Mulla Sadra's Seddiqin Argument For the Existence of God

Part One: Mulla Sadra and His Philosophical Views

Background

Later Developments in Islamic Philosophy

The Western world's interest in learning about Islamic philosophy was, in the past, centered on the active influence of Muslim thinkers upon the historical formation of Christian scholastic philosophy in the Middle Ages. In order to study the philosophical ideas of such thinkers as Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus in their historical perspectives one must become acquainted with a detailed and accurate knowledge of the thought of at least Avicenna (980-1037) and Averroes (1126-1198). Any adequate history of medieval Western philosophy, in consequence, should include an important chapter on the history of Islamic philosophy.

Quite characteristically, however, the "history" of Islamic philosophy-viewed from the usual Western perspective-practically comes to an end with the death of Averroes, leaving the reader with the impression that Islamic philosophic thought itself also ceased when that Andalusian Arab thinker died. In reality, what came to an end was only the first phase of the whole history of Islamic philosophy. That is to say, what ceased to exist after Averroes was simply the living influence of Islamic philosophy upon the formative process of Western philosophy. With the death of Averroes, Islamic philosophy ceased to be alive for the West, but this does not mean that it ceased to be alive for the East, as well.

It is important in this connection to remark that even those "histories" of Islamic philosophy written not as a chapter in the history of Western philosophy but for their own sake, have been largely dictated by the idea that the golden age of Islamic philosophy is the period of three centuries extending from Farabi (872-950) to Averroes, and that after Averroes, in the ages subsequent to Mongol invasion, except for few isolated prominent figures (like Ibn Khaldun, for example), the Muslim world produced nothing but commentators and super-commentators-a long series of lifeless and mechanical repetitions, without any spark of real creativity and originality.

That this is not a true picture of the historical facts has amply been made clear by the remarkable work done by scholars like Henri Corbin and Seyyed Hossein Nasr concerning the intellectual activity of the Safawid Dynasty. It is at any rate quite recently that the Orientalists in general have begun to realize that philosophical thinking in Islam did not fall irretrievably into decadence and fossilization after the Mongol invasion.

In fact, the truth of the matter is that we can go to the extent of asserting without exaggeration that a kind of philosophy which deserves to be regarded as typically and characteristically Islamic developed not so much before the death of Averroes as after.

This typically Islamic philosophy arose and matured in the periods subsequent to the Mongol invasion, until in the Safawid period in Iran it reached the apex of vigorous creativity. This peculiar type of Islamic philosophy which grew up in Iran among the Shi'ites has come to be known ashikmat or theosophy (lit. "Wisdom"). We can trace the origin ofhikmat back to the very beginning of the above-mentioned second phase of the history of philosophy in Islam.

Hikmat is structurally a peculiar combination of rational thinking and Gnostic intuition, or, we might say, rationalist philosophy and mystical experience. It is a special type of scholastic philosophy based on existential intuition of Reality, a result of philosophizing the Gnostic ideas and visions obtained through intellectual contemplation. Historically speaking, this tendency toward the spiritualization of philosophy finds its origin in the metaphysical visions of Ibn 'Arabi and Suhrawardi. In making this observation, however, we must not lose sight of the fact thathikmat is also, at least in its formal make-up, a rationalist philosophy having a solid and strictly logical structure. And in this latter aspect, it goes beyond Ibn 'Arabi and Suhrawardi back to Avicenna in the first phase of the history of Islamic philosophy.

Hikmat , having as it does these two distinctive aspects, must be approached from two different angles, in order properly to analyze its formative process: (1) as a purely intellectual activity, and (2) as something based on trans-intellectual, gnostic experiencedhawq "tasting" as the mystics call it - of the ultimate Reality.

Mulla Sadra and the development of Islamic philosophy1

More than any other factor, the discovery of Sadr al-Din Shirazi (known usually as Mulla Sadra) has been responsible for the new awareness in the West of the continued vitality of Islamic philosophy after the so-called medieval period. While the name Mulla Sadra (or sometimes even Sadra) has been a household word in Persia, Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent during the past centuries, he remained nearly completely unknown in the West until the beginning of this century. The only exceptions to this were a few passing references to him by European travelers to the East and the important pages devoted to him by Comte de Gobineau in his now classic Les philosophies et les religions dans l'Asie centrale.2 Then during the early decades of this century, Muhammad Iqbal, Edward G.Browne and Max Horten3 turned the attention of the community of Islamicists in the West to him although the students of Islamic and medieval thought had as yet to awaken fully to the importance of his works.

It was only the discovery of Suhrawardi and through him of Mulla Sadra by Corbin that finally provided the key for the serious introduction of Mulla Sadra to both the orientalists and the philosophers in the West. When Corbin first journeyed to Persia after the Second World War in quest of the teachings of Suhrawardi, he was not aware of the rich philosophical tradition of the Safavid period to which the writings of the master of the school of Illumination (ishraq) would naturally lead him. But soon he discovered a world of metaphysics and traditional philosophy of men such as Mir Damad and Mulla Sadra to which he devoted most of his energy for two decades.4 Besides his numerous other studies on Mulla Sadra, he was the only scholar up to his day to have translated a complete work of his into a European language.5

Following Corbin, the English writings of Toshihiko Izutsu6 and the works of Seyyed Hosein Nasr7 have further spread the interest in Mulla Sadra. Finally, some years ago the first book in English devoted completely to Mulla Sadra saw the light of day, written by the Pakistani scholar, Fazlur Rahman. The book itself is the first fruit of the new interest which over a long period the works of the authors cited above had begun to awaken in him. This interest is now shared by other scholars.8 Moreover, numerous

studies, translations and analyses of various aspects of the writings of Sadr al-Din are now under way in both Europe and America, as well as in the Islamic world, particularly in Iran where a major revival of interest in his works is under way.

***

The study of the writings of Mulla Sadra presents certain difficulties which are not easy to surmount and which have driven many scholars away into less forbidding and more familiar fields of research. There is first of all the question of the availability of his writings. Until about thirty years ago, only the most famous works such as the Asfar and al-shawahid al-rububiyyah were available in lithograph editions of such formidable character that to find the beginning of a particular chapter or discussion itself required long periods of study. However, many of Mulla Sadra's works remained either in manuscript form or in unsatisfactory editions. Even his most important opus, the Asfar, does not possess a critical edition despite the indefatigable efforts of 'Allamah Tabataba'i who over a period of nearly ten years edited nine volumes of this vast work.

It is also important to recall the extensive nature of Mulla Sadra's writings - over forty works covering thousands of pages and dealing with nearly every question of metaphysics, cosmology, eschatology, theology and related fields. As we shall see later in this study, the writings of Mulla Sadra are devoted not only to traditional philosophy but also to Quranic commentary, hadith, and other religious sciences. Moreover, in the domain of traditional philosophy, they deal not only with one school of thought, but with the whole heritage of Islamic intellectual life. These factors, added to the innate difficulty of the doctrines involved, have made it well nigh impossible even for scholars who are specialists in Mulla Sadra to have well-grounded knowledge of all of his writings. It takes nearly a lifetime to gain intimate knowledge of even one or two of his basic works. Practically no scholar could claim to have carefully studied and mastered all of his works. For a long time, Sadrian studies will continue to be different glimpses of a vast mountain from different perspectives, rather than an exhaustive survey. The more serious studies are those which penetrate in depth into certain aspects or particular works of the Master. One can hardly expect today a study which is at once profound and all embracing, even by those who have spent a lifetime in the study in Mulla Sadra.

Another major problem in the study of Mulla Sadra which would be understandable and acceptable to the Western reader is his relation to the whole tree of the Islamic tradition of which he is a late fruit. It is of course possible to discuss Sadr al-Din's metaphysical ideas and doctrines in the light of their innate truth, but by and large the Western reader expects the author of these doctrines to be related to the traditional background from which he rose. Mulla Sadra often quotes from a vast spectrum of authors -from the pre-Socratics, Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus to the early Islamic philosophers, as well as from Sufis, the Illuminationists, theologians and religious authorities in the fields of Quran and hadith. One could and in fact should compose a separate work on Mulla Sadra as a historian of ideas and philosophy. But even if one is not specifically concerned with this aspect of Mulla Sadra, one can hardly succeed in expounding the teachings of Mulla Sadra without recourse to such figures as Ibn Sina, Suhrawardi, Ibn Arabi and Damad. Ideally, the writings of Mulla Sadra should be expounded in the West only after scholars have elucidated fully the metaphysical and philosophical teachings of all of these and many other of the earlier masters of Islamic thought, a situation which is very far from being the case.

A final problem in presenting the teachings of Mulla Sadra is the question of language. Because Ibn Sina and other Prepatetics were translated into Latin, it is not difficult to develop an adequate vocabulary to discuss their works in modern European languages. The problem becomes more difficult with Suhrawardi and Ibn 'Arabi because for several centuries Western languages have been little concerned with metaphysical and gnostic doctrines of order connected with the schools of these masters; in fact these schools have developed in quite the opposite direction. With Mulla Sadra, the problem becomes yet more difficult because of the total lack of precedents in expounding such doctrines in modern languages. There is a danger of reducing, through the use of inappropriate language, a doctrine of great metaphysical sublimity to a bland and harmless philosophical teaching, as the word "philosophical" is understood in its purely human and profane modern sense. To write of Mulla Sadra's doctrines in English is to forge the container as well as to pour the contents from one vessel into another; and this is what I want to do with an important subject of his philosophy in this research.

Despite all of those obstacles and problems, the teachings of Mulla Sadra have to be and can be presented to the contemporary world.

Notes:

[^1]: In these three pages I have had some benefit of one part of the book, Sadr al-Din Shirazi and his Transcendent Theosophy, written by Seyyed Hosein Nasr in 1978 (1357 A.H. solar) and is published secondly in Tehran by Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies in 1997. However, I thank the publisher for his permission to bring briefly these pages from the book.

[^2]: See Comte de Gobineau, Les religions et Les philosophies dans I'Asie centrale, Paris, 1866 and 1923.

[^3]: Iqbal in his Development of Metaphysics in Persia, London, 1908, devoted much effort to expounding the writings of Sabzawari, specially his Asrar al-hikam, but, since Sabzawari is the commentator par excellence of Mulla Sadra, this study naturally helped to focus attention upon Mulla Sadra himself. Browne in the fourth volume of his monumental A Literary History of Persia, vol. IV, Cambridge, 1924, new edition 1969, pp. 429-32, also spoke of the sage from Shiraz and was instrumental in spreading his name although he knew little of his actual teachings.

Max Horten was the first European to devote a complete work to Mulla Sadra and in fact composed two separate books on him. See Horten, Die Gottesbeweise bei Schirazi, Bonn, 1912, and Horten, Das philosophische System von Schirazi (1640), Strassburg, [^1914]: These works did not, however, receive as much attention as one would have expected.

[^4]: On the intellectual life Corbin and his discovery of Mulla Sadra, see S.H. Nasr, “The Life and Works of the Occidental Exile of Quest of the Orient of Light”. Sophia Perennis, vol. III, no.1, 1977. pp. 88-106. On the works of Corbin see S.H. Nasr (ed.), Melanges efforts a Henry Corbin, Tehran, 1977, pp. iii-Xs.

[^5]: See Corbin, Le livre des penetrations metaphysiques. Tehran-Paris, 1964, which contains the French translation of Mulla Sadra's major epitome of ontology, the Kitab al-masha'ir.

[^6]: See especially his The Concept and Reality of Existence, Tokyo, 1971

[^7]: See S.H. Nasr, Islamic Studies, Beirut, 1966. "Mulla Sadra" in the Encyclopedia of Philosophy; and S.H. Nasr (ed.), Mulla Sadra Commemoration Volume, Tehran, 1380/1961.

[^8]: See Fazlur Rahman, The Philosophy of Mulla Sadra, Albany (N.Y.), 1977. This book, although quite scholarly, is based completely on a more or less "philosophical" interpretation of the writings of Mulla Sadra without recourse to the living oral tradition connected with his school and without consideration of the intellectual and spiritual background from which he rose or of the gnostic and mystical elements which are essential to his teachings.

Fazlur Rahman’s book contains three parts. Part one: “Ontology” in five chapters:

(1)The Metaphysics of Existence; (2) Essence; (3) the Nature of Causation; (4)God-world Relationship; and (5) Movement, Time, and World-Order. Part two, “Theology”. (1) God’s Nature; and (2) God’s Attributes. Part three, “Psychology: Man and His Destiny” with chapters: (1) Nature of the Soul; (2)Theory of Knowledge: I; (3) Theory of Knowledge: II, Perception and Imagination; (4) Theory of Knowledge III; The Intellect, and (5) Eschatology.

The Intellectual Background of Mulla Sadra

The appearance of an intellectual figure of the dimensions of Sadr al-Din Shirazi during the Safavid period indicates the presence of a strong living intellectual tradition whose deepest currents he was to bring so brilliantly to the surface. Mulla Sadra (as he is usually called) is a metaphysician and sage of outstanding stature who cannot be taken in isolation and separated from the tradition that produced him. The historical and philosophical research of the past twenty years has only now begun to reveal some of the features of the intellectual tradition to which Mulla Sadra belonged.1

The tree is, however, judged by the fruit it bears, and even if we do not as yet know all the branches of the tree we can judge from the fruit the nature of the long tradition that finally produced Mulla Sadra. In order to learn something of this tradition we must go back a few centuries to the fourth/tenth and fifth/eleventh centuries when the early phase of Islamic intellectual life reached to its peak both in philosophy with Ibn Sina and in Sufism and theology with such masters of the Seljuq period as Khwajah `Abdullah Ansari and Sana'i in Sufism and Imam al-Haramayn Juwayni inkalam or theology. The teachings of these early masters of Sufism andkalam have become a permanent heritage of the Islamic world, perhaps most of all through the writings of Ghazzali.

This early period of Islamic intellectual history is mush better known than the later epoch with which we are concerned. We know how the Peripatetic (mashsha'i) school reached its early phase of maturity with Ibn Sina and continued during the fifth/eleventh century with his immediate disciples like Bahmanyar and Juzjani. We also know that at time the political centralization brought about by the Seljuqs and the re-strengthening of the Abbasid caliphate combined with the spread of the Nizamiyyah madrasah system favored the study ofkalam over philosophy and brought into being a period of nearly two centuries during which the center of the intellectual stage was occupied by theologians of great stature and acumen who severely attacked philosophy. Some, like Ghazzali, were also Sufis and others like Fakhr al-Din Razi were first and last theologians.2

It is the later phase of the intellectual life of Islam, especially in the eastern lands ofdar al-islam , that is not as well known and remains aterra incognita waiting to be explored. The West still accepts the view that Ghazzali in theTahafut al-falasifah (The Incoherence of the Philosophers ), put an end to philosophy in Islam except in Andalusia where it survived for some time through the influence of Ibn Rushd.3 Unfortunately, despite all the evidence that has been discovered during the last decades, this fallacious view continues to be taught in both the West and in those Muslim universities where the concept of Islamic philosophy is adopted from Occidental sources.4

What remains much less known, however, is the revival of Islamic intellectual life in the eastern lands of Islam, especially in Persia. During the sixth/twelfth and seventh/thirteenth centuries, this was made possible by the establishment of new intellectual schools by Suhrawardi and Ibn Arabi, followed by the resurrection of Ibn Sina's teachings during the middle decades of the seventh/thirteenth century by Khwajah Nasir al-Din Tusi. The background of Mulla Sadra must be sought in these schools as well as in the Sunni and shi'ite schools, ofkalam as developed from the seventh/thirteenth to the tenth/sixteenth centuries.

The four classical schools of the post-Mongol period, namely, the peripatetic (mashshai ). the Illuminationist (ishraqi ), the gnostic ('irfani ) and the theological (kalam ), with all the inner variations contained in each of them, developed extensively during the four centuries preceding Mulla Sadra and also approached each other, preparing the ground for the major synthesis be brought about. To understand the background of Mulla Sadra, it is necessary to delve into the development of each of these schools as well as the interactions that occurred between them during this very rich and at the same time most neglected period of Islamic intellectual life, from the seven/thirteenth through the tenth/sixteenth centuries.

Let us begin with the Peripatetic school. The works of the earlier masters of this school, especially those of the outstanding spokesman of the Muslim Peripatetic, Ibn Sina, underwent a thorough criticism and attack at the hands of both Sufis and theologians. The Sufis such as Sana'i and Rumi criticized in a general way the rationalistic tendencies of the human mind and the attempt made by the philosophers to reach Divine Knowledge with the help of the Aristotelian syllogism. Certain theologians like Ghazzali made the attack more pointed by selecting specific topics which they analyzed and refuted with the claim that these views went against the tenets of religion. Or they chose specific works of the philosophers which they likewise sought to criticize through textual analysis. This last method was carried out by Fakhr al-Din Razi, who chose the last masterpiece of Ibn Sina, theal-Isharat wa'l-tanbihat (The Book of Directives and Remarks ) for detailed criticism, analyzing every page and nearly every word and phrase.

During the seventh/thirteenth century, Nasir al-Din Tusi revived the school of Ibn Sina by answering these attacks, especially in hisSharh al-isharat (Commentary upon the Directives and Remarks) , which is a landmark in the revival of mashsha'i philosophy. This monumental work matches Ibn Sina's own writings as an authoritative source for the doctrines of this school. Nasir al-Din also wrote many works of his own following the teachings of Ibn Sina. Nor was he alone in this undertaking. Nasir al-Din's own students and colleague, Qutb al-Din Shirazi, although not only a Peripatetic philosopher, wrote the voluminous philosophical encyclopediaDurrat al-taj (The Jewel of the Crown) in Persian, following the model of theShifa' (The Book of Remedy) of Ibn Sina, while his student, Qutb al-Din Razi, wrote hisMuhakamat (Trials) as a "trial" between the commentaries of Fakhr al-Din Razi and Nasir al-Din Tusi upon the Isharat.

As for theishraqi school, it was founded by Shaykh al-ishraq Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi.5 Despite a short life of thirty eight lunar years he established a new intellectual perspective and exercised an immense influence in the eastern lands of Islam, and especially upon Mulla Sadra. Suhrawardi created a theosophy based on illumination, but also in a certain sense based upon Ibn Sina's philosophy. He also created an isthmus between discursive thought and mystical intuition. The school founded by him soon found capable followers and commentators, although Peripatetic in Tendency. He commented upon Suhrawardi'sHayakil al-nur (The Temples of Light) , while even Nasir al-Din before him was influenced in certain aspects of his thought by Suhrawardi. Mulla Sadra was deeply cognizant of this tradition and in fact wrote glosses upon Qutb al-Din's commentary of theHikmat al-ishraq .

When we come to consider gnosis or*'irfan* , the seventh/thirteenth century marks a golden age and a kind of return to the beginning of Islam and its spiritual intensity.6 Such spiritual giants as Ibn 'Arabi, Sadr al-Din Qunyawi, and Jalal al-Din Rumi were nearly contemporaries. It is, however, especially the Sufism of the school of Ibn 'Arabi with its doctrinal and highly intellectual form that was of great influence upon Mulla Sadra.

As forkalam , both Sunni and Shi'ite theology underwent an important phase of development at this time. As far as Sunnikalam is concerned, the centuries immediately

preceding Mulla Sadra represent a major creative phase after Fakhr al-Din Razi, during which the works of such men as Qadi 'Adud al-Din Iji were produced, codifyingkalam in a form that continued until the twelfth/eighteenth century in the subcontinent. In fact it continues to be taught to this day in many Sunni schools.

Shi'iteKalam in its systematic form was born during this period. It was, however, Nasir al-Din Tusi who with his Tajrid produced the first systematic work on Shi'itekalam , to be followed by his student 'Allamah Hilli and many other scholars who at this time hailed mostly from Hillah and Jabal Amil. In fact, a very large number of commentaries and glosses were written upon theTajrid before Mulla Sadra, from that of Hilli to glosses of Fakhri and of others who belonged to the period one or two generations before Sadr alDin. These commentaries, still for the most part neglected, form the border line between theology and philosophy and contain in themselves four centuries of the history of an important aspect of Islamic thought.

It was at this time that the four schools of thought mentioned above were penetrating Shi'ite thinking, this very significant phenomenon prepared the ground for the Safavid renaissance with its specifically Shi'ite color. The foremost figure of this period is Seyyid Haydar Amuli, who sought to harmonize Sufism and Shi'ism and to show their essential unity, a theme which forms the basis of his major opus, Jami'al-asrar (The Sum of Divine Mysteries). But he was also a commentator of theFusus al-hikam (Bezels of Wisdom) of Ibn 'Arabi and represents an important instance of the remarkable process whereby the teachings of Ibn 'Arabi became absorbed into the intellectual perspective of Shi'ism.

Sayyed Haydar Amuli was not the only figure in this process, although he was perhaps the most important one. Some Shi'ite theologians turned towardsishraqi and mashsha'i philosophy and some tried to harmonize them, as can be seen in the case of Sa'in al-Din ibn Turkah Isfahani, author ofTamhid al-qawa'id (The Preparation of Principles) , who was the first person to synthesize the teachings of Ibn Sina, Suhrawardi and Ibn 'Arabi, thereby anticipating in a certain way the achievement of Mulla Sadra.

During the period stretching from the Mongol invasion to the establishment of the Safavid regime, we thus see, on the one hand, a development of the classical Islamic intellectual schools and, on the other, attempts to bring these schools together. During this period it is possible to observe all kinds of combinations of these schools. Through the development of each of these disciplines as well as their interplay, the ground was prepared for the Safavid renaissance and the synthesis brought about by Mulla Sadra.

The immediate background of Mulla Sadra is to be found in the first generation of Safavid sages, who finally prepared the stage for his vast intellectual synthesis. With the coming of the Safavids, the state religion of Persia became Shi'ism, and Shi'ite scholars, brought from many places including Bahrayn, Iraq and Jabal 'Amil in Lebanon, soon strengthened Persian Shi'ite centers of learning and caused the religious sciences to flourish. The revival of Shi'ism itself made possible the renaissance of the intellectual sciences (al-'ulum al-'aqliyyah ) because they had been intimately linked with the Shi'ite dimension of Islam from the early centuries of Islamic history.8

Of course a certain amount of tension between the scholars of the exoteric sciences and the sages (hukama' ) continued and is reflected in Mulla Sadra's autobiographical treatise, theSih asl (The Three Principles) . This was an inevitable consequence of the presence of a philosophy that had turned toward Sufism and gnosis and had gained an esoteric color. But the revival of this theosophy, orhikmat-i ilah as it has been known in Persia and the subcontinent, was not in spite of Sihi'ism but because of it, notwithstanding the difficulties caused in certain cases by the exoteric authorities. The connection between thishikmat-i ilahi and the Shi'ite vision of the Universe is too deeply rooted to be disregarded. There is a causal link between them, although Shi'ism, because it possessed an exoteric as well as esoteric aspect and had become the official state religion, reacted to a certain extent in its exoteric aspect against some of the purely esoteric formulations of theosophy such as the transcendent unity of being (wahdat al-wujud ). This reaction was similar to that which has been observed in Sunni circles among some of the jurisprudence (fuqaha' ). But it was also Shi'ism which integrated this theosophy into the curriculum of its madrasahs, so that to this day traditional theosophy is taught in such schools, and the traditional masters of Islamic philosophy are for the most part products of these schools. Moreover, to the structure of this theosophy is linked in general in a most intimate manner Islamic esotericism. Without the inspiration and spiritual vision that can come only from the esoteric dimension of Islam, this theosophy could never have come into being or been able to resuscitate in the light of a living gnosis the sapiental doctrines of the ancients.

In the tenth/sixteenth century, within the bosom of the new Shi'ite atmosphere of Persia, a series of outstanding philosophers and theosophers appeared, some of whom were the teachers of Mulla Sadra. A few of these figures have not been studied at all, until now, while others like Mir Damad, Mir Findiriski, Shaykh Baha' al-Amili and Sayyid Ahmad Alawi are very famous at least in the East, although most of even their works have not been fully studied. Among these figures Mir Damad is especially important as the founder of the "School of Isfahan" in which Mulla Sadra was trained.9

Mir Muhammad Baqir Damad was able to light once again the torch of traditional philosophy in Isfahan and at the same time to stave off the possible criticism of some of the exoteric authorities. He brought to life a Suhrawardian interpretation of Avicenna's philosophy, about which he wrote many books and which he taught to a generation of students in Isfahan, among them Mulla Sadra.

When the young Mulla Sadra came to Isfahan, he entered a climate where the intellectual sciences could be pursued alongside the "transmitted" or religious sciences (alulum al-naqliyyah ) and where there were in fact masters who were authorities in both domains. This was due most of all to Mir Damad, but the other outstanding figures of this era such as Mir Findiriski and Shaykh Baha' al-Din 'Amili also shared this distinction. The Isfahan of Mulla Sadra's day, and also to a large extent his own Shiraz and other major cities of Persia, were now able to provide a traditional education where, within the matrix of Shi'ite religious studies,hikmat-i ilah i could also be studied and mastered. Most of the teachers of this "divine science" were in Isfahan, but other cities were not completely deprived of them, least of all Shiraz.

When, therefore, we look back upon the intellectual background of Mulla Sadra, we observe nine centuries of Islamic theology, philosophy and Sufism which had developed as independent disciplines in the earlier centuries and which gradually approached each other after the seventh/thirteenth century, becoming steadily more integrated within the matrix of Shi'ism. Mulla Sadra was an heir to this vast intellectual treasure and was fully conscious of its doctrines, methods and problems. He thought and lived with questions such as the relation between faith and reason that had occupied Muslim thinkers from the early Mu'tazilites and al-Kindi onward. He meditated upon metaphysical and cosmological problems within an intellectual space whose dimensions were charted by such figures as Ibn Sina, Ghazali, Suhrawardi and Ibn 'Arabi.

Mulla Sadra studied the past fervently, not as dead past, but as permanent intellectual perspectives that continued to be relevant within the living tradition of Islam. Having absorbed these teachings thoroughly, he then set about to create a synthesis and a new intellectual dimension, the "transcendent theosophy" (al-hikmat al-muta 'aliyah ), which was not just an eclecticism, a putting together of different theories and views, but a new school based upon a fresh interpretation of the traditional verities. It was a school that was at once new and traditional, such as can be produced only by a veritable reviver (mujaddid ) of traditional teachings, who is able to renovate a doctrine because of a new and fresh vision of the transcendent truths which the traditional doctrines reveal and expound. Mulla Sadra was a mujaddid; through the prism of his luminous intellect a new intellectual perspective was born which was at once profoundly Islamic and attuned to both the logical demands of the mind and the requisites of the spiritual vision that made possible through the opening of the "eye of the heart" (al- 'ayn al-qalb or chishm-i dil ). Mulla Sadra possessed that rare combination of perfect religious faith, acutely logical mind and a "heart" inclined by nature towards the contemplation of the supernal verities that made possible the founding of a school such as that of the "transcendent theosophy". He created a body of teachings in which the theological, philosophical, mystical and gnostic schools in Islam were at last harmonized after they had undergone their full elaboration. Seen in this light, Mulla Sadra represents one of the crowning achievements of nearly a millennium of intellectual life and restates in an explicit and outwardly manifested form the unity that dominates the Islamic message and has been implicit and ever present from the very beginning of the Islamic revelation in all the true expressions of Islamic intellectuality.

Notes:

1. Foremost among scholars who have studied the few centuries preceding Mulla Sadra is Henry Corbin, who has devoted many monographs to the period between Suhrawardi and Mulla Sadra and has also edited a major text (with Osman Yahia) of Sayyid Haydar Amuli which belongs to this period. See Sayyed Haydar Amoli. La philosophie shi'ite, ed. by H. Corbin and O. Yahia, TehranParis, 1969. This large volume contains the Arabic text of Jami al-asrar. , which is a major document of the intellectual tradition preceding Mulla Sadra. There is also an important introduction on the author and his influence. Other works concerned with the centuries preceding Mulla Sadra include Mustafa Kamil al-Shaybi. al-Silah bayn al-tasawwuf wa'l-tashayyu, 2 vols., Baghdad, 1963-64; al-Shavbi, al-Fakr al-shi'i wa'l-naza'at al-sufiyyah, Baghdad, 1966; S.H. Nasr, Three Muslim Sages, Cambridge (Mass.), 1964 and Albany, 1976; S.H. Nasr, Islamic Studies, Beirut, 1966; S.H. Nasr, "Suhrawardi" in M.M. Sharif (ed.), A History of Muslim Philosophy, Wiesbaden, 1963, pp. 372-98; Sadr al-Din Shirazi. Risalah si asl, Tehran, 1340 (A.H. solar), introduction by S.H. Nasr.

2. Nasr Three Muslim Sages, Chapter I.

3. Even this early period of Islamic philosophy is usually studied without taking into consideration all its richness. See H. Corbin (with the collaboration of S.H. Nasr and O. Yahya). Histoire de la philosophie islamique, vol. I, Paris, 1964).

4. See S.H. Nasr, Islamic Studies, Chapters 8 and 9.

5. Concerning Suhrawardi see the three prolegomena of H. Corbin to Opera Metaphysica et Mystica of Suhrawardi, vol. I, Tehran, 1976; vol. II, Tehran, 1977; vol. III, Tehran, 1977, the first two volumes edited by Corbin and the third by S.H. Nasr. These are new editions of these volumes which had appeared earlier in Istanbul and Tehran-Paris. See also S.H. Nasr, Three Muslim Sages, chapter II; Nasr, "Suhrawardi" in M.M. Sharif, op. cit.; and Nasr's Persian preface to Majmu'ay-i athar-i farsi yi Suhrawardi (Opera Metaphysica et Mystica, vol. III). See also Corbin, En Islam iranien, vol. II, Paris 1972; and his Sohravardi, L'Archange empourpre, Paris. 1976.

6. This important question, which concerns the "return" of a tradition to its golden age during a particular phase of its development, which is also a "fall" from its origin, has been discussed by F.Schuon in several of his works. See, for example his In the Tracks of Buddhism, trans. Marco Pallis, London, 1968, p.153; and Islam and the perennial philosophy, trans. J.P. Habson, London, 1976, PP. 25-26. For a general but penetrating treatment of this question see also his Light on the Ancient Worlds, trans. by Lord Northbourne, London, 1965.

7. On Ibn 'Arabi see T. Burckhardt, La sagesse des prophetes. Paris, 1955 and 1976; Corbin, L'imagination creatrice dans le soufisme d'Ibn'Arabi, Paris, 1977; T. Izutsu, A Comparative Study of the Key Philosophical Concepts in Sufism and Taoism - Ibn 'Arabi and Lao-Tzu, Chuang-Tzu, Part One, Tokyo, 1966; Nasr, Three Muslim Sages, Chapter III.

8. On the relation between Shi'ism and the intellectual sciences see S.H. Nasr, Science and Civilization in Islam, New York, 1970, introduction; and S.H. Nasr. An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines, London, 1978, introduction.

9. Concerning Mir Damad and the school of Ispahan see H. Corbin. "Confessions extatioues de Mir Damad". Melanges Louis Massignon. Damascus, 1956, pp. 331-78: his "Mir Damad et l'Ecole Theologique d'Ispahan au XVII Siecle". Etudes Carmelitaines, 1960; pp. 53-71; Corbin. En Islam iranien, vol. IV, Paris. 1973, pp. 9-53; S.H. Nasr, "The School of Ispahan", in M.M. Sharif (ed.), A History of Muslim Philosophy, vol., II, Wiesbeden, pp. 904-32. We have dealt with the general history of philosophy, theology and Sufism in the Safavid period in a long chapter that is to appear in volume six of the Cambridge History of Iran. No extensive monographic study has as yet been published on Mir Damad. S. 'A i Musawi Bihbahani, S.I. Dibaji and M. Muhaqqiq (Mohaghegh) are preparing the critical edition of his Qabasat, which will be the first of his works to have a modern critical edition. On the background of Mulla Sadra see also the two introductions of Sayyid Jalal al-Din Ashtiyani to Mulla Sadra's al-Shawahid al-rububiyyah, Mashhad, 1346 (A.H solar), Sharh risalat al-masha'ir of Mulla Sadra by Mulla Muhammad Jafar Lahijani (Langarudi 1964/1384), and several other studies contained in various introductions to his works cited in the next chapter.