Homayon Shekari; Ebrahim Rahimi Zangene; vahid mobarak
Abstract
Abstract In the current research, writers aim to specify that Ruzbahan has used "Eltebas" with the meaning that "Plotinus" have used emanation. "Eltebas" is a Peculiar Lexicon in Ruzbahan Baqli-e-Shirazi's Intellectual System. He has Used This Metaphorical Title for naming appearance of God. In his point ...
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Abstract In the current research, writers aim to specify that Ruzbahan has used "Eltebas" with the meaning that "Plotinus" have used emanation. "Eltebas" is a Peculiar Lexicon in Ruzbahan Baqli-e-Shirazi's Intellectual System. He has Used This Metaphorical Title for naming appearance of God. In his point of view, due to Eltebas, right, appears in the universe. This Thought has been seen previously in Greece philosophy, especially in Plato & Plotinus 'ideas have entered Islam world via translation of his work, companionship with Christians,…and had had an impression on intellectual stream of the Islam World. Ruzbahan's ideas about the relationship between creator & creatures are close to Plato& Plotinus's ideas in a way that they have the same allegory. By considering cultural exchanges between East & west Mediterranean it has to be said that this similarity is in a way that it proves that Ruzbahan had been impressed with these Greek philosopher. And it's not false to call him "Neo-platonic". Muslims were familiar with Plato’s (347 BC) name, his beliefs, and his works, but Plotinus (270 CE) does not appear in their work. In certain works of Islamic philosophy as well as those of sects and creeds, a person is mentioned as “the Greek master.” In contemporary scholarships, it has been determined that this person was Plotinus (see Badawi 1955:1). The Greek master is mentioned in Ṣiwān al-ḥikma, Al-ḥikmat al-khālida and Al-milal wa-l-niḥal, where some of his remarks are cited. The author of Al-ḥikmat al-khālida refers to the Greek master as having a particular philosophy, although he does not refer to his main beliefs (see Miskawayh 1358:216). It should be acknowledged that “in the history of Islamic philosophy, Plotinus was undoubtedly one of the most influential Greek philosophers, who was directly or indirectly considered throughout the history of philosophy in Islam” (Pourjavadi 1378:98). Some scholars have gone so far as to suggest that he is at least as influential as Aristotle (322 BC): “his influence in the Islamic thought is not by any means less than that of Aristotle” (Badawi 1955:2). Of Plotinus’s work, his Enneads (nine essays) is available to us. Summaries of the fourth, fifth, and sixth essays were translated into Arabic in the third century AH (ninth century CE) under Theologia. In this research, this work is more important than Enneads, because Muslims learned about Plotinus’s views through this Arabic translation. The essay was translated by a Christian scholar ‘Abd al-Masīḥ ibn ‘Abd Allāh Nā‘ima al-Ḥimṣī(third century AH). The work was misattributed to Aristotle (see Badawi 1955:1-18). It should be noted that Muslims’ acquaintance with Plotinus’s doctrines was not limited to Theologia. In fact, “they were familiar with the work of other Neo-Platonists, particularly Pyrphyry and Proclus” (Pourjavadi 1387:104). With these preliminaries and having in mind that a sort of unity in creation is articulated in the work translated from Plotinus and his studies into Arabic, it can be said that the most prominent impact of Plotinus on Muslims is where the theory of the unity of existence is developed (see O’Leary 1374:42). Plotinus says there is no doubt that we should not talk about observations, but about the observer and the observed, and one should dare talk about the pure unity (Stace 1388:243). On this account, it should be acknowledged that, in addition to Muslim philosophers, Islamic mysticism, particularly beauty-centered mysticism, is influenced by Plotinus’s doctrines. 2. Methodology and Material The method of research here is based on historical method and content analysis. We first examined data about how the Greek intellectual heritage, particularly that of Plato and Plotinus, was transmitted to eastern neighbors of Greece and Rome. We have then examined the understanding of eastern intellectuals, particularly Rūzbahān Baqlī Shīrāzī. It is noteworthy that, of different dimensions of the impact of the heritages of Plato and Plotinus, this research focuses on the relation between the one and phenomena. We conclude that Rūzbahān was influenced by Plotinus’s views. 3. Results and Discussion A problem raised in Plato’s and then in Plotinus’s philosophy is whether the Monad (the unified essence) is related with creatures? In discussions of his theory of Forms, Plato has deployed the metaphor of “participation” (methexis) in answering the question. This was strongly opposed by his student Aristotle. Later, Plotinus combined their views to provide a more rational structure of the issue. He explains the presence of the “one” in the world by drawing upon the metaphor of “emanation” or “issuance.” Plotinus likens the one to a bright volume from which light and warmth emanates involuntarily and without it undergoing a diminution or multiplicity. In this way, he describes how the one is related with other stages of creation. With this revision, Plato’s view found a less flawed form in Neo-Platonic philosophy. Rūzbahān Baqlī Shīrāzī (606 AH/1209 CE) was influenced by Plotinus’s doctrines. In his work, he was inspired by Neo-Platonic theology. An investigation of this reveals the great extent to which beauty-oriented mystics were influenced by Greek philosophical theology. For this reason, it is necessary to specify different dimensions of this influence. The outline of Rūzbahān’s intellectual system led him to offer an answer to the problem of the relation between the creator and creatures in line with his religious beliefs. He portrays the original creation in the same way as Neo-Platonic philosophers. He suggests that the creation is constituted by necessity and the principle of emanation, but instead of equivalents of “emanation” or “issuance,” he uses the term “iltibās” (clothing). (Baqlī Shīrāzī 1389:53-54) 4. Conclusion Drawing upon the notion of “participation,” Plato tried to argue that creatures participate in the divine essence. Thus, the world was portrayed as a fundamental unity, despite its multiplicity. Just like Plato, Plotinus believed in unity in multiplicity. Plato recognized that there is a separation between the worlds of ideas and senses in Plato’s view, Plotinus deployed “issuance” or “emanation” in his theory. In his view, the world results from the issuance of the one, where issuance does not lead to diminution, multiplicity, imperfection, and the like. Unity in multiplicity was characteristically acceptable to Muslims, as it was based on Quranic doctrines. The theory was deployed by philosophers and then mystics. Rūzbahān is obviously influenced by Plotinus’s theory. In his view, the creation of the world begins from God, and then ends in reason, spirit, and finally matter. The process is explained in line with Plotinus’s philosophy in his ‘Abhar al-‘āshiqīn and Sharḥ shaṭaḥiyyāt. In contrast to emanation, he uses the term iltibās. He views the mundane world as the abode of iltibās, which is God’s manifestation in the world. In other words, God’s iltibās is the manifestation or revelation of divine essence in sensible things. This is inevitable in the course of creation. On this account, Rūzbahān’s description of the creation of the world corresponds to Plotinus’s doctrines as they are generally received in the Islamic world, which indicates Rūzbahān Baqlī Shīrāzī’s evident influence from Plotinus’s views. Rūzbahān should, thus, be deemed a Neo-Platonic philosopher.
Abdolrasool Hasanifar
Abstract
Designing an ideal state or a city in which the desirable situation of the human society has been illustrated and the way to its realization is an issue and concern that all the thinkers who have come up with a comprehensive view of their times have followed. To put it in more general terms, it can be ...
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Designing an ideal state or a city in which the desirable situation of the human society has been illustrated and the way to its realization is an issue and concern that all the thinkers who have come up with a comprehensive view of their times have followed. To put it in more general terms, it can be said that this ideal state is a kind of human desire at all times and places so that the human can transcend the present state of the society, in which problems, frustrations and suffering have been added, into an ideal society, not imaginary, to achieve the best opportunities in the city or in other words, human happiness in all fields.Many thinkers have designed a form of the ideal state in their thought. Plato, the Greek philosopher of the Ancient Period, and Muḥammad Iqbāl, an Iranian-Islamic thinker in contemporary times, are among these thinkers who have designed a form of the ideal state in their thought.Despite such a common tendency in designing the ideal state, the type, purpose and principles of this ideal state and the relation between poetry and philosophy are distinct and different in each case. In this regard, considering the importance of this issue and the influence of the thought of the two abovementioned thinkers in our time and territory, the attempt to recognize the ideal state of Plato and Muḥammad Iqbāl, and the differences and the reasons for it, can be the source of many of our time issues.One of the most important aspects of the difference of the thought between these two thinkers is the different view on the role of the poetry and its relation to the philosophy in the ideal state. Accordingly, in this paper, it has been attempted from this point of view that the thought of these two thinkers is examined in a hermeneutic method to explain the reasons for and why this different relation appears in the ideal state.A hermeneutic method and reading the text are used to examine this issue. In other words, it attempts to address the issue by asking questions and research questions against the texts of two thinkers.Accordingly, after a brief introduction of two thinkers and influential foundations of their thought, article describes the ideal state and various aspects of it. In the following, the reasons for the difference in their view of the poetry and poets in relation to the philosophy have been examined.In general, both thinkers in designing their ideal state firstly describe the present situation and problems of their time, and with pathology, they are seeking out and attaining the desired state of the epistemology and ontology.Plato considers the realization of the ideal state in the transition from mythos to Logos and removing the shadows and getting to the true knowledge of ideas, and at the top of them is the good idea, a knowledge that can guide wisdom in all respects and will transcend it from any conventional knowledge with one reality. In Plato's view, such knowledge, which all other sciences are its prelude and premise, must be called as dialectical knowledge, a knowledge which the mind acquires without realizing the sense, and only through a rational activity in the field of abstract affairs, a knowledge that is only available to the philosopher and others do not benefit from it, and for this reason, the ruler of the ideal state must also be such a philosopher.The Ideal state of Iqbāl as a thinker with Iranian-Islamic sides is different from Plato. One of these differences is the emphasis on poetry. In other words, Iqbāl has special attention to persian poetry along with his studies in philosophy and select persian poetry to express their thoughts. This caused a fundamental transformation in his thoughts. In this way, through his poetry Iqbāl was able to keep alive the persian culture in the India at the time when Britain tried to change the culture of India by changing the language. On the other hand, Iqbāl created a new capacity and field for contemporary poetry, a capacity that had long been neglected.Iqbāl's ideal state can be found in works such as "So what should the eastern people do?", "Message from the East" (Payām-i Mashriq), "Persian Psalms", Zabūr-i ʿAjam, and "Jāwīd Nāma". At first, Iqbāl criticizes the state of the human and today's modern world, designing the world and another human being from this perspective. Iqbāl regards the modern society as a kind of absolutism, which is the result of mankind's misery.Against such a situation that both the west is caught up with and also that it has alienated the east from itself, Iqbāl sees the solution as the ideal state that it is based on solid principles in which man is not alien to himself and his world. Although no specific name can be called on this city, Iqbāl has called this city in Jāwīd Nāma as "Marghdīn", a city that the description and features of it have been mentioned in Iqbāl's various works. It is a city that is beautiful in appearance and it is healthy in terms of living conditions, where humans are not captive and alien to themselves.Plato's and Iqbāl's view of the ideal state in the relation of the poetry and philosophy are fundamentally different. Generally, Plato has a negative attitude toward the poetry in the ideal state, and considers the poetry and poets against philosophy and philosophers while Iqbāl thoroughly believes in the positive role of the poetry in the ideal state and with emphasizing the relation between the poetry and philosophy, he considers the same the poet and philosopher based on purpose. The main reason for this difference is the method of the attitude of these two thinkers towards the poetry from the epistemic aspect. Plato does not consider the poetry to be any knowledge and reality and therefore, in the ideal state that philosophers are ruling, he orders the rejection of the poetry and the banishment of the poets from the ideal state. But in Iqbāl's thought, the poetry has knowledge and reflects reality and even due to its profound influence, any further knowledge comes to the work of reforming the city and society. Therefore, with a deep link between the philosophic knowledge and poetry, the philosopher and poet are one in Iqbāl's view and both of them have rational knowledge and their presence is essential for the ideal state.
