The Triumph of Mercy 33763_SP_RUS_FM_00i-xii.indd 1 5/15/12 7:59 AM 33763_SP_RUS_FM_00i-xii.indd 2 5/15/12 7:59 AM The Triumph of Mercy Philosophy and Scripture in Mullå Ṣadrå Mohammed Rustom 33763_SP_RUS_FM_00i-xii.indd 3 5/15/12 7:59 AM Cover art by Mohamed Zakariya. Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2012 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu Production by Diane Ganeles Marketing by Michael Campochiaro Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rustom, Mohammed. The triumph of mercy : philosophy and scripture in Mulla Sadra / Mohammed Rustom. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4384-4341-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4384-4340-9 (paperback : alk. paper) 1. Sadr al-Din Shirazi, Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, d. 1641. 2. Islamic philosophy. 3. Sufism. I. Title. B753.M84R87 2012 181'.5—dc23 2011038838 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 33763_SP_RUS_FM_00i-xii.indd 4 5/15/12 7:59 AM To Nosheen, for all her love and support 33763_SP_RUS_FM_00i-xii.indd 5 5/15/12 7:59 AM 33763_SP_RUS_FM_00i-xii.indd 6 5/15/12 7:59 AM Contents Acknowledgments ix Transliterations and Abbreviations xi Introduction 1 1 Qurʾånic Hermeneutics 9 Lord of the Heart 11 Etiquette and Understanding 15 Concept and Reality 18 The Command’s Descent 21 The Soul’s Ascent 27 2 Formal Considerations 33 Texts and Sources 34 Structure and Content 46 3 Metaphysics 55 The Essence 57 Names and Their Loci 58 The All-Comprehensive Name 62 4 Cosmology 65 The Act of Praise 66 The Muhammadan Reality 68 The Perfect Man 70 5 Theology 73 From Outer to Inner 73 Idols of Belief 76 The Religion of the Perfect Man 80 33763_SP_RUS_FM_00i-xii.indd 7 5/15/12 7:59 AM viii Contents 6 Soteriology I 85 The Nature of Things 88 The Essential and the Accidental 89 7 Soteriology II 99 Paths to Mercy 101 Divine Hands and Feet 105 Intellectual and Scriptural Fidelity 109 Revealing and Concealing 110 Chastisement’s Sweetness 113 Conclusion 117 Appendix 1: Some Key Texts from the Mafåt¥ḥ al-Ghayb 121 Appendix 2: Key Texts from the Tafs¥r S¶rat al-Fåtiḥa 125 Appendix 3: Passages from the Fut¶ḥåt Reworked into the Tafs¥r S¶rat al-Fåtiḥa 153 Notes 161 Bibliography 211 Index of Qurʾånic Passages 229 Index of Ḥad¥ths and Sayings 233 Index of Names and Terms 235 33763_SP_RUS_FM_00i-xii.indd 8 5/15/12 7:59 AM Acknowledgments This book is based on a doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Toronto’s Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations in the fall of 2009. Thanks go first and foremost to my thesis advisor Todd Lawson, who over the years has shared his vast knowledge of Islamic thought with me in unstinting measure. Not only did he see to it that each page of this study conformed to his rigorous academic standards, but he has, through all of my successes and failures, always been a gracious friend and supporter. Apart from offering helpful comments on the present work at different stages of its gestation, I have also had the fortunate opportunity to learn from Sebastian Günther, Maria Subtelny, Shafique Virani, and the late Michael Marmura. Other teachers from whom I have greatly benefited include Talal Ahdab, Deborah Black, Richard Blackburn, Nasser Danesh, Thomas Robinson, Walid Saleh, and Liyakat Takim. In many ways, they have bestowed upon me the foundational tools necessary for the kind of undertaking presented here. Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s encouragement and guidance from the very outset of this project has been crucial, as has been the time William Chittick spent with me reading the works of Mullå Ṣadrå. Caner Dagli, Robert Dobie, Atif Khalil, Mohammad Hassan Khalil, Joel Richmond, Sajjad Rizvi, Kristin Sands, John Walbridge, and SUNY Press’s two anonymous reviewers all provided essential feedback on various aspects of the present study. Nasrin Askari, Ryan Brizendine, Shiraz Sheikh, and my research assistant Rizwan Mohammad have kindly taken care of many nitty-gritty details related to the book, and a number of scholars sent along important references. Specific thanks in this regard are due to Peter Adamson, Jules Janssens, Farhana Mayer, Matthew Melvin-Koushki, James Morris, Gregor Schwarb, and Alexander Treiger. ix 33763_SP_RUS_FM_00i-xii.indd 9 5/15/12 7:59 AM x Acknowledgments Over the course of a decade of study at the University of T oronto, on the administrative side of things, Anna Sousa, Jennie Jones, and Elaine Genius have offered a helping hand every step of the way. At Carleton University, the support of my colleagues in the College of the Humanities in general, and Farhang Rajaee and Kim Stratton in particular, has made academic life all the better. Research for this book was made possible through doctoral fellowships courtesy of the University of Toronto and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, and the Davidson Fund in Religious Studies at Carleton University. Carleton’s Office of the Dean (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences) administered a grant in order to commission the artwork which adorns the front cover. For facilitating my research in Iran, I would like to acknowledge the assistance of Hamid Mohammadi at the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa, Jalil Hosseini of the Tehran-based Organization of Culture and Islamic Relations, and Gholamreza Aavani, former director of the Iranian Institute of Philosophy. A paragraph from the Introduction originally appeared in Comparative Islamic Studies 4, no. 1 (2008): 89, and a sixth of Chapter 1 in the Journal of Qur’anic Studies 9, no. 1 (2007): 128–31, 3. These materials have been reworked into the present book by kind permission of Equinox Publishers and Edinburgh University Press respectively. Last, but certainly not least, heartfelt thanks go to my family. My parents have supported me from the start, and for this I am very grateful. Abbi, Ammi, my son Isa Ahmed, as well as my siblings, nieces, and nephews have all enriched my work in their own unique way. My wife Nosheen has made innumerable sacrifices and has always sought to create for me an ambience in which I could carry out my research. This book is dedicated to her. 33763_SP_RUS_FM_00i-xii.indd 10 5/15/12 7:59 AM Transliterations and Abbreviations Transliterations Arabic and Persian words, proper names, and book/article titles have been transliterated in accordance with the system employed by the International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, with the exception that no distinction is made in transliterating consonants shared between Arabic and Persian. The names of authors who write in European lan- guages in addition to Arabic or Persian have not been transliterated. Abbreviations Journals BJMES = British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies CB = Les Cahiers de Byrsa CIS = Comparative Islamic Studies DI = Der Islam DSTFM = Documenti e Studi sulla Tradizione Filosofica Medievale FADDS = Faṣl-Nåma-yi And¥sha-yi D¥n¥-yi Dånishgåh-i Sh¥råz ICMR = Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations IJAS = International Journal of Asian Studies IQ = The Islamic Quarterly IS = Islam and Science ISt = Islamic Studies JAAR = Journal of the American Academy of Religion JIP = Journal of Islamic Philosophy JIS = Oxford Journal of Islamic Studies JMIAS = Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society JQS = Journal of Qur’anic Studies xi 33763_SP_RUS_FM_00i-xii.indd 11 5/15/12 7:59 AM xii Transliterations and Abbreviations KHNṢ = Khirad-Nåma-yi Ṣadrå KN = Kâr-Nâmeh MBSS = Majallat Markaz Buḥ¶th al-Sunna wa-l-S¥ra MIDEO = Mélanges de l’Institut Dominicain d’Études Orientales du Caire MRR = Mawlana Rumi Review MS = Mediaeval Studies MW = Muslim World PBSMS = Proceedings of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies SI = Spektrum Iran SIs = Studia Islamica SMT = Studies in Medieval Thought Reference Works DC = Dictionnaire du Coran, ed. M. A. Amir-Moezzi. Paris: Robert Laffont, 2007. EI2 = Encyclopaedia of Islam2, ed. H. A. R. Gibb et al. Leiden: Brill, 1960–2004. EI3 = Encyclopaedia of Islam3, ed. G. Krämer et al. Leiden: Brill, 2007– . EJ2 = Encyclopaedia Judaica2, ed. M. Berenbaum and F. Skolnik. Detroit: Macmillan, 2007. EQ = Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾån, ed. J. McAuliffe. Leiden: Brill, 2001– 2006. 33763_SP_RUS_FM_00i-xii.indd 12 5/15/12 7:59 AM Introduction The great German scholar of Islamic intellectual history Max Horten (d. 1945) published two important books on Muḥammad b. Ibråh¥m al-Sh¥råz¥ (d. 1050/1640)—more commonly known as Mullå Ṣadrå—at the turn of the twentieth century.1 Yet Horten’s works on this towering figure of Islamic thought, as well as his other pioneering contributions to later Islamic philosophy and theology, did not receive the scholarly attention one would have expected. This is partly due to the fact that at the dawn of the twentieth century, the story of the earlier period of Islamic philosophy had not even begun to be told. There were indeed a number of general surveys (now outdated) on the history of Islamic philosophy, but the nature and scope of many early Muslim philosophers’ teachings were still largely unknown. Horten’s books on later Islamic philosophy and theology were, therefore, eclipsed by concurrent and later studies on some of the seminal figures in early Islamic thought, such as Fåråb¥ (d.