Fayd was not willing to accept the post of the leader of Friday prayer in
One of the amazing phenomena of the history of science and spirituality is the association of some jurisprudents, gnostics, and free and pious philosophers with the courts and governmental instiutions. In this regard, we can refer to people like Ibn-Sina, Khwajah Nasir, ،
Allamah Hilli, Muhaqiq Thani, Shaykh Bahaei
and hundreds of others. Mulla Muhsen Fayd, the jurispruent and mystic philosopher, was also among the people who, in spite of
their lack of interest and belief in rulers and kings, accepted certain posts, such as ministry or similar services in their government, and this is itself a kind of behavioral contradiction. However, through some deliberation, it is possible to discover the secret of this conduct which has sometimes been revealed in their works.
These free people, while detesting the rulers, surrendered to this hardship for some reasons: some of them, such as
'Allamah Hilli, whose association with the Mongol Khan popularized the Shi'ite Religion at that time, did this to consolidate Islam or Shi'ism; Khwajah Nasir yielded to this hardship to protect Islam against the harms caused by the influence of other religions; and Muhaqiq Thani and Shaykh
Baha strengthened the Shi'ite government it this way.
Some thinkers, such as Mir Damad, Shaykh Bahai and most of the philosophers in different periods, who were always under the pressure of rulers and courtiers or were even defamed or murdered by them, accepted the court service to fight for the rights of the oppressed, and some others did it to direct the government to the right path and provide the necessary counselling at the right time. There were still others, such as Ibn-Sina, who accepted
some govermental posts to stand against the Kings' whimsical desires and their heedlessness to the public's good. This was the common trend in Ancient Iran and in the period of magi (the true rulers of the time of Kings in Ancient Iran) and had been necessitated by wisdom.
One of the examples which is worth inspection and represents jurisprudents' purposes in associating with rulers is the case of Sayyed Ibn Tavous, the true jurisprudent, traditionist, and pious holy man, whose life story, motifs, ideas, and acts are quite well-known. In one of his writings, which has in fact come to his son, Sayyed Muhammed, as his will, and upon which Fayd has written a commentary and considers it as a guide for his life, Sayyed Ibn Tavous advises his son in this way: "The most difficult of all types of co-existence is co-existence with violators [of the Divine religion and orders], whether they are in power or not. If keeping company with them does not basically originate form one's internal opposition with them and does not continue to advise or guide them, when a ruler of this type is kind to him, he will develop a kind of affinity with them. How could such an afinity be consistent with his love for God? The Rulers' Kindness brings about much more otherworldly harm than worldly benefits."
Then he writes: "One day I wrote to one of the ministers: How could I write a letter to you about my own needs and those of others, while, according to the Divine decree, I must detest subsitence in my position?! And it is my duty to wish for your being dethroned before receiving your letter!" In the same book, he mentions that his socializing with the rulers of his time has been due to bibliomancy. This shows that these great men in their associations with rulers, which were intended to protect the interests of Islam, religion, and Muslims, had still some doubts and took part in such associations indignantly, bearing a lot of hardships and spiritual torture.
Fayd has compiled this will and commented on it as if it is his own will written to his own son, who was also called Muhammed (Muhammed Ilm al-Huda), and as if he has completely believes in it and chosen it as a guide for his life.
Once he ran away from the trap Shah Safi had set for him and rejected his invitation for going to Isfahan and becoming the religious chief of Muslims or the leader of Friday and Congregation prayers in the Capital of the time (1065 A.H), When Shah Abbas II, with utmost respect, reverence and courtesy, invited him to his service, Fayd excused himself on the grounds that since he had collected a fortune and owned some property at that time and had then become like other khans and rulers, he lacked the whim-free heart of his youth, did not deserve the position of prayer leadership, and could not accept Shah's invitation. Although he ultimately went to
Shah's first letter can clearly represent the conditions of that time. This letter has been written in the difficult prose of that time and reads in this way: His Majesty ordered that ، Allamah Mevlana
Muhammed Hassan (Fayd), the unique scholar of the time beware that his duty made it an obligation for him to perform Friday and congregation prayers in
The gist of the letter was that in the atmosphere of that time, it was a religious, objective, and appointed obligation for Fayd to accept the responsibility to perform the Friday and Congregational prayers in the capital.
In response, Fayd
writes in a letter to Shah Abbas that during the period he performed the Friday prayer in Kashan, "he was confident about his conscience and, by totally putting away with whimsical desires, he felt it a necessity to perform that duty at a time when there was no one else to do it." However, now that his life resembled those of khans and rulers, he was not qualified to fill the post of people's leader, go to the pulpit, which is the right place for prophets and expert theologians, encourage people to put away with their worldly interests, pass judgments, or give decrees.
Fayd's other excuse for rejecting Shah's invitation, as written in his letter, was, "some impious jurisprudents and traditionists either disagree with performing the Friday prayer and its leader, or perform the prayer several times in a city themselves. The main purpose of the Friday prayer is to bring the hearts together and connect them; however, nowadays, this religious duty has cast separation and segregation among people, and it seems that all of them have unanimously agreed upon maintaining hypocrisy and disunity. "Therefore, in the middle of this chaos and moral disturbance, he did not feel it a religious obligation to perform Friday prayer.
Abstracts
Man's Place in the World of Being
After having a preliminary familiarity with creatures in the universe and observing their interactions, man understands that there is a kind of pre-determined and accurate harmony among the components of the world. It seems as if the collection of all creatures of the world comprises a single human body possessing a regulating soul. It also appears that the dispositions of all existents, like the faculties of a universal soul, spread in all parts and organs of existents, and, at the same time, under the supervision of the universal soul, follow a logical and regulatory system. Therefore, in order to justify and explain the harmonious system dominating the relations among creatures, man propounds the assumption of `the world is the macrocosm', on the basis of his own criteria.
Concerning man's place and station in the world, it can be said that, although he is a part of the world and has been created from the world and in the world, apparently, he considers himself the `microcosm' for two reasons: 1) he possesses all the existential degrees and perfectional attributes of all existents in the world; 2) he is the only intellectual man who can perceive the realities of the world and grant meaning to them; in fact, the world would be meaningless without him. He is an intellectual world which is similar to the objective world.
macrocosm
microcosm
universal soul
universal nature
world of innovation
universal Being
Guarded tablet
epistemology
cosmology
celestial body
Ibn-Sina, al-Isharat, al-Tabi'yyat (Physics).
Mulla Sadra, Asfar arba'ah, vol. 7, Sadra Islamic Philosophy Research Institute.
Ikhwan al-Sqfa,
Rasail, vols, 2,3.
Badwi, Abdul Rahman,
Aflutin
Afifi, SharhiFusus
al-hikam (Ibn Arabi).
Methodological Role of the Principle of the One
In its history which abounds in a lot of ups and downs, the Principle of the One has given rise to three main problems in Islamic culture: 1) the analysis of the content and conceptual structure of the principle, 2) the examination of its truth (the arguments and proofs for and against it), and 3) an inquiry into its methodological role. Among the three, the second problem has been explored and discussed extensively in the past, and the following presents a precise but concise account of the third.
Philosophers have referred to the principle of the One to prove a great many of philosophical problems. The question is whether this principle has the potential for explaining all those problems, or whether its explanatory and methodological role is limited to certain theological problems in particular. An accurate analysis of the issue reveals that the second response is correct and stands angainst resorting to the principle of the One in demonstrating logical, natural, and some theological problems in general. Mulla Sadra's solution to this problem, which has been propounded against that of Ibn-Sina, and which proves the plurality of the faculties of the soul on the basis of this principle, has aroused a lot of arguments among commentators.
principle of the One
plurality of the faculties of the soul
conceptual structure of the principle
methodological application of the principle
spherical nature of dispositions
truth of the Principle
Ibrahimi Dinani, Universal Philosophical Principles in Islamic Philosophy.
Ibn-Sina, al-Isharat wal
tanbihat, al-Shifa (al-Tabi'iyyat).
Shaykh Ishraq, Collection of Writings.
Mulla Sadra, Asfar araba'a, vol. 8.
Tusi, Khwajah Nasir al-Din, Talkhis al-muhassal, Musari' al-musari', Sharh al-isharat.
Qazzali, Tahafut al-falasafah.
Mir Damad, al-Qabasat.
Sociology and Philosophy
Basic concepts in sociology, particularly theoretical sociology, are of a philosopical nature. Like all other branches of science, sociology has its origins in philosophy and has been nourished by it for centuries. Moreover, the subject of this science, in a general sense, is man, who is himself a supernatural existence and needs to know about this field of knowledge.
social philosophy
principiality of plural
functionalism
positivism
religion
utopia
structuralism
phenomenology
epistemology
principiality of the individual
A Philosophical View of Aesthetics Art
Man has always been interested in beauty and art and shown this interest in different ways. However, not many people have ever paid attention to issues such as the definition, nature, secret, and reason of beauty, and the relation between beauty and art, the origin of art, the relation between religion, on the one hand, and beauty and art, on the other, or ever looked at them curiously. All the above-mentioned issues are out of the domains of experimentation and testing and are, therefore, of a philosophical nature. Nevertheless, if we see that they have been propounded in certain fields of empirical sciences, such as psychology and biology, they have, again, left the border of experimentation behind and adopted a philosophical nature.
Such a view of aesthetics and art is certainly a philosophical one, and it is among philosophers' duties to deal with its related problems. It is emphasized that some philosophers have not ignored this, and exactly in the same way that they try to obtain the knowledge of being, have inquired into such issues and presented a number of views and ideas in this regard which have been quite useful in their own right and increased the accuracy of man's view of these problems. In this paper the author has tried to review and evalute some of these views and theories.
natural beauty
artistic beauty
aesthetics
absolute beauty
secret of beauty
the relation between art and beauty
art
Plato
Durant, Will, Story of Philosophy and The Pleasures of Philosophy, translated by Abbas Zaryab.
Bertrand Russel, History of Western Philosophy, translated by Najaf Daryabandari, 1365 (A.S).
Copleston, Frederick, History of Philosophy, vols. 1,5,7,8/ Sorush Publications.
Plato, Republic, translated by Foad Rohani, 1374 (A.S).
A Critique of Mulla Sadra's Intuitive Knowledge
Mulla Sadra's view of the category of knowledge is such that, on the one hand, he considers reason as being capable of perceiving the realities, and, following an optimistic approach and through resorting to the Qur'an, praises the people of reason. He views reason as the highest of all virtues, the criterion for obligation, and the master of all faculties. In addition, he maintains that every one is rewarded in proportion to his wisdom, and that it is possible to prove the sacred laws (Shari'a) by means of reason. On the other hand, due to its incapabilities, he refuses to accept the absolute control of wisdom over all domains and fields of Knowledge.
After leaving the borderline of reason behind, and when inquiring into the field of gnosis, he recounts the characteristics of intuitive knowledge, and ultimately maintains that there is, at least, a part or stage of reality which wisdom cannot access, and, in order to reach it, one must follow other methods. Accordingly, Mulla Sadra speaks of another kind of knowledge which cannot be obtained merely by intellectual activities and calls it revelation.
wisdom, Reason, Intellect
gnostic knowledge
inspired knowledge
intuitive knowledge
acquired knowledge
knowledge by presence
gnosis
Mulla Sadra, The Interpretation of the Holy Qur'an, vols. 2, 3, 7, 1, 4.
Mulla Sadra, Sharhi usul-i kafi.
Mulla Sadra, Mafatih al-qayb.
Mulla Sadra, Kasri asnam al-jahiliyyah, Sadra Islamic Philosophy Research Institute, 1382 (A.S).
Mulla Sadra, Risala Si asl, Sadra Islamic Philosophy Research Institute, 1382 (A.S).
Mulla Sadra, al-Shawahid al-Rububiyyah, Sadra Islamic Philosophy Research Institute , 1382 (A.S).
Mulla Sadra, al-Tanqih, Sadra Islamic Philosophy Research Institute, 1378 (A.S).
Mulla Sadra, al-Mazahir al-ilahiyyah, Sadra Islamic Philosophy Research Institute, 1378 (A.S).
Mulla Sadra, al-Asfar al-arba'ah, Sadra Islamic Philosophy Research Institute, 1378 (A.S).
An Overview of Mulla Sadra's Knowledge Geometry and
the Criterion for Establishing Philosophical Thought
This paper reviews the two claims propunded concerning the theory of the decline of political thought in Iran. The first claim poses the paradox that Mulla Sadra's political discussions are unimportant, and that if he has said anything about paying attention to worldly needs, it is only a repetition of his predessors' words, and that he does not really believe in them. In response to this paradox, through emphasizing the unity of the essences of wisdom, the mystic path, and the Divine Law (shari'a), it has been stated that it is only by mastering all works of a thinker, internalizing all his scientific premises, and perceiving the details and fine points of his thoughts that one could judge whether he believes in his own words or ideas or not.
The second claim, due to suggesting the false idea that no prominent thinker has ever risen from among the followers of Mulla Sadra's school of thought, either in the field of philosophy or in politics, deals with the discussion of thinkers' criteria for evaluation and typology in the domains of establishing philosophical schools and theorizing. The author has tried to criticize this claim through a short comparison of such criteria in the western world and in the Islamic world.
livelihood
epistemological evolution
resurrection
epistemic evolution
politics and mystic path
methodological evolution
philosophical - thought institution
philosophy
philosophical - thought theorizing
Tabatabaei, Sayyed Javad, Decline of Political Thought in Iran, Kavir Publications, Tehran, 1373 (A.S).
Mulla Sadra, al-Mazahir al-ilahiyyah, Sadra Islamic Philosophy Research Institute.
Mulla Sadra, al-Mabda' wal ma'ad, Sadra Islamic Philosophy Research Institute, vol. 2.
Mulla Sadra, Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Karim, vols. 2,3,4.
Mulla Sadra, Mafatih al-qayb, Qadim Publications.
Stages of Almighty's Knowledge in Mulla Sadra
God's knowledge, in the sense of the Divine essential knowledge, is simply a kind of knowledge and cannot be of different types or stages, since plurality has no way into Necessary Being, and since other than Him has no independent existence of itself. However, considering the fact that the Almighty has numerous manifestations in the outside, one can, in the light of the plurality of the known and at the station of multiplicity, consider certain stages for His Knowledge. Such stages are manifested in Mulla Sadra's view and his various books in the forms of free will, knowledge of decree, and knowledge of destiny. As one of the stages of the knowledge of the Almighty, he refers to The Tablet and The Pen and, of course, sometimes calls it the place of decree and ordinance as well.
In dividing the stages of the Necessary Being's knowledge, Mulla Sadra has presented maximal and minimal views. So we can see that he has sometimes divided it into five stages and sometimes even into two stages, namely neessary knowledge and contingent knowledge.
creative preknowledye
knowledge of decree
knowledge of destiny
The Tablet and The Pen
Guarded tablet
tablet of effacement and affirmation
perfect man
Mulla Sadra
Mulla Sadra, al-Mazahir al-ilahiyyah, pp. 46-47, Sadra Islamic philosophy Resarch Institute.
Mulla Sadra, al-Asfar al-arba'a, vol. 6, 7, Sadra Islamic Philosophy Resarch Institute.
Mulla Sadra, Risalah al-Qada wal Qadar, Sadra Islamic Philosophy Resarch Institute (forthcoming).
Mulla Sadra, Asrar al-ayat.
Alisadyr McIntyre (born in 1929), the contemporary moral philosopher is also known as a philosopher of politics due to his criticisms of modernism. He is after reviving the Aristotelian virtue-centered ethics, and, for some reasons, has adopted the religious account of ethics of virtue proposed by Aquinas.
In his book, In Search of Virtue, after a historical study of moral virtues during the period of Homerian Greece and after it, he finally presents an account of the nature of virtue which he believes is more substantial and valid than those presented previously. This paper, after reviewing virtue-centered ethics in brief and presenting an account of it which is acceptable to McIntyre, clarifies the nature of virtue from his viewpoint. Before McIntyre, virtue is of a composite nature which could be appropriately interpreted in three stages.
virtue
virtue-centered ethics
normative ethics
utilitarianism
deontology
McIntyre
act
man's good
moral tradition
beyond ethics
Principles of Relation and the Inferential
Principles of Aristotelian Logic
Logicians have always suffered from a fundamental inconsistency in explaining and analyzing Aristotelian logic due to not attending to the distinction between propositions involving relation and those involving concepts of negation. In other words, Aristotelian logic is, apparently, based on analyzing propositions into subjects and predicates, and since relation has not been considered as one of their integral components, the principles of relation are not actually a part of inferential principles, and logical issues are in a way based on relation and their related principles.
This inconsistency has been such that, on the one hand, the principles and laws of relation have not been defined in our logic, and, on the other hand, since these principles have not appeared under an independent topic, those logicians who have employed them in various logical discussions, have not provided an appropriate analysis of them. Thus the logic of relation and the inferential principles underlying it have been sacrificed due to this inconsistency in traditional logic.
relation
conversion per universal negation
logic of relation
Aristotelian logic
categorical
first origin
second origin
Ibn-Sina
Ibn-Sina, al-Isharat wal-tanbihat
Tusi, Khwajah Nasir al-Din, Sharh-o al-isharat, Commentary by Qutb al-Din Razi, vol.1.
`Allamah Hilli, al-Asrar al-khafiyyah fil ulum al-aqliyyah.
Fakhr Razi, al-Inarat.
Ibn-Rushd, A Summary of Aristotelian Logic, vol. 1.
The Passions of the Soul in the Metamorphosis of Becoming
BOOK SERIES: ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY AND OCCIDENTAL PHENOMENOLOGY IN DIALOGUE
1
Edited by
Anna-Teresa
Tymieniecka The World Institute for Advanced Phenomenological Research and Learning, Hanover, NH, USA
Although in the past decades numerous inquiries in phenomenology have offered us some intriguing interpretations of the history of philosophy, no research has been thoroughly conducted on the correspondences between Islamic Philosophy and Occidental Phenomenology. This book is the first volume of our new unique and pioneering book series: Islamic Philosophy and Occidental Phenomenology in Dialogue. The main aim of this new book series is to engage in a philosophical exploration, bringing back to the philosophical arena key philosophical issues presently forgotten; issues that underlie both of these intellectual projects revived and critically enriched with contemporary insights, will return to their proper significance for future philosophy.
An exchange of insights and intuitions between these traditions should advance and fructify them both and so enhance the cultural development of humankind.