Mulla Sadra's Life, Works, and Philosophy
Fayd's Works
The scientific and literary works that a scientist and literary man leaves behind are like his true offsprings. Although a child is apparently considered a part of man's flesh and blood, the real child of every man is what comes into existence from his mind and hearty passion and remains for ever.
Therefore, Fayd was a scholar with several real children (a prolific writer). His writings consist of more than a hundred books, treatises, commentaries, and summaries. Some have even said that they amount to a hundred and twenty six. Some of his books are technical and written on philosophy, gnosis, jurisprudence, theology, hadith, and interpretation. At the same time, he wrote a number of books for ordinary people, some in Arabic and some in Persian, so that everyone could benefit from them. Some of his works are long and, sometimes, written in several volumes, and some of them are short and written in the form of a treatises.[1]
His famous books are as follows:
Mafatih al-sharaye' on jurisprudence, Wafi on hadith,
From Fayd's writings, we can infer his attention to and interest in the hadiths and culture left from the Prophet's dessendants in addition to knowing his conduct and behavor. A list of his books is available in the books written on this illustrious scholar.
Children
It is said that Fayd had six children, three sons and three daughters, all from the same mother and all were grandchildren of Mulla Sadra.
His first son was called Muhammed and nicknamed as Alam al-Huda. He was extremely famous for his knowledge of jurisprudence, hadith, philosophy, theology, and other common sciences of his time even during his father's lifetime in Kashan. He was a man of literature and art and had a beautiful handwriting and a subtle taste for spotting elegance in everything. It is written that he was born in Rabi' al-awwal in 1039 A.H. in
Fayd's second son was also called Muhammed and nick-named as Nur al-Huda. He was also a distinguished scholar, jurisprudent, and muhaddith. Presumably, he was born in Safar
1047 A.H.; however, the time of his death is not known to us.[3]
His youngest son, who was also one of the well-known scholars of his time, was called Ahmed (or perhaps Muhammed) and nicknamed as Mu' in al-Din. He was born in 1107 A.H. in Qamsar in Kashan.
It has been quoted from one of Fayd's grandchildren that he had two sons.
[4]
That is why we are not sure whether his third son (if there was one) was called Muhammed or Ahmed.
History books have recorded the names of Faydh's daughters as follows:
1. 'Alliyyah Banu, nicknamed Umm al-Khayr, born in 1037 AH in Kashan and deceased in 1079 A.H.
2. Sakinah Banu, nicknamed Umm al-Barr, born in 1042 A.H. in Kashan.
3. Sakinah, nicknamed Umm Salamah, born in 1053 A.H. * * *
1. His father, Mawla Murtada Kashani, known as Shah Murtada.
2. His uncle, Nur al-Din Muhammed. He was one of the prominent muhaddiths of his time and planted the first seed of hadith in his nephew's mind.
3. Mulla Sadra. who played the main role in developing his character and knowledge and helped him to reach a sublime station among all thinkers and scholars.
4. Shaykh Baha al-Din
'Amili. in
hadith.
5. Shaykh Muhammed, Shaykh Thani's grandson. In hadith.
6. Sayyid Majid Bahrani. In
hadith.
In addition to the above scholars, we find other names such as Mir Damad, Mawla Khalil Qazwini (deceased in 1089 A.H.), Mawla Salih Mazandarani (deceased in 1081 A.H.), and even Mawla Muhammed Tahir Qumi (deceased in 1081 A.H.). It appears that having the permission for transmission of hadith, which was quite common among same-level friends, had nothing to do with being a master or a student.
Due to limitations of time and place, we cannot delve more into Fayd's character and station. Therefore, we have to suffice to what we said so far and hope that our young researchers continue this line of study and provide a more detailed account of this illustrious thinker's life, character, and works in near future. Fayyad Lahiji
One of Mulla Sadra's other well-known students is Fayyad Lahiji. He is considered the fruit of his master's tree of knowledge.
This student's first name was
'Abdulrazzaq (the son of Ali Ibn Husseayn). Rizq means food in Arabic. It seems that the All-Provider Merciful (the Razzaq) had left his spiritual
rizq at Mulla Sadra's door. He received the nickname 'Fayyad' (gracious) from Mulla Sadra. He is known as Lahiji; however, he sometimes said that he was from
Like a great number of Iranian scientists and philosophers,
'Abdulrazzaq Lahiji has not received the appreciation he truly deserved. There is little information in historical books and biographies about his seventy years of life. This is the very disgrace that has stained the pages of our history, particularly, concerning our philosophers and sages, and concealed Muslim's cultural treasures and legacies or, rather, the world of wisdom and knowledge from the eyes of the offsprings of this land.
The place and time of his birth are not known to us; however, available evidence suggests that he was born in Lahijan. Although he spent most of his life in Qum, everyone knew him as being from Lahijan, a town in Gilan province (however, there have also been some thinkers such as Muhaqqiq Qumi, who was originally Gilani but stayed in
The date of his birth has not been mentioned in any historical sources or biographies, yet the little existing evidence indicates that he was older than Fayd. The writer believes that he was Mulla Sadra's first son-in-law (the husband of Lady Umm Kulthum, born in 1019 AH), and that Fayd (the husband of Lady Zubaydah, born in 1024 A.H.) married in about 1038 A.H. Accordingly, we can guess that, due to the age difference between the two sisters, there might have been some age difference between the two son-in-laws as well. Moreover, Fayd died about 20 years after Fayyad. However, none of the above can provide us with pure truth in this regard. We believe that Fayd was born before or about 1004 A.H. Thus a rational and acceptable date for Fayyad's birth could be 1000 A.H. or a few years before that. Nevertheless, we cannot present the readers with an accurate date on the basis of the scarce data we have access to.
We are completely in the dark as to his family and the spiritual and material atmosphere in which he spent his childhood and adolescence. We do not know where he completed his preliminary education. However, since there were most probably some seminaries employing a number of knowledgeable but unknown masters in Lahijan and some of the towns in the North of Iran and the shores of the Caspian Sea, the young Mulla
'Abdulrazzaq might not have rushed in leaving his hometown and might have, as well, studied the lessons of the preliminary and secondary periods in the same town and its suburbs. As we know, some prominent philosophers and scholars were trained in Lahijan at that time. Fayyad's presence in
As we saw in the first volume of this book, Mulla Sadra lived in Kahak and
Abstract
Atemporal Createdness (al-Huduth al-Dahri) and Mulla Sadra's Transcendent Philosophy Seyyed Mohammed Khamenei
Key words:
essential createdness
atemporal createdness
temporal createdness
relation of the created to the pre-eternal
trans-substantial motion
cause and effect
cutting movement
emanation of effusion
unquantifiable separable priority
absolute non-existence
Sadrian Transcendent Philosophy: The Philosophy of the Present and Future Hamid Reza Ayatullahi
The particular attention paid to the dynamism of the elements of Sadrian philosophy in recent years indicates the high ontological capability of this school for the present and future. Accordingly, we can not only employ it for solving today's problems but also use it as the key for bringing the dark angles of human thought into light in future.
Sadrian philosophy will prove its being a philosophy of all times in more interaction with contemporary philosophical thoughts.
philosophy of the present and future
contemporary philosophy
time
human thought
categories of understanding
secondary philosophical intelligibles
Ontological Argument in Leibniz's Philosophy
In this paper, in addition to the history of the ontological argument, we will explain Leibniz's view concerning its defect and inquire into his solutions in this regard.
Key words:
ontological argument
eternal truths
certain argument
absolute perfect being
mathematical arguments
Leibniz argument of the righteous (Siddiqin) prior harmony of the basis
Human Soul's all-Comprehensiveness and Manifesting Nature
Mukhtar Taba'a Izadi
According to philosophers and gnostics, man's soul is the loci of God's theophany, for it reflects its creator in terms of essence, attributes, and acts. They have clarified this reality by resorting to some hadiths
such as: 'One who knows himself has certainly known his God'. However, there is still great room for more work to be done in this regard in gnosis, since
'the perfect man' is one of the most important issues discussed in this field. Besides, philosophers and gnostics believe that man's existence is compatible with the entire world. Accordingly, they consider it as the microcosm, which is compatible with the macrocosm. Some of them view man as the macrocosm and the world as the microcosm, as well.
The emanation of extraordinary acts from man's soul is one of the important topics which philosophers and gnostics have extensively discussed. They have also tried to interpret and justify the prophets' miracles in the light of this reality.
philosophy
gnosis
soul
spirit
theophany
macrocosm
microcosm
extraordinary
Development of Ethics in Islamic System
As one of the most efficient
existing frameworks, the system of Islamic ethics evaluates the ethical 'oughts' and
'ought nots'
causing man's proximity to or distance from true happiness on the basis of the ultimate criterion, Allah.
The issue of 'good and evil' is one of the most important problems of Islamic ethics, giving rise to heated debates among Islamic theologians, e.g. Asha'erites,
and 'Adliyyah since long ago. In spite of their differences concerning whether
'good and evil' is a rational or Shar'i
problem, the followers of these schools agree on the point that a good or bad act is performed on the basis of a specific evaluation or purpose.
It is necessary in Islam to acknowledge the principle of Allah
- orientedness in all ethical issues. However, in certain cases, we require a criterion of a lower station to introduce ethical duties in a more sensible way. Through evaluating ethical acts in the light of such strategic principles, we could connect to the ultimate criterion, i.e. God. Thus considering the relation between man and God in Islam, man is considered as the focal point of discussion in Islamic ethics. After all, gaining God's consent and pleasure lies in respecting human beings.
ethics axiology of behavior knowledge of communicative behavior good and evil Allah - orientedness Islamic ethics
It also requires His Knowledge to be of the acquired type. Shaykh Ishraq holds that the Almighty Has the knowledge of all things, including all immaterial abstract entities and material objects by their objective existence.
Ibn Sina has also been the target of other objections. For example, his ideas as to the presence of material things before the Almighty is criticized on the ground that materiality and presence cannot come together. Mulla Sadra demonstrates God's differentiated Knowledge on the basis of the principle of
' the truth in its simplicity contains all things' and argues that the Almighty Necessary's knowledge of all things is realized at the level of His Essence before the existence of objects.
'Allamah Tabataba'i demonstrates the same issue on the basis of God's ontological Absoluteness, which is required for the necessity of essential existence.
Key words:
differentiated knowledge God
Plato Ibn-Sina
Shaykh Ishraq Mulla Sadra
'Allamah Tabataba'i perfect cause acquisition
A Study of the Expressions of the Relations of Uncertainty on the Basis of the principle of causation
This article is an attempt to study certain scientific and philosophical terms concerning the relations of Heisenberg's uncertainty on the basis of the principle of causation. Since this principle is one of the most fundamental and unchanging principles of the world of being, the expressions of all phenomena, including ncertainty, should be compatible with it. Consequently, those expressions that inextricably pertain to uncertainty but are against this principle should be amended.
uncertainty the principle of causation
causal necessary perfect cause
imperfect cause efficient cause
A Study of the Ontological and Epistemological Place of Horizontal Intellects in
Ishraqi
Philosophy
Nafiseh Sadat Musawinejad
Suhrawardi posed the theory of horizontal intellects to explain the emanation of many material beings. This theory is inspired by Plato's theory of the Ideas. Horizontal intellects (the controlling lights o archetypes) consist of a chain of separated lights which are at the end of vertical intellects and parallel to each other. In other words, they stand in no cause-effect relation to each other. Each of the horizontal intellects is the archetype of a material species and responsible for the making and formation of its individuals. Ontologically speaking, horizontal intellects are caused by vertical lights, as well as by contingent lights, directions, reciprocities, and existing relations in the world of lights, sensibles, and souls. Suspended images, too, are caused by horizontal lights.
In Ishraqi philosophy, intuitive perception, which is based on the knowledge by presence, is the main road leading to perception. In fact, the soul perceives through the intuitive perception of horizontal intellects. Rational perception is also a consequence of intuitive perception of such intellects. Sense perception refers back to the knowledge by presence. Horizontal intellects play the role of manifesting the forms before the soul.
Key words:
ontology epistemology
vertical lights contingent lights
Platonic Ideas horizontal lights
A Study of the Shi'i Nature of Islamic Wisdom
Mohammed Amin Shahju'i
The result of this research will provide answers to the questions of why Shi'i thought enjoys such a high station in the collection of what is called
'Islamic Wisdom', and how the scientific resources of Shiah have provided the context and structure for the divine wisdom so that a rational and social atmosphere is created for Islamic thinkers to become involved in philosophical thought. What attracts the attention here is the philosophical creativity witnessed in the words of Imams, particularly, those of Imam Sadiq (A), and their role in later philosophical studies.
Key words:
Sufism Mulla Sadra
Esoteric and spiritual Islam circle of guardianship
gnostic and Ideal hermeneutic interpretation guardian of the Qur'an
[1]. al-Dharri 'ah.
[2]. For more information refer to the introduction of his book, Ma'adin al-hikmah. [3]. Introduction of Ma'adin al-hikma. [4]. Introduction of Fayd's Wafi. |