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

244 Part 3: Islamic Philosophy in History
presence. He did not have any characteristics of a religious
scholar and was like muslin sellers of Sidah [a town near
Isfahan]. I was in a state of spiritual attraction (jadhbah). When
I made the request [to see him], he said that I should come the
next day to the ruins (kharåbåt). The ruins were a place outside
the ditch [surrounding Tehran] and a darvish had a coffeehouse
there where people of spiritual taste would meet. The
next day I went to that location and found him sitting in a
place of spiritual solitude (khalwatgåh) on a mat. I opened the
Asfår and he read it from memory and made such a verification
of it that I almost fell into a state of madness. He discovered
my spiritual state and said, “Power does break the jar.“ 30
It is perhaps this manner of living that caused many of ≈qå
Mu±ammad Ri∂å’s works to be lost, including most of his poems. The
few poems that have survived being in ghazal form in the ‘Iråq¥ style
reveal his great poetic power and the immensity of the loss of the
majority of his poems for Persian Sufi poetry of the Qajar period. The
prose works of ≈qå Mu±ammad Ri∂å that are known include a treatise
on walåyat/wilåyat, Risålah f¥ wa÷dat al-wuj¶d bal al-mawj¶d (“Treatise
on the Unity of Existence or Rather of the Existent), al- Khilåfat al-kubrå
(The Greatest Vicegerency), treatise on the difference between the
Essence and the Qualities of God, treatise on ‘ilm or knowledge, a
treatise about the Asfår, and a number of glosses and annotations
upon the Asfår and the Shawåhid, as well as major gnostic texts such
as the F¶ƒ¶s, Miftå÷ al-ghayb (Key to the Invisible World) of Qunyaw¥,
and Tamh¥d al-qawå‘id of Ibn Turkah I∑fahån¥. 31
One can hardly overestimate the significance of ≈qå Mu±ammad
Ri∂å in both ÷ikmat and ‘irfån for the School of Tehran and his influence
over succeeding generations to our own day. A sage and saint who
lived simply and always with humility, he left a deep spiritual expression
upon those who met him while imparting the profoundest teachings
of ‘irfån and ÷ikmat to those capable and worthy of receiving the
pearls of wisdom that he disseminated. He established the school of
‘irfån in Tehran on a solid foundation, and it was from there that his
students were to spread his teachings to many other cities such as
Qom itself. If one only goes over the long list of his students, 32 which
includes such names as ≈qå M¥rzå Håshim Ashkiwar¥, M¥rzå Shihåb
al-D¥n Nayr¥z¥, M¥rzå ¡asan Kirmånshåh¥, and M¥rzå Mahd¥ ≈shtiyån¥,
one will realize the remarkably extensive influence of ≈qå Mu±ammad
Ri∂å over the later intellectual life of Persia. In any case he is the
second major figure of the School of Tehran after ≈qå ‘Al¥ Mudarris,
and the two complement each other in many ways.