Mulla Hadi Sabzevari
Encyclopedia
Molla Hadi Sabzavari or Hajj Molla Hadi Sabzavari (1797–1873) was a famous Iran
ian Shi'ite Muslim philosopher, mystic
, theologian and poet
.
(Khorasan
) to a family of land-owning merchants. His formal education started as a young age under his cousin, Molla Hosayn Sabzavari, and he wrote a small treatise at the age of seven. His father passed away 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 to Mashad. There, he resided in the Hajj Hasan madrasa near the mausoleum of Imam Reza, where he studied Arabic
, Islamic Jurisprudence
, logic
, and the principles of religion and law with Molla Hosay for a period of ten years. When he turned twenty, he returned to his hometown of Sabzavar. From there, he prepared his plans for the Hajj
and set out in the direction of Isfahan. During this period, Isfahan was an important intellectual center of Iran
, where philosophy and intellectual mysticism ('Erfan) flourished.
Among the important masters of these tradition at the time, the names of Mollā ʿAli Nuri (d. 1830-31) and Mollā Esmāʿil Eṣfahāni, a student of Nuri, were prominent. They taught Islamic philosophy, mostly of Sadr al-Din Shirazi and his school. He remained in Isfahan for around eight or nine years, where he studied under these two undisputed masters of Mulla Sadra
's school of philosophy. He concentrated on the main works of Mulla Sadra, such as the Asfar and Al-Shawahed al-Robubiya. Simulataneously, he also studied Islamic jurisprudence ith Aqa Mohammad 'Ali Najafi, one of the major Shiʿite scholars of Isfahan. In Isfahan, Sabzevari lived a life of pietry despited having received a substantial inheritance. According to the orientalist Edward 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”.
In In 1826-27, Sabzavari returned to Mashhad
. There he began to teach in the Hājj Hasan madrasa although the scholars in Mashhad did not have the same interest in philosophy as Isfahan. The atmosphere of Mashhad
was not as open as Isfahan 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 in Isfahan. His commentary on this important work of his however was completed in 1845. In 1831-32, he set out for Sabzavar where he made preparation for the Hajj
. He left for Mecca
in 1832-33 where he performed the rites of the pilgrimage. He returned to Iran in 1834-35 during the interval of the death of Fath Ali Shah Qajar. During this period of anarchy, traveling within Iran had become dangerous. Having lost his wife in Hajj, he settled in Kerman
while waiting for calmer conditions to return to Khorasan
. During the year he spent in Kerman
, he was enganged 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 to Sabzavar. At this time, no one knew his real identity and degree of knowledge.
In 1836-37, Sabzavari set to Sabzavar 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 thought in Mashhad
. 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 even Tibet
. His name became widespread all over Iran so much so that in 1857-158, when Naser al-Din Shah Qajar made a pilgrame to Mashhad
, he stopped in Sabzavar and paid a visit to hakim Sabzavari. The Qajar 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 passed away suddently 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 couplet ka namord zendatar shod ("He did not die but became more alive after his passing") which was composed by one of his students
. He wrote the Asrar al-hikmah ("The Secrets of Wisdom"), which, together with his Arabic
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.
For philosophy in the reign of Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar (1848–1896), he was what Mulla Sadra
had been in the reign of Shah Abbas I
. He was also the faithful interpreter of Mulla Sadra and Transcendent 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 than Mulla Sadra
, to give free rein to his genius as a mystical theosopher, because there was greater freedom of self-expression during the Safavid epoch.
and Arabic. His wrote works deleaing with array of subjects from prosody
to logic to theology. However, the majority of his works deal with philosophy and mysticism.
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) knowldege 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.
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).
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian Shi'ite Muslim philosopher, mystic
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
, theologian and poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
.
Life
He was born in SabzavārSabzevar
Sabzevar is a city in, and the capital of Sabzevar County, in Razavi Khorasan Province in northeastern Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 208,172, in 57,024 families.It is approximately 220 kilometres west of Mashhad, the provincial capital...
(Khorasan
Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...
) to a family of land-owning merchants. His formal education started as a young age under his cousin, Molla Hosayn Sabzavari, and he wrote a small treatise at the age of seven. His father passed away 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 to Mashad. There, he resided in the Hajj Hasan madrasa near the mausoleum of Imam Reza, where he studied Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, Islamic Jurisprudence
Fiqh
Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is an expansion of the code of conduct expounded in the Quran, often supplemented by tradition and implemented by the rulings and interpretations of Islamic jurists....
, logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
, and the principles of religion and law with Molla Hosay for a period of ten years. When he turned twenty, he returned to his hometown of Sabzavar. From there, he prepared his plans for the Hajj
Hajj
The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
and set out in the direction of Isfahan. During this period, Isfahan was an important intellectual center of Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, where philosophy and intellectual mysticism ('Erfan) flourished.
Among the important masters of these tradition at the time, the names of Mollā ʿAli Nuri (d. 1830-31) and Mollā Esmāʿil Eṣfahāni, a student of Nuri, were prominent. They taught Islamic philosophy, mostly of Sadr al-Din Shirazi and his school. He remained in Isfahan for around eight or nine years, where he studied under these two undisputed masters of Mulla Sadra
Mulla Sadra
Ṣadr ad-Dīn Muḥammad Shīrāzī also called Mulla Sadrā was a Persian Shia Islamic philosopher, theologian and ‘Ālim who led the Iranian cultural renaissance in the 17th century...
's school of philosophy. He concentrated on the main works of Mulla Sadra, such as the Asfar and Al-Shawahed al-Robubiya. Simulataneously, he also studied Islamic jurisprudence ith Aqa Mohammad 'Ali Najafi, one of the major Shiʿite scholars of Isfahan. In Isfahan, Sabzevari lived a life of pietry despited having received a substantial inheritance. According to the orientalist Edward Browne
Edward Granville Browne
Edward Granville Browne , born in Stouts Hill, Uley, Gloucestershire, England, was a British orientalist who published numerous articles and books of academic value, mainly in the areas of history and literature...
, “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”.
In In 1826-27, Sabzavari returned to Mashhad
Mashhad
Mashhad , is the second largest city in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia Muslim world. It is also the only major Iranian city with an Arabic name. It is located east of Tehran, at the center of the Razavi Khorasan Province close to the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Its...
. There he began to teach in the Hājj Hasan madrasa although the scholars in Mashhad did not have the same interest in philosophy as Isfahan. The atmosphere of Mashhad
Mashhad
Mashhad , is the second largest city in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia Muslim world. It is also the only major Iranian city with an Arabic name. It is located east of Tehran, at the center of the Razavi Khorasan Province close to the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Its...
was not as open as Isfahan 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 in Isfahan. His commentary on this important work of his however was completed in 1845. In 1831-32, he set out for Sabzavar where he made preparation for the Hajj
Hajj
The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
. He left for Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
in 1832-33 where he performed the rites of the pilgrimage. He returned to Iran in 1834-35 during the interval of the death of Fath Ali Shah Qajar. During this period of anarchy, traveling within Iran had become dangerous. Having lost his wife in Hajj, he settled in Kerman
Kerman
- Geological characteristics :For the Iranian paleontologists, Kerman has always been considered a fossil paradise. Finding new dinosaur footprints in 2005 has now revealed new hopes for paleontologists to better understand the history of this area.- Economy :...
while waiting for calmer conditions to return to Khorasan
Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...
. During the year he spent in Kerman
Kerman
- Geological characteristics :For the Iranian paleontologists, Kerman has always been considered a fossil paradise. Finding new dinosaur footprints in 2005 has now revealed new hopes for paleontologists to better understand the history of this area.- Economy :...
, he was enganged 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 to Sabzavar. At this time, no one knew his real identity and degree of knowledge.
In 1836-37, Sabzavari set to Sabzavar 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 thought in Mashhad
Mashhad
Mashhad , is the second largest city in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia Muslim world. It is also the only major Iranian city with an Arabic name. It is located east of Tehran, at the center of the Razavi Khorasan Province close to the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Its...
. 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 even Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
. His name became widespread all over Iran so much so that in 1857-158, when Naser al-Din Shah Qajar made a pilgrame to Mashhad
Mashhad
Mashhad , is the second largest city in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia Muslim world. It is also the only major Iranian city with an Arabic name. It is located east of Tehran, at the center of the Razavi Khorasan Province close to the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Its...
, he stopped in Sabzavar and paid a visit to hakim Sabzavari. The Qajar 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 passed away suddently 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 couplet ka namord zendatar shod ("He did not die but became more alive after his passing") which was composed by one of his students
Works
Sabzavari wrote some fifty-two works of prose and poetry in both Arabic and PersianPersian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
. He wrote the Asrar al-hikmah ("The Secrets of Wisdom"), which, together with his Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
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.
For philosophy in the reign of Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar (1848–1896), he was what Mulla Sadra
Mulla Sadra
Ṣadr ad-Dīn Muḥammad Shīrāzī also called Mulla Sadrā was a Persian Shia Islamic philosopher, theologian and ‘Ālim who led the Iranian cultural renaissance in the 17th century...
had been in the reign of Shah Abbas I
Abbas I of Persia
Shāh ‘Abbās the Great was Shah of Iran, and generally considered the greatest ruler of the Safavid dynasty. He was the third son of Shah Mohammad....
. He was also the faithful interpreter of Mulla Sadra and Transcendent Theosophy
Transcendent Theosophy
Transcendent theosophy or al-hikmat al-muta’li , the doctrine and philosophy developed by Persian philosopher, Mulla Sadra, is one of two main disciplines of Islamic philosophy that is currently live and active....
. 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 than Mulla Sadra
Mulla Sadra
Ṣadr ad-Dīn Muḥammad Shīrāzī also called Mulla Sadrā was a Persian Shia Islamic philosopher, theologian and ‘Ālim who led the Iranian cultural renaissance in the 17th century...
, to give free rein to his genius as a mystical theosopher, because there was greater freedom of self-expression during the Safavid epoch.
Books
Sabzevari wrote numerous works in PersianPersian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
and Arabic. His wrote works deleaing with array of subjects from prosody
Prosody (linguistics)
In linguistics, prosody is the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. Prosody may reflect various features of the speaker or the utterance: the emotional state of the speaker; the form of the utterance ; the presence of irony or sarcasm; emphasis, contrast, and focus; or other elements of...
to logic to theology. However, the majority of his works deal with philosophy and mysticism.
- Šarḥ al-manẓuma, is a work in Arabic also known as Ḡorar al-farāʾed. It is one of his more notable books which was completed around 1845. Till this day, it is still thought in religious seminaries in Iran with numerous later commentaries. The work is a versified summary and commentary of the transcendence philosophy of Mulla SadraMulla SadraṢadr ad-Dīn Muḥammad Shīrāzī also called Mulla Sadrā was a Persian Shia Islamic philosopher, theologian and ‘Ālim who led the Iranian cultural renaissance in the 17th century...
. - Asrār al-ḥekam fi’l-moftataḥ wa’l-moḵtatam
- Šarḥ-e abyāt-e moškela-ye Maṯnawi in Persian is a commentary of the Mathnawi of Mowalana Jalal al-Din Rumi
- Hedāyat al-ṭālebin, a book composed in Persian at the request of Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar
- Ta'liqat
- Asrar ol-Ebadah
- Aljabr wal ekhtiar
- Osul ad-Din
- Nebrās al-hodā
- A poem cycle
Asrār al-ḥekam fi’l-moftataḥ wa’l-moḵtatam
The book was written for Naser al-Din Shah after the Shah while passing through Sabzavār oasked Mulla Hadi Sabzevari to write a him a book about man's origin and destination in Persian together with the mysteries of God’s onenes. The book was completed in 1868 and it deals with concepts of illuminative wisdom (ešrāq) and peripatetic philosophy, and is rich in intuitive and mystic insights.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) knowldege 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.
Part I of the book consists of seven chapters:
- proof of the Necessarily Existent (wāǰeb al-woǰūd),
- knowledge of God’s attributes
- God's actions
- knowledge of one’s self and psychology (maʿāref-e nafs)
- knowledge of man’s origin and destination,
- absolute prophethood
- Imamate
Part II comprises four chapters
- ritual purity (ṭahāra)
- prayer (ṣalāt)
- alms
- fasting (ṣīām).
The most important part of the book is on the proof of the Necessarily Existent (i.e., God).
Translations
- The Metaphysics of Sabzvârî, tr. from the Arabic by Mehdi Mohagheg and Toshihico Izutso, Delmar, New York, 1977.