Biannual Journal
Batool Ahmadi; Forouzan Rasekhi
Abstract
The question of the immortality of the soul – which is directly relevant to any discussion on the true nature of human being - is an important and even central theme of both Plotinus and Suhrawardi, the latter being known as the founder of the Perso-Islamic Illuminationistschool of philosophy.Plotinus ...
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The question of the immortality of the soul – which is directly relevant to any discussion on the true nature of human being - is an important and even central theme of both Plotinus and Suhrawardi, the latter being known as the founder of the Perso-Islamic Illuminationistschool of philosophy.Plotinus and Suhrawardiboth considered the soul to be the essence of the human being, hence,both thinkers engaged in some kind of ‘dualist anthropology’, although through two different approaches.In other words, they believed that man is not a simple thing, but a composite of ‘soul’ and ‘body’. Plotinus’ discussion of the relation of ‘soul’ to ‘body’ is a particular instance of his doctrine of participation, where higher is related to lower, intelligible to sensible, and form to matter.Individual human beings are composed of ‘soul’ and ‘body’, but body itself consists of ‘matter’ and ‘form’. Soul as the ‘form’ of the body, is a part of the World-Soul, but the individual soul is immaterial and immortal and linked with the ‘Intellect’ (nous).Suhrawardidid not concern himself with any kind of causal relation between ‘body’ and ‘soul’.In his teachings, the ‘Lordly Light’(nūr-iispahbad)- i.e. the vicegerent of the ‘Light of lights’ (nūr al-anwār)in the human soul – is connected with the body by means of the ‘animal soul’ (rūḥḥayawāniyya) and leaves the body for its original home in the angelic realm as soon as death destroys the equilibrium of the bodily elements.
Biannual Journal
Mohammad Hadi Tavakoli; Azam Ghasemi
Abstract
The question of ‘knowability of God’ is not a major topic in the works of traditional Muslim philosophers, as if taken for granted. Despite his critical view of ‘those who divest God of His Attributes’ (mu’attila) - hence, actually divest the concept of God of all conceivability ...
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The question of ‘knowability of God’ is not a major topic in the works of traditional Muslim philosophers, as if taken for granted. Despite his critical view of ‘those who divest God of His Attributes’ (mu’attila) - hence, actually divest the concept of God of all conceivability - Hakīm Sabzawārī (1797-1873) also denied the possibility of a rational knowledge of God. Sabzawārī believed that the natural light of the human reason, when intensified by the divine Light, would be capable of knowledge of God through ‘arguments’, although he also emphasized that the very Essence of God cannot be known ‘exhaustively’, since any ‘acquired knowledge aimed at fathoming the depth’ (‘ilm al-iktināhī) would be possible only through the comprehensive acquisition of the essence of the ‘object’ supposed to be known, which is impossible in the case of God Who ‘by definition’ transcends any knowable ‘essence’ (māhiyya). It is worth mentioning that Sabzawārī enriched his arguments with insightful observations taken from Hadith literature and other traditional sources.
Biannual Journal
Vahid Khademzadeh
Abstract
In cognitive linguistics, conceptual/cognitive metaphor refers to the understanding of an idea, or a conceptual domain, in terms of another. In fact, in the ‘cognitive metaphor theory’ (CMT), metaphors are mappings from one conceptual domain known as the source domain onto another conceptual ...
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In cognitive linguistics, conceptual/cognitive metaphor refers to the understanding of an idea, or a conceptual domain, in terms of another. In fact, in the ‘cognitive metaphor theory’ (CMT), metaphors are mappings from one conceptual domain known as the source domain onto another conceptual domain, known as the target domain, thus, the removal of metaphors will result in the failure of the relevant cognitive process. Greek and Muslim philosophers, including Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle, Avicenna and Sadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī (Mullā Sadrā), made use of the cognitive metaphorization of the real- or substantive existent entity as a ‘state of subsistence’. Each of the abovementioned towering philosophers presented their own recognition of a substantive-existent entity, but all converge in their emphasis on the crucial role of the ‘subsistence’ as a conceptual metaphor for understanding of the ontological state and the qualities of a substantive existent entity. Muslim philosophers also made use of terms such as ‘establishment’ (taqarrur) and ‘righteousness’ (qawām) which actually remain in the semantic sphere of ‘subsistence’ (thubūt) and are usually applied as cognitive metaphors for understanding of the qualities of a substantive existent entity. In the school of Avicenna, both being/existence (wujūd) and quiddity/essence (māhiyya) are considered to be in a state of subsistence, but in Sadr al-Dīn’s school, it is only the existence/being which must be regarded as being so.
Biannual Journal
Mazdak Rajabi
Abstract
Ali Shari'ati's thought illuminates the most important challenge of Iranians intellectual odyssey in the process of self-consciousness encountering the modern world. He explicates importance of the foregoing problem in some lectures; for instance, Return to Our Self, The Selfless Human, and Self-consciousness ...
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Ali Shari'ati's thought illuminates the most important challenge of Iranians intellectual odyssey in the process of self-consciousness encountering the modern world. He explicates importance of the foregoing problem in some lectures; for instance, Return to Our Self, The Selfless Human, and Self-consciousness and Stupidity. He answers the foregoing problem by referring to the self-consciousness in The Selfless Human, and by the actualization of self-consciousness in Return to Our Self. I attempt to grasp his conception of self-consciousness through re-discovery of the historical status of his thought in the intellectual process of modern Iran, which is the process of the actualization of self-consciousness.
Biannual Journal
Abbas Javareshkian; Ali Ghaffarpour; Alireza Kohansal
Abstract
Sadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī (Mullā Sadra, 1569-1640), composed philosophical commentaries on the Qur’ānic concept of the ‘transformation of the Earth’ through epistemological and ontological approaches. In fact, Sadr al-Dīn composed a rich, multi-faceted commentary, dealing with relevant ...
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Sadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī (Mullā Sadra, 1569-1640), composed philosophical commentaries on the Qur’ānic concept of the ‘transformation of the Earth’ through epistemological and ontological approaches. In fact, Sadr al-Dīn composed a rich, multi-faceted commentary, dealing with relevant philosophical issues, on the following Qur’ānic verse about the transformation of Heavens and the Earth: ‘One day the Earth will be transformed into a different Earth, and so will be the Heavens, and (men) will be marshalled forth, before Allah, the One, the Irresistible’ (Q 14:48). In certain parts of his work, Sadr al-Dīn makes use of the principle of ‘substantial motion’ (al-harakat al-jawhariyya) to explain the transformation of the Heavens and the Earth (referred to in Q 14:48), but in some other passages, he considers the same transformation as a result of the final return of all existing things to their divine origins. Besides that, Sadr al-Dīn regarded the possibility of the occurrence of this transformation in the sight of the ‘Universal Man’ (al-insān al-kāmil), when the ‘eternal Ideas’ of the Heavens and the Earth come to be manifested in the ‘imaginal realm’ of both the soul and the universe.
Biannual Journal
Amirhossein Farshchian; Morteza Shajari
Abstract
Tradition is a path that preserves all fundamental aspects of human life and keeps them connected to their original sources, to the sacred past, and one of the most important aspects of human life - almost encompassing and framing all the others and being central to our experience of being human - is ...
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Tradition is a path that preserves all fundamental aspects of human life and keeps them connected to their original sources, to the sacred past, and one of the most important aspects of human life - almost encompassing and framing all the others and being central to our experience of being human - is ‘architecture’. There is a causal relation between the ‘Islamic tradition’ and ‘Islamic architecture’, thus, it would actually be meaningless to attribute the adjective ‘Islamic’ to ‘architecture’ in the absence of true traditional values. The present study critically investigates Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s attitude toward Islamic architecture, including its relation to Islamic tradition and traditional Islam, its definition and its essential characteristics, its interaction with urban societies and finally its socio-religious functions in traditional and modern life. Islamic architecture is not an outdated-forgotten art with some sets of footprints left in the remains of ancient settlements. It has internally survived long enough to reproduce itself in concordance with the necessities of the time without losing its essential characteristics and elements.
Biannual Journal
Azam Mardiha; Sayed Mortaza Hosseini Shahroudi
Abstract
The question of 'imaginal perception' (al-idrāk al-khayālī) constitutes one of the most complex and important sections of the 'Transcendental Philosophy' (al-hikmat al-muta'āliyya) of Sadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī (1569-1640). Sadr al-Dīn's contribution to the conception of 'imaginal perception' ...
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The question of 'imaginal perception' (al-idrāk al-khayālī) constitutes one of the most complex and important sections of the 'Transcendental Philosophy' (al-hikmat al-muta'āliyya) of Sadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī (1569-1640). Sadr al-Dīn's contribution to the conception of 'imaginal perception' is distinguished from those of his towering predecessors, namely Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Suhrawardi. In fact, Sadr al-Dīn developed inspiring ideas connected with 'imaginal faculty', 'imaginal perception' and 'imaginal realm', and he did it on the basis of his well-considered and elaborated doctrines such as 'principality and primacy of being' (isālat al-wujūd, that the 'being' of each object is principial vis-a vis its 'quiddity' and that the essential qualities of 'Being', including 'knowledge' ('ilm), are concomitant with 'Being' itself), as well as based on his theories of perception and cognition, of the 'perfection in esse' or 'substantial perfection' of the soul, and of correspondence between the multiple states of 'being' and those of the human being - as a microcosmic image of 'being' itself. In the same line, Sadr al-Dīn also developed Suhrawardī's teachings on the 'imaginal world' as a mediatory realm between the sensory and the intelligible realms. It was on the basis of such elaborated doctrines and theories that Sadr al-Dīn succeeded to explain some particular problems related to the 'soul', among them, one may refer to the problem of 'reward and punshment in the Hereafter' as well as the question of 'bodily or corporal resurrection'.
Biannual Journal
Gholamreza Maroof; Iraj Dadashi
Abstract
Farr(ah)/xvarənah-, a key concept in Persian thought and culture which literally means ‘glory’ and ‘splendour’, probably related etymologically to the word xuar/n ‘sun’, but mostly understood as a divine power and glory endowed upon the chosen ones. The discourse ...
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Farr(ah)/xvarənah-, a key concept in Persian thought and culture which literally means ‘glory’ and ‘splendour’, probably related etymologically to the word xuar/n ‘sun’, but mostly understood as a divine power and glory endowed upon the chosen ones. The discourse formation of farr(ah), through texts belonging to different periods, reaches its full development during the Islamic period, especially in the teachings of Suhrawardī, the well-known founder of the Persian Illuminationist school of philosophy. Based on a qualitative method, the present study aims at classifying and arranging the different types of farr(ah) and also investigates how the Qur’ānic teachings, especially the Qur’ānic divine Names, influenced transformation of the concept of farr(ah) during the Islamic period. Farr(ah) was a royal and divine attribute and occurs in phrases like farr-u-awrang. Burz (the lofty one), warz (Av. varəcah, the vital energy) and bagh (a deity or divine power distributing settled portions and deserved fates, Sans. bhaga) may be mentioned among the other important words and notions accompanying the notion of farr(ah). Major types of farr(ah) are as the followings: farr-i kiyānī (royal splendour attributed to virtuous kings), farr-i Īrānī (showing that farr(ah) corresponded not only to the concept of royal fortune but also to that of ‘fortune’ in a more general sense), farr-i zartusht and farr-i mūbadī (fortune and splendour attributed to the priestly class). As a magic force of luminous and fiery nature, the notion of farr(ah) closely accompanied the key notions of ‘beauty’, ‘wisdom’ and ‘power’, hence, it may manifest itself through an interconnected network of living beings, including animals and plants, as well as non-living objects. As a result of the promotion of equality and hence removal of Sassanid social classes during the Islamic period, the concept of farr(ah) – influenced by the Qur’ānic divine Names and Qualities including Mercy and Light alongside the key notion of Sakīna (Spirit of Tranquility, divine Presence and Indwelling) - transformed into a more mature and rich form.
Biannual Journal
Hossein Zamaniha; Tahereh Yavari
Abstract
Apart from the fact that the ‘corporeal body’ is a natural container for the origination and progression of the soul, Sadr al-DīnSīrāzī(1569-1640) distinguishes another ontological level of body, i.e. the ‘imaginal body’,predicated upon the existence of an ontological ...
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Apart from the fact that the ‘corporeal body’ is a natural container for the origination and progression of the soul, Sadr al-DīnSīrāzī(1569-1640) distinguishes another ontological level of body, i.e. the ‘imaginal body’,predicated upon the existence of an ontological state of being known as the ‘imaginal’ (mithālī) that mediates between an intelligible and the sensible realms.The ‘imaginal body’ or ‘body of the resurrection’is ‘perceiving’ (mudrik) and ‘living’ (hayy) and contrary to the ‘corporeal body’, is inseparable from the soul and it is through the intermediary function of this ‘imaginal body’ that the human ‘rational soul’ (al-nafs al-nātiqa)presides over the ‘corporeal body’. In fact, Sadr al-Dīn explains the relation between the ‘rational soul’ and the ‘corporeal body’ through two intermediaries, first the‘imaginal body’ and second, the ‘steam/animal spirit’. The ‘steam spirit’ is ontologically closer to the ‘corporeal body’ and the ‘imaginal body’ is ontologically closer to the ‘rational soul’. In other words, the ‘imaginal body’ presides over the ‘corporeal body’ through an intermediate link,i.e. a kind of ‘subtle mass’ known in the Peripatetic philosophy as the ‘steam spirit’.
