Hadi Sabzavari | |
|---|---|
 A picture of Molla Hadi which represents the actual oldest picture of an Islamic philosopher | |
| Born | 1797 (1797) |
| Died | 1873 (aged 75–76) |
| Other names | Sharaf al-Mulk, Hujjat al-Haq, Sheikh al-Rayees |
| Academic background | |
| Influences | TheQuran,Mulla Sadra,Nasir al-Din al-Tusi,Ibn Arabi,Avicenna,Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi,Rumi |
| Academic work | |
| Era | 19th century |
| School or tradition | Shia Islam,Transcendent theosophy |
| Main interests | philosophy,theology,kalam,logic,Persian literature,science |
| Notable works | Asrar al-hikam ("The Secrets of Wisdom"), Sharh-i manzumah ("A Treatise on Logic in Verse"), |
| Influenced | 20th century Islamic philosophy,Henry Corbin,Hossein Nasr |
Hadi Sabzavari (Persian:ملا هادی سبزواری) orHajj Molla Hadi Sabzavari (1797–1873 CE / 1212 - 1289 AH) was anIranian[1]Shia cleric, philosopher, mystic theologian and poet.[2]
Molla Hadi lived in theQajar period. According to his description, this period was along with descend of Hikmah; he also complained of his period for the sake of lacking knowledge and philosophy.[citation needed] This kind of thinking was common among Islamic philosophers. There was an intellectual and spiritual turmoil in the Qajar period. In fact, in this period, Iranian encountered with new European thought and revival of traditional thinking; also in this period we can see the diverse developments in beliefs likeKaka'i,Shaykhism,Babism and theBaháʼí Faith and at the same time weakness and disappearance ofShia.[3]Molla Hadi is counted as one of the four prominent masters of the Tehran philosophical school, along with Aqa ‘Ali Mudarris, Aqa Muhammad Riza Qumshihi, Mirza Abul Hasan Jelveh.[citation needed]
He was born inSabzevar,Iran[2] to a family of land-owning merchants.[2] His formal education started at a young age under his cousin, Molla Hosayn Sabzavari,[2] and he wrote a small treatise at the age of seven.[2] His father died when he was seven or eight years old and his uncle Molla Ḥosayn Sabzavari, became his caretaker. When he reached the age of ten, he was taken by his cousin toMashhad. There, he resided in the Hajj Hasan madrasa near the mausoleum ofImam Reza, where he studiedArabic,Islamic Jurisprudence,logic, and the principles of religion and law with Molla Hosay for a period of ten years.[2] When he turned twenty, he returned to his hometown of Sabzavar. From there, he prepared his plans for theHajj and set out in the direction ofIsfahan. During this period,Isfahan was an important intellectual center ofIran, where philosophy and intellectual mysticism ('Erfan) flourished.
Among the important masters of these tradition at the time, the names of Mollā ʿAli Nuri (died 1830–31) and Mollā Esmāʿil Eṣfahāni, a student of Nuri, were prominent. They taught Islamic philosophy, mostly ofSadr al-Din Shirazi and his school. He remained inIsfahan for around eight or nine years, where he studied under these two undisputed masters ofMulla Sadra's school of philosophy. He concentrated on the main works of Mulla Sadra, such as theAsfar and Al-Shawahed al-Robubiya.[2] Simultaneously, he also studied Islamic jurisprudence with Aqa Mohammad 'Ali Najafi, one of the major Shia scholars ofIsfahan.[2] InIsfahan, Sabzevari lived a life of piety despite having received a substantial inheritance.[2] According to the orientalistEdward Browne, “he used to take pains to discover which of the students stood most in need of pecuniary help, and would then secretly place sums of money in their room during their absence, without leaving any clue that would lead to the identification of the donor. In this way he is said to have expended no less than 100,000 tumáns (about 30,000 Pounds Sterling), while he was in Isfahan, leaving himself only so much as he deemed necessary for his own maintenance”.[2]
In In 1826–27, Sabzavari returned toMashhad. There he began to teach in the Hājj Hasan madrasa although the scholars in Mashhad did not have the same interest in philosophy asIsfahan. The atmosphere ofMashhad was not as open asIsfahan for the pursuit of intellectual sciences. However, he continued to teach both the transmitted science as well as the intellectual sciences. He thought the intellectual sciences based on his work al-Manzuma, which he must have composed inIsfahan. His commentary on this important work of his however was completed in 1845. In 1831–32, he set out forSabzavar where he made preparation for theHajj. He left forMecca in 1832–33 where he performed the rites of the pilgrimage. He returned to Iran in 1834–35 during the interval of the death ofFath Ali Shah Qajar. During this period of anarchy, traveling within Iran had become dangerous. Having lost his wife in Hajj, he settled inKerman while waiting for calmer conditions to return toKhorasan. During the year he spent inKerman, he was engaged in asceticism while agreeing to sweep the religious school for its keeper who provided him a room to live in. He married the keeper's daughter that year who was later to accompany him toSabzavar. At this time, no one knew his real identity and degree of knowledge.[citation needed]
In 1836–37, Sabzavari set toSabzavar and established a center for the study of Islamic philosophy and gnosis. The school he established rivaled with the schools of Tehran and Isfahan due to his personality. For a period of 10 months, he also taught inMashhad. However, the rest of time was spent in Sabzevar where he made the Fasihiya school the center of teaching. This school became known as Madrasa-ye Ḥāji, where part of it still survives till this day. Scholars and students began to flock from all over Persia, Iraq, Turkey, Caucasus, India and evenTibet. His name became widespread all over Iran so much so that in 1857–58, whenNaser al-Din Shah Qajar made a pilgrimage toMashhad, he stopped in Sabzavar and paid a visit to hakim Sabzavari.[citation needed] TheQajar King became very impressed by the philosopher and asked his royal photographer Aqa Reza 'Akkas-Bashi to photograph the hakim. The picture, which is widely available, is the oldest picture of an Islamic philosopher. The Qajar king also requested from him a book in Persian containing the complete theory and cycle of traditional philosophy. Sabzavari obliged and composed the two Persian books: the Asrāral-ḥekam, which he dedicated to Naser al-Din Shah and also another book titled Hedāyat al-ṭālebin. Sabzavari died suddenly in 1872, probably as a result of heart failure. The date of his death is recorded in several chronographs, including the numerical value of the coupletka namord zendatar shod ("He did not die but became more alive after his passing") which was composed by one of his students.[citation needed]
The importance and contribution of Hakim Sabzevari is mainly in the precise explanation of Transcendent Theosophy (al-hikmah al-muta’āliyah) and the resolution of its problems, as well as in the continuation of this wisdom and Islamic wisdom in general through the writing of numerous works and the cultivation of numerous students. However, this does not mean that Hakim Sabzavari was simply one of the prominent spokesmen of mulla sadra's Thoughts and lacked philosophical innovation. Because whenever a philosopher goes beyond repeating the words of the past, innovation has taken place. Therefore, things like presenting a new definition or analysis, posing new questions, criticizing and refuting an opinion by presenting a new argument on a theory, discovering new dimensions of a theory, proposing a new theory, establishing a new branch in philosophy, and finally presenting a philosophical system can be considered as forms of philosophical innovation.The innovations of the Sabzavari can be examined in the following categories: ontology, theology, cosmology, anthropology, epistemology, and moral philosophy.[4]
Sabzavari wrote some fifty-two works of prose and poetry in both Arabic andPersian.[2] He wrote the Asrar al-hikmah ("The Secrets of Wisdom"), which, together with hisArabic treatise Sharh-i manzumah ("A Treatise on Logic in Verse"), remains a basic text for the study of hikmat doctrines in Iran. Not limited to philosophy, he also wrote poetry under the name of Asrar and completed a commentary on the Masnavi of Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi, the great mystic poet of Islam.[1]
For philosophy in the reign ofNasir al-Din ShahQajar (1848–1896), he was whatMulla Sadra had been in the reign of ShahAbbas I. He was also the faithful interpreter of Mulla Sadra andTranscendent Theosophy. He played a part in making Mulla Sadra the 'master thinker' of the Iranian philosophers. It could even be said that circumstances permitted him, to a greater extent thanMulla Sadra, to give free rein to his genius as a mystical theosopher, because there was greater freedom of self-expression during theSafavid epoch.[5]
Sabzevari wrote numerous works inPersian andArabic. He wrote works dealing with an array of subjects fromprosody to logic to theology. However, the majority of his works deal with philosophy and mysticism.
This book was written forNaser al-Din Shah after the Shah while passing through Sabzavār asked Mulla Hadi Sabzevari to write a him a book about man's origin and destination in Persian together with the mysteries of God's oneness.[6] The book was completed in 1868 and it deals with concepts of illuminative wisdom (ešrāq) andperipatetic philosophy, and is rich in intuitive and mystic insights.[6]
The gnosis of Sabzavari falls into three categories which are: (1) knowledge of God, consisting of knowledge of the beginning and knowledge of the end; (2) knowledge of one's self; (3) knowledge of God's commands, consisting of knowledge of every rule of divine law (šarīʿa) and knowledge of the spiritual path (ṭarīqa). On the basis of this classification, the book is divided into two parts.[6]
Part I of the book consists of seven chapters:
Part II comprises four chapters
The most important part of the book is on the proof of the Necessarily Existent (i.e., God).
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