Kasr Al Asnaam Al Jaahiliyya Review Final

8/14/2019 Kasr Al Asnaam Al Jaahiliyya Review Final

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Breaking the Idols of Ignorance: Admonition of the Soi-Disant Sufi by Sadr al-Din Shirazi, trans. M. Dasht Bozorgi, F. Asadi Amjad, ed. S. K. Toussi, 2007.London: ICAS Press, xliv + 162 pp., 15.99 (pbk). ISBN: 978-1-904063-27-8

A L I H A I D E R A B I D I

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

Breaking the Idols of Ignorance is a translation ofKasr al-Asnam al-Jahiliyyah,one of tens of books and treatises composed by the renowned Islamicphilosopher Sadr al-Din Shirazi (979-1050 AH/ 1571-1640 AD), morecommonly known as Mulla Sadra. Whereas this book is one of Sadras shorterworks, it is one of the best, partly due to the advantage of it being one of hislater works, appearing even after the production of his magnum opus Al-

Asfar which he refers to for extra reading (136).Written originally in Arabic, Kasr al-Asnam al-Jahiliyyah is rendered here in

its first English translation as Breaking the Idols of Ignorance. It includes adetailed introduction by the editor and a brief translators note, both of whichinclude summary reviews of the work. The translation itself employssophisticated language with a rich vocabulary that is lucid for advancedreaders but might not be conducive to the casual reader. This might be inpart due to the nature of the work that attempts to capture the authors deepinsights into mystical, spiritual and philosophical matters. The translatorshave also done a great job of referencing important Quranic verses, hadith,and other sources referred to by the author, at one point even proposing apossible correction (125). They have developed this final work after studyingmultiple non-English renditions of the book and included the single-instanceportions as appendices.

The book begins with the Editors Introduction, which is a biographicalsketch of the author that outlines his life, studies, challenges, achievements,contributions, intellectual campaigns and major works. It also places the bookin its proper context by outlining the political and social environment thatincluded competing interests of rulers, exoteric ulema (theologians/scholars),extremist mystics, and mystically-oriented philosophers amongst others (xvi).

The introduction details the impact of these tensions on Sadras life, includinghis decade-long retreat from public life, as well as his intellectual campaignsagainst what he perceived as the extremities of his time such as dogmatictheology and unbridled mysticism. It sets the stage for Sadras book bydescribing it as his campaign against the creed of false mystics and

disgraceful, impious sophists (xxxvi). It finally concludes by summarizing themain points of Sadras books.Sadras book is divided into a Preamble, a Preface, and four essays. In the

Preamble, as well as throughout the book, he spares no effort in wielding abarrage of criticism against false mystics (Sufis) from all angles:metaphorical, explicit, philosophical, rhetorical, and argumentative accusing them of being novices, show-offs and confused folk who could reallyuse some advice. To one who does not agree with Sadras position, the heavydose of criticism might appear as too much or even ranting; however, Sadra


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strives to justify his criticism via the explication, description, and analysisthat he formidably lays out throughout his book to back up his claims. Hecites the evil emanating from the influence and existence of false mystics assomething that ought to be arraigned against, and presents this book as ashattering of their idols of ignorance (10).

In the Preface, which itself forms a brief essay, Sadra introduces several

concepts that he later details out in the rest of the book. He discusses theimportance of achieving a high spiritual status reminiscent of a holy soul oran apostolic or saintly being (18), as well as the obstructions, failures, andfaults in achieving such a status. He concludes his preface by railing againstthe idea of relying on sensory perception, instead emphasizing theimportance of the soul, its origin and return, its downfall in veiling itself fromits Lord via ignorance and evil deeds, and its ultimate redemption viapracticing (true) asceticism (22).

The four essays that follow are each, in their own right, independentdistinct wholes with their own theme-sets despite being contiguous andbuilding upon their previous counterparts. However, several of the themesrecur within each and persist throughout the four essays. Each essay is itself

structured to begin with a brief summary of a few lines and is further sub-divided into smaller sub-sections, each generally commencing with a line ortwo of its own introduction. However, the introductory lines do not do justiceto the given section or essay because the great amount of detail packedtherein could not be described in a few introductory lines. Sadra goes beyondthe stated objective of each section, each essay, and the book as a whole. Hecovers a lot more than what meets the eye in the summaries.

Sadras main theme in the first essay is knowledge. He delves into itskinds, its perfection, distinction from show-off/sophistry, its grounding, theharm of its absence, the ultimate result of its presence or absence, itsincumbency, its refreshing by sensory exercises (dhikr), knowledge of self-discipline hinged on refined intellect, kinds of scholars and their attributes,

examples of sages and wise men, and elements of true and wise mystics. Themain theme of the second essay is spiritual knowledge and practice. Hedelves into why spiritual knowledge is the best kind of knowledge, the impactof morals and spiritual practices, the effects of practices on the heart and thebestowal of divine grace, divine scholars as objects of creation, actionsinhibiting or promoting wisdom, divine grace upon the wise man who unlikefalse mystics does not run after worldly position but is bestowed positionfrom God, and finally the signs and attributes of the lovers of God. The maintheme of the third essay is the attributes of the Righteous who are travelingtowards God and seeking Him though have not yet attained the rank of thenear stationed (84). The idea is to fully adopt the attributes mentioned inthis essay in order to become amongst the closest ones. He delves thereininto the acts for purifying the heart, love and yearning for God, actionscarried out for the sake of God, worship of Him through knowing Him,description of categories of theoretical and practical actions and devotions,degrees of spiritual evils, proper use of rationality and intellect bestowed onhumans for acquiring truth and achieving their prime objective, thewretchedness of evil deeds, the ultimate results of religious devotion versesthat of evil deeds, and discriminating between good and bad, and its variouskinds.


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As for the last essay, it doubles as both an essay and the conclusion whichSadra might have originally intended to place as a separate section (10). Thisessay admonishes the seekers of God. Therein he delves into the differencesbetween the curable and non-curable of the spiritually diseased people,restraint from worldly benefit, simplicity of life in similitude to propheticasceticism, love of world versus love of God, illegitimate and legitimate

attractions to keep away from, the role of mind over the body and intellectover inclinations, the pleasure derived from divine contemplation, the fourveils between God and the seekers, and the duties of the guide (shaykh) inensuring a satisfactory grooming of spiritual disciples closing with finality ofsuccess for successful training and striving.

The reason Sadra is able to compress so much knowledge within a shortwork is due to the style he employs. His manner of writing is highlystructured and logical; it is full of hierarchies, categorisations, summary setsand point-wise listings. One may also add equations such as: implications(one thing leads to another), combinations (results on combining attributes),and opposites (variance of opposing attributes). This allows him to convey awide amount of information succinctly, and this squarely places his book as a

ripe candidate for detailed exegesis.Sadra employs his own style of interpretations and explications as well. He

engages in examination of core concepts from a variety of perspectives andprovides several different view-angles reminiscent of the hermeneuticalcircle. He strongly vouches for methodological approaches such as comingout strongly in support of critical analysis railing against both insurgentbigotry and adoption of ideas based on faith of teachers and what was pickedup in childhood (63), the importance of empirical evidence (as in indubitabledemonstration (64)), phenomenological-like stripping and abstraction (44),the psycho-analytical approach of both angelic and satanic mentalvisitations (77-80), and employment of critical thought by not rolling up themat of individual judgment and not ceasing the movement of thought (45).

He also advocates an approach (which nowadays might be called anti-positivist) that does not limit the human to the five senses which hedesignates as common with beasts instead exhorting to the senses thatcannot be perceived (82); in other words: a metaphysical and analyticalapproach, including spiritual. He proposes a centrist notion of exegesis andtextual analysis which makes use of both exterior and interior forms,condemning both the Literalists and Esoterics the former for looking atthe laws with a blind eye and the latter for shifting the significance of wordsfrom what their exterior form necessitates (35).

Sadra exhibits a profound sense of confidence throughout the book andmanifests it in the manner of his bestowal of criticism and praise; his rebukesare sharp and animated and likewise his applauds are eulogising. Hespecifically singles out two supremely influential groups of people foraddresses, attacks, and extolling, namely, the mystics and the scholars. Hiscomparisons between the best and worst kind of each group reflects adichotomy of good and evil, heaven and hell. The ultimately pious Sufi isdescribed at times as the purpose of the universe and the fruit of creation(112) while the ultimately wretched mystic is described as proud, liberal andmisguiding a cause of extreme corruption worthy of being killed (34). As forthe scholars, the best of them the divine scholar is described as the primal


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objective of creation (57) while the worst of them are described as those soldto the desires of fame and leadership (99) and as severely diseasedphysicians who increase the disease of their patients by deception (109). Atdifferent points throughout the book, he provides references from Islamicsources, renowned writers, and intellectuals to back up his arguments inexplicating the dichotomy.

Sadra is very apt at referencing, and his fluid meshing of sources in histreatise signifies his advanced scholarship. He often references the Quran,and he also has a good handle on the hadiths relevant to his subject(spirituality); he is in fact critical of theologians who ignore the subject ofspirituality in favour of the nitty-gritty of (popular) Islamic law for the gain ofposition and favour (116). He also quotes several Muslim intellectuals,Ghazzali being one of the more often quoted; others include Balkhi,Suhravardi, and Ibn Arabi. He is very open-minded to knowledge gained fromany source showering praise on several non-Muslim thinkers for theircontribution, including those he classified as hakim (sage, philosopher, wiseman) such as Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle (42-43). He evenincludes a short, but powerful, treatise of Pythagoras (which the translators

ascribe to Hermes) as a sub-section (125-130) in the last essay ofadmonitions. He frequently quotes adages and poetic-couplets whererelevant, and heavily uses metaphors, stories, examples, and analogies forelucidation and further explication.

All in all, Sadra covers much ground and from several perspectives.Besides the analytical, philosophical and methodological aspects, he alsoallots a fair share of output to the devotional, emotional and eschatologicalaspects. His essays are devotionally laced with divine praises, thanksgiving,forgiveness and the attributes of God. Additionally there is much respect andhonour dedicated to the Prophet and to a lesser degree to saintly figures. Atan emotional level, his chidings, admonitions, warnings, and criticisms areintense, while his adoration of divine grandeur and beauty and seeking

pleasure of the theoretical intellect (104) are ecstatic. A good amount ofspace is also accorded to eschatological aspects which have their dedicatedsub-sections besides being weaved throughout the book. He speaks muchabout pre-eternity, the after-life, heaven, hell, seeing God and basking in Hisglory. In this vein he advocates total renunciation of the world (122) andhighlights the divine blessings upon asceticism (120); for instance byreferencing several examples of prophetic asceticism (117-118) found in asermon of Amir al-Muminin.

The ascetic nature of his work can be applied to his work itself. Apparently,Sadras composition was not written with an intention of addressing thepublic at-large. In fact, he had a very specific readership that he intended toreach out to. It could be assumed from his treatise that Sadra was not out forfame and glory, but just wanted to admonish those worthy of admonishment this is reflective of his undiplomatic manner of writing which would beappreciated by only those willing to accept harsh criticism. Sadra divides thenon-saintly people between the spiritually diseased, yet curable, and thespiritually dead. He says that admonitions and counsel cannot give life to thedead, but can warn the drowsy and awaken the sleepers (114). The latter arehis intended audience. He further paints a picture that implies an extremelydiseased and corrupt world (135) wherein it can be assumed that most


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people would be spiritually dead. It may well be argued that moral decay andspiritual corruption has only worsened manifold over the four centuries thatseparate Sadras time from ours.

In conclusion, Sadras book is both an intellectual masterpiece, and an aidfor spiritual elevation. It thus encompasses the oft-recurrent themes ofknowledge and mysticism expressed throughout the book. It can be used by

researchers of various fields in the humanities as well as by independentreligious scholars and intellectual laity who are seeking an enlighteningacademic path to understanding true mysticism. As such, the book is bothacademically and practically applicable.

Kasr Al Asnaam Al Jaahiliyya Review Final

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