Exegesis of the holy Koranic verse "God is the Light of Heaven and Earth"

This book is a Koranic exegesis written in Arabic by "Mulla Sadra", on the interpretation of the Koranic verse "God is the Light of Heaven and Earth." (24/ 35) In the book it is also mentioned the interpretations of "Avicenna" and "Khajeh Nasir-al Din Tousi", presented on this verse.

The author
Ṣadr ad-Dīn Muḥammad Shīrāzī also called Mulla Sadrā (c. 1571–1641), Shiraz, Iran was a Persian Shia Islamic philosopher, theologian led the Iranian cultural renaissance in the 17th century.
Though not its founder, he is considered the master of the Illuminationist, or (Ishraghi or Ishraqi) school of Philosophy, a seminal figure who synthesized the many tracks of the Islamic Golden Age, and Andalusian, philosophies into what he called the Transcendent Theosophy or al-hikmah al-muta’liyah.
Mulla Sadra brought "a new philosophical insight in dealing with the nature of reality" and created "a major transition from essentialism to existentialism" in Islamic philosophy, although his existentialism should not be too readily compared to Western existentialism. His was a question of existentialist cosmology as it pertained to Allah, and thus differs considerably from the individual, moral, and/or social, questions at the heart of Russian, French, German, or American Existentialism.
Mulla Sadra's philosophy ambitiously synthesized Avicennism, Suhrawardi's Illuminationist philosophy, Ibn Arabi's Sufi metaphysics, and the theology of the Ash'ari school and Twelvers.
Mulla Sadra moved first to Qazvin in 1591 and then to Isfahan 1597 to pursue a traditional and institutional education in philosophy, theology, Hadith, and hermeneutics. Each city was a successive capital of the Safavid dynasty and centers of Twelver Shi'ite seminaries at that time. His teachers included Mir Damad and Baha' ad-Din al-`Amili.
Mulla Sadra completed his education at Isfahan, a leading cultural and intellectual center of his day. He was trained under the supervision of Mir Damad.
After he had finished his studies Sadra began to explore unorthodox doctrines and as a result was both condemned and excommunicated by some Shi'i ʿulamāʾ. He then retired for a lengthy period of time to a village named Kahak near Ḳum, where he engaged in contemplative exercises. While in Kahak, he wrote a number of minor works, including the Risāla fi 'l-ḥashr and the Risāla fī ḥudūth al-ʿālam .
In 1612, Mulla Sadra was asked to abandon his retirement by the powerful governor of Fārs, Allāhwirdī Ḵhān  and invited back to Shiraz to teach and run a new madrasa devoted to the intellectual sciences[9]. He died in Basra on a pilgrimage to Mecca and was buried in present-day Iraq. He is buried in the city of Najaf
During this time in Shīrāz, Ṣadrā began writing treatises that synthesized wide-ranging strands of existing Islamic systems of thought. The ideas of this school, which may be seen as a continuation of the School of Iṣfahān of Mīr Dāmād and Shaykh-i Bahāʾī, were promulgated after Ṣadrā's death by his pupils, several of whom would became sought-after thinkers in their own right, such as, Mullā Muḥsin, Fayḍ Kāshānī, and ʿAbd Razzāḳ Lāhidjī. Although Ṣadrā's influence remained limited in the generations after his death, it increased markedly during the 19th century, when his ideas helped inspire a renewed Akhbārī tendency within Twelver Shīʿism. In recent times, his works have been studied in Iran, Europe, and America.

The book structure:
The book contains introduction of the translator (Muhammad Khajavi) and that of the author on the conception of the Light. It includes several chapters as the following:

-On the meaning of teh Light on Heaven and Earth

-On "His Light may be compared to a nich in which there is a lamp (24/ 35)

-The lamp is in a glass; the glass is just as if it were a glittering star from a blessed olive tree (24/ 35)

-On the interpretation of the Light in human world and that of the spirits

-On the interpretations of "Avicenna" and "Khajeh Nasir Tousi" on this holy verse

-"God guides anyone He wishes by His OwnLight"

-The nature of perfect human

 

The book was editted and translated into Persian by "Muhammad Khajavi".


Sources :

  1. Exegesis of the holy Koranic verse "God is the Light of Heaven and Earth"

  2. Comprehensive bibliography of Mulla Sadra/ by Nahid Bagheri

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