Imam Khomeini, Ethics and Politics
Bibliography
Arabic
‘Āmilī, Muhammad ibn Hasan Hurr. Tafsīl Wasā’il ash-Shī‘ah ilā Tahsīl
Masā’il ash-Sharī‘ah. Qum: Mu’assasah Āli al-Bayt li-Ahyā’ at-Turāth,
1412 AH.
‘Attār Neyshābūrī, Farīd’ud-Dīn. Tadhkirat’ul-Awliyā’. Ed. Muhammad
Isti‘lāmī. Tehran: Zovār, 1374 AHS.
Farvazānfar, Badī‘ az-Zamān. Ahādīth wa Qisas Mathnawī. Comp. Husayn
Dāwūdī. Tehran: Amīr Kabīr, 1376 AHS.
Imām Khomeinī. Al-Bay‘. Qum: Al-Mu’assasah an-Nashr al-Islāmī
at-Tābi‘ah li-Jamā‘ah al-Mudarrisīn, 1415 AH.
_____. Ta‘līqāt ‘alā Sharh Fusūs al-Hikam wa Misbāh al-Uns.
p.p.: Mu’assaseh-ye Pāsdār-e Islām, 1410 AH.
Kulaynī, Muhammad ibn Ya‘qūb. Furū‘ al-Kāfī. Ed. ‘Alī Akbar Ghaffārī.
Tehran: Islāmiyyeh, 1377 AHS.
Muhammadī Reyshahrī, Muhammad. Mīzān al-Hikmah. Qum: Dār al-Hadīth,
1375 AHS.
Muqaddimāt [Moroccan Magazine] No. 3, 1994.
Nūrī T&abarsī, Mīrzā Husayn. Mustadrak al-Wasā’il wa Mustanbat
al-Masā’il. Qum: Mu’assasah Āli al-Bayt li-Ahyā’ at-Turāth, 1408 AH.
English
Brandt, Ronda and Reece, Barry L. Human Relations: Principles and
Practices. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1990.
Coady, C.A.J. “Politics and the Problem of Dirty Hands.” In A
Companion to Ethics. Ed. Peter Singer. Basil: Blackwell, 1991.
McLean, Iain. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1996.
Mill, John Stuart. Utilitarianism. Ed. Roger Crisp. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1998.
Palmer, Donald D. Kierkegaard for Beginners. London: Writers and
Readers, 1996.
Persian
Astor, Anthony. Farvīd. Tr. Hasan Marandī. Tehran: T&arh-e Nū, 1376
AHS.
Balkhī, Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad. Guzīdeh-ye Ghazaliyāt-e Shams. Comp.
Muhammad-Ridā Shafī‘ī Kadkanī. Tehran: Kitābha-ye Jībī, 1374 AHS.
_____. Mathnavī. Ed. Muhammad Isti‘lāmī. Tehran: Zavār, 1372
AHS.
Bayhaqī, Abūl-Fadl. Tārīkh-e Bayhaqī. Ed. ‘Alī-Akbar Fiyād. Tehran:
Nashr-e ‘Ilm, 1374 AHS.
Dalai Lama. Hunar-e Shādmānigī. Col. Ezh Catler. Tr. Muhammad-‘Alī
Hamīd-Rafī‘ī. Tehran: Kitābsarā-ye Tandīs, 1379 AHS.
Excerpts from the Lessons of Professor Mustafā Malikiān in Tārīkh-e
Falsafeh-ye Gharb [History of Western Philosophy]. Qum:
Pazhūheshkadeh-ye Hawzeh va Dānishgāh, 1379.
Ghazzālī, Abū Hāmid Muhammad. Kīmyā-ye Sa‘ādat. Ed. Husayn Khadyūjam.
Tehran: Intishārāt-e ‘Ilmī va Farhangī, 1374 AHS.
Gulistān-e Sa‘dī. Ed. Ghulām-Husayn Yūsefī. Tehran: Khwārazmī, 1374
AHS.
Imām Khomeinī. Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth. Tehran: The Institute for
Compilation and Publication of Imām Khomeinī’s Works, 1376 AHS.
_____. Vilāyat-e Faqīh. Qum: The Institute for Compilation and
Publication of Imām Khomeinī’s Works, 1373 AHS.
Izutsu, Tuchihiko. Mafāhīm-e Akhlāqī-Dīnī dar Qur’ān-e Majīd
[Ethical-Religious Concepts in the Glorious Qur’an]. Tr. Farīdūn
Badreh-ī. Tehran: Farzān, 1378 AHS.
Kitāb-e Muqaddas. Offset Printing. Korea: Anjuman-e Pakhsh Kutub-e
Muqaddaseh dar Mayān-e Milal, 1987.
Kitāb-e Ayyūb [The Book of Job]. In the anthology of books of
history and wisdom. Translation under the supervision of Father
Sarukhachiki.
Mashīrī, Farīdūn. Zībā-ye Jāvidāneh. Tehran: Sukhan, 1376 AHS.
Nahj al-Balāghah. Tr. Sayyid Ja‘far Shahīdī. Tehran: Intishārāt va
Āmūzesh-e Inqilābī Islāmī, 1373 AHS.
Peterson, Michael, et. al. ‘Aql va I‘tiqād-e Dīnī: Dar-āmadī bar
Falsafeh-ye Dīn. Tr. Ahmad Narāqī and Ibrāhīm Sultānī. Tehran: T&arh-e
Nū, 1376 AHS.
Shumin, Gerard et al. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Qarārdād-e Ijtimā‘ī:
Matn va Zamīneh-ye Matn [The Social Contract: Text and Context]. Tr.
Murtadā Kalāntariān. Tehran: Āgāh, 1379 AHS.
Russell, Bertrand. Tārīkh-e Falsafeh-ye Gharb [History of Western
Philosophy]. Tr. Najaf Daryābandarī. Tehran: Kitāb-e Parvāz, 1373
AHS.
Sahīfeh-ye Imām [22-Volume Anthology of Imām Khomeinī’s Works].
Tehran: The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imām Khomeinī’s
Works, 1378 AHS.
Sartre, John Paul. Existentialism va Isālat-e Bashar [Existentialism
and Human Nature]. Tr. Mustafā Rahīmī. Tehran: Marvārīd, 1358 AHS.
Sāyeh. Hāfiz. Tehran: Kārnāmeh, 1376 AHS.
Shāygān, Dāryūsh. Adyān va Maktabhā-ye Falsafeh-ye Hind [Religions
and Philosophical Schools of India]. Tehran: Amīr Kabīr, 1375 AHS.
Surūsh, ‘Abdul-Karīm. Qisseh-ye Arbāb-e Ma‘rifat. Tehran:
Intishārāt-e Sirāt, 1373 AHS.
Tock, Richard. Hobbes. Tr. Husayn Bashariyyeh. Tehran: T&arh-e Nū,
1376 AHS.
[1] For a bird’s-eye view on the life, thoughts and movement of Imām
Khomeinī, see Hamīd Algar, Imām Khomeinī: A Short Biography,
downloadable at:
http://www.al-islam.org/imam-khomeini-a-short-biography-hamid-algar.
[Pub.]
[2] The abbreviation, “s”, stands for the Arabic invocative phrase,
sallallāhu ‘alayhi wa ālihi wa sallam [may God’s salutation and peace
be upon him and his progeny], which is used after the name of the Holy
Prophet Muhammad (s). [Pub.]
[3] The abbreviation, “‘a” stands for the Arabic invocative phrase,
‘alayhis-salām, ‘alayhimus-salām, or ‘alayhās-salām [may peace be
upon him/them/her], which is used after the names of the prophets,
angels, Imāms from the Prophet’s progeny, and saints (‘a). [Pub.]
[4] Imām Khomeinī, Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth (Tehran: The Institute for
Compilation and Publication of Imām Khomeinī’s Works, 1376 AHS), p.
511.
[5] Ma‘sūmīn: those possessing the quality of ‘ismah (divinely
bestowed freedom from error and sin) such as the prophets and Imāms from
the Prophet’s Progeny (‘a). [Pub.]
[6] The original work in Persian, Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth was written
by Imām Khomeinī sixty-four years ago and was completed in the month of
Muharram 1358 AH (April-May 1939). Under the title, Forty Hadīths: An
Exposition of Mystical and Ethical Traditions, its English translation
is recently published by the Institute. The manuscript of this work,
together with that of two other then unpublished works of the author,
Sharh-e Du‘ā’-e Sahar, and Ādāb as-Salāt, were recovered from the
library of the late Āyatullāh Ākhūnd al-Hamedānī. All the three works
have been published by the Institute. [Pub.]
[7] “So blessed be Allah, the Best of Creators!” Sūrah
al-Mu’minūn 23:14.
Unless stated otherwise, all the Qur’anic quotations throughout this
volume are based on Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall’s translation of the
Glorious Qur’an. Pickthall’s translation as well as others such as those
of ‘Abdullāh Yūsuf ‘Alī, Mīr Ahmad ‘Alī and Muhammad Shākir, are
accessible online at http://www.al-islam.org/quran. [Trans.]
[8] “And man assumed it. Lo! He hath proved a tyrant and a fool.”
Sūrah al-Ahzāb 33:72.
[9] Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-80): French philosopher, novelist,
playwright, and exponent of existentialism. His writings reflect his
vision of the human being as master of his or her own fate, with each
life defined by a person’s actions: “Existence precedes essence.” His
works include Being and Nothingness (1943); the novels Nausea (1938)
and The Roads to Freedom, a trilogy (1945-49); and the plays The
Flies (1943) and No Exit (1944). Sartre founded the review Les Temps
Modernes in 1945. [Trans.]
[10] Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism va Isālat-e Bashar
[Existentialism and Human Nature], trans. Mustafā Rahīmī (Tehran:
Marvārīd, 1358 AHS), p. 24.
[11] A towering figure of the Illuminationist School of Islamic
Philosophy and likewise known as Shaykh Ishrāq, Shahāb ad-Dīn Yahyā
Suhrawardī, was born in Suhraward, near Zanjān, Iran in 1155. After
studying in Isfahān, a leading center of Islamic scholarship, Suhrawardī
traveled through Iran, Anatolia and Syria. Influenced by mystical
teachings, he spent much time in meditation and seclusion, and in Halab
(modern Aleppo) he favourably impressed its ruler, Malik az-Zāhir. His
teachings, however, aroused the opposition of established and learned
religious men [‘ulamā], who persuaded Malik to have him put to death.
The appellation al-Maqtūl [the killed one] meant that he was not to be
considered a shahīd [martyr].
Suhrawardī wrote voluminously. The more than 50 works that were
attributed to him were classified into two categories: doctrinal and
philosophical accounts containing commentaries on the works of Aristotle
and Plato, as well as his contribution to the Illuminationist School;
and shorter treatises, generally written in Persian and of an esoteric
nature, meant to illustrate the paths and journeys of a mystic before he
could achieve ma‘rifah (gnosis or esoteric knowledge). [Pub.]
“.ﺍﻟﻧﻔﺲﻮ ﻣﺎ ﻔﻮﻗﻬﺎﺍﻧﻴﺎﺖ ﺼﺮﻔﻪ” [12]
[13] Yathrīb: the former name of the town which after the migration
[hijrah] of Prophet Muhammad (s) to it, was renamed Madīnah
an-Nabī [City of the Prophet]. It is now briefly called Madīnah
(Medina).
People of Yathrīb: It is in reference to the following verse in the
Qur’an (Sūrah al-Ahzāb 33:13):
And when said a party of them: “O ye the people of Yathrīb! There is
no place for you to stand, so return ye,” and a party of them asked
permission of the Prophet saying: “Verily our houses are exposed (to
destruction): they only intended to flee away.
The verse was revealed when a group of Muslims, misled by the defeatist
rumors spread by the hypocrites, had suggested to the others to leave
Islam and return to idolatry or to leave the ranks of the Muslims and go
back to their homes. And some, under the pretext of taking care of their
undefended homes, wanted to leave the ranks and go away to take shelter
somewhere away from the battlefield, though their homes were not
undefended. See Mīr Ahmad ‘Alī, p. 1251.[Trans.]
[14] Hāyūlā: the primary substance of creation. [Trans.]
[15] One of the most valuable schools of Islamic philosophy, the
Illuminationist School combines Neoplatonic and Islamic ideas. According
to this philosophy, the source of all things is Absolute Light. That
which is visible requires no definition, and nothing is more visible
than light, whose every nature consists in manifestation. We may
distinguish two illuminations, i.e. modes of being of the Primal Light:
- pure, abstract, formless; 2) accidental derivative, possessing form.
Pure light is self-conscious substance (spirit or soul), knowing itself
through itself ‘for whatever knows itself must be pure light’.
Accidental light is related to pure light as effect to cause and only
exists as attribute in association with the illuminated object.
Accidental light is of two kinds: a) dark substance; b) dark forms, i.e. quantities, and the combination of these two make up a material body. Since darkness is nothing but the absence of light, and light is identical with reality, the substance and forms of the universe consist of illumination diffused from Primal Light in infinite gradation of intensity. It follows that everything partakes of reality in proportion to the radiance which it receives and toward which it ever moves “with lover’s passion, in order to drink more and more of the original fountain of Light.” This perpetual flow and ebb of desire produces the revolutions of the heavenly spheres, the processes of nature, and all human activities. While the entire universe is eternal as emanating from Eternal Light, but contingent if regarded as the object of irradiation, some illuminations are simple, others compound and therefore inferior. The intelligences, the celestial spheres, the souls of the heavens, time, motion, and the archetypes of the elements belong to a higher world, which may be called eternal in contrast with all below it, though in the relation existing between them not posteriority but parallelism is implied. [Pub.]
[16] Imām Khomeinī, Ta‘līqāt ‘alā Sharh Fusūs al-Hikam wa Misbāh al-Uns (n.p.: Mu’assaseh-ye Pāsdār-e Islām, 1410 AH), p. 78.
[17] Barry L. Recce and Ronda Brandt, Human Relations: Principles and Practices (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1990), p. 54.
[18] Hakīm Abū’l-Qāsim Firdawsī (Ferdowsī) (940-1020): the greatest epic poet of Persia who wrote the Shāhnāmeh [The Epic of Kings], one of the world’s greatest literary masterpieces. [Pub.]
[19] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 528.
[20] Ibid., p. 510.
[21] Ibid., 110.
[22] Nahj al-Balāghah, trans. Sayyid Ja‘far Shahīdī (Tehran: Intishārāt va Āmūzesh-e Inqilāb-e Islāmī, 1373 AHS), p. 297.
[23] Mawlāwī Jalāl ad-Dīn ar-Rūmī (1207-1273) was the greatest mystic poet in the Farsi language and founder of the Mawlawiyyah order of dervishes (“The Whirling Dervishes”). He is famous for his lyrics and for his didactic epic, Mathnawī-ye Ma‘nawī [Spiritual Couplets]. [Pub.]
[24] Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī [ar-Rūmī], Mathnawī-ye [Ma‘nawī] [Spiritual Couplets], ed. Muhammad Isti‘lāmī (Tehran: Zovār, 1372 AHS), vol. 6, p. 60.
Reynold A. Nicholson (ed. and trans.), The Mathnawī of Jalālu ’ddīn Rūmī (Tehran: So‘ād Publisher, 2002), Book Two under The man who planted a thornbrush on the road and delayed to uproot it, vol. 2, p.
- [Trans.]
[25] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, pp. 110-111.
[26] Mathnawī, vol. 2, p. 61.
Nicholson, Book Two under The man who planted a thornbrush on the road and delayed to uproot it, vol. 2, p. 133. [Trans.]
[27] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 273.
[28] Erich Fromm (1900-1980): German-born US psychoanalyst. He combined the ideas of Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx for the analysis of human relationships and development in the context of social structures and for proposed solutions to the problems of the modern industrial world, such as alienation. His books include Escape from Freedom (1941), The Art of Loving (1956), and The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973). [Trans.]
[29] Muqaddimāt Moroccan Magazine, issue no. 3 (1994), p. 25.
[30] Sūrah Luqmān 31:34.
[31] A Prophetic narration [hadīth]. See Muhammad Muhammadī Reyshahrī, Mīzān al-Hikmah (Qum: Dār al-Hadīth, 1375 AHS), vol. 1, p.
[32] Sūrah al-A‘rāf 7:99.
[33] Sūrah Yūsuf 12:87.
[34] The text of the hadīth is as follows:
بِسَنَدي المُتَّصِلِ إِلى مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ يَعْقُوبَ ثِقَةِ الإسْلامِ وَعِمَادِ المُسْلِمِينَ، عَنْ عِدَّةٍ مِنْ أَصْحَابِنَا، عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ مُحَمَّدٍ، عَنْ عَلِيِّ بْنِ حَدِيدٍ، عَنْ مَنْصُورِ بْنِ يُونُسَ، عَنِ الحَارِثِ بْنِ المُغِيرَةِ أوْ أَبِيهِ، عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِاللهِ عَلَيْهِ السَّلامُ قَالَ: قُلْتُ لَهُ: مَا كَانَ فِي وَصِيَّةِ لُقْمَانَ؟ قَالَ: كَانَ فِيهَا الأعَاجِيبُ. وَكَانَ أَعْجَبَ ما كَانَ فِيهَا أَنْ قَالَ لإبْنِهِ: خَفِ اللهَ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ خِيفَةً لَوْ جِئْتَهُ بِبِرِّ الثَّقَلَيْنِ لَعَذَّبَكَ. وَارْجُ اللهَ رَجَاءً لَوْ جِئْتَهُ بِذُنُوبِ الثَّقَلَيْنِ لَرَحِمَكَ. ثُمَّ قَالَ أَبُو عَبْدِاللهِ عَلَيْهِ السَّلامُ: كَانَ أَبِي يَقُولُ: إِنَّهُ لَيْسَ مِنْ عَبْدٍ مُؤْمِنٍ إلا [و] فِي قَلْبِهِ نُورَانِ: نُورُ خِيفَةٍ وُنُورُ رَجَاءٍ، لَوْ وُزِنَ هَذَا لَمْ يَزَدْ عَلَى هَذَا وَلَوْ وُزِنَ هَذَا لَمْ يَزَدْ عَلَى هَذَا.
Thiqat al-Islām wa ‘Imād al-Muslimīn Muhammad ibn Ya‘qūb (al-Kulaynī):
From a number of our companions, from Ahmad ibn Muhammad, from ‘Alī ibn
Hadīd, from Mansūr ibn Yūnus, from al-Hārith ibn al-Mughīrah or his
father, from Abū ‘Abd Allāh (Imām as-Sādiq) (‘a). Al-Hārith, or his
father, says, “I asked him (‘a), ‘What was (mentioned) in the
testament of Luqmān?’ ‘There were marvelous things in it’, he said, ‘and
the most wonderful of that which he said to his son was this: “Have such
a fear of God Almighty that were you to come to Him with the virtues of
the two worlds [thaqalayn]He would still chastise you, and put such a
hope in God that were you to come to Him with the sins of the two worlds
He would still have compassion for you.” Then Abū ‘Abd Allāh (‘a)
added: ‘My father used to say, “There is no believer who does not have
two lights in his heart: the light of fear and the light of hope. Were
one of these to be measured it would not exceed the other, and were the
other one to be measured, it would not exceed this one.” Al-Kulaynī,
al-Kāfī, ed. ‘Alī Akbar al-Ghifārī, 4th edition, Dār Mus‘ab Dār
at-Ta‘āruf, Beirut, 1401 AH, vol. 2, hadīth 1, p. 67.
For a detailed mystical and ethical exposition of this hadīth,see
Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, “Fourth Hadīth:Fear of God,” p. 221.
[35] Mīzān al-Hikmah, vol. 1, p. 726.
[36] Ibid.; Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 221.
[37] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 223.
[38] Ibid., p. 230.
[39] Sūrah al-Qiyāmah 75:14.
[40] Sūrah an-Nisā’ 4:49.
[41] Sūrah an-Nūr 24:21.
[42]Bal‘am ibn Bā‘ūr refers to the man at the time of Pharaoh who knew
the Greatest Name of God [Ism al-A‘zam], through which anything and
everything sought for is immediately granted by God and it is a very
closed secret. Pharaoh urged him to pray that Moses might fall into his
clutches. Bal‘am agreed and mounted a donkey but the animal would not
move. However much he beat the poor donkey, the animal did not stir from
its place at all. At last the animal raised its head toward heaven and
cried in clear cut words, “Why do you beat me Bal‘am? O man, woe unto
you! Do you want me to take you to curse an Apostle of God and the
faithful ones with him? Yet, Bal‘am did not relent and beat the faithful
animal to death, consequently causing himself to forget the Holy Name of
God whereupon he became an infidel. See Ahmad ‘Alī’s commentary of
Sūrah al-A‘rāf 7:175. [Trans.]
[43] Hadrat: The word Hadrat is used as a respectful form of address.
[Trans.]
[44] Mathnawī, vol. 1, p. 157.
Nicholson, Book One under How Bal‘am son of Bā‘ūr prayed (to God),
saying, “Cause Moses and his people to turn back, without having gained
their desire, from this city which they have besieged”, vol. 1, p. 355.
[Trans.]
[45]Fadīl ibn ‘Ayyād (Samarqand, circa 101-105 AH – Mecca, 187 AH): He
heard ahādīth from Sulaymān at-Tamīmī, Muhammad ibn Ishāq, Imām
as-Sādiq (‘a), Sufyān ath-Thawrī, and others. Fayd spent most of his
life at the precinct of the House of God in Mecca and passed away in the
month of Muharram in 187 AH in Mecca where he was buried. [Pub.]
For his life account, see Arthur J. Arberry, trans. Muslim Saints and
Mystics: Episodes from the Tadhkirat al-Awliyā’ (Memorial of the Saints)
by Farīd ad-Dīn ‘Attār (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1966),
pp. 52-61. [Trans.]
[46] Sūrah al-Hadīd 57:16. [Trans.]
[47] Farīd ad-Dīn ‘Attār Neyshārūrī, Tadhrikat al-Awliyā’, ed.
Muhammad Isti’lāmī (Tehran: Ziwār, 1384), p. 90. See Arberry, p. 52.
[Trans.]
[48] William James (1842-1910): US philosopher and psychologist,
considered the originator of the docrine of pragmatism; brother of
novelist Hendry James. His first major work was Principles of
Psychology (1890). Turning his attention to religion, in 1902 he
published The Varieties of Religious Experience, which has remained
his best-known work. James’ pragmatism, which he called ‘radical
empiricism,’ argued that the truth of any proposition rested on its
outcome in experience, and not on any eternal principles. [Trans.]
[49] Quoted in George Land and Beth Jarmin, Āyandeh-ye Khalāqiyyat va
Khalāqiyyat-e Āyandeh [The Future of Creativity and Creativity of the
Future], trans. Hasan Qāsimzādeh (Tehran: Intishārāt Nāhīd, 1379 AHS),
p. 245.
[50] Āyatullāh Mīrzā Muhammad ‘Alī Shāhābādī (1292-1362 AH): an
outstanding jurist, mystic and philosopher of the 14th century AH who
studied religious sciences at the Islamic theological centers of
Isfahān, Tehran (in Iran) and Najaf (in Iraq). He was Imām Khomeinī’s
teacher in irfān [mysticism] and akhlāq [ethics]. [Pub.]
[51] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 67.
[52] Muhammad ibn Murtadā (Kāshān, circa 1006-1090 AH) known as Mullā
Muhsin Fayd Kāshānī was a philosopher and mystic of the Safavid era. He
studied philosophy and mysticism with Mullā Sadrā in Isfahān. Among his
important works are Abwāb al-Jinān, Tafsīr-e Sāfī, Kitāb-e Wāfī
(dar Sharh-e Kāfī), Risāleh-ye Isrār, Sharh Sahīfah as-Sajjādiyyah,
and a collection of poems with about 12 thousand couplets. [Pub.]
[53] Mullā Sadrā (d. 1050 AH/1640), also called Sadruddīn Shīrāzī and
Sadr al-Muta’allihīn, was a philosopher who led the Iranian cultural
renaissance in the 17th century. The foremost representative of Ishrāqī
[Illuminationist] School of philosopher-mystics, he is commonly regarded
by Iranians as the greatest philosopher of Iran. A scion of a notable
Shīrāzī family, Mullā Sadrā completed his education in Isfahān, then the
leading cultural and intellectual center of Iran. After his studies with
scholars there, he produced several works, the most famous of which was
his Asfār (Journeys). Asfār contains the bulk of his philosophy,
which was influenced by a personal mysticism bordering on asceticism
that he experienced during a 15-year retreat at Kahak, a village near
Qum in Iran. Toward the end of his life, Mullā Sadrā returned to Shīrāz
to teach. His teachings, however, were considered heretical by the
orthodox Shī‘ah theologians, who persecuted him, though his powerful
family connections permitted him to continue to write. He died on a
pilgrimage to Mecca. [Pub.]
[54] Ibid., p. 456.
[55] Ibid., pp. 456-457.
[56] Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): English political philosopher who
sought to apply rational principles to the study of human nature. In
Hobbes’ view, humans are materialistic and pessimistic, their actions
motivated solely by self-interest, thus a state’s stability can only be
guaranteed by a sovereign authority, to which citizens relinquish their
rights. Leviathan (1651), his most celebrated work, expresses these
views. [Trans.]
[57]Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78): Swiss-born French writer,
philosopher, and political theorist. Greatly influenced by Denis
Diderot, Rousseau first gained fame from his essay Discourse on the
Sciences and the Arts (1750), an attack on the arts as a source for the
increased wealth of the rich and an instrument of propaganda. In his
Discourse on Inequality (1755), he professed the equality and goodness
of ‘natural man’ and asserted that the golden age of humanity occurred
before the formation of society, which bred competition and the
corrupting influences of property, commerce, science, and agriculture.
The Social Contract (1762), influential during the French Revolution,
claimed that when human beings formed a social contract to live in
society, they delegated authority to a government; however, they
retained sovereignty and the power to withdraw that authority when
necessary. [Trans.]
[58] Richard Tock, Hobbes, trans. Husayn Bashariyyeh (Tehran: Tarh-e
Nū, 1376 AHS), p. 90.
[59] Iain McLean, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 222.
To know the context of the statement, see Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
(Oxford: Blackwell, 1946), p. 81-83. [Trans.]
[60] Gerard Shumin, et al. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Qarārdād-e
Ijtimā‘ī: Matn va Zamīneh-ye Matn [The Social Contract: Text and
Context], trans. Murtadā Kalāntariān (Tehran: Āgāh, 1379 AHS), p. 84.
[61] Hobbes, p. 167.
[62] Book of Genesis is the first book of the Old Testament, in
particular, and the Bible, in general, and the first of the so-called
Five Books of Moses, Pentateuch. [Trans.]
[63] See Genesis 3:1-19 (i.e., chap. 3, verses 1-19).
[64] Job 15:16. In the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible,
it is Job 15:15. [Trans.]
[65] Psalms 51:6. In the NIV it is Psalms 51:5. [Trans.]
[66] Romans 3:9-10. In the NIV it is Romans 3:9-11. [Trans.]
[67] Galatians 3:22.
[68] The Social Contract, p. 56.
[69] Ibid., footnote of p. 52.
Article 1 of the Declaration stipulates in full: “All human beings
are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with
reason and conscience and should act toward one another in a spirit of
brotherhood.” [Trans.]
[70] Ibid., p. 85.
[71] Goftar-hā-ye dar Bāb-e Mansha’-e ‘Adam-e Musāwāt [Discourses on
the Origin of the Absence of Equality] as quoted in The Social
Contract, p. 8.
[72] Ibid., p. 9.
[73] Ibid., p. 10.
[74] François-Marie Arouet Voltaire (1694-1778): French author,
philosopher, and major figure of the Enlightenment. An enemy of the
tyrants, he spent much of his life in exile, including 23 years at his
property on the Swiss border. His Letters Concerning the English
Nation (1733) extolled religious and political toleration and the ideas
of Sir Isaac Newton and John Locke. The satire Candide (1759), a
rational skeptic’s attack on the optimism of Gottfried von Leibniz,
shows Voltaire’s astringement style at its best. A friend of Frederick
II of Prussia, Voltaire contributed to Denis Diderot’s Encyclopedia
and wrote his own Philosophical Dictionary (1764). [Trans.]
[75] Bertrand Russell, Tārīkh-e Falsafeh-ye Gharb [History of
Western Philosophy], trans. Najaf Daryābandarī (Tehran: Kitāb-e Parvāz,
1373 AHS), pp. 944-945.
[76] Emile is the title of Rousseau’s didactic novel on education,
which he published in 1762 together with The Social Contract,his
magnum opus in political philosophy, on which he suggested that rather
than imparting knowledge, education should build on a child’s natural
interests and sympathies, gradually developing his or her potential.
[Trans.]
[77] Sūrah al-Baqarah 2:30.
[78] See Sūrah al-Ahzāb 33:72.
[79] Sūrah al-Baqarah 2:30.
[80] For further information on the divine plan in man’s creation from
the viewpoint of the Qur’an, see Mīr Ahmad ‘Alī, The Holy Qur’an: Text,
Translation and Commentary (Elmhurst, New York: Tahrike Tarsile Qur’an,
Inc., 1988), Sūrah al-Baqarah 2:30-39 commentary notes 40-50, pp.
66-94, accessible online at http://www.al-islam.org/quran.
[Trans.]
[81] Sūrah T&ā-Hā 20:121-122.
“Adam (‘a) was accommodated in the earthly paradise, i.e. in some
fertile region on earth with the natural resources of the basic
requirements of life and its enjoyment. Had Adam been contented with it,
he would have remained there with his issues without being worried for
his living, but it was not the purpose of his creation. Adam was endowed
with infinite potentiality for progress and rise toward the ultimate.
Ambition was latent in his nature, unstimulated. On the other hand, the
angels thought themselves as superior to Adam, and Satan too. All the
three groups had to be put to test to express their latent attitudes.
The order or the command of God acted as a stimulus and each group
reacted to it, according to its native tendencies. The angels realized
their worth and value and submitted with the due response whereas the
furious and the fiery temperament of the satanic character in the
angelic garb of the Satan, was exposed. Adam had no idea of the
consequences of approaching the Prohibited Tree and had no desire to
approach it but there was the ambition in him to march toward the
glorious state of the beings with whose holy names he was acquainted. He
was happy in the primitive paradise and was not alive to his nakedness
as his ambition was not yet stirred. It was the command of God that
acted as the stirring factor and it was a nāh-e tahrīsī, i.e. a
stimulating warning in the sense to say: ‘Behold: If thou want not
worries approach not this tree, lest thou beareth the consequences.’ On
the other hand, Satan with his underestimation of Adam as an earthly and
passive being with ease and comfort, which caused his fall, thought that
he would be able to beguile Adam and wreak vengeance on him and his
children. Thus the situation made the two groups to face each other and
be prepared for a new development in the transformation of the natural
struggle for life into a moral warfare between good and evil or the
right and the wrong, de facto and de jure.
“The Prohibited Tree was the one, the approach of which was the start
of the new warfare…
“Satan could not bear Adam’s living in comfort and ease and was also
helpless to do any harm to Adam without stirring the ambition in Adam,
but Adam being cautious due to the warning he had received, Satan had no
direct approach to him. Nothing could stir the latent ambition in Adam
except through the social instinct of attachment to his other sex (i.e.
Eve). It is through the sex medium that man steps out of his
individuality into social life and starts feeling wants and develops
desire after desire. It was through this medium (Eve) that Satan
approached Adam. Both Adam and Eve felt their nakedness and their needs
and thus their worries began. Thus Satan drove Adam and Eve out of the
state of ease and comfort. Adam felt sorry for the loss, and his
ambition began to develop itself. The return to the previous state was
impossible because the ease and comfort in that state was due to the
absence of the awakening to their nakedness and their need. A child
whose social sense has not yet developed does not feel ashamed if it is
naked and once the sense is developed the same condition would worry
him, and the worry will not be over in him until he covers himself.
After the development of the sense it would not be possible for him to
remain naked and be happy. The same was to Adam and Eve when they felt
their nakedness as they approached the forbidden tree and the social
sense was awakened in them. They felt their helplessness as it was not
possible for them to remain naked as before and be happy and feel
comfortable.
“To regain the happiness, they had to turn toward God through the holy
names whose potentiality they carried in them. Driven out of the lower
(earthly) paradise the happiness cannot be recovered unless one
qualifies for the heavenly paradise by putting all his faculties and the
latent energies into work with harmony and moderation under the divine
guidance.
“Thus the history of Adam, Eve, the angels, and Satan is a
psychological presentation of a new development on earth along with the
advent of the first man (Adam). It shows the turning point in the
history of the natural development. The natural process of life is to
give room for the conventional way of life. Reasoning begins to modify
the instincts. The living beings developed up to the fall of Adam, were
reacting to the call and the requirements, by their individual instincts
to gain the objects of the animal senses and to defend themselves
against the forces detrimental to their sensual interest, as the life
for them had no other meaning. Adam was ordained to give a new
significance to the life on the earth and that was not possible if he
would not have fallen out of the Paradise wherein the object of his life
as the Holy Qur’an represents was not more than mere eating and enjoying
the sensual pleasures. Tempted by Satan, Adam gave up the contentment
and his ambition for the higher state was stirred. He desired for the
eternal life of heavenly nature, hence the change in the object of life.
The immediate objects of the human senses yielded to the distant ones of
the human intellect which could not be achieved but through strife,
labor and toil. This is the significance of the fall, i.e. the fall from
the ease and the comfort of the animal life in the sensual paradise with
the desire to gain ease and comfort of the higher order through strife
and labor, which means the sense of duty and stepping out of what it is,
into what it ought to be, which is the first sense of the moral
imperative of the conscience—what should be done and what should not be
done. Here, Adam enters into the realm of responsibility. The life now
is no more mere meeting the demands of the animal senses but to control
the demands and modify them harmoniously, to achieve the higher objects
of dominating the higher regions and effecting the expansion of life
through space and time. Remoter the object, greater would be the effect
and the responsibility, but so long as the object remains within the
limitations of time and space the value of life will not be much better
than that of the animals. The human life shall have its value distinct
from the animal life, if the object be beyond all limitations, i.e. the
Ultimate (God). To have this object in the focus of the human
consciousness, special guidance from the Absolute is the need.
“Adam with the potentiality he carried and with the names he was
acquainted with, stepped out of the Paradise with a clean and a
repentant heart and shouldering the responsibility, turned toward the
Lord. Hence he was blessed with the guiding revelations. Thus the life
of man starts on the earth, clean, pure, blessed, and divinely guided on
the path to the Ultimate. With this lofty object in view, if man puts
all his senses and the faculties into functions, with which he is
endowed and the divine guidance, he is on the right path and will be
termed as the blessed one. His desires in the form of greed, lust,
hatred, anger, harshness, etc. will be modified and then become
subordinate to the intellect guided by the divine inspiration, will be
termed as excellence and good. On the contrary, if the object be
anything other than God, the same qualities become condemnable and
termed as base, evil and mean.
“This interpretation of the history of Adam presented by the Holy
Qur’an discards the Christian theory of the fall of Adam as an evil and
the original sin, and the dark aspect of the human life, and it also
discards the view of Adam being a sinner. The Holy Qur’an has used the
word asa and ghawa regarding Adam’s approaching the tree yet taking
into consideration that the prohibition was given when Adam was in the
Paradise, i.e. before his shouldering the responsibility and the order
was not imperative or prohibitive as already stated, and after
shouldering the responsibility he is not accused of any disobedience or
committing any sin. Hence Adam came on the earth as the Vicegerent of
God, sinless, following nothing but the divine guidance as the tradition
says: ‘Every human child is born with the nature (of Adam’s origin)
[fitrah]; verily it is the parents (i.e., the environment) that turn
it into a Jew, a Christian or Magian’.” Mīr Ahmad ‘Alī, The Holy
Qur’an, 80, 82, 84. [Trans.]
[82] Sigmund Freud (1856-1939): Austrian neurologist, author,
psychiatrist, and founder of almost all the basic concepts of
psychoanalysis. He graduated with an MD from the University of Vienna in
1881, and for some months in 1885 he studied under JM Charcot, whose
work in hysteria converted Freud to the cause of psychiatry.
Dissatisfied with hypnosis and electrotheraphy as treatment techniques,
he evolved the psychoanalytic method, founded on dream analysis and free
association. Because of his belief that sexual impulses lay at the heart
of neuroses, he was reviled professionally for a decade, but by 1906
disciples like Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav Jung were gathering around
him (both were later to break away from the International Psychoanalytic
Association, dissenting with Freud’s views on infantile sexuality). For
some 30 years he worked to establish the truth of his theories, and
these years were especially fruitful. Fleeing Nazi anti-Semitism, he
left Vienna for London in 1938 and there spent the last year of his
life. [Trans.]
[83] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 168.
[84] Ibid.
[85]‘Allāmah Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabātabā’ī (1904-81) was the
Islamic scholar, thinker and philosopher best known for his 20-volume
exegesis of the Qur’an, Al-Mīzān fī Tafsīr al-Qur’ān. For his short
biography, see Foreword of Al-Mīzān: An Exegesis of the Qur’an, trans.
Sayyid Saeed Akhtar Rizvi (Tehran: World Organization for Islamic
Services, 1983), pp. xxi-xxiv. [Trans.]
[86] Professor Āyatullāh Murtadā Mutahharī (1298-1358 AHS) was born on
Bahman 13, 1298 AHS in the village of Fariman near Mashhad into a family
of clergymen. At the age of 12, he went to Mashhad where he learned the
basics of Islamic sciences and then moved to Qum where he attended the
class sessions conducted by the great authorities of the theological
center. From 1319 AHS Mutahharī had taken part in the sessions led by
Imām Khomeinī and other famous teachers of the time. Moreover, he
himself conducted lessons in subjects like Arabic literature, logic,
kalām [scholasticism], jurisprudence, and philosophy. In 1331 AHS
Mutahhari was transferred from Qum to Tehran and in 1334 AHS he was
invited to teach Islamic sciences at the Faculty of Islamic Sciences,
Tehran University. He was arrested on the midnight of Khordād 15, 1342
AHS and spent 43 days in prison. After Imām Khomeini’s migration to
Paris in France, Mutahharī went to meet him and His Eminence assigned
him the responsibility of organizing the Revolutionary Council. On the
night of Ordībehesht 11, 1358 AHS (May 2, 1979) Mutahharī was martyred
by an agent of the Furqān terrorist group. He wrote more than 50 books
and tens of articles, and delivered scores of speeches. Imām Khomeinī
said of Mutahharī: “His written and spoken words are, without exception,
educational and enlivening… I recommend the students and intellectual
group not to let Mutahharī’s words be forgotten by un-Islamic tricks…”
[Trans.]
[87] Sūrah ar-Rūm 30:30.
[88] See Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 179.
[89] Ibid., p. 180.
[90] Ibid., p. 182.
[91] Ibid., p. 183.
[92] Ibid., p. 168.
[93] Ibid., p. 625. For further familiarity with Imām Khomeinī’s
views on this issue, refer to Sharh-e Hadīth-e Junūd-e ‘Aql va Jahl.
[94] Sūrah al-Hijr 15:28-29.
[95] Tafsīl Wasā’il ash-Shī‘ah ilā Tahsīl Masā’il ash-Sharī‘ah, vol.
2, p. 447.
[96] Mathnawī, vol. 4, Book Four, p. 77.
Nicholson, Book Four, vol. 4, p. 171. [Trans.] * *
[97] Ibid., p. 79.
Nicholson, Book Four under The battle of the reason against the
flesh, vol. 4, p. 177. [Trans.]
[98] “Literally, ‘take lessons from’.” Nicholson, Book Four, under The
poet and the two viziers, vol. 4, footnote 3, p. 137. [Trans.]
[99] Ibid., p. 79. For information on the ahādīth pertaining to
this couplet, see Badī‘ az-Zamān Furūzānfar, Ahādīth va Qisās-e
Mathnavī, com. Husayn Dāwūdī (Tehran: Amīr Kabīr, 1376 AHS), p. 365.
Nicholson, Book Four, under The poet and the two viziers, vol. 4, p.
137. [Trans.]
[100] “Literally, ‘to adopt companionship apart from thee’.” Nicholson,
Book Four, under the battle of the reason against the flesh, vol. 4,
footnote 2, p. 175. [Trans.]
[101] Ibid., p. 79.
Nicholson, Book Four, under The battle of the reason against the
flesh,vol. 4, p. 175. [Trans.]
[102] Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965): German physician, theologian,
missionary, musician, and philosopher. He abandoned an academic career
in theology to study medicine and became a missionary doctor (1913) in
French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon). He devoted his life to the
hospital he founded there. His many writings include The Quest of the
Historical Jesus (1906), and The Decay and Restoration of
Civilization and Civilization and Ethics (1923), the first two
volumes of his Philosophy of Civilization. Schweitzer won the 1952
Nobel Peace Prize for his inspiring humanitarian work. [Trans.]
[103] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 5.
[104]Farīdūn Mashīrī: a contemporary Iranian poet. [Pub.]
[105] Farīdūn Mashīrī, Zībā-ye Jāvidāneh (Tehran: Sukhan, 1376 AHS),
pp. 311-313.
[106] Existentialism va Isālat-e Bashar [Existentialism and Human
Nature], p. 25.
[107] House of water and flower: the physical body of the human
being. [Trans.]
[108] Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, Guzīdeh-ye Ghazaliyāt-e Shams,
comp. Muhammad-Ridā Shafī‘ī Kadkanī (Tehran: Kitābha-ye Jībī, 1374 AHS),
p. 271.
[109] Sūrah al-Insān 76:2-3.
[110] Sūrah al-Balad 90:8-10.
[111] See Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 401.
[112] Sūrah al-An‘ām 6:148.
[113] Sūrah al-An‘ām 6:35.
[114] Sūrah al-Mā’idah 5:48.
[115] Mathnawī, vol. 1, p. 37.
Nicholson, Book One under How the disciples raised objections against
the vizier’s secluding himself, vol. 1, p. 71. [Trans.]
[116] Ibid., vol. 5, p. 149.
Nicholson, Book Five under Another story in answer to the
Necessitarian, vol. 5, p. 367. [Trans.]
[117] Written by Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), a Spanish novelist,
dramatist and poet, Don Quixote is the story of Alonso Quixano, a
country gentleman, whose crazed mind leads him to change his name to Don
Quixote de la Mancha and to go forth to right the world’s wrongs.
Cervantes’ reputation as one of the world’s greatest writers rests
almost entirely on this most famous work of his. [Trans.]
[118] “Reading ﻓﻀﻞ.” Nicholson, Book Three, vol. 3, footnote 3, p. 293.
[Trans.]
[119] “That is, the science of jurisprudence [fiqh].” Nicholson, Book
Three, vol. 4, footnote 3, p. 293. [Trans.]
[120] “‘The religion of old woman’ is synonymous with ignorance and
superstition.” Nicholson, Book Three, vol. 3, footnote 5, p. 293.
[Trans.]
[121] Ibid., vol. 3, p. 125.
Nicholson, Book Three under Explaining (what is signified by) the
far-sighted blind man, the deaf man who is sharp of hearing, and the
naked man with the long skirts, vol. 3, pp. 293, 295. [Trans.]
[122] Existentialism: 20th century philosophical current that stresses
political responsibility and the relation of the individual to the
universe or to God. In general, existentialists emphasize the fear and
despair that isolated individuals feel. [Trans.]
[123]Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-55): Danish religious philosopher
and precursor of existentialism. Opposing GWF Hegel, he emphasized that
one has a free will and can pass from the aesthetic (or material) to the
ethical point of view and finally, through ‘a leap of faith,’ to the
religious. Ignored in the 19th century, he has influenced 20th century
Protestant theology and modern literature and psychology. His main works
are Either/Or (1843), Fear and Trembling (1843), and Philosophical
Fragments (1844). [Trans.]
[124] This discussion is extracted from the lectures of Prof. Mustafā
Malikiān in The History of Western Philosophy, vol. 4, pp. 111-112.
For further information on the philosophy of existentialism and its
rudimentary teachings, refer to vol. 4, pp. 29-189 of the book, which is
a versatile and precise introduction to philosophy.
[125] Mathnawī, vol. 3, p. 94.
Nicholson, Book Three under Return to the story of Daqūqī, vol. 3, p.
215. [Trans.]
[126] The History of Western Philosophy, vol. 4, p. 22.
[127] Loc. cit.
[128] Muhammad Muhammadī Reyshahrī, Mīzān al-Hikmah (Qum: Dār
al-Hadīth, 1375 AHS), vol. 3, p. 1876.
[129] Loc. cit.
[130] Loc. cit.
[131] Ibid.
[132] See loc. cit.
[133] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 7.
[134] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 63.
[135] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 95.
[136] Golestān-e Sa‘dī, ed. Ghulām-Husayn Yūsufī (Tehran: Khwārazmī,
1374 AHS), p. 117.
Shaykh Muslihuddīn Sa‘dī ash-Shīrāzī, The Gulistan or Rose Garden,
trans. Francis Gladwin (London: Alhoda, 2000), chap. 3, On Excellence
of Contentment, Tale xxii,p. 197. The whole tale is as follows:
I saw a merchant who possessed one hundred and fifty camels laden with
merchandize, and fifty slaves and servants. One night, in the island of
Kīsh, he entertained me in his own apartment, and during the whole night
did not cease talking foolishly, saying, “I have such and such property
in Turkistan, and such goods in Hindustan; these are the title-deeds of
such a piece of land, and for this matter, such one is security.”
Sometimes he would say, “I have an indication to go to Alexandria, the
air of which is very pleasant.” Then again, “No, I will not go, because
the Mediterranean Sea is boisterous. O Sa‘dī, I have another journey in
contemplation, and after I have performed that, I will pass the
remainder of my life in retirement, and leave off trading.” I asked what
journey it was. He replied, “I want to carry Persian brimstone to China,
where I heard it bears a very high price; from thence I will transport
chinaware to Greece; and take the brocades of Greece to India’ and
Indian steel to Aleppo; the glassware of Aleppo, I will convey to Yemen,
and from thence go with stripped cloths to Persia; after which I will
leave off trade, and sit down in my shop.” He spoke so much of this
foolishness that at length, being quite exhausted, he said, “O Sa‘dī,
relate also of something of what you have seen and heard.” I replied:
“Have you not heard that once upon a time, a chief, as he was traveling
in the desert of Ghūr, fell from his camel? He said that the covetous
eye of the worldly man is either satisfied through contentment, or will
be filled with the earth of the grave.” Ibid., pp.
196-197.[Trans.]
[137] “.انّ الحرّ حرّ على جميع احواله” Usūl al-Kāfī, vol. 2, p. 89.
[Pub.]
[138] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 257.
[139] Ibid., p. 379.
[140] Ibid., p. 380.
[141] Muhammad ibn Ya‘qūb al-Kulaynī, Furū‘ al-Kāfī, vol. 5, p. 12.
For information on the references of this hadīth and its Sunnī
narrations, see Ahādīth wa Qisas Mathnawī, p. 63* *
[142] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 6.
[143] Loc. cit.
[144] Mathnawī, vol. 1, p. 71.
Nicholson, Book One under The jihād against the flesh, vol. 1, p. 149.
[Trans.]
[145] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, pp. 12-13.
[146] For information about this claim and its spuriousness, see
Guzīdeh-e Ghazaliāt-e Shams, footnote of page 578.
[147] Loc. cit.
[148] Khwājah Shams ad-Dīn Muhammad Hāfiz Shīrāzī (ca. 1325-1391) was
the fourteenth century Persian lyric bard and panegyrist, and commonly
considered as the preeminent master of the ghazal form. [Pub.]
[149] Sāyeh, Hāfiz (Tehran: Kārnāmeh, 1376 AHS), p. 113.
[150] Jainism: a religion and philosophy of India. Along with Hinduism
and Buddhism, it is one of the three most ancient of India’s religious
traditions still in existence. The name Jainism derives from the
Sanskrit verb root ji, ‘to conquer.’ It refers to the ascetic battle
that the Jaina monks must fight against the passions and bodily senses
in order to gain omniscience and the complete purity of soul that
represents the highest religious goal in the Jaina system. The
monk-ascetic who achieves this omniscience and purity is called a Jina
(literally, ‘Conqueror’ or ‘Victor’), and adherents to the tradition are
called Jainas or Jains. Although Jainism has a much smaller number of
adherents than do Hinduism and Sikhism, its influence on India’s culture
has been considerable, including significant contribution in philosophy
and logic, art and architechture, grammar, mathematics, astronomy and
astrology, and literature.
For an introductory survey of Jainism, see Hermann Jacobi, “Jainism,”
in Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics (1928) vol. 7, pp. 465-474 and
Colette Caillat, “Jainism,” in The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed.
Mircea Eliade (1987) vol. 7, pp. 507-514.[Trans.]
[151] Mahavira: literally means ‘Great Hero’ is the title labeled to
Vardhamana to whom the origin of Jainism in the 6th century BC is
attributed. Mahavira was the 24th and last Tirthankara (literally,
‘Ford-maker’) of the current age (kalpa) of the world. (Tirthankaras,
also called Jinas, are revealers of the Jaina religious path [dharma]
who have crossed over life’s stream of rebirths and have set the example
that all Jainas must follow.) Mahavira was a contemporary of Siddhartha
Gautama (the Buddha) and was born in the same area, the lower Gangetic
Plain in India. Although Mahavira was a historical figure, all of the
accounts of his life are legendary and serve the ritual life of the
Jaina community better than they do the historian. However, a little of
the historical circumstances of Mahavira and the early Jaina community
can be pieced together from a variety of sources.
Mahavira, like the Buddha, was the son of a chieftain of the Kshatriya
(military or ruling) class. At age 30 he renounced his princely status
to take up the ascetic life. It is likely that he pursued the discipline
of a preestablished ascetic tradition and had a reforming influence on
it. His acknowledged status as the 24th Tirthankara (or Jina) means that
Jainas perceive him as the last revealer in this cosmic age of the Jaina
dharma. Mahavira had 11 disciples (called ganadharas), all of whom
were Brahman converts to Jainism; all founded monstic lineages, but only
two—Indrabhuti Gautama and Sudharman, the disciples who survived
Mahavira—served as the points of origin for the historical Jaina
monastic community. [Trans.]
[152] For familiarity with these sects, see Dāryūsh Shāyigān, Adyān va
Maktabhā-ye Falsafeh-ye Hind [Religions and Philosophical Schools of
India] (Tehran: Amīr Kabīr, 1375 AHS).
[153] Bābā T&āhir: An Iranian poet and mystic of the mid-5th century
AH. [Trans.]
[154] Sa‘dī: Shaykh Muslīh ad-Dīn Sa‘dī (1184-1283) was one of the
greatest Persian poets. Born in Shiraz, he studied Sufi mysticism at the
Nizāmiyyah madrasah at Baghdad, with Shaykh ‘Abdul-Qādir al-Jīlānī and
with Shihāb ad-Dīn Suhrawardī. He made the pilgrimage to Mecca many
times and traveled to Central Asia, India, the Seljuq territories in
Anatolia, Syria, Egypt, Arabia, Yemen, Abyssinia, and Morocco. His best
known works are Būstān [Garden] and Golestān [Rose-Garden], also
known as Sa‘dī Nāmeh. The former is a collection of poems on ethical
subjects, the latter a collection of moral stories in prose. Sa‘dī is
also renowned for his lyric poetry and his panegyrics (written works of
praise), composed in both Persian and Arabic. His influence on Persian,
Turkish and Indian literatures has been very considerable, and his works
were often translated into European languages from the 17th century
onward. [Trans.]
[155] Golestān, p. 142.
Gladwin, chap. 4, On the Advantages of Taciturnity, Tale xxii, p.
197. [Trans.]
[156] Ibid., p. 104.
[157] Mīzān al-Hikmah, vol. 2, p. 1122.
[158] Loc. cit.
[159] Wearing a woolen garment signifies leading a life in seclusion
usually associated with asceticism, self-mortification and the like.
[Trans.]
[160] Nahj al-Balāghah, Sermon 209.
[161] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 6.
[162] Sūrah al-Anbiyā’ 21:16.
[163] See Sūrah al-Mulk 67:4.
[164] Sūrah Āli-Imrān 3:191.
[165] Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, Hunar-e Shādmāndegī [The Art
of Happiness], trans. Muhammad-‘Alī Hamīd Rafī‘ī (Tehran: Kitābsārā-ye
Tandīs, 1379 AHS), pp. 249-250.
The book, The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living (New York:
Riverhead Books, 1998), hardcover, 322 pages, is based on conversations
between the Dalai Lama and Dr. Howard Cutler, a Diplomat of the American
Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, in which the latter endeavors to
frame the former’s teachings, stories, and meditations in such a way
that makes it interesting for even non-Buddhists. Exploring topics such
as intimacy, compassion, suffering, anger, kindness, hatred, and change,
the Dalai Lama makes clear that real happiness depends on transforming
our deepest attitudes, the very way we look at, and deal with, ourselves
and others. [Trans.]
[166] See Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, pp. 133-143.
[167] Sūrah al-Fath 48:29.
[168] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, pp. 134-135.
[169] Bihār al-Anwār, vol. 8, p. 170. [Pub.]
[170] Mathnawī, vol. 5 (Book Five), p. 32.
Nicholson, Book Five under “No Monkery in Islam”, vol. 5,p. 71.
[Trans.]
[171] Ibid., vol. 6 (Book Six), p. 32.
Nicholson, Book Six under The Fowler and the Bird,vol. 6, p. 59.
[Trans.]
[172] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 16.
[173] Sūrah Qāf 50:30. [Trans.]
[174] Qārūn (Korah): one of those who had believed in the ministry of
Prophet Moses (‘a) but when God tested him with the abundance of
wealth, he was proved to be a disbeliever. See Sūrah al-Qasas 28:76,
79; Sūrah al-‘Ankabūt 29:39; Sūrah al-Ghāfir 40:24. [Trans.]
[175] Hunar-e Shādmāndegī [The Art of Happiness], pp. 21-22.
[176] Ibid., p. 25.
[177] Mathnawī, vol. 1 (Book One), p. 10.
Nicholson, Book One under Proem, vol. 1, p. 7. [Trans.]
[178] Mīzān al-Hikmah, vol. 3, p. 2639.
[179] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 19.
[180] Loc. cit.
[181] Abū ‘Alī Hasan Muhammad Mīkāl: known as Hosang, a pious and
intellectual person. He was appointed as vizier by Sultān Mahmūd, the
3rd most powerful Ghaznavid king. [Pub.]
[182] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 16.
[183] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, pp. 19-20.
[184] “Hast thou seen him who chooseth for his god his own lust?”
Sūrah al-Furqān 25: 43.
[185] Tadhkirat’ ul-Awliyā’: a book written in Persian by ‘Attār
Neyshābūrī concerning the life story of 92 saints [awliyā’] and Sufi
shaykhs along with their moral excellences and wise sayings. An abridged
English version of the book is translated by Arthur J. Arberry, Muslim
Saints and Mystics (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1966).
[Trans.]
[186]Abū Sa‘īd Hasan Yasār al-Basrī (21-110 AH): one of the notable
jurists and ascetics at the time of Hajjāj ibn Yūsuf and ‘Umar ibn
‘Abdul-‘Azīz. For his life account, see Arberry, Muslims Saints and
Mystics,pp. 19-25. [Trans.]
[187] Farīd ad-Dīn ‘Attār Neyshābūrī, Tadhkirat’ ul-Awliyā’, Ed.
Muhammad Isti‘lāmī (Tehran: Zovār, 1384 AHS), p. 46.
[188] Loc. cit.
[189] Ibid., p. 317. For the life account of Sahl ibn ‘Abdullāh
at-Tustarī, see Arberry, Muslims Saints and Mystics,pp. 153-160.
[Trans.]
[190] Abū Sulaymān ibn Nusayr Dāwūd at-Tā’ī was a famous ascetic
[zāhid], jurist [faqīh] and scholar of the sciences of hadīth
[muhaddith] during the 2nd century AH. For his life account, see
Arberry, Muslims Saints and Mystics,pp. 138-142. [Trans.]
[191] Tadhkirat’ ul-Awliyā’, p. 262.
[192] Ibid., p. 264.
[193] Ibid., p. 266.
[194] Hujjat al-Islām Abū H+āmid Muh$ammad ibn Ghazzālī at-Tūsī was
born in Iran in 1058 at Tūs, Khorāsān, where he died in 1111.
Al-Ghazzālī is recognized by many as a great theologian of Islam and the
final authority for Sunnī orthodoxy. Starting his religious life as
orthodox, al- Ghazzālī soon turned to Sufism. He spent many years
roaming from place to place before eventually going to Baghdad to preach
and teach. It was there that he composed what many see as his
masterpiece, Ih$yā’ ‘Ulūm ad-Dīn [The Revivification of the Sciences
of Religion]. His other well-known works include: Fātih$at al-‘Ulūm;
Tahāfut al-Falāsifah; Al-Iqtis,ād fī’l-I‘tiqād and Kīmyā-ye
Sa‘ādat [The Alchemy of Happiness] which is Ih$yā’ ‘Ulūm ad-Dīn
re-presented on a smaller scale for Persian readers. Al-Ghazzālī was,
however, among a number of classical Sunnī authorities who attempted to
legitimize both the hereditary caliphate and the usurpation of power by
military dynasties, by means of their political theories. The influence
of these theories has far outlived the circumstances that produced them
and it continues to affect the political attitudes of Sunnī Muslims,
although it is now diminishing. [Trans.]
[195] The abbreviation, “r” stands for the Arabic invocative phrase,
rahmatullāh ‘alayh, rahmatullāh ‘alayhā, rahmatullāh ‘alayhim [may
God’s mercy be upon him//her/them], which is used after the names of
pious individuals. [Pub.]
[196] Abū Hāmid Muhammad al-Ghazzālī, Kīmyā-ye Sa‘ādat [The Alchemy
of Happiness], ed. Husayn Khadyūjam (Tehran: Intishārāt-e ‘Ilmī va
Farhangī, 1374 AHS), vol. 1, p. 434.
[197] Ibid., p. 435.
[198] Loc. cit.
[199] Ibid., pp. 442-443.
[200] Ibid., p. 445.
[201] ‘Abdul-Karīm Surūsh, Qisseh-ye Arbāb-e Ma‘rifat (Tehran:
Intishārāt-e Sirāt, 1373 AHS), p. 368.
[202] On the correlation between enjoining what is good [and forbidding
what is wrong, on one hand,] and accountability, [on the other hand,]
see Sayyid Hasan Islāmī, Amr beh Ma‘rūf va Nahy-e az Munkar (Qum:
Khurram, 1375 AHS).
[203] Usūl al-Kāfī, vol. 2, p. 164.
It is to be noted that this hadīth is universally accepted by Muslims
and are quoted by the followers of the different Islamic schools of
thought. [Trans.]
[204] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 18, p. 40.
[205] Mīrzā Husayn Nūrī T&abarsī, Mustadrak al-Wasā’il wa Mustanbit
al-Masā’il (Qum: Mu‘assasah Āli al-Bayt (‘a) Li-Ihyā at-Turāth, 1408
AH), vol. 12, p. 183.
[206] Concerning this hadīth and Imām Khomeinī’s discussion of it,
see Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 559.
[207] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 18, p. 314.
[208] Ibid., vol. 17, p. 41.
[209] Ibid., p. 42.
[210] Nahj al-Balāghah, Maxim 131.
[211] Sūrah al-Hadīd 57:20.
[212] For instance, see Sūrah al-An‘ām 6:32; Sūrah al-‘Ankabūt
29:64; Sūrah Muhammad 47:36.
[213] Nahj al-Balāghah, Maxim 77.
[214] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 120.
[215] Loc. cit.
[216] Ibid., pp. 120-121.
[217] Sūrah al-Isrā’ 17:72.
[218] Nahj al-Balāghah, Maxim 303.
[219] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 122.
[220] Nahj al-Balāghah, Sermon 133.
[221] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 121.
[222] Usūl al-Kāfī, vol. 2, p. 315.
[223] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 124-125, 127-128.
[224] Sūrah ar-Rūm 30:7.
[225] “. ﻣﻦﻻ ﻣﻌﺎﺵ ﻠﻪ، ﻻﻣﻌﺎﺪ ﻠﻪ” [Trans.]
[226] It refers to the Prophetic saying, “.نعم المال الصالح للرجل
الصالح ” Ahādīth wa Qisas Mathnawī [Hadīths and the Story of
Mathnawī], p. 49.
[227] Mathnawī, Book One, vol. 1, p. 53.
Nicholson, Book One, under How the lion again declared exertion to be
superior to trust in God and expounded the advantages of exertion, vol.
1, p. 107. [Trans.]
[228] It refers to the followers of the Mani cult. The cult of Mani
consists of the teachings of Mani, which had emerged as a form of creed
and religion during the Sassanid period in Iran. [Pub.]
[229] Paulo Cuello, Kūh-e Panjom [The Fifth Mountain], trans.
Del-Ārā Qahremān (Tehran: Nashr-e Alborz, 1377 AHS), p. 80.
[230] The other points of the Four Noble Truths are as follows: The
cause of suffering is wrongly directed desire; removal of the desire is
the way of removing the cause of suffering; and that the Noble Eightfold
Path leads to the end of suffering. [Trans.]
[231] Its refers to the Noble Eightfold Path, which consists of (1)
right understanding, (2) right thought, (3) right speech, (4) right
action, (5) right means of livelihood, (6) right effort, (7) right
concentration, and (8) right meditation. [Trans.]
[232] See Sūrah Sād 38:41-44.
[233] Kitāb-e Ayyūb dar Majmū‘eh-ye Kutub-e Tārīkhī va Hikmat [“The
Book of Job,” in Collection of Books on History and Wisdom],
translation under the supervision of Saru Khacheki, p. 798.
Book of Job 1:1-2. [Trans.]
[234] Loc. cit.
[235] Loc. cit.
[236] This issue has been discussed in the books of philosophy and
scholasticism [kalām] under the issue of shurūr [evils, or bad
things or happenings]. One of the best books on this topic written in
Persian language is the book entitled, ‘Adl-e Ilāhī [Divine Justice]
by the late Prof. Āyatullāh Murtadā Mutahharī. In that book, he examines
the largely technical subjects in a non-technical and attractive manner.
Besides, for information on the new approaches on this issue, see
Michael Peterson, [et al.], ‘Aql va I‘tiqād-e Dīnī: Darāmadī bar
Falsafeh-ye Dīn [Reason and Religious Belief: An Introduction to the
Philosophy of Religion], trans. Ahmad Narāqī and Ibrāhīm Sultānī
(Tehran: T&arh-e Nū, 1376 AHS), pp. 175-213.
[237] “And of knowledge ye have been vouchsafed but little.” Sūrah
al-Isrā’ 17:85.
[238] Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82): US philosophical essayist, poet,
and lecturer. He resigned a Unitarian pastorate (1831) and, after
traveling in Europe, settled in Concord, Mass. His Nature (1836) was
the strongest motivating statement of US transcendentalism. After 1837
he became nationally renowned as a public speaker and after 1842 as
editor of the transcendentalist journal, The Dial. He later adjusted
his idealistic view of the individual, expressed in essays and addresses
like “The American Scholar” and “Self-Reliance,” to accommodate the US
experience of humanity’s historical and political limitations,
especially over the issue of slavery. [Trans.]
[239] Tuchihiko Izutsu, Mafāhīm-e Akhlāqī-Dīnī dar Qur’an
[Ethical-Religious Concepts in the Qur’an], trans. Farīdūn Badreh’ī
(Tehran: Farzān, 1378 AHS), pp. 14-15.
[240] Mathnawī, Book Four, vol. 4, pp. 11-12.
Nicholson, Book Four, under Conclusion of the story of the lover who
fled from the night-patrol into an orchard unknown to him, and for joy
at finding his beloved in the orchard called down blessings on the
night-patrol and said, ‘It may be that you loathe a thing although it is
better for you,vol. 4, p. 13. [Trans.]
[241] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 120.
[242] “.ﻠﻮﻻﺍﻠﺗﻀﺎﺪ، ﻠﻣﺎ ﺼﺢ ﺪﻮﺍﻢﺍﻠﻔﻴﺾ ﻋﻦﻣﺒﺪﺃ ﺍﻠﺠﻮﺍﺪ ” [Trans.]
[243] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 643.
[244] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 643-644.
[245] Mathnawī, Book Six, vol. 6, pp. 10-11.
Nicholson, Book Six, under Proem,vol. 6, pp. 7-9. [Trans.]
[246] Michael Peterson, [et al.], ‘Aql va I‘tiqād-e Dīnī: Darāmadī bar
Falsafeh-ye Dīn [Reason and Religious Belief: An Introduction to the
Philosophy of Religion], trans. Ahmad Narāqī and Ibrāhīm Sultānī
(Tehran: T&arh-e Nū, 1376 AHS), pp. 175-213.
[247] The text of the statement is as follows:
أنَّ أَشَدَّ النَّاسِ بَلاءً النَّبِيُّونَ، ثُمَّ الوَصِيُّونَ، ثُمَّ الأمْثَلَ فَالأمْثَلَ. وَإنَّمَا يُبْتَلى المُؤْمِنُ عَلَى قَدْرِ أَعْمَالِهِ الحَسَنَةِ، فَمَنْ صَحَّ دِينُهُ وَحَسُنَ عَمَلُهُ اشْتَدَّ بَلاؤُهُ، وَذَلِكَ أنَّ اللهَ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ لَمْ يَجْعَلِ الدُّنْيَا ثَوَاباً لِمُؤْمِنٍ وَلا عُقُوبَةً لِكَافِرٍ، وَمَنْ سَخُفَ دِينُهُ وَضَعُفَ عَمَلُهُ قَلَّ بَلاؤُهُ، وَإنَّ البَلاءَ أَسْرَعُ إلَى المُؤْمِنِ التَّقِيِّ مِنَ المَطَرِ إلَى قَرَارِ الأرْضِ.
Al-Kulaynī, Usūl al-Kāfī, vol. 2, p. 259, hadīth no. 29. For an
elaborate exposition of this hadīth, see Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth,
Fifteenth Hadīth, “The Believer’s Trials and Tribulations,” pp.
235-251. [Trans.]
[248] Sūrah al-Anbiyā’ 21:35.
[249] Sūrah al-A‘rāf 7:168.
[250] There are many āyahs in the Qur’an regarding balā. See, for
example, the following āyahs: Sūrah al-Qalam 68:17; Sūrah Muhammad
47:31; Sūrah al-Baqarah 2:155; Sūrah al-Kahf 18:7; Sūrah al-An‘ām
6:165; Sūrah al-Anfāl 8:18; Sūrah al-Fajr 89:15-16.
[251] Hunar-e Shādmāndegī [The Art of Happiness], p. 205.
[252] Ibid., p. 206.
[253] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 245.
[254] Ibid., p. 240.
[255] Ibid., p. 241.
[256] Ibid., p. 242.
[257] Ibid., p. 240.
[258] Sūrah an-Nisā’ 4:79.
[259] Sūrah ar-Rūm 30:41.
[260] Sa‘īd Shāmlū, Behdāsht-e Ravānī [Mental Hygiene] (Tehran:
Intishārāt-e Rushd, 1378 AHS), p. 85.
[261] Imām Ridā: eighth of the Twelve Imāms from the Prophet’s Progeny,
born in 148 AH/765 and died in 203 AH/817 in Tūs (Mashhad). He was
poisoned by the ‘Abbāsid caliph Ma’mūn, who had appointed him as his
successor at first, but then grew fearful of the wide following he
commanded. His shrine in Mashhad is one of the principal centers of
pilgrimage and religious learning in Iran. See Bāqir Sharīf al-Qarashī,
The Life of Imām ‘Ali bin Mūsā al-Ridā, trans. Jāsim al-Rasheed (Qum:
Ansariyan Publications, 2001); Muhammad Jawād Fadlallāh, Imām al-Ridā:
A Historical and Biographical Research, trans. Yāsīn T. al-Jibourī,
http://www.al-islam.org/al-rida/index.html; Muhammad Mahdī Shams
ad-Dīn, “Al-Imām ar-Ridā (‘a) and the Heir Apparency,” At-Tawhīd
Journal, http://www.al-islam.org/al-tawhid/heir.htm.
[262] It refers to the event when the Egyptian woman [Zulaykhā] was
seducing Joseph (‘a) to commit fornication with her. In reply, he
uttered the above statement and as a result he was put behind bars. See
Sūrah Yūsuf 12:33.
[263] Mīzān al-Hikmah, vol. 3, p. 2,023.
[264] ‘Aql va I‘tiqād-e Dīnī: Darāmadī bar Falsafeh-ye Dīn [Reason
and Religious Belief: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion],
p. 197.
[265] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 245.
[266] Loc. cit.
[267] Nahj al-Balāghah, Sermon 28.
[268] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 245.
[269] Loc. Cit.
[270] That is, he is really acting as your friend and well-wisher. It
refers to the porcupine’s habit of exerting its quills when attacked.
See, Nicholson, Book Four, vol. 4, footnote 1, p. 15. [Trans.]
[271] Mathnawī, Book Four, vol. 4, p. 13.
Nicholson, Book Four under Story of the preacher who at the beginning
of every exhortation used to pray for the unjust, hard-hearted and
irreligious, vol. 4, pp. 15, 17. [Trans.]
[272] That is, the carnal nature.
[273] Mathnawī, Book Four, vol. 4, p. 13.
Nicholson, Book Four under Story of the preacher who at the beginning
of every exhortation used to pray for the unjust, hard-hearted and
irreligious, vol. 4, p. 17. [Trans.]
[274] Mathnawī, Book One, vol. 1, p. 37.
Nicholson, Book One under How the disciples raised objections against
the vizier’s secluding himself, vol. 1, p. 67. [Trans.]
[275] Ibid., p. 27.
Nicholson, Book One under Story of the Caliph’s seeing Laylā, vol. 1,
p. 47. [Trans.]
[276] This attack refers to the series of widespread killing, bloodshed
and encroachments of Mu‘āwiyah’s army after the Battle of Siffīn on
cities within the Commander of the Faithful’s (‘a) domain.
Mu‘āwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān was the first caliph of the Umayyad dynasty
(40 AH/662 CE), which ruled the Muslim world after the martyrdom of the
Commander of the Faithful, ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib and the five-month rule of
the second Imām, Hasan ibn ‘Alī (‘a). As the founder of the Umayyad
dynasty (Umayyad is derived from Banī ‘Umayyah, the name of the tribe to
whom he belonged), Mu‘āwiyah revived hereditary monarchy and aristocracy
in sharp contrast and opposition to the rudimentary precepts of Islam.
History is replete with innumerable instances of cruelty and oppression
perpetrated in the world of Islam during the reign of the Umayyads
including the murder, banishment and imprisonment of the followers of
the Prophet’s Progeny [Ahl al-Bayt] (‘a) as epitomized by the
tragedy in Karbala (61 AH) during the reign of Mu‘āwiyah’s son and
second Umayyad caliph, Yazīd. [Trans.]
[277] Ahl adh-Dhimmah is the term used to designate the non-Muslims
living under the protection of the Islamic state. [Trans.]
[278] Nahj al-Balāghah, Sermon 27.
[279] John Stuart Mill (1806-73): son of James Mill—a disciple of
Jeremy Bentham, the father of utilitarianism—is considered one of the
most important thinkers of the 19th century. Mill was the head of the
utilitarian movement and worked actively to promote the rights of
workers and women. His most important work, System of Logic (1834), is
a seminal one. Other works include Principles of Political Economy
(1848), the famous On Liberty (1859), The Subjection of Women
(1869), and Autobiography (1873). Mill was a brilliant child, who at
the age of 14, mastered Latin, classical literature, history,
mathematics, economics, and philosophy. He followed in his father’s
footsteps and became head of the East India Company but then went on to
become a Member of Parliament in 1865. [Trans.]
[280] Utilitarianism: theory of ethics that holds that the rightness or
wrongness of an action is determined by the happiness its consequences
produce. The theory dates from the 18th century thinker Jeremy Bentham,
who believed that actions are motivated by pleasure and pain and that
happiness can be assessed by the quantity of pleasure. His follower John
Stuart Mill later argued in Utilitarianism (1863) that some pleasures
should be sought for their intrinsic quality. He interpreted the
principles of utilitarianism as a basis for the struggle for political
and social reforms. [Trans.]
[281] John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, ed. Roger Crisp (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 57.
[282] Sūrah T&ā-Hā 20:2.
[283] Sūrah Fātir 35:8.
[284] Sūrah at-Tawbah 9:128.
[285] Al-Jāmi‘ as-Saghīr, vol. 2, p. 144.
[286] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 246.
[287] For an overview of the pertinent hadīth on smiling, see Mīzān
al-Hikmah, vol. 1, p. 262.
[288] For information on the viewpoint of religion with respect to
happiness, see Sayyid Hasan Islāmī, “Haqq-e Shād būdan [The Right of
Being Happy],” Zendegī [Life], vol. 2 (Spring 1379 AHS), pp. 4-6.
[289] Mathnawī, Book Two, vol. 2, p. 142.
Nicholson, Book Two, under Story of the desert Arab and his putting
sand in the sack and the philosopher’s rebuking him,vol. 2, p. 335.
[Trans.]
[290] Mathnawī, Book Two, vol. 2, p. 143.
Nicholson, Book Two, under Story of the desert Arab and his putting
sand in the sack and the philosopher’s rebuking him,vol. 2, p. 335.
[Trans.]
[291] Mathnawī, Book Two, vol. 2, p. 144.
Nicholson, Book Two, under Story of the desert Arab and his putting
sand in the sack and the philosopher’s rebuking him,vol. 2, p. 337.
[Trans.]
[292] “Reading ﻓﻀﻞ.” Nicholson, Book Three, vol. 3, footnote 3, p. 293.
[Trans.]
[293] Ibid., vol. 3, p. 125.
Nicholson, Book Three under Explaining (what is signified by) the
far-sighted blind man, the deaf man who is sharp of hearing, and the
naked man with the long skirts, vol. 3, pp. 293, 295. [Trans.]
[294] Donald D. Palmer, Kierkegaard for Beginners (London: Writers
and Readers, 1996), pp. 35-36.
[295] See Sūrah al-Baqarah 2:31-33.
[296] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 13, p. 448.
[297] Ibid., p. 172.
[298] Ibid., p. 451.
[299] Sūrah az-Zumar 39:9.
[300] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 14, p. 358.
[301] Ibid., vol. 17, p. 186.
[302] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 392.
[303] See Sūrah al-A‘rāf 7:175.
[304] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 90.
[305] Following is the text of the hadīth:
دَخَلَ رَسُولُ اللهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِهِ المَسْجِدَ فَإذَا جَمَاعَةٌ قَدْ أَطَافُوا بِرَجُلٍ فَقَالَ: مَا هَذَا؟ فَقِيلَ: عَلَّامَةٌ. فَقَالَ: وَمَا العَلّامَةُ؟ فَقَالوا لَهُ: أَعْلَمُ النَّاسِ بِأَنْسَابِ العَرَبِ وَوَقَائِعِهَا وَأَيَّامِ الجَاهِلِيَّةِ وَالأَشْعَارِ العَرَبِيَّةِ. فَقَال النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِهِ: ذَاكَ عِلْمٌ لا يَضُرُّ مَنْ جَهِلَهُ وَلا يَنْفَعُ مَنْ عَلِمَهُ. ثُمَّ قَالَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِهِ: إنَّمَا العِلْمُ ثَلاثَةٌ: آيَةٌ مُحْكَمَةٌ أَوْ فَرِيضَةٌ عَادِلَةٌ أَوْ سُنَّةٌ قَائِمَةٌ، وَمَا خَلاهُنَّ فَهُوَ فَضْلٌ.
Al-Kulaynī, al-Kāfī, i, “kitāb fadl al-‘ilm”, “bāb sifat al-‘ilm wa
fadluh”, hadith no. 1. For an exposition of this hadīth, see
Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, hadīth 24,p. 385-397.
[306] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 396.
[307] Ibid., p. 391.
[308] Ibid., p. 386.
[309] For information on hadīths that emphasize only the useful
knowledge, see Mīzān al-Hikmah, vol. 3, p. 2094.
[310] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 396.
[311] Ibid., p. 527.
[312] To term knowledge as the legacy of the prophets (‘a) is
relevant to the unanimously accepted hadīth, “ﺍﻠﻌﻠﻣﺎﺀﻮﺮﺜﺔﺍﻻﻧﺒﻳﺎﺀ.”
[The scholars (the knowledgeable ones) are the heirs of the prophets
(‘a)]. [Trans.]
[313] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 413.
[314] Ibid., p. 457.
[315] Ibid., p. 527.
[316] Mathnawī, Book Three, vol. 3, p. 94.
Nicholson, Book Three under Return to the story of Daqūqī, vol. 3, p.
215. [Trans.]
[317] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 527.
[318] Loc. cit.
[319] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 37.
[320] Ibid., p. 38.
[321] Max Weber (1864-1920): German economist and sociologist. His
theories contributed to the formation of modern sociological theory.
Weber considered bureaucracy the crucial component of society and
created an ideal type method for examining different societies. His most
influential work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
(1904-05), deals with Protestantism’s economic aspects. Other works
include From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology and The Theory of Social
and Economic Organization.
[322] Dāneshmand va Siyāsatmadār [Scholar and Politician], p.
136.
[323] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 8.
[324] Nahj al-Balāghah, Sermon 222.
[325] Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth, p. 97.
[326] Loc. cit.
[327] Nahj al-Balāghah, Sermon 193.
[328] Literal translation of the original Persian text is: “He keeps a
distance of many parasangs away from vices such as greed and
jealousy.” Parasang is a unit of length equal to six kilometers.
[Trans.]
[329] Envisioned as a human figure who faced both directions at once
and was thus suited to watch over the doorway, Janus in Roman mythology
is the god of doors and gateways, and also of beginnings, which the
Romans believed ensured good endings. [Trans.]
[330] Latium (or Lazio): the west central region of modern Italy
composed of the provinces of Rome, Frosinone, Latina, Rieti, and Viterbo
on the Tyrrhenian Sea, extending north from the Liri River, on the
western slopes of the Apennines range. [Trans.]
[331] It is to be noted that as the offspring of the ass and horse,
especially a male donkey and a mare, the mule is used as a beast of
burden, and not for procreation and reproduction. [Trans.]
[332] Nādirshāh Afshār (1100-1160 AH): an Iranian king and founder of
the Afshār dynasty. [Pub.]
[333]Shīraveyeh: son of Khusrūparvīz who succeeded him as the king. In
a bid to obtain power, Shīraveyeh killed his own father and ordered the
amputation of his brothers’ hands and feet. After a short period, he
murdered them. [Pub.]
[334]Khusrūparvīz Shāhanshāhī (366-591): Sassanid king and son of
Hormoz IV. ‘Khusrū’ (Khosroe) is a titular name of a number of Sassanid
kings: Khosroe I (Anūshīrvān), Khosroe II (known as Khosroe Parvez), and
Khosroe III (Kuvādh [Qubād] and nephew of Khosroe Parvez). [Pub.]
[335] Sa‘īd Hamīdiān, Shāhnameh-ye Ferdowsī (Tehran: Qitreh, 1375
AHS), vol. 9, pp. 282-283.
[336] Loc. cit.
[337] Simon Dubuar, Naqd-e Hikmat-e ‘Āmyāneh: Ārmāngirāyi-ye Akhlāqī
va Vāqi‘girāyi-ye Siyāsī [Criticism of the Conventional Wisdom:
Ethical Normative Theory and Political Realism], trans. Mustafā Rahīmī
(Tehran: Āgāh, 1354 AHS), p. 45.
[338] Ibid.
[339] Thucydides (460?-400 BC): Historian of ancient Greece. His work
History of the Pelopennesian War (441-404 BC) eloquently communicates
a seemingly accurate account of events in the first 30 years of that
war. Both sides in the conflict are quoted, analyzed, and described in
detail. Thucydides was an Athenian naval general who, upon failure to
defeat the Spartan troops at Amphipolis in the Pelopennesian War, was
exiled (424-404 BC).
[340] Known in the political science and international relations
literature as the Melian Dialogue, a considerable amount of its extract
can be seen in Timothy Dunne, “Realism,” in The Globalization of World
Politics: An Introduction to International Relations, eds. John Baylis
and Steve Smith (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), box 6.1, p.
111. [Trans.]
[341] Thucydides, Tārīkh-e Jang-e Polūpūnezī [History of the
Peloponnesian War], trans. Muhammad-Hasan Lutfī (Tehran: Khwārazmī,
1377 AHS), p. 336.
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, trans. Rex Warner
(London: Penguin Classics, 1980). [Trans.]
[342] Loc. cit.
[343] Ibid., pp. 336-337.
[344] Ibid., p. 337.
[345] Loc. cit.
[346] Niccoló Machiavelli, Shahriyār [The Prince], trans. Dāryūsh
Āshūrī (Tehran: Kitāb-e Parvāz, 1374 AHS), pp. 117-118.
Niccoló Machiavelli, The Prince, trans. G. Bull (Harmondsworth:
Penguin Books, 1984); The Prince, trans. P. Bondanella and M. Musa
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1984); The Prince, ed. Q. Skinner
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988). [Trans.]
[347] Ibid., p. 118.
[348] Ibid., p. 134. In Arabic language, there is a proverb that
accurately conveys this idea: “ﺮﻫﺒﻮﺖ، ﺧﻴﺮٌ ﻣﻦﺮﺣﻣﻮﺖ.” [Terror is better
than mercy].
[349] Pacta sunt servanda: abidance with a treaty in letter and
spirit. [Trans.]
[350] Ibid., p. 129.
[351] Ibid., p. 66.
[352] Ibid., p. 130.
[353] Ibid., p. 88.
[354] Ibid., p. 47.
[355] The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics, p. 301.
[356] Raison d’éstat (‘reason of the state’) means that there may be
reasons for acting (normally in foreign policy, less usually in domestic
policy) which simply override all other considerations of a legal or
moral kind. [Trans.]
[357] Niccoló Machiavelli, Guftārhā [Discourses], trans. Muhammad
Hasan Lutfī (Tehran: Khwārazmī, 1377 AHS), pp. 19-20. Anyone who wants
to have in-depth information on Machiavelli’s thought should read this
book along with The Prince.
[358] For information on the circumstances surrounding the conclusion
of the peace treaty, see Shaykh Rādī Āli-Yāsin, Sulh al-Hasan: The
Peace Treaty of al-Hasan, trans. Jāsim al-Rasheed (Qum: Ansariyan
Publications, 1998), available online at http://www.al-islam.org/sulh.
[Trans.]
[359] Sa‘īd Ayyūb, Az Zhurfā-ye Fitneh-hā [From the Depth of
Seditions], trans. Sayyid Hasan Islāmī (Qum: Markaz-e Barrasīhā-ye
Islāmī-ye al-Ghadīr, 1378 AHS), vol. 2, p. 225.
[360] Ibid., p. 277.
[361]Battle of Siffīn: Battle of Siffīn: This battle was fought in the
year 37 AH between Imām ‘Alī (‘a) and the Governor of Syria
(ash-Shām), Mu‘āwiyah, for the so-called avenging for the killing of
Caliph ‘Uthmān. But in reality it was nothing more than Mu‘āwiyah who
had been the Autonomous Governor of Syria from Caliph ‘Umar’s days not
wanting to lose that position by swearing allegiance to Imām ‘Alī (‘a)
but wanting to keep his authority intact by exploiting the killing of
Caliph ‘Uthmān, for later events proved that after securing the
government he did not take any practical step to avenge ‘Uthmān’s blood,
and never spoke, not even through omission, about the killers of
‘Uthmān. Mu‘āwiyah at the head of an army decided to wage a war against
Imām ‘Alī and when they reached an area close to the Euphrates River,
called Siffīn, he confronted Imām ‘Alī’s troops. The two parties fought
each other in 90 battles. When Mu‘āwiyah found out he could not defeat
Imām ‘Alī, he resorted to a trick contrived by ‘Amr ibn al-‘Ās and told
his men to hang copies of the Qur’an on their swords and at the same
time called for the end of the confrontation through arbitration. The
trick was successful and Imām ‘Alī finally yielded to arbitration. The
Battle of Siffīn lasted for 110 days in early seventh century CE. For a
brief account of the battle, see Nahj al-Balāghah, Sermon 123, “To
exhort his followers to fight,” footnote 1,
http://www.al-islam.org/nahjul/index.htm. [Trans.]
[362] Az Zhurfā-ye Fitneh-hā [From the Depth of Seditions], pp.
590-591.
[363] Ibid., p. 592.
[364] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 3, p. 227. Pākravān, the commander of the
army and head of SAVAK, during an audience with Imam on August 2, 1963
(Mordād 11, 1342 AHS) at ‘Ishrātābād garrison said: “…I took great pains
to obtain a document confirming the relationship between a great
marja‘ and a foreign country; and to this end I even sent an Arab to
see you, but I didn’t find the least evidence of a relationship between
Your Great Eminence and foreign agents. . . Your Eminence is about to be
released, but before that I have to tell you that politics means
cheating and deceiving; politics means lies, hypocrisy and trickery. In
brief, politics means chicanery. These matters are our concern and the
leaders of the clergy must not soil their hands with these things; they
must in no way indulge in politics.” Imām, in response to the latter
part of Pāravān’s comments, said: “From the very beginning we played no
part in the kind of politics of which you speak.” See Barrasī va
Tahlīlī az Nihzat-e Imām Khomeinī,vol. 1, p. 575.
For the full text of the Imām’s speech, see Kauthar: An Anthology of
the Speeches of Imām Khomeinī including an Account of the Events of the
Revolution (1962-1978) (Tehran: Institute for the Compilation and
Publication of Imām Khomeinī’s Works, Winter 1995), pp. 135-145.
[Trans.]
[365] Loc. cit.
[366] State Organization for Security and Information (SAVAK) was
officially established in 1336 AHS [circa 1957] by the explicit order of
Muhammad Ridā Shāh Pahlavī. SAVAK was assigned to suppress any
opposition to the regime and to counteract the Islamic resistance. SAVAK
had close collaboration with the CIA and Mossad. The callosity and
cruelty of the SAVAK in torturing political prisoners was such that the
secretary general of Amnesty International declared in 1354 AHS [circa
1975], “No country in the world has such a dark record of human rights
as Iran!” [Pub.]
[367] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 1, p. 269.
[368] Gladwin, chap. 1, On the Morals of Kings, Tale xix, p. 65. The
whole tale is as follows:
They have related that Nūshīrvān, being at the hunting seat, was about
to have some game dressed, and as there was not any salt, a servant was
sent to fetch some from a village; when the monarch ordered him to pay
the price of the salt, that the exaction might not become a custom, and
the village be desolated. They say to him, “From this rifle, what injury
can ensue?” He replied, “Oppression was brought into the world from
small beginnings, which every new comer has increased, until it has
reached the present degree of enormity. If the monarch were to eat a
single apple from the garden of a peasant, the servants would pull up
the tree by the roots: if the sultan orders five eggs to be taken by
force, his soldiers will spit a thousand fowls. The iniquitous tyrant
remaineth not, but the curses of mankind rest on him forever.
[Trans.]
[369] Discourses, p. 20.
[370] Watergate Crisis: series of scandals involving US Pres. Richard
Nixon and his administration. On June 17, 1972, five men from Nixon’s
reelection committee were arrested as they tried to plant electronic
eavesdropping equipment in the headquarters of the Democratic Party
national committee in the Watergate office building, Washington DC. As a
result of their convictions and the suspicions of Judge John Sirica, who
tried the case, that a conspiracy was being covered up, investigations
were opened that led to Nixon’s inner councils. Though Nixon easily won
reelection in November 1972, his public support eroded as a televised US
Senate investigation continued. Newspaper revelations (notably by Carl
Bernstein and Bob Woodward in the Washington Post) and testimony of
Republican Party and former governmental officials clearly implicated
his and his senior aides in a massive abuse of power and the obstruction
of justice involving campaign contributions, the CIA, the FBI, the
Internal Revenue Service, and other governmental agencies. The House of
Representatives Judiciary Committee voted to impeach Nixon in July 1974,
and his ouster from office became inevitable; on August 19, 1974 he
resigned—the only US president to do so. One month later he was granted
a full pardon by Pres. Gerald Ford. Almost 60 individuals, including
former US Attorney General John Mitchell and senior White House staff
were convicted of Watergate crimes. [Trans.]
[371] Pāyān-e Tārīkh wa Buhrān-e I‘timād: Bāzsināsī-ye Andīsheh-hā-ye
Tāzeh-ye Fukuyama [The End of History and the Crisis of Confidence: A
Review of Fukuyama’s New Ideas], Māhnāmeh-ye Ittilā‘āt-e
Siyāsī-Iqtisādī [Political-Economic Information Monthly Journal], no.
97-98 (Mehr and Ābān 1374 AHS), p. 13.
[372] Loc. cit.
[373] Ibid., p. 15.
[374] See Sayyid ‘Alī Asghar Kāzimī, Akhlāq va Siyāsat: Andīsheh-ye
Siyāsat dar ‘Arseh-ye ‘Amal [Political Thought in the Arena of
Practice] (Tehran: Nashr-e Qums, 1376 AHS), p. 241. * *
[375] Michael Pulanini, “Farāsū-ye Nihilism [Beyond Nihilism],” in
Khirad dar Siyāsat [Wisdom in Politics] (Collection of Articles),
collected, written and translated by ‘Izzatullāh Fūlādvand (Tehran:
Tarh-e Nū, 1376), pp. 223-224.
[376] Akhlāq, Siyāsat va Inqilāb [Ethics, Politics and Revolution],
p. 100.
[377] Loc. cit.
[378] Loc. cit.
[379] “Farāsū-ye Nihilism [Beyond Nihilism],”in Khirad dar Siyāsat
[Wisdom in Politics], p. 224.
[380] Ibid., p. 229.
[381] Sayyid ‘Alī Asghar Kāzimī, Haft Sutūn-e Siyāsat [Seven Pillars
of Politics] (Tehran: Daftar-e Nashr-e Farhang-e Islāmī, 1379), p.
323.
[382] Daniel Shiro, “What transpired in Eastern Europe in 1989,” in
Khirad dar Siyāsat [Wisdom in Politics], p. 515.
[383] See, ibid., p. 518.
[384] Glenn Tinder, Political Thought, trans. Mahmūd Sabūrī (Tehran:
Intishārāt-e ‘Ilmī va Farhangī, 13 74), p. 100.
[385] Plato, The Republic, trans. Fuād Rūhānī (Tehran: Intishārāt-e
‘Ilmī va Farhangī, 1374 AHS), pp. 152-153.
Plato, The Republic (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1974). [Trans.]
[386] Bertrand Russell (1872- 1970): British philosopher, mathematician
and man of letters. Initially a subscriber of idealism he broke away in
1898 and eventually became an empiricist. His most important work was
relating logic and mathematics. His works include The Principles of
Mathematics (1903), Principia Mathematica (3 vols., 1910-1913) in
collaboration with A.N. Whitehead, Marriage and Morals (1929),
Education and the Social Order (1932), An Inquiry into Meaning and
Truth (1940), History of Western Philosophy (1945), and
popularizations such as The ABC of Relativity (1925), as well as his
Autobiography (3 vols., 1967-69). [Trans.]
[387] “Individual and Social Ethics,” in Khirad dar Siyāsat [Wisdom
in Politics], p. 308.
[388] Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971): One of the two US brothers and
leading Protestant theologians, the other being Helmut Richard Niebuhr
(1894-1962). Reinhold Niebuhr was an active socialist in the early
1930s. After World War II he turned back to traditional Protestant
values, relating them to modern society in his ‘conservative realism’.
His Nature and Destiny of Man (2 vols., 1941-43) greatly influenced
American theology. [Trans.]
[389] Politid als Beruf.
[390] Max Weber, Dānishmand va Siyāsatmadār [The Scientist and the
Politician], trans. Ahmad Naqībzādeh (Tehran: Tehran University Press,
1376 AHS), p. 136.
[391] Loc. cit.
[392] Immanuel Kant (1724-1804): German philosopher and founder of
critical philosophy. Though originally influenced by the rationalism of
Leibniz, Kant was awakened from his ‘dogmatic slumber’ by the work of
skeptic David Hume and thus led to greatness as a metaphysician. In
Critique of Pure Reason (1781), Kant proposed that objective reality
(the phenomenal world) can be known only because the mind imposes its
own structure (time and space) on it. Things beyond experience (noumena)
cannot be known, though we may presume to know them. The questions of
the existence of God, immortality, freedom—all metaphysical
questions—cannot be answered by scientific means, and thus cannot be
proved or disproved. But, according to Kant in Critique of Practical
Reason (1788), their existence must be presumed for the sake of
morality. Kant’s absolute moral law states, “Act as if the maxim from
which you act were to become through your will a universal law.” In
Critique of Judgment (1790), beauty and purpose form the bridge
between the sensible and the intelligible worlds that he sharply divided
in his first 2 Critiques. [Trans.]
[393] Immanuel Kant, “Dar Bāb-e Haqq-e Pandārī-ye Durūgh-Guftān beh
Angīzeh-ye Insāndūstāneh [On the Truth of the Notion of Telling Lies
with Humanitarian Motives],” trans. Sayyid Hasan Islāmī, Faslnāmeh-ye
Naqd va Nazar [Criticism and View Quarterly] 6, nos. 1-2 (Winter-Spring
1378-9 AHS), p. 376.
[394] Ibid., p. 379.
[395] Matthew 5:38-42.
[396] Dānishmand va Siyāsatmadār [The Scientist and the
Politician], p. 140.
[397] Ibid., p. 146.
[398] Loc. cit.
[399] Immanuel Kant, Dars-hā-ye Falsafeh-ye Akhlāq [Philosophical
Lessons on Ethics], trans. Manūchehr Sāni‘ī-Darehbīdī (Tehran: Naqsh va
Nigār, 1378 AHS), p. 306.
[400] Immanuel Kant, Bunyād-e Mā Ba‘dat-Tabī‘eh-ye Akhlāq, trans.
Hamīd ‘Ināyat va ‘Alī Qaysarī (Tehran: Khwārazmī, 1375 AHS), p.61.
[401] See, for example, Stephen Cornier, Falsafeh-ye Kant [The
Kantian Philosophy], trans. ‘Izzatullāh Fūlādvand (Tehran: Khwārazmī,
1367 AHS); Sayyid Hasan Islāmī, Durūgh dar Nizām-e Akhlāq-e Islām
[Lie in the Moral System of Islam] (Master’s Degree Thesis on
Philosophy and Kalām [Scholasticism] at the Tarbiyyat Mudarris Center,
1379 AHS); Rechels James, The Elements of Moral Philosophy
(McGraw-Hill, 1993).
[402] Humhrey Carpenter, ‘Īsā [Jesus], trans. Hasan Kāmshād
(Tehran: T+arh-e Nū, 1374 AHS), p. 89.
[403] Ibid., p. 90.
[404] Matthew 10:34.
[405] Matthew 21:12. In the NIV it is Matthew 21:12-13. [Trans.]
[406] Dānishmand va Siyāsatmadār [The Scientist and the
Politician], p. 143.
[407] Ibid., p. 144.
[408] Akhlāq, Siyāsat va Inqilāb [Ethics, Politics and Revolution],
p. 104.
[409] Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832): English philosopher, economist, and
jurist, founder of utilitarianism, a social philosophy whose aim was to
achieve ‘the greatest happiness of the greatest number.’ His major work
was An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation
(1789). Bentham’s ideas were influential in the legal reform in the 19th
century and in the thinking of John Stuart Mill and David Ricardo.
[Trans.]
[410]Quoted in loc. cit.
[411] Ibid., p. 101.
[412] Loc. cit.
[413] Ibid., p. 104.
[414] Francis Neumann, Āzādī, Qudrat va Qānūn [Freedom, Power and
the Law], trans. ‘Izzatullāh Fūlādvand (Tehran: Khwārazmī, 1373 AHS),
pp. 43-44.
[415] Akhlāqiyāt: Mafāhīm-e Akhlāq dar Adabiyyāt-e Fārsī az Sadeh-ye
Sevvum tā Sadeh-ye Haftum-e Hijrī [Moralities: Moral Concepts in the
Persian Literature from the Third to the Seventh Century Hijrī], trans.
Muhammad-‘Alī Amīr-Ma‘zī and ‘Abdul-Muhammad Rūhbakhshān (Tehran:
University Publication Center and Association of French Iranologists in
Iran, 1377 AHS), p. 613.
[416] Of course, the Holy Prophet Muhammad (s) is not included in the
list as he is the best of creation and the model par excellence for the
entire humanity. [Trans.]
[417] See Nahj al-Balāghah, Sermon 5.
[418]‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb was the second caliph who succeeded Abūbakr,
the fisrt caliph. [Pub.]
[419] Muhammad-Bāqir Mahmūdī, Nahj as-Sa‘ādah fī Mustadrak Nahj
al-Balāghah (Beirut: Muassasah al-Mahmūdī, n.d.), vol. 1, p. 155.
[420] ‘Uthmān ibn ‘Affān was the third caliph who succeeded ‘Umar ibn
al-Khattāb. [Pub.]
[421] Nahj al-Balāghah, Sermon 240.
[422] Mughayrah ibn Shu‘bah: born in T+ā’if and became Muslim in 5 AH.
He did not participate in the Battle of Siffīn; Mu‘āwiyah appointed him
as the governor of Kūfah.
[423] Hasan Az-Zayn, Al-Imām ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib (‘a) wa Tajrubah
al-Hukm [Imām ‘Alī (‘a) and the Experience of Governance] (Tehran:
Dār al-Fikr al-Hadīth, 1994), p. 66.
[424]Talhā and Zubayr: among the companions of the Prophet (s) who,
along with ‘Ā’ishah led the Battle of Jamal against Imām ‘Alī (‘a).
The former died in the battle. [Pub.]
[425] Loc. cit.
[426] See Nahj al-Balāghah, Sermon 205.
[427] Shaykh al-Mufīd, Al-Jamal, researched by Sayyid ‘Alī
Mīr-Sharīfī (Qum: Markaz al-I‘lām al-Islāmī, 1374 AHS), p. 166.
[428] See Nahj al-Balāghah, Sermon 73.
[429] Ibid., Sermon 206.
[430] Kharijites: from the Arabic word, khawārij meaning seceders or
dissenters. After the Battle of Siffīn, a group of Muslims who had
fought with Imām ‘Alī in the battle split off from his army and using
the slogan “No command except God’s” sought to kill him. This group
became known as the Kharijites [Khawārij]. [Pub.]
[431] See Nahj as-Sa‘ādah fī Mustadrak Nahj al-Balāghah, vol. 2, p.
276.
[432] See Nahj al-Balāghah, Maxim 420.
[433] Ibid., Letter 47.
[434] Ibid., Sermon 200.
[435] Ibid., Sermon 41.
[436]Vacláv Havel (1936- ), Czech playwright and political leader,
elected president of Czechoslovakia in 1989. A resistance leader under
the Communist regime from the mid-1960s until 1989, he was repeatedly
jailed, and his works (such as the play The Memorandum, 1965) were
banned. Michael D. Harkavy, ed. The New Webster’s International
Encyclopedia: The New Illustrated Home Reference Guide (Florida:
Trident Press International, 1996), p. 481. [Trans.]
[437]Vacláv Havel, Yād-dāsht-hā-yī dar Bāb-e Akhlāq, Siyāsat, Tamaddun
dar Dūrān-e Tahavvul [Memorandum on Ethics, Politics and Civilization
during the Periods of Transformation], Muhammad Rafī‘ī Mehrābādī
(Tehran: Intishārāt-e ‘Ilmī va Farhangī, 1374 AHS), p. 28.
[438] Ibid., p. 13.
[439] Ibid., p. 22.
[440] Loc. cit.
[441] Loc. cit.
[442] Ibid., p. 23.
[443] Ibid., p. 26.
[444] Mahatma Gandhi, Hameh-ye Mardum Barādarand [All People are
Brothers], trans. Mahmūd Tafaddulī (Tehran: Amīr Kabīr, 13 61 AHS), p.
139.
[445] Loc. cit.
[446] C.A.J. Coady, “Politics and the Problem of Dirty Hands,” in A
Companion to Ethics, ed. Peter Singer (Basil: Blackwell, 1991), p.
382.
[447] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 4, p. 190.
[448] Ibid., vol. 3, p. 237.
[449] Loc. cit.
[450] Ibid., vol. 18, p. 423.
[451] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 14, pp. 527-528.
[452] It refers to the statement of the Messenger of God (s), “One
who spends the night without having concern on the affairs of Muslims is
not a Muslim.”
[.ﻤﻦﺍﺼﺑﺢ ﻮ ﻠﻢﻴﻬﺗﻢ ﺑﺎﻤﻮﺮﺍﻠﻤﺴﻠﻤﻴﻦﻔﻠﻴﺲ ﺒﻤﺴﻠﻢ].
[453] Ibid., vol. 4, p. 9.
[454] Ibid., vol. 1, p. 271.
[455] Ibid., vol. 1, p. 271.
[456] Al-Bay‘, vol. 2, p. 472.
[457] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 15, p. 214.
[458] Ibid., vol. 13, p. 432.
[459] Khātirāt bā Dū Sidā: Kuftigū-ye Ely Weasel bā François
Mitterrand [Memoirs with Two Voices: Dialogue between Ely Weasel and
François Mitterrand], trans. ‘Abbās Āgāhī (Tehran: Daftar-e Nashr-e
Farhang-e Islāmī, 1377 AHS), p. 171.
[460] Del-Ārā Qahremān, Sad Hikāyat-e Zen [Hundred Zen Stories]
(Tehran: Nashr-e Mītrā, 1377 AHS), p. 143. See Reginald Huras Blithe,
Dars-hāyī az Ustādān-e Zen [Lessons from Zen Masters], trans. Nasrīn
Majīdī (Tehran: Hīrmand, 1379 AHS), p. 140.
[461] The story is narrated in the Mathnawī as follows:
Listen to a tale of the chronicler, in order that you may get an
inkling of this veiled mystery. A snake-catcher went to the mountains
to catch a snake by his incantations. Whether one be slow or speedy (in
movement), he that is a seeker will be a finder… He was searching round
about the mountains for a big snake in the days of snow. He espied there
a huge dead dragon, at the aspect whereof his heart was filled with
fear. (Whilst) the snake-catcher was looking for snakes in the hard
winter, he espied a dead dragon… The snake-catcher took up that snake
and came to Baghdad for the sake of (exciting) astonishment. In quest of
a paltry fee he carried along a dragon like the pillar of a house,
saying, “I have brought a dead dragon: I have suffered agonies in
hunting it.” He thought it was dead, but it was alive, and he did not
see it very well. It was frozen by frost and snow: it was alive, but it
presented the appearance of the dead… The snake-catcher, with a hundred
pains, was bringing the snake along, till (at last) the would-be showman
arrived at Baghdad to set up a public show at the crossroads. The man
set up a show on the bank of the Tigris, and a hubbub arose in the city
of Baghdad—“A snake-catcher has brought a dragon: he has captured a
marvelous rare beast.” Myriads of simpletons assembled, who had become a
prey to him as he (to it) in his folly. They were waiting (to see the
dragon), and he too was waiting for the scattered people to assemble.
The greater the crowd, the better goes the begging and contributing
(of the money). Myriads of idle babblers assembled, forming a ring,
soul against soul. Man took no heed of woman: on account of the throng
they were mingled together like nobles and common folk at the
Resurrection. When he (the snake-catcher) began to move the cloth (which
covered the dragon), the people in the crowd strained their throats
(necks), and (saw that) the dragon, which had been frozen by intense
cold, was underneath a hundred kinds of coarse woolen cloths and
coverlets. He had bound it with thick ropes: that careful keeper had
taken great precaution for it. During the delay (interval) of
expectation and coming together, the sun of Iraq shone upon the snake.
The sun of the hot country warmed it; the cold humors went out of its
limbs. It had been dead, and it revived: from astonishment (at feeling
the sun’s heat) the dragon began to uncoil itself. By the stirring of
that dead serpent the people’s amazement was multiplied a hundred
thousand-fold. With amazement they started shrieking and fled en masse
from its motion. It set about bursting the bonds, and at that loud
outcry (of the people) the bonds on every side went crack, crack. It
burst the bonds and glided out from beneath—a hideous dragon roaring
like a lion. Many people were killed in the rout: hundreds of heaps were
made of the fallen slain. The snake-catcher became paralyzed with fear
on the spot, crying, “What have I brought from the mountains and the
desert?” The blind sheep awakened the wolf: unwittingly it went toward
its ‘Izrā’īl (angel of death). The dragon made one mouthful of that
dolt: blood-drinking (bloodshed) is easy for Hajjāj. It would and
fastened itself on a pillar and crunched the bones of the devoured
man.
Nicholson, Book Three under Story of the snake-catcher who thought the
frozen serpent was dead and wound it in ropes and brought it to
Baghdad,vol. 3, pp. 109, 111, 115, 117. [Trans.]* *
[462] Mathnawī, Book Three, vol. 3, pp. 53-54.
Nicholson, ibid., p. 117. [Trans.]
[463] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 14, p. 379.
[464] Khātirāt bā Dū Sidā [Memoirs with Two Voices], p. 171.
[465] Ibid., p. 177.
[466] Loc. cit.
[467] Ibid., p. 183.
[468] Loc. cit.
[469] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 18, p. 206.
[470] Loc. cit.
[471] Ibid., vol. 19, p. 250.
[472] For example, see Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 1, p. 269; vol. 8, p.
185; vol. 9, p. 177; vol. 10, p. 124; vol. 13, p. 431.
[473] Ibid., vol. 5, p. 40.
[474] Ibid., vol. 3, p. 227.
[475] Wilāyat-e Faqīh, p. 16.
Imām Khomeinī, Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist, trans.
Hamīd Algar (Tehran: The Institute for Compilation and Publication of
Imām Khomeinī’s Works, Autumn 2002), p. 16. Electronic version of the
whole book is downloadable at the Institute’s Translation Unit
Website,
http://www.geocities.com/icpikw/wilayat.zip. [Trans.]
[476] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 21, pp. 402-403.
[477] Ibid., vol. 3, p. 338.
[478] Ibid., vol. 18, p. 72.
[479] Ibid., vol. 17, p. 204.
[480] Loc. cit.
[481] Ibid., vol. 13, p. 432.
[482] Ibid., vol. 10, p. 15.
[483] Ibid., vol. 13, p. 130.
[484] Ibid., vol. 16, p. 161.
[485] Ibid., vol. 5, p. 531.
[486] Ibid., vol. 5, p. 533.
[487] Ibid., vol. 13, pp. 431-432.
[488] Ibid., vol. 1, p. 271.
[489] Ibid., vol. 4, p. 9.
[490]Ibid., vol. 4, p. 447.
[491] Ibid., vol. 13, pp. 130-131.
[492] Ibid., vol. 13, p. 142.
[493] Goftārhā [Discourses].
[494] Sūrah Maryam 19:54.
[495] For example, Sūrah an-Nisā’ 4:69: “All who obey
Allah and the Messenger are in the Company of those on whom is the Grace
of Allah, of the Prophets (who teach) [an-nabiyyīn], the Sincere (lovers
of Truth) [as-siddīqīn], the Witnesses (who testify), and the Righteous
(who do good): Ah! What a beautiful Fellowship!” (‘Abdullāh Yūsuf
‘Alī’s translation) [Trans.]
[496] See Tuchihiko Izutsu, Mafāhīm-e Akhlāqī-Dīnī dar Qur’ān-e Majīd
[Ethical-Religious Concepts in the Glorious Qur’an], trans. Farīdūn
Badreh-ī (Tehran: Farzān, 1378 AHS), p. 197.
[497] Ibid., p. 198.
[498] Ibid., p. 184.
[499] Loc. cit.
[500] Council of Guardians: the council constituted for the
safeguarding of Islamic laws and the Constitution and verifying the
compatibility of legislation passed by the Islamic Consultative Assembly
(the Iranian Majlis or Parliament) with them. Composed of six competent
and just jurists and six other legal experts in various branches of the
law, the council members are elected by the Leader for a period of six
years. See Articles 91-99 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of
Iran. [Trans.]
[501] Supreme Judicial Council: the council constituted to carry out
the responsibilities of the judiciary. After the amendment of the
Iranian Constitution ratified on July 26, 1989, this highest judicial
body is vested in a single person. Article 157, as amended,
stipulates:
“The Leader shall appoint a mujtahid, possessing integrity and
administrative and problem-solving abilities, and well-versed in
judicial affairs as the Head of the Judiciary for a period of five
years, to carry out the judicial, administrative and executive
responsibilities of the judiciary. His will be the highest judicial
office.” [Trans.]
[502] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 18, p. 241.
[503] Sir Karl Raimund Popper (1902- ): Austrian-born English
philosopher, best known for his theory of falsification in the
philosophy of science. Popper contends that scientific theories are
never more than provisionally adopted and remain acceptable only as long
as scientists are devising new experiments to test (falsify) them. He
attacks the doctrine of historicism (presuming to understand phenomena
entirely through their development) in The Open Society and Its
Enemies (1945) and The Poverty of Historicism (1957).
[504] Karl Popper, At-Tasāmih wa’l-Mas’ūliyyah al-Fikriyyah: Majmū‘ah
Maqālāt at-Tasāmih bayn ash-Sharq wa’l-Gharb: Dirāsāt fī at-Ta‘āyish
wa’l-Qabūl bi’l-Ākhar, trans. Ibrāhīm al-‘Arīs (Beirut: Dār as-Sāqī,
1992), p. 99.
[505] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 14, p. 92.
[506] Ibid., p. 93.
[507] Ibid., vol. 18, p. 7.
[508] Bertolt Brecht (Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht; 1898-1956):
German Marxist playwright and poet, who revolutionized modern theater
with his production techniques and concept of epic theater. He left Nazi
Germany in 1933, returning to East Berlin in 1948 to found the Berliner
Ensemble. His plays include The Threepenny Opera (1928), The Life of
Galileo (1938), Mother Courage (1939), and The Caucasian Chalk
Circle. [Trans.]
[509] Bertolt Brecht, Andīshehā-ye Mātī [Matthew’s Ideas], trans.
Behrām Habībī (Tehran: Āgāh, 1377 AHS), p. 88.
[510] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 19, p. 157.
[511] Mathnawī, Book One, vol. 1, p. 144.
In the Mathnawī the tattooist continues to say:
O brother, endure the pain of the lancet,
That you may escape from the poison of your miscreant self [nafs],
For sky and sun and moon bow in worship
To the people who have escaped from self-existence.
Any one in whose body the miscreant self has died,
Sun and cloud obey his command.
Since his heart has learned to light the candle (of spiritual knowledge
and love),
The sun cannot burn him.
God hath made mention of the rising sun as turning aside—
Like that—from their cave.
The thorn becomes entirely beautiful, like the rose,
In the sight of the particular that is going toward the Universal.
What is (the meaning of) to exalt and glorify God?
To deem yourself despicable and (worthless) as dust.
What is (the meaning of) to learn the knowledge of God’s Unity?
To consume yourself in the presence of the One.
If you wish to shine like day,
Burn up your night-like self-existence.
Melt away your existence, as copper (melts away) in the elixir,
In the Being of Him who fosters (and sustains) existence.
You have fastened both your hands tight on (are determined not to give
up) “I” and “we”:
All this (spiritual) ruin is caused by dualism.
Nicholson, Book One under How the man of Qazwin was tattooing the
figure of a lion in blue on his shoulders, and (then) repenting because
of the (pain of the) needle-pricks,vol. 1, p. 325. [Trans.]
[512] “ﺍﺤﺐﺍﺧﻮﺍﻧﻰ ﺍﻠﻰﻣﻦ ﺍﻫﺪﻯﺍﻠﻰﻋﻴﻮﺑﻰ. ” Mīzān al-Hikmah, vol. 3, p.
2207.
[513] Hendry Waissinger, Hīchkas Kāmil Nīst [Nobody is Perfect],
trans. Parīchehr Mu‘tamad-Garchī (Tehran: Fīrūzeh, 1378 AHS), p. 123.
[514] Golestān-e Sa‘dī, p. 175.
Gladwin, chap. 7, Rules for Conduct in Life, Tale xxx, p. 357.
[Trans.]
[515] Loc. cit. The whole tale is as follows:
Everyone thinks his own wisdom perfect and his child beautiful. A Jew
and a Muslim were disputing in a manner that made me laugh. The Muslim
said in wrath, “If this deed of conveyance is not authentic, may God
cause me to die a Jew!” The Jew said, “I make oath on the Pentateuch,
and if I swear falsely, I am a Muslim like you.” If wisdom was to cease
throughout the world, no one would suspect himself of ignorance.
[Trans.]
[516] René Descartes (1596-1650): French mathematician, scientist, and
philosopher, often referred to as ‘the father of modern philosophy.’ A
dualist who believed the world was composed of 2 basic substances
(matter and spirit), he ignored accepted scholastic philosophy and
stated a person should doubt all sense experiences; but if a person can
think and doubt, he or she therefore exists. Descartes stated his belief
in his famous phrase, cogito, ergo sum (“I think, therefore I am.”)
This skeptical philosophy is called Cartesianism and is detailed in
Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy (1641). His other major
works include the Discourse on Method (1637) and Principles of
Philosophy (1644). Descartes also attempted to explain the universe in
terms of matter and motion and invented analytic geometry. [Trans.]
[517] Quoted in Muhammad-‘Alī Farūghī, Sīr-e Hikmat dar Urūpā [Trend
of Wisdom in Europe] (Tehran: Zuvār, 1360), vol. 1, p. 213.
[518] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 17, p. 246.
[519] Sāyeh, Hāfiz (Tehran: Kārnāmeh, 1375), p. 181.
[520] Karen Hurney, ‘Asabiyyat va Rushd-e Ādamī [Prejudice and Human
Growth], trans. Muhammad-Ja‘far Musaffā (Tehran: Behjat, 1373 AHS), p.
95.
[521] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 17, p. 246.
[522] Ibid., vol. 14, p. 401.
[523] Ibid., vol. 13, p. 198.
[524] Frank Bruno, Farhang-e Tūsīfī-ye Istilāhāt-e Ravānshināsī
[Descriptive Dictionary of Psychological Terms], trans. Muhshīd Yāsā’ī
and Farzāneh-ye T&āhirī (Tehran: Tarh-e Nū, 1373 AHS), p. 297.
[525] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 21, p. 20.
[526] Ibid., vol. 14, pp. 145-146.
[527] Ibid., vol. 8, p. 512.
[528] “.ﻜﻠﻜﻢﺮﺍﻉ ﻮ ﻜﻠﻜﻢﻣﺴﺌﻮﻞ ﻋﻦﺮﻋﻴﺗﻪ ” Bihār al-Anwār, vol. 72, p. 38.
[Pub.]
[529] Murtadā Mutahharī, Dah Guftār [Ten Sayings] (Tehran:
Intishārāt-e Sadrā, n.d.), p. 93.
[530] Ibid., p. 94.
[531] See Sūrah al-Kahf 18:60-82. [Trans.]
[532] Loc. cit.
[533] Murtadā Mutahharī, Mas’aleh-ye Hijāb [The Islamic Modest
Dress] (Tehran: Intishārāt-e Sadrā, n.d.), p. 71.
[534] Ibid., p. 40.
[535] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 20, p. 36.
[536] Mathnawī, Book Four, vol. 4, p. 12.
Nicholson, Book Four under The story of the preacher who at the
beginning of every exhortation used to pray for the unjust and
hardhearted and irreligious,vol. 4, p. 15.
[537] It is based on the explanations of the late Dr. Muhammad
Khazā’ilī on Golestān as quoted by Ghulām-Husayn Yūsufī in the
explanations of Golestān-e Sa‘dī, p. 44.
[538] Tadhkirah al-Awliyā’, p. 265.
[539] Kīmyā-ye Sa‘ādat [The Alchemy of Happiness], vol. 1, p.
434.
[540] It refers to the Friday congregational prayers.
[541] Kīmyā-ye Sa‘ādat [The Alchemy of Happiness], vol. 1, p.
435.
[542] See Golestān-e Sa‘dī, Part Seven, pp. 162-168.
[543] Hāfiz, p. 262.
[544] Ibid., p. 470.
[545] Golestān, Part Two, pp. 88-89.
[546] That is, he performs flattery and pretension.
[547] Literally it means ‘to this one and that one.’ [Trans.]
[548] Mathnawī, Book Five, vol. 5, p. 168.
Nicholson, Book Five under How the enraged Amir set out to punish the
ascetic, vol. 5, p. 415. The rest of the poem is as follows:
If he is mad and bent on mischief (literally, ‘digging up (searching
for) mischief’),
The cure for a madman is an ox-hide whip (literally, ‘veretrum
tauri’),
So that the devil may go forth from his head:
How should an ass go (forward) without the ass-drivers’ blows?”
The Amir dashed out, with a mace in his hand:
At midnight he came, half-intoxicated, to the ascetic.
In his rage he wished to kill the ascetic,
(But) the ascetic hid beneath (some) wool.
The ascetic, hidden under the wool belonging to certain rope-makers,
Heard that (threat) from the Amir.
He said (to himself), “(Only) the mirror that has made its face hard
*Can tell a man to his face that he is ugly. *
It needs a steel face, like a mirror,
To say to thee, ‘Behold thy ugly face’.” [Trans.]
[549] Sūrah al-Hadīd 57:23.
[550] Nahj al-Balāghah, Maxim 439.
[551] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 4, pp. 396-397.
[552] Lashk Kolakovski, Dars-hā-ye Kūchak dar Bāb-e Maqūlāt-e Buzurg
[Simple Lessons concerning Great Subjects], trans. Rushān Vazīrī
(Tehran: T&arh-e Nū, 1377 AHS), p. 85.
[553] Nahj al-Balāghah, Sermon 209.
[554] Sūrah al-A‘rāf 7:32.
[555] Sūrah al-A‘rāf 7:31.
[556] For further information on these etiquettes of the Prophet (s),
see ‘Allāmah Sayyid Muhammad Husayn T&abātabā’ī, Sunan an-Nabī
[Traditions of the Prophet] (Tehran: Kitābfurūshī-ye Islāmiyyeh, 1370
AHS), pp. 91-92.
[557] Tadhkirat al-Awliyā’, p. 53.
See Arberry, Muslims Saints and Mystics,p. 30. [Trans.]
[558] Ibid., pp. 53-54.
See Arberry, Muslims Saints and Mystics,pp. 30-31. [Trans.]
[559] T&ā’if is the name of a city situated on the southern part of the
Arabian Peninsula, 12 parsang east of Mecca. T&ā’if’s honey is famous
for its excellent quality. [Pub.]
[560] Nahj as-Sa‘ādah fī Mustadrak Nahj al-Balāghah, vol. 1, p.
332.
[561] Hijāz: the region in Western Arabia that includes Mecca and
Medina. [Pub.]
[562] Yamāmah: another region in the Arabian Peninsula. [Pub.]
[563] Nahj al-Balāghah, Letter 45.
[564] Ibid., Sermon 209.
[565] Loc. cit.
[566] Hāfiz, p. 35.
[567] Will(iam James) Durant (1885-1981): US educator and popular
historian. He wrote the bestseller The Story of Philosophy (1926) and,
with his wife Ariel (1898-1981) the 11-volume Story of Civilization.
[Trans.]
[568] Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832): German poet, novelist,
and playwright. His monumental work ranges from correspondence and poems
to 14 volumes of scientific studies and is crowned by Faust (part I,
1808; part II, 1833), written in stages during 60 years, in which he
synthesized his life and art in a poetic and philosophical statement of
the search for complete experience and knowledge. Among his best-known
novels are The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) and The Apprenticeship
of Wilhelm Meister (1795-96). [Trans.]
[569] Will(iam James) Durant, Lidhdhāt-e Falsafeh [The Joys of
Philosophy], trans. ‘Abbās Zaryāb (Tehran: Intishārāt va Āmūzesh-e
Inqilāb-e Islāmī, 1369 AHS), p. 212.
[570] Shaykh at-Tā’ifah Muhammad ibn Hasan at-Tūsī, Tahdhīb al-Ahkām,
ed. ‘Ali Akbar Ghaffārī (Tehran: Nashr-e Sadūq, 1376 AHS), vol. 6, p.
371.
[571] Ibid., p. 372.
[572] Loc. cit.
[573] See ibid., pp. 372-373.
[574] Nahj al-Balāghah, Maxim 163.
[575] See ibid., Maxim 319.
[576] D.T. Suzuki, Zen va Farhang-e Zhāponī [Zen and the Japanese
Culture], trans. A. Pāshā-ī (Tehran: Nashr-e Mītrā, 1378 AHS), p. 65.
[577] Ibid., pp. 294-295.
[578] Kim Wu Chung, Sangfarsh-e har Khiyābān az T&alā ast [The
Cobblestone of Every Street is from Gold], trans. Muhammad Sūrī
(Tehran: Intīshārāt-e Sīmīn, n.d.), p. 259.
[579] Ibid., p. 263.
[580] Ibid., p. 260.
[581] Ibid., p. 263. It is said that this book is the collection of
the writer’s life experiences and strivings, which after publication has
more than 1 million copies being sold within two years.
[582] For further explanation on these elements, see Murtadā Mutahharī,
Sīrī dar Nahj al-Balāghah [A Survey of the Nahj al-Balāghah]
(Tehran: Sadrā, 1376 AHS), p. 232.
[583] Sayyid Hasan Mudarris [1859-1938] was one of the greatest
religious and political figures in the recent history of Iran. He
received his elementary education in Isfahān and then traveled to the
cities of the holy shrines (the cities of Iraq where certain of the
Imāms are buried: Najaf, Karbalā and Kāzimayn, and to a certain extent
some others) where he received further education from such scholars as
Mullā Muhammad Kāzim Khurāsānī and, after graduation to the level of
ijtihād, he returned to Isfahān and began teaching Islamic
jurisprudence [fiqh] and principles [usūl]. In 1909, at the time of
the Second National Assembly, he entered Parliament having been chosen
by the marāji‘ at-taqlīd and the ‘ulamā’ of Najaf as one of the five
mujtahids who were to oversee the law-making procedures. At the time
of the Third National Assembly, he was chosen as a Member of Parliament.
When Ridā Khān carried out his coup d’état, Mudarris was arrested and
sent into exile, but after being freed he was again chosen by the people
and again entered Parliament. In the Fourth National Assembly, he headed
the opposition majority against Ridā Khān. At the time of the Fifth and
Sixth National Assemblies, he opposed the proposal for the establishment
of a republic, which Ridā Khān was in favour of, to replace the
constitutional government, and he dissuaded the Parliament from
approving it. He was resolute in his stand against the stubborn Ridā
Khān, such that the Shah hired an assassin to kill Mudarris and when he
escaped the attempt, he sent him first into exile in the remote town of
Khāf near the Afghan border, and later in Kāshmar, where eleven years
later in Ramadān 1938, the agents of the Shāh poisoned him. In this way,
one of the greatest political and religious personalities of Iran was
martyred in the way of Allah. Mudarris possessed outstanding qualities,
and even though he was a man of great political and religious influence,
he lived very simply. Imām Khomeinī always spoke of him with a great
deal of respect. The Leader of the Revolution, on the occasion of the
renovation of Mudarris’ grave, wrote: “At a time when pens were broken,
voices silenced and throats gripped, he never ceased from revealing the
truth and abolishing falsehood....this feeble scholar, weak in body but
strong in a spirit joyful from belief, sincerity and truth, and
possessing a tongue like the sword of Haydar Karrār (Imām ‘Alī), stood
in front of them and shouted out the truth and disclosed the crimes,
making life difficult for Ridā Khān and blackening his days. Finally, he
sacrificed his own pure life in the way of dear Islam and the noble
nation, and was martyred in exile at the hands of the oppressive Shāh’s
executioner and joined his virtuous forefathers.” [Trans.]
[584] Ridā Khān, the founder of the Pahlavī dynasty in Iran, likewise
known as Ridā Shāh and the father of Muhammad Ridā, staged a coup in
Iran in 1299 AHS [1920] based on a plan devised by the British. In the
year 1925, he was crowned. Before staging a coup, he was the commander
of a unit of “Cossacks” in the city of Qazvīn. In 1941, when Iran was
occupied by the Allied Forces, Ridā Shāh abdicated, as was ordered by
the Allied leaders, in favour of his son, Muhammad Ridā Pahlavī whom the
Allied leaders deemed an appropriate person to rule over Iran. The
political atmosphere, resulting from these changes, paved the way for a
five-year-long liberalization. These charades were being organized based
on the plans by the British government and executed by their agents. The
British also ordered Ridā Shāh into exile on Mauritius Island south of
Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Ridā Shāh finally died in 1944 in
Johannesburg, South Africa. [Trans.]
[585] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 16, pp. 451-453.
[586] Ibid., vol. 9, p. 190.
[587] Ibid., vol. 8, p. 429.
[588] Ibid., vol. 4, pp. 219-220.
[589] Ibid., vol. 18, pp. 452-453.
[590] Peykan is the brand name of automobile manufactured in Iran for
many years, which is noted for being ‘old-fashioned’ and ‘outmoded’.
[Trans.]
[591] Ibid., vol. 19, p. 318.
[592] For information on these power symbols, their functions and
deceptions, see Hoyle Dalton and Cincinnati Watts, Human Relations
(Ohio: Southwestern Publishing House, 1992), pp. 216-219.
[593] Loc. cit.
[594] Nahj al-Balāghah, Letter 45.
[595] Sahīfeh-ye Imām, vol. 18, p. 471.
[596] Ya‘qūb ibn Layth as-Saffārī: founder of the Saffārī dynasty in
Iran who resisted against the ‘Abbāsid caliphate. [Pub.]
[597] Ibid., vol. 12, p. 351.
[598] Ibid., vol. 8, pp. 381-382