Mulla Sadras Commentary on Surat al-Sajdah

Annabel Keeler
I would like to dedicate this paper to my late supervisor, Mr John (Yahya) Cooper, who was profoundly interested in the philosophy of Mulla Sadra, and who, had he not been taken from us so une pectedly last year, would surely have contributed an inspirin! paper to this conference" # few years a!o I was fortunate enou!h to be able to attend some classes he !ave on Mulla Sadra$s Sharh al-usul al-kafi. Shortly before he died, he wrote an article on Mulla Sadra, as well as articles on other !reat masters of the Islamic philosophical tradition, for the new Routledge Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. %he sub&ect of this paper is Mulla Sadra$s commentary on Surat al Sajda" Mulla Sadra did not
'( )

write a complete commentary on the *ur$an, but a series of len!thy tracts on those Suras, passa!es and verses of the *ur$an which particularly interested and inspired him" %his e e!etical corpus, which was compiled under the title Tafsir al-Quran al-karim, is thou!ht to
'+ )

have been written over the period of about twenty years, from around(,+,-(.(( to the early (,/,$s-(.0,$s" %he commentary on Surat al-Sajda falls in the middle of this period, havin! been written around the year (,0,-(.+,"
'0)

I will be!in by e aminin! the hermeneutics of Mulla Sadra$s Tafsir, on the basis both of his introduction to, and his commentary on Surat al-Sajda" %he term hermeneutics is here bein! used to denote the aims and criteria of interpretation" '/) I will then proceed to illustrate aspects of the method and content of Mulla Sadra$s Tafsir by e aminin! in detail his commentary on verse / of Surat al-Sajda, contrastin! it with interpretations of the same verse in two earlier mystical commentaries, namely the Lataif al-isharat of #bu$l1*asim al1*ushayri (d" /.2-(,3+)'2) and the Tafsir al-Quran al-karim, attributed to Muhyi al14in Ibn al1$#rabi but actually written by his disciple, 5#bd al16a77a8 al19ashani (d" 30,-(0+:)"'.) In the introduction to his commentary on Surat al-Sajda, Mulla Sadra describes the *ur$an as 5a li!ht which !uides throu!h the darkness of land and sea, and a medicine for every sickness"$ 5;hen it lifts the veil from its face$, he continues, 5"""revealin! its treasures and li!hts, it heals those ailin! from the sickness of i!norance and wretchedness, and 8uenches the thirst of those who seek truth and felicity"$'3) It will even 5heal a heart that is afflicted with deep1seated and reprehensible moral

traits, while the the vision of those with discernin! hearts will be illumined and prepared for the meetin! with <od, e8uipped with knowled!e of the mysteries and unseen realities"$'=) >ur commentator e plains how, despite the ma!nitude and power of its reality and the e altedness of its meanin!, the *ur$an is clothed in a !arment of letters and sounds and veiled by a coverin! of words and e pressions, and this in itself is a mercy and kindness from <od, makin! 'the 6evelation) more familiar and attainable, and adaptin! it to 'what can be understood throu!h) human e perience"':) ;e shall see later how Mulla Sadra sees this outer clothin! as indispensible to a true understandin! of the inner meanin!s of the *ur$an" %hese words and sounds of the *ur$an are spread out 5like a net with 'a bait of) the seeds of meanin! to trap heavenly birds$, that is, the birds of human intellects (tuyur nafsaniyya)" ?ach of these birds has its own desi!nated food, althou!h, as Mulla Sadra e plains, the principle aim in castin! out the net is to catch the birds that feed on the very choicest !rain" @ut apart from these lofty intellectual spirits whose food is the very !nosis of the divine realities, there are in the *ur$an many other kinds of food desi!nated for all the different levels of humanity"'(,) In the afatih al-ghay!, Mulla Sadra e presses a similar idea, but usin! a different metaphor" %here he compares the *ur$an to a table laden with food which is sent down from the world of intellects to the earth of souls in which are the seeds of the trees of the Aereafter" >n this table is food of every kind and provision for every type of human bein! in varyin! de!rees of subtely or opacity, down to the residues and husks which are for the commonality whose level is that of beasts of burden, or cattle"'(() 6eturnin! to the introduction to Surat al-Sajda, we find that Mulla Sadra has formulated this idea in a Bersian poem at the end of which he warns his listener not to remain with the huskC1 You look at the *ur$an #nd see the husk and the chaff, not the seed or kernel" You see nothin! of the *ur$an but the letter, <ivin! yourself up to the detail of word and !rammar" You are strivin! in such haste %hat there should be no difference between you and the beastsD'(+) In this poem, however, the ob&ect of Mulla Sadra$s criticism is not the commonality of believers, but the scholars of outward knowled!e" In a number of conte ts he warns a!ainst the complacency of those proficient in the outer sciences of the *ur$an" Eor e ample, in his commentary on Surat al-"uma he states that a person who limits himself in his study of the words of the *ur$an to its literary aspects and to the science of rhetoric and lan!ua!e, ima!inin! that he has some knowled!e of tafsir, and that the *ur$an was only revealed for the ac8uisition of

this partial knowled!e, is more deservin! of the description 5like an ass carryin! books$ (*FGII,2), than one who has no knowled!e at all but at least admits his own incapacity and limitation"'(0) #!ain, in his commentary on Surat al-Sajda, Mulla Sadra writes It may be that a learned and clever man has perfect knowled!e of !rammar and rhetoric, and ability in the art of discursive reasonin! ( !ahth) and disputin! with opponents in the science of kalam, yet with all this rhetorical e cellence he does not hear one letter of the *ur$an as it really is, nor does he understand a sin!le word" %his is how it is with most of those who are involved with mere ar!umentation (!ahth), who are deluded by the !litter of an illusory wisdom and deprived of the wine of !nosis contained in the cup of the *ur$an, by their bein! 54eaf, dumb and blind$ (*" II, (=), because they lack inward perception ( ha#ass !a$iniyya), for which this wordly sensory perception is a mere husk, and by the husk nothin! is attained but the husk"'(/) >n the other hand, e8ually if not more limitin! in Mulla Sadra$s view is any form of speculative interpretation (ta#il) which negates the outer meanin! of the words of the @ook" In fact, he considers those who take the 5outward way$ of understandin! the *ur$an, maintainin! its ima!es at an elementary level of understandin!, to be closer to a realisation of the truth ( tah%i%) than those who take the way of ta#il"'(2) In his commentary on the fourth verse of Surat al-Sajda, Mulla Sadra e plains that %akin! the *ur$anic words away (khuruj) from their well1known and familiar meanin!s is a cause of confusion for those who contemplate them" %he *ur$an was revealed to !uide <od$s servants, to teach them and make thin!s easier for them by whatever means" It was not meant to be obscure or difficult" So it is necessary that the '*ur$anic) words be referred back to the conventional meanin!s by which they are known amon! people so that no ambi!uity ( ilti!as) should be imposed upon them"'(.) In his commentary on the words 5thumma &sta#a &ala &l-&arsh (then Ae seated Aimself upon the %hrone) in the same verse, Mulla Sadra defines four different e e!etical approaches to the mutasha!ihat (e8uivocal verses) in the *ur$an"'(3) %here are, he e plains, the two e tremes of the anthropomorphists (mujassimun), such as the Aanbalites on the one hand, and those who interpret metaphorically (mua##ilun) such as the Mu$ta7ilites on the other" @etween these two e tremes are those who interpret some verses literally and others metaphorically (or, who are mujassim concernin! some verses and mua##il concernin! others)" # fourth !roup comprise those whom Sadra calls 5the people rooted in knowled!e$ (the rasikhuna fil-&ilm referred to in *"III,3) who have protected the the words of the *ur$an from distortion and for!ery" %hey are those whose interpretation of thin!s (5ayan) mentioned in the *ur$an and 'adith maintains the forms in which

they appear (su#ar)" Included in this cate!ory are those scholars of e e!esis who lived in the time of the Brophet and the past Imams"'(=) #t this point Mulla Sadra inter&ects a prayer in which he asks <od that Ae mi!ht favour one seeker of the truth (muha%%i%) with the unveilin! (kashf) of the realities, meanin!s, secrets and allusions in understandin! the 6evelation, so that 5no part of his interpretation would strip way the sense, or ne!ate the form of thin!s mentioned in the *ur$an, for e ample, the <arden, the Eire, the %hrone and the Eootstool, the sun, the moon, ni!ht and day" >n the contrary, such an interpreter would confirm these thin!s as they are but, at the same time, understand from them their realities and 'inner) meanin!s$"'(:) Such an interpretation implies the understandin! of different levels of reality" Mulla Sadra continuesC ?verythin! that <od created in the world of form has a counterpart (na(ir) in the world of meanin!, and everythin! Ae created in the world of meanin!, which is the other world ( akhira), has a reality (ha%i%a) in the world of truth, which is the unseen of the unseen" Moreover he did not create anythin! in the two worlds which does not have an analo!y and e emplum in the human microcosm"'+,) ;ithin this principle is to be found a solution to understandin! the mutasha!ihat, for while there can be no likeness (mathal), which would involve anthropomorphism tash!ih, there can be analo!y (mithal)" So, for e ample, the %hrone of <od can have no likeness (mathal) in this material worldH yet by analo!y (mithal) it can represent the human heart"'+() Aow, then, can the seeker of truth (muha%%i%) !ain access to these realities and inner meanin!s of the *ur$anI %he inclusion of the prayer, 8uoted above, and the use of the word kashf (unveilin!) is si!nificant here" In his commentary on )yat al-*ursi Mulla Sadra statesC 5the only thin!s a commentator of the *ur$an can depend upon are either a clear narration (na%l sarih), or a complete unveilin! (mukashafa tamma) and an insi!ht (#arid) in the heart that can neither be resisted nor denied"'++) In the introduction to his commentary on Surat al-Sajda, Mulla Sadra relates his own e perienceC first of all ponderin! the meanin!s of the *ur$an, and studyin! its principles and structures, and then drownin! himself in the ocean of the *ur$an in order to brin! out its pearls" %his process is not without hardshipH Mulla Sadra speaks of bein! perple ed by the afflictions of destiny, and by the limitations of a science which could not satisfy his thirst for the truth" ;hen, finally, the release comes by the intervention of 4ivine mercy, it is as the unleashin! of a torrent which <od pours forth (yufi+u) upon Ais servant in such a way that he cannot withstand it"'+0)

%he knowled!e of the inner meanin!s of the *ur$an, then, cannot be attained without the intervention of the divine effusion (fay+) or unveilin! (kashf or mukashafa)" >ur commentator stipulates that there are moral conditions for this, too" Ae advises his student that if he hopes to attain to divine knowled!e in the tafsir of the *ur$an without sub&u!atin! his lower soul or persistin! in practices which lead to sanctity, such as spiritual discipline, the accomplishment of the virtues of submission, humility, patience and prayer, and strippin! his mind of its 'own) thou!hts, shuttin! the door of the senses and keepin! his mind on <od, then he is deludin! himself"'+/) #t this point we may conclude that the aim of *ur$anic e e!esis accordin! to Mulla Sadra is to attain to the inner realities and meanin!s of the *ur$an without negating the outer meanin! of its words and e pressions" %his understandin! may be !ranted by <od throu!h an unveilin!( kashf) or effusion (fay+), but re8uires on the part of the servant the purification of his secret from base desires and the love of the world"'+2) %he comprehension of the divine sub&ect matter of the *ur$an is, Mulla Sadra states, the culmination of all knowled!e and !nosis ( &ilm and &irfan) and the noblest science of the human soul, which itself is the basis of wayfarin! to <od, for the nafs may be vouchsafed ascent to the Jecessary ? istent" %he Tafsir was evidently composed as a didactic workH Mulla Sadra states that he wishes to e tend the blessin!s he has been !ranted to his student and so he saysC 5@e with us in all the !uidance that <od has !iven us on our &ourney"""$'+.) %hus far, the hermeneutics, that is to say the aims and criteria of Mulla Sadra$s commentary appear to depart little from those of earlier Sufi commentators"'+3) Aowever, when we e amine Mulla Sadra$s commentary from the point of view of its method and content, we shall see how it differs from Sufi e e!esis" #lthou!h Mulla Sadra, like the Sufis, believed that true knowled!e must be directly e perienced throu!h a divinely !ranted unveilin! (or, as he also defines it, a divine effusion), Sufi e e!esis usually e presses these e periences by means of allusion, metaphors and ima!es"'+=) %he same holds true in the tafsir of Ibn 5#rabi$s disciple, 9ashani, notwithstandin! the more theosophical nature of his thou!ht" Aowever, we know that, while Mulla Sadra held that 5to en!a!e in philosophy without e periencin! the truth of its content was to be confined to a world of essences and concepts$'+:), he also believed that 5mystical e perience without the intellectual discipline of philosophy can only lead to an ineffable state of ecstasy$" '0,) Aence we find in Mulla Sadra$s commentary on Surat al-Sajda, that his method of elucidatin! his co!nitive e perience is for the most part philosophical" %his is not to say that he does not employ ima!ery, metaphors and even Bersian poetry at times, but, when he does so it is in order to confirm or add nuance to a philosophical ar!ument"

Since, as we have seen, Mulla Sadra$s tafsir was a didactic work intended for one or more of his students, he !oes to !reat len!ths in elucidatin!, sta!e by sta!e, the necessary philosophical premisses for understandin! his *ur$anc interpretation" Sometimes, this will involve summarisin! the theory of an earlier philosopher, as, for e ample, Ibn Sina$s theory of the a!jad"'0() ;e have also seen that Mulla Sadra believed that the realisation of knowled!e was impossible without spiritual purification, so we find, on occasion, passa!es of a homiletic and moralisin! character"'0+) It is not surprisin!, then, that Mulla Sadra$s commentary on al-Sajda is so much lon!er than any of the mystical commentaries on the same sura"'00) %ypically, Mulla Sadra$s commentary on any verse will be!in with a brief lin!uistic and !rammatical discussion, often based on Kamakhshari$s *ashshaf"'0/) Ae will then discuss the si!nificance of the verse accordin! to traditions of the Brophet and Shi$i Imams" %hereafter, he will set out any philosophical problems which the verse appears to raise, and then proceed to e pound his solution to it" ;ithin his commentary on one verse, Mulla Sadra will mark the commencement of his own interpretation, and delineate the successive sta!es of his philosophical discourse with subtitles, such as *ashf ilhami, Ti!yan, -as$ hikmat rahmaniyya and so on"'02) #part from this overall function of demarcatin! the te t, I have not been able to link any one of these subtitles with a particular type of interpretation" In order to !ain a clearer picture of the method and content of Mulla Sadra$s tafsir, I shall now proceed to e amine in detail his commentary on the first part of verse / of Surat al-SajdaC 5)llahu &lladhi khala%a &l-sama#ati #al-ar+ #a ma !ayna huma fi sittatin ayamin.. $ 5<od it is who created the heavens and the earth and what is between them in si days"""$, contrastin! his interpetation of these words with the interpretations of *ushayri and 9ashani" %his *ur$anic statement seems to raise two issues for the commentatorC the first is the idea of the creation bein! in time, and the second, the meanin! and si!nificance of 5si days$" *ushayri addresses only the first of these two issues" Ais solution is to retain the meanin! of the *ur$anic words, but to underline 4ivine >mnipotence by e plainin! that <od created these si days without there bein! any time" Ae points out that it is neither a condition nor a necessity for any created thin! that <od should should have created it in time, since time itself was created outside time"'0.) 9ashani$s solution to the first problem, that is, the creation bein! in time, is to interpret 5creation$ metaphorically as 5veilin!$" %hus, he follows the *ur$anic statement, 5<od it is ;ho created the heavens and earth"""$ with the wordsC 5by Ais veilin! Aimself throu!h them 'that is, the heavens and earth and all that is between them) for si divine days, which was the duration of the period of concealment (da#r al-khafa) from the time of #dam, upon whom be peace, to the time of

Mohammed, upon whom be blessin!s and peace"$ 9ashani then introduces the second part of the verseC 5thumma &sta#a &ala &l- &arsh$ to complete the seven days of the week of divine time" Ae !losses these words withC 5%hen Ae seated Aimself upon the %hrone of the Muhammadan heart for 'the sake of) the manifestation of the Fast 4ay, which is the Eriday of those days, by the manifestation of the totality of all Ais attributes"$'03) Mulla Sadra be!ins his commentary on this verse by e plainin! that the nature of the predication of the relative clause 5who created the heavens and earth$ is primary and essential" Erom this simple !rammatical observation he draws the theolo!ical truth that <od alone is the >ne ;ho, in Ais ?ssence, is necessarily the >ri!inator and Creator of thin!s, as opposed to others, whose ori!ination of thin!s is not essential or real, such as man in bein! a scribe, whose nature does not suffice him in that, since he needs to have, in addition, the art of writin! and other means" ;e shall see that this fundamental theolo!ical principle will have a part to play later in Mulla Sadra$s e e!etical discussion" In the meantime, thou!h, our commentator takes up the second of the two issues raised by the *ur$anic statement, namely, the meanin! and si!nificance of the si days" Ae cites the *ur$anic wordsC 5.erily a day #ith thy Lord is as a thousand years of your reckoning $ (*"GGII, /3)" %his interpetation of a 5divine day$ as (,,, years, is also endorsed with a number of Brophetic hadiths. Since, accordin! to commonly accepted tradition, the duration of the world is 3,,, years, the si days may be understood to represent the period from the time of #dam to the time of the Brophet Mohammed" In one of those years, Mulla Sadra continues, <od created the heavens and the earth" Aere, he is takin! the meanin! of 5<od created$ to be 5Ae veiled Aimself by them 'heaven and earth)$" %he seventh day, he continues, is the 4ay of #ssembly, the time of <od$s bein! seated on the %hrone and the manifestation of Ais names" Lp to this point, Mulla Sadra$s interpretation seems to follow almost e actly the interpretation of 9ashani" @ut we shall see that he seeks to !o beyond it, partly because of his need to solve the philosophical and theolo!ical problem presented by the concept of <od$s creatin! in time, and partly because of his hermeneutical principles" Ae e plains that until now he has found no solution in any of the commentaries he has read 5in which the heart could feel sure$, for time, which is the measurement of movement, is posterior (mutaakhkhir) to the e istence of universal bodies (ajram kulliya)" Ae observes that most people have admitted their incapacity to apply this *ur$anic proposition to philosophical precepts and he states, 5the utmost (ghayat) that has been said here is the intepretation of one of the realised mystics 'vi7" 9ashani) that khal% (creation) means ihtija! (veilin!)"$ @ut here lies the rub for, as

Mulla Sadra reminds his student, he does not believe that the *ur$anic words should be taken away from their conventional meanin!s"'0=) It is now that Mulla Sadra proceeds to unfold his solution to the problem under the title 5 kashf ilhami$" Ae opens his interpretation by statin! that it is <od ;ho has blessed him 5in the study of this verse and others like it in the way Ae has 8uenched his thirst for the truth without there bein! any need to divert (sarf) the words from their outer meanin!"$ %he solution, he e plains, re8uires puttin! in order certain preliminaries" %hese we shall briefly summarise as followsC1 Eirst of all, there are three cate!ories of e istents" %here areC1 (i) intellectionH (ii) intellection, and (iii) in intellection" ?ach of these cate!ories of e istence has a different world and for each, man has a different or!an of perception" So, the third cate!ory belon!s to this world of natural thin!s, and man perceives these e istents with his senses" %he second cate!ory belon!s to the world of the unseen, the Aereafter and the world of recompense" Man perceives this world throu!h his mind (kha$ir) and intellect (5a%l)" #bove this is the realm of divine matters (umur ra!!aniyya), and these are perceived by the spirit (ruh) and contemplative intellect (5a%l na(ari)" Je t, Mulla Sadra e plains how a thin! in respect of its reality ( ha%i%a) and 8uiddity (mahiya) is an intellected concept, but in respect of its individuation it has need of matter and its passivity" %he universe with all it contains, therefore, has need of matter and its accidents and passivity in its takin! on of form and location and other aspects of individuation" #t the same time, the individuation of a thin! entails its bein! perceived by sensory perception" %he last of the preliminaries which Mulla Sadra establishes here is that 5anythin! which has a !raduated e istence, in as much as it is thus, the duration of its comin! into e istence ( huduth) is the same as the duration of its subsistence (!a%i$)"$'0:) Aavin! set forth these preliminaries, Mulla Sadra indicates that the e istence of the universe is tied to the e istence of man, whose kind preserves the e istence of individuals" Ae then reminds his student that the appearance of heaven (or the sky) in this particular form is throu!h thin!s additional to its essence" Moreover the name sama (heaven or sky), when applied to the reality of MheavennessN is inseparable from its particular sensible form (shakl)"'/,) (iii) those that have need of form, movement and time both in e istence and (ii) those that have need of form, movement and time in e istence but not in those that have no need of form, movement or time either in e istence or in

%hus, havin! already established that the e istence of universal bodies (e"!" heaven) preceded time and movement, Mulla Sadra now shows that heaven, in as much as it has a material perceptible e istence in this world, is temporal in its e isence (/amani al-#ujud) and !raduated in its actuality (tadriji al-husul)" #nd, a!ain, he observes that the duration of its comin! into bein! is identical with the duration of its subsistence, which is why it is said in the *ur$anC 5 *ulla ya#min hu#a fi shan$ (*"FO, +:)"'/() Aowever, Mulla Sadra reminds his student, beyond this world of continually renewed creation, is the world of eternal, primordial realities alluded to in the sayin! of the BrophetC 5%he pens have dried with what is to be until the 4ay of 6esurrection$" If the student were to look with a true vision at all chan!in! sensible thin!s, from the point of view of their stable, unchan!in!, intellected reality, he would find them to be outside time and place" So it is with all the essential 8ualities of thin!s and attributes of 8uiddities" If our sensory perception should leave us, then so would all concept of space and time and the earth would become other than what it is" %hat would be the moment when all is rolled up in the ri!ht hand of <od" %his point is endorsed with four lines of the poet Sana$iC1 #s lon! as the mind of man is alive,'/+) %he tent of time will stand" >nce man puts his head to rest'/0) %he ropes of that tent will be broken'//)

Mulla Sadra adds no more on this sub&ect other than to concludeC 5Erom the philosophical e planation we have e pounded the secret in the heavens and earth bein! created in si days will have become clear"$ It can be seen then that Mulla Sadra$s own commentary on this *ur$anic statement amounts to no more than the e position of certain philosophical principles, for in his view, a true understandin! of these will suffice to answer any apparent difficulty presented by the *ur$anic words" It is as if Mulla Sadra is showin! throu!h this interpretation, as he had stated in his introduction, that the eternal truths of the *ur$an have taken on the clothin! and form of sensible e istents in order to be accessible to man who necessarily lives in the spacio1 temporal world of sensible material e istence" Yet, throu!h his intellect and by means of divinely inspired unveilin!, man has the possibility of risin! beyond the realm of material forms to perceive the eternal realities of the 6evelation"

Jotes
[1]

. %hanks are due to Mr Sa&&ad 6i7vi and Miss Eatima #77am for their advice on aspects of this

paper"
'+)

" %afsir al *ur$Pn al1karim ed" Muhammad 9hP&avi in 3 vols" (*um, (0..13s), henceforth " #ccordin! to @idPfar$s introduction, 5%afsir$, vol" I, pp" ((,1(((" " %his is accordin! to the definition !iven by Jane 4" Mc#uliffe in her article 5*ur$Pcinc

referred to as 5%afsir$"
'0) '/)

AermeneuticsC %he Oiews of Qabari and Ibn 9athir$, in #" 6ippin, ed", #pproaches to the Aistory of Interpretation of the *ur$Pn, (> ford, (:==) pp" /01.+"
'2) '.)

" #buRl1*Psim al1*ushayri FaSPRif al1ishPrPt, ed" I" @asyTni, 0 vols, (@eirut, (:.3)" " R#bd al16a77P8 al19PshPni, %afsir al1*urRPn al1karim, + vols" (@eirut, (:.=) >therwise known " %afsir, vol" OI, p" =" " Ibid" " %afsir, OI, :" " Ibid" " MafPtih al1!hayb (%ehran, (+=+-(=.21. or (0.0-(:=/), p"0,/" " %afsir OI, (," " %afsir, OII, (=2, commentin! on *"FGII, 2C 5%he likeness of those who are entrusted with the " %afsir, OI, +,1+(" " %afsir, IO,(.(" " %afsir, OI, 0,1(" " %he Muhkam (clear) and mutashPbihPt (e8uivocal) verses referred to in *"III v"3 were sub&ect

as %a$wilPt al1*ur$Pn"
'3) '=) ':)

'(,) '(() '(+) '(0)

law of Moses yet apply it not is as the likeness of the ass carryin! booksU$
'(/) '(2) '(.) '(3)

of much discussion by e e!etes" See F" 9inber!, 5MuhkamPt and MutashPbihPt (*" 0-3)C Implication of a *ur$Pnic Bair of %erms in Medieval ? e!esis$" #rabica, GGGO ((:==), pp" (/01 3+H M" Fa!arde, 54e l$ambi!uite dans le Coran$, *uaderni di Studi #rabi, 0 ((:=2), pp" /21.+, and S" Syamsuddin, Muhkam and MutashPbihC an #nalytical Study of al1%abari$s and al1 Kamakhshari$s Interpretations of *" 0C3$, Journal of *ur$Pnic Studies, Ool" (, Issue ( ((:::), pp" .013:"
'(=) '(:) '+,)

" %afsir, OI, 0/12" " %afsir, OI, 02" " Ibid"

'+()

" %afsir, OI, 021." %he principle which MullP sadrP has outlined here may be evidenced in an

interpretation by the early .th-(+th century mystic, 6ashid al14in Maybudi, who insists that the %hrone of <od 5in heaven$ must be understood as it is, bi1lP kayf, but then shows how the %hrone of <od 5on earth$ is the 5heart of Ais friend$ 9ashf al1asrPr wa 5uddat al1addat al1abrPr, ed" #" #" Aekmat, (, vols", (%ehrPn, (00(1:s"), Ool" I, 0("
'++) '+0) '+/) '+2) '+.) '+3)

" %afsir, OI, (." " %afsir, OI, ." " %afsir, III, +:3" " %afsir, OI, (+" " %afsir, OI, +," " >n the disallowal of the metaphorical interpretation of aspects of the bodily 6esurrection and

sensible punishments and rewards in the afterlife see, for e ample, al1<ha7Pli, EayVal al1tafri8a bayn al1islPm wa15l17anda8a, Cairo, ((:.() pp" (:(1+ (transl" 6"%" McCarthy as #ppendi I in Ereedom and Eulfillment, @oston, (:=,)C al1I8tiVad fi$l1i5ti8Pd, #nkara, ((:.+) pp" +/:12,C al1 Mun8idh min al WalPl, te t and transl, with introduction and notes, E" Jabre, (@eirut, (:.:), pp" +01/, and I" <old7iher, Streitschrift des <a7ali !e!en die @atini&&a1Sekte, (Feiden, (:(.), pp" 3,1 (" >n the re8uirement of spiritual purification before the inner realities of the *ur$Pn can be understood, see #bT 5#bd al16ahmPn al1Sulami (%ehran, (0.:s), p" (:3, Erench transl" In B" Jwyia, 5Ln cas d$e e!ese soufieC l$Aistoire de Joseph$, in Melan!es Aenri Corbin, ed" S"A" Jasr, (%ehran, (:33), p" /,=H and Maybudi 9ashf al1asrPr, I, ++: and II, .(+10" >n the need for a divinely !ranted unveilin! (mukPshifa) for the mystical interpretation of the *ur$Pn see <ha7Pli, IhyP 5ulTm al1din, 9itPb 8awP$id al15a8P$id I, :+H transl" Earis, Eoundations of the #rticales of Eaith, (Fahore, (:.0) pp" 2,1+ and Maybudi, 9ashf al1asrPr, II, .(+10"
'+=) '+:)

" See Ea7lur 6ahman, %he Bhilosophy of MullP sadrP (SLJY, (:32) pp"/12" " J" Cooper, MMullP sadrPN in 6outled!e ?ncyclopaedia of Bhilosophy (Fondon-Jew York, " Ibid" " %afsir, OI, (21(." " Eor e ample vol"OI, (=1(:H +/" " MullP sadrP$s commentary amounts to (+, pa!es in the printed edition, as compared with ((

(::=), vol" OI, p" 2:3"

'0,) '0() '0+) '00)

pa!es (*ushayri) and 3 pa!es (9PshPni)" ?ven Maybudi$s commentary on STrat al1Sa&da, which includes an e oteric and esoteric commentary, amounts to no more than 0, pa!es"
'0/)

" #bT 5l1*Psim MahmTd b" 5Lmar al1Kamakhshari, al19ashshPf 5an ha8P$i8 al1tan7il, / vols",

(@eirut, (:.3)"

'02)

" %afsir, OI, (,/ and (,3" #part from this overall function of demarcatin! the te t, I have not

been able to link any one of these subtitles to a particular type of interpretation" # more e tensive study of MullP sadrP$s tafsir is re8uired in order to discover what particular si!nificance, if any, may be attached to the use of these different titles"
'0.) '03) '0=) '0:)

" FaSPRif al1ishPrPt, II, (0:" " %afsir al1*urRan al1karim, II, +3+" " %afsir, OI, 0(" " %afsir, OI, 0+" ;e can here see an allusion to MullP sadrP$s understandin! of time in its

relation to haraka &awhariyya" #s Ea7lur 6ahman has e plainedC 5#ll bodies, be they celestial or material, are sub&ect to this substantial chan!e in their very bein!, and this proves that the entire spatio1temporal world is temporally ori!inated insofar as its e istence is ever1renewed every moment"$ (%he Bhilosophy of Mulla XSadra, p" :.") %his principle appears to have similarities with Ibn 5#rabi$s ta&addud al1khal8 biRl1anfPs, but this re8uires further investi!ation elsewhere"
'/,) '/() '/+) '/0) '//)

" %afsir, OI, 0+" " %afsir, OI, 00" " Fit" #s lon! as earth (or mind$s earthI) !ives birth to man (tP 7amin1i dil adami7Pyast)" " I"e" no lon!er e ists" " Man bein! the pole of the world$s tent" %afsir, OI, 00" %he first couplet may be found in

SanP$i$s Aadi8at al1ha8i8a ed" Mudarris 6a7avi pa!e (+3, where the first hemistich readsC tP 7amin &P1yi Pdmi7Pyast # variant !iven in the footnote is closer in sound to sadrP$s version tP 7amin u !il Pdami7Pyast %he second couplet is found in identical form in the Aadi8a p" (+="