Mullah Sadra’s Notes with the List of His Personal Library

There is left a short pamphlet of the great Persian philosopher, Mullah Sadra. It is believed that, by reading this pamphlet, many have changed their views about him. There are 31 notes in this pamphlet which 7 of them are the author’s views and the rest are the quotations.

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.

Structure of the book
- The preface (by Ayatollah Majd al-Din Mahallati)
- Mullah Sadra’s notes: the options, superiority of the Quran, marriage sermon, the prayer for repelling difficulties, Noah’s (the Prophet) ship, God’s knowledge, astronomy, existence, definition of philosophy, Imamate, knowledge of religious jurisprudence
- A selection of the poems
- The list of his personal library: the Holy Koran, Majma’ al-Byan Contemporary, the Rules of Religious Commandments, Religious Laws, Traditions, Mutawwal, etc.
- The alphabetic list of his personal library
- An image of Mullah Sadra’s handwriting
- The subject and index

The book was published in 1998 in Qoam – Iran.

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