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Prof. S. M. Khamenei
Fayd and Mulla Sadra
believed that following the Qur'an and the Prophet's household also means following wisdom and unveiling. They maintained that there is no difference among Shar'
(the Divine Law), wisdom, revelation, philosophy and gnosis and that they share their fundamental principles and parts with each other.
In his introduction to
Usul al-ma'arif, Fayd says that one of his motives for writing this book has been comparing the ideas of ancient sages and Ishraqi philosophers with the principles introduced by religions and Divine Laws in order to demonstrate what the intellect obtains in the light of unveiling through ascetic practice and ijtihad is no different from what revelation and Shari'a
herald.[1]
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There are some delicate points in this short quotation from the introduction of his book. First, through demonstrating the conformity between the ideas of ancient sages and the views and principles introduced by the revealed religions and prophets, we can conclude that the divine wisdom and gnosis are rooted in the divine religions, and that the first bearers of philosophy and wisdom were the very prophets. Therefore, philosophy and wisdom were disseminated by religious scholars for centuries and enjoyed a divine and religious color and flavor. However, from the time of Aristotle, philosophy and other sciences developed an earthly form.
Second, true wisdom, which originates in unveiling and intuition, is of the type of divine inspirations, holy faculties and prophecies. And since their origins are the same, they must be in conformity with each other. In fact, revelation and prophecies are the criteria for the truth of gnostics' perceptions, inspirations, currents of thought, and divine diffusions.
Third, the close proximity between the mystic path of Muslim gnostics and philosophers such as Fayd, Mulla Sadra, Mir Damad, Khwajah Nasir al-Din Tusi, Suhrawardi and the like, on the one hand, and Ancient Iranian and Greek sages, on the other hand, has led Westerners to call these thinkers sometimes as neo-Pythagoreans and sometimes as gnostics, a school of thought which was later attributed to the Egyptian Plotinus.
Suhrawardi and his students reintroduced and restructured Ishraqi philosophy, and Mir Damad, Mulla Sadra, and Fayd defended them in doing so and tried to bring their ideas in conformity with those of Ishraqi philosophers.
Fourth, from the
expression of "Hukamay-i awa'il" (Early Philosophers), it can be inferred that Fayd did not agree with the Peripatetic school, which was against
Ishraqi philosophy and the principles and rules of ascetic practice and revelation. Unlike his master, he considered the Peripatetics unimportant and believed that their views were not much in conformity with religious and
Shar'i principles.
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One of the common points between religions, on the one hand, and Ishraqi philosophy, Iranian and Greek ancient philosophy, and Eastern and Western gnosis, on the other hand, is their idea of the structure of government and politics. In revealed religions, government has a divine root, whether it is controlled by prophets or by other than them. The constitutional law and other important laws must be of a divine nature and immune against human ignorance, errors, and weaknesses. Such laws must be exerted by an Infallible or non-Infallible who is related to an Infallible (a prophet or Imam). Otherwise, the society will be corrupted because of its leaders' capriciousness and selfishness. As a result, in Farabi's words,[2]
madinay-i fadilah (utopia or the higher society) will turn into the society of ignorant, corrupt, and misguided people (that is, it will transform into a primitive society that has deviated from the right path and is controlled by force and dominant powers).
According to Ishraqi
thinkers, government exclusively belongs to philosophers. They say that a philosopher is one whose intellect dominates his passions, caprice, egotism, and animality. Moreover, he places the general and long-term interests and demands of the society ahead of his own benefits and enforces laws that are in conformity with reason, wisdom, and justice. Ancient sages considered philosophy (or, perhaps, the very philosophia perenis) as the royal inner being, and, although they might not have apparently ruled a country, they controlled the government within the framework of philosophy and, in historians' words, were crown-less and throne-less kings.[3]
Fayd (like his master, Mulla Sadra), too, believes that the government rightfully belongs to the prophets, and that Shar'
(the Divine Law) is the only law dominating humanity. He has referred to this point in his Diya' al-qalb
and its translation, called 'Ainah-i shahi, which he wrote for Shah Abbas II. Like all ancient and contemporary sages, when he lived in
In the above-mentioned book Fayd proves that monarchy is the body of the government and
One of the virtues of Islamic culture and philosophy is that there the government enjoys both philosophical and ideological dimensions and has politics as one of its basic principles. Accordingly, Shi'ites consider Imamat
(leadership) as one of the five-fold dogmas (religious principles) and believe that both of its legal and jurisprudential dimensions, i.e., its moral aspects, must be practically exerted in the society as necessary laws. Islamic philosophers regard the politics introduced by the practical wisdom of philosophy as a part of religion. Jurisprudents believe that the administration of social affairs (that is, government) is primarily the duty of the Prophet and his chosen successor (that is, the Infallible Imam) and, secondarily, the duty of a just Islamologist and jurisprudent. If none of them are available, this duty can be performed by any person who is known for his justice and religious beliefs and commitments.
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Once more, we will return to the discussion of objections advanced against Fayd. If we pay a little attention to what Fayd has been accused of, we see that they are rooted is in his perfections rather than his defects. Such slanders have never been able to do the least harm to his supreme station, whether in his own time or after him. Rather, he has always been praised by scholars, gnostics, thinkers, and people of understanding and taste. And, even, some of his opponents who, due to their lack of religious beliefs and ignorance of his spiritual station, sometimes attacked him regretted their deeds and repented from their bad behavior in his time.
The writer of Rudat al-jannat, who was one of the wise and just men of his time and a contemporary to Fayd, talked of truth to a great extent. He wrote about one of those opponents, called Mulla Mohammed Tahir Qumi, that he repented towards the end of his life and walked from
Below this narrative, he says that Mulla Mohammed Baqir Majlisi (who always attacked sufism) always respected Fayd to a great extent. This is because he was so similar to Majlisi's father, Mulla Mohammed Taqi Majlisi (senior), in terms of gnostic beliefs and conduct.
Fayd's station is much higher than what we said or what others have said, and it is, in fact, impossible to detail the vastness of his knowledge in such short books. One of the fascinating characteristics of this prominent gnostic and jurisprudent is his poetry and theological taste. In what follows, we will cast a short glance at his poetry.
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One of the dimensions of Fayd's character and life is his ability to write poems, but poems that go beyond language and, like the flame of a candle, arise from the depth of the soul and passions of the heart. Fayd's poetry cannot compete with that of the well-known and dexterous poets of that time such as Abdul Razzaq Lahiji, his close friend and companion. Their literary styles were also different from each other. However, his poems are similar in style to the lyrics of Rumi, Araqi, and the like gnostics. The passion and love embedded in Fayd's poems override those in his contemporaries' works. He, himself, believes that his art lies in love and intoxication.
He had a fluent poetic gift and wrote pure poetry. There is no pretension or artificiality in his artistic performance. For him, versification is not a duty, rather, it is a means to express inner feelings and bury sorrow, cry out his enthusiasm, obsession and complaints, (sometimes) talk to his friends, open his heart, liberate the self from sadness and other pressures, and be free. Fayd's poetry is the mirror of his heart and innermost, the history of his life, and a representative of his character. His poems, consisting of lyrics, odes, couplets, and stanzas, have been collected in three volumes.
His poetry is both pleasant and touching; it removes the dust of sorrow from the face of its readers and listeners like a drop of tear. This feature is a valid criterion for evaluating the significance of a poet and his poetry. A question-raising feature of his poetry is his following the famous Iraqi style. And this was the case at a time when a specific style known as Hindi was prevalent all over It would be worth to examine the life and poems of this man of God and prominent gnostic and scholar further more; however, due to limitations of place, we postpone it to some other time. Nevertheless, it is a duty to the people of knowledge to write several books about him and, in this way, pay a trifle of their debt to him. Abstracts
A Study and Analysis of Mulla Sadra's Hermeneutical Contemplation of the Book and Tradition
In his ontology Mulla Sadra is of the view that everything apart from possessing aspect enjoys aspect in a way that they are considered to be two levels of a single object. He holds that interpretation pertains to the aspect and hermeneutical interpretation Tawil concerns the inward or interior aspect of objects.
In Mulla Sadra's view any knowledge that overlooks aspect suffers depth and reality. Mulla Sadra uses tawil as a key to uncover hidden horizons of being. He holds that each thing has
a tawil and the origin of such view is only to be found in the Qur'an.
Accordingly he proceeded to interpret hermeneutically not only the Qur'anic verses but also the sayings of the infalliable Imams in Sharh usul kafi. The author of this article tries to explore some of Mulla Sadra's hermeneutical views on the Qur'an and Hadith and studies the function of tawil in his thought.
interpretation
tawil outward aspect inward aspect the Qur'an traditon
Mukhtar Taba'e Izadi
According to philosophers, the origins of man's numerous acts are the different faculties of the soul. Although, there are some disagreements between Ibn-Sina and Mulla Sadra on the criterion for the plurality of these faculties, both are unanimous concerning the existence of different faculties.
Man's soul is a single reality which is, at the same time, of three different vegetative, animal, and human stages. The faculties related to each of these states could be separately explored. On first division, the faculties of the soul are divided into motive and perceptive types. Some parts of the motive faculties are related to the vegetative aspect of the soul, and some others to its animal aspect. Some of the perceptive faculties are shared by both man and animal, but the rational faculty is restricted to man. Considering the fact that the most important act of the soul is perception, it is necessary to refer to philosophers' theories on the nature of perception (knowledge). Mulla Sadra believes that the faculties of the soul comprise its grades and modes and emphasizes that
"the soul in its unity is all of its faculties". He has drawn on Fakhr Razi's words to a great extent in clarifying this principle.
Philosophy motive faculty perceptive faculty perception external sense inner sense theoretical intellect practical intellect active intellect
Oneness or Separation of the Graded Unity and Individual Unity of Being in the Transcendent Philosophy
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