سید رضا اسحاق نیا

Early scholars of kalām (Islamic theology) believed that the subject-matter of kalām was the same as that of Islamic philosophy and mysticism: being qua being. In contrast to this, other notions have also been proposed as subject-matters of kalām, including the divine essence and attributes. The idea of essence was proposed by some Sunni theologians such as Qāḍī al-Urmawī, and the idea of essence plus possible beings as subject-matters of kalām was reported by the author of al-Ṣaḥāʾif fī ʿilm al-kalām in his introduction to the precious work Shawāriq al-ilhām. In this article, I adopt a descriptive-analytic method and draw on the introduction to Shawāriq al-ilhām to account for, analyze, and support this view and to replies to objections raised against it. Moreover, as corollaries of the research, I aim to reconcile the view with that of the early theologians, and finally, show that issues of Islamic theology are in harmony with issues of Islamic philosophy and mysticism at different levels.

In theoretical mysticism, the Glorious Names of God fall into immanent names, attributes and actions. In his commentary to Fusus al-Hikam (The Seals of Wisdom), Qaysari argues that this categorization of names helps manifestation of God’s inherent nature, attributes, and actions in each name. According to this viewpoint, if the attribution of a name means inherent nature, that name shall be considered immanent and if it denotes quality and action it must be considered among attributes or actions of God. In his notes on commentaries about Fusus al-Hikam, Imam Khomeini says such classification is in no way according to the principles of mysticism. He then offers another criterion that goes well with the tenets of mysticism. In his view, the manner of classification, observations of the wayfarer in stages of spiritual journey and the quality of annihilation in God take place in actions, attributes and inherent nature of God. On this basis, whatever the wayfarer observes at the stage of annihilation in action, shall be considered an instance of action and whatever taking place as annihilation in attributes and inherent nature of God shall be considered among attributes and immanent names. In this research work, we have first developed a critical approach toward Qaysari’s viewpoints and then continued with clarification of Imam Khomeini’s theory. To that end, further explanation of the four entries namely types of monotheism in mysticism, inherent annihilation, four mystical journeys, and ranks of intuitive faith is necessary.

In the three sciences of mysticism, divine wisdom (philosophy), and kalām (theology), “existence” is said to server as the subject-matter. Given the majority view that sciences are distinguished from one another in virtue of their subject-matters, the question arises of how these three sciences are distinguished given that they have the same subject-matter. This research seeks to answer this question, drawing on a descriptive-analytic method. It will turn out that the subject-matter of mysticism is pure existence or reality and the exemplification of existence and that of divine philosophy and kalām is absolute existence or the concept of existence. Thus, contrary to the majority view, divine philosophy and kalām do not differ over their subject-matters, their difference boiling down to sources of their assent preliminaries. Assent sources of philosophy are derived from intellect without being constrained by conformity to appearances of the religion, while kalām derives its preliminaries from appearances of the religion, and if religious appearances are acquired with sufficient care, then they will lead to conclusions consonant with intellectual preliminaries without a need for exotic interpretations.

The matter of God’s Unity is addressed in three capacities: 1. necessity, 2. Divinity, and 3. real existence. Regarding unity in the position of real existence various beliefs exist; for example, the beliefs of the common people, the Peripatetic philosophers, the ignorant from among the Sufis as well as their elders, the Pahlavi scholars, Mirdamad and Davvani, the great mystics the Pahlavi scholars and the transcendental philosophers. Mulla Sadra also has many views in this regard in different periods and discussion of his The Transcendent Philosophy of the Four Journeys of the Intellect. This paper compares the aforementioned beliefs and views with each other and ultimately, introduces the pure and sincere Unity of God from among them which is free from all other errors as well. Pure monotheism is monotheism that is not polluted with any type of polytheism regarding real existence and this is only the view of the mystics and transcendental philosophers; this is also the final view of Mulla Sadra. The aforementioned view is based on the view of the unity of existence and existents while preserving the plurality of both and according to that, existence and existent is limited only to God’s essence and at the same time it has real and various manifestations and illuminations; on the other hand, even though existence and existents have different and real manifestations, at the same time, they are one and limited to God’s existence. It is clear that this study is descriptive-analytic.

The problem of resurrection and the quality of post-mortem life has always been a concern for intellectuals, with Muslim theologians and philosophers providing various accounts thereof. Some of them restrict the resurrection to the human soul, while others believe in its corporeality, and still others take it to be both bodily and spiritual. With regard to the bodily resurrection, there is a dispute over the body with which the soul will be resurrected. Some theologians suggest that the soul will return to the natural elemental body, while others believe that the soul will be resurrected with an imaginal (mithālī) body. According to the Transcendent Wisdom (al-ḥikmat al-muta’ālīya), the soul will be resurrected with an imaginal body arising from the soul itself. The philosopher, Aqā ‘Alī Mudarris Zunnūzī has offered a novel view within the framework of the Transcendent Wisdom, followed by prominent philosophers such as his pupils Mīrzā Muḥammad Bāqir Iṣṭahbānātī and Muḥammad Ḥusayn Iṣfahānī (Muḥaqqiq Kumpānī), as well as others including Rafī’ī Qazvīnī. According to Zunnūzī, resurrection does not consist in the return of the soul to the body; instead, it is the body that returns to the soul in the Afterlife. In a short posthumous essay, published recently, Kumpānī has elaborated this theory in terms of five principles and premises. In this paper, I elaborate his own view of bodily resurrection and then point to some of its ambiguities.

All Muslim scholars take both the Quranic meanings and words to be issued from God on the basis of Quranic verses and intellectual principles. However, there is a rare view according to which only the meaning of the revelation (waḥy) comes from God, and the words were selected by the Prophet. On this view, the history of the Prophet’s life and his psychological states such as sadness and happiness had a role to play in how he chose the words of the revelation and the ups and downs of the Quranic verses. Some people maintain that the Prophet had to draw on the science commonly accepted by people of his time in order to make the transcendental truth of the revelation understandable by them, and some such scientific views may as well have been proved false as the science developed, while the Prophet was only in charge of conveying the divine revelation. In this paper, I explain that, just like other entities in the world, the Quran enjoys stages that match one another, and thus, the verbal mundane stage of the Quran is a mirror representation of its spiritual or malakūtī stage, and according to the principle of the match between entities at different stages, nothing exists except the truth. This is based on the view that the words of Quran are divine revelations, and so the Quran exists independently of the Prophet’s natural existence which is the voice of the revelation.

The holy Chapter Ekhlas (Unity) is one of the important chapters in the Glorious Quran whose position is clear in infallible imam's sayings and Muslim thinker's commentary views. This chapter includes deep mystical points on Divine Essence on which many views have been proposed. Accordingly, this chapter indicates the tenor of three stages of God's essenceabsent of all absents, oneness, and uniqueness- based on mystic's esoteric and mystical views. The present paper briefly studies Muslim mystic's mystical approach to stages of Divine Essence using the Chapter of Unity. The stage of absent of all absents is a non-conditional- as- the- source- of- division essence which has no sign and there is no means to acquire knowledge on it. The stages of oneness and uniqueness are conditioned- by- no- condition and conditioned-by-something essences, respectively. No doubt, the essence of the Most high God is one and these three determinations are named based on a consideration. The nature of mystical approach to stages of Divine Essence with regard to this monotheistic Chapter (Ekhlas- Unity) usually indicates this commentary explanation that "He" refers to the stage of absent adytum of essence i.e. absent of all absents; "God is one" means the stage of essence of Divine Unity; and "God is He on Whom all depends" means the stage ofessence of Divine oneness.