains, will they deserve to receive the rational soul. He, however, makes it clear that had it not been for the prime being's emanation, the rational soul could not have passed through the animal kingdom.

Meanwhile, he rules out the idea that the abstract soul has been created from the material body; yet, he confirms that soul was embodied in body in its

lowest form before it began its trans-substantial motion. The motion then took the soul to the supernatural world. The stages that follow hierarchically include the intermediate abstraction, the rational abstraction and finally a supra-abstract state.

 

The Tehran School of Philosophy and Gnosis

By Abbas  Taremi

Tehran's School of Philosophy was founded by Mulla Abdollah Modarres Zonuzi who himself became the school's first teacher of Sadr-ul-Muta'allehin's philosophy 182 years ago. Zonuzi learned wisdom and philosophy from Mulla Ali Nouri and his interpretations of Mulla Sadra's books, Asfar in particular, both highy credited among the contemporary Islamic philosophers.

The Tehran school of Gnosis was established by Aqa Seyyed Razi Larijani who, too, was a brilliant student of Mulla Ali Nouri. Banished and excommunicated by the jurists of Isfahan, Aqa Seyyed Razi attended Mulla Ali Nouri's transcendent wisdom classes in Tehran and worked on Peripateticism at the same time. The two schools which are often regarded as one further flourished when several renowned philosophers and gnostics of Isfahan and Sabzewar migrated to Tehran and later helped found similar schools in other cities such as Qom and Najaf.

 

A New Explanation of the Theory of Fitrah (Innate Disposition), an Assessment of the Transcendent Wisdom

By Morteza Haji-hosseini

In a carefully-elaborated discussion, Mulla Sadra considers sensory, imaginary and rational aspects of the human soul in the transitory world. The indivisible soul, he maintains, has a rational and ideal existence before this world, a sensitive, rational and imaginary presence in this world and again becomes an ideal and rational existence in the hereafter.

Fitrah and its cognates are frequent words in the Holy Koran. In every place they refer to an unprecedented creation and making.

It is made to be only after instinct is contained and sensation and imagination are blossomed concurrent with the emergence of intellect. Under the circumstances, instinctive inclinations become sacred. The Holy Koran in its negative verses speaks of soul as a tabula rasa at the time of birth.

Positive verses, however, make us ask ourselves, "Does soul evolve into Fitrah after intellect has blossomed?"

 

Secondary Intelligible Concepts as Viewed by Sadr*ul-Muta'allehin

 and Other Transcendent Wisdom Philosophers

By Abbas Ahmadi Sa'adi

Mulla Sadra divides secondary intelligible concepts into philosophical and logical types. He says that secondary intelligble concepts are often referred to as rational predicates with abstract principles. Yet, sometimes these concepts are so defined that they include logical concepts which precede the intelligible ones.Defining logical secondary intelligible concepts as qualities which do not exist m reality, Mulla Sadra limits their existence to their manifestation in mental being. Recognizing philosophical secondary intelligible concepts on a par with the logical ones, Mulla Sadra states that concommitants of quiddities fall in the same philosophical category. He speaks of two possibilities regarding philosophical concepts; either they are all subjective considerations and have no existence whatsoever, or not.He considers logical secondary intelligible concepts as mental qualities of the superior intelligible concepts, and philosophical concepts as qualities of concrete beings.Mulla Sadra concludes that secondary intelligible concepts have real qualification and mental occurence.