Islamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present: Philosophy in the ...

CHAPTER 12
Mullå |adrå and the
Full Flowering of Prophetic Philosophy
Since Henry Corbin and I began to write about Mullå |adrå over forty
years ago, a great deal of attention has been paid to this major figure
in both the Islamic world and the West and even in lands as far away
as Japan. There are now even international and local conferences held
on a regular basis on his philosophy. Here our task is not to deal with
every aspect of his thought but only certain theses that relate to our
concerns in this work. Let it also be repeated, lest one forget, that
Mullå |adrå and his followers do not represent the only philosophical
current in the School of Isfahan but the major current that was to have
the greatest influence in later centuries in Persia and India. 1
MULLĀ |ADRĀ
|adr al-D¥n Sh¥råz¥, known also as Mullå |adrå and |adr al-muta˘allih¥n
(foremost among the theosophers or literally those imbued with Godlike
qualities) is without doubt the greatest of the later Islamic philosophers
and perhaps the most outstanding among all Islamic
philosophers in the field of metaphysics. 2 Born in Shiraz in 979–80/
1571–72, he received his early education in the city of his birth, then
set out for Isfahan, where he soon became the most notable student of
M¥r Dåmåd. 3 After having mastered both the intellectual and the transmitted
sciences, his foremost teacher in the latter category having been
Bahå˘ al-D¥n al-‘≈mil¥, Mullå |adrå retired to the village of Kahak
near Qom away from the crowd. There he spent years in spiritual
training and contemplation. Finally he returned to Shiraz where the
Khan School was built for him and where he wrote and taught until
his death in 1050/1640 in Basra (or possibly Najaf) upon returning
from the pilgrimage to Mecca for the seventh time. He also visited
Qom during the last period of his life.
During a remarkably productive life marked by periods of both
formal intellectual training and inner purification and spiritual wayfaring
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