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

The Meaning and Role of Philosophy in Islam 37
to mankind as a sage fulfilling a certain aspect of the prophetic function
after the close of the cycle of prophecy. In the Twelve-Imam
Shi‘ite world many an authority such as Mullå S • adrå has identified
the term scholars (‘ulamå˘) in the famous prophetic saying, “The scholars
of my community are like the prophets of the Children of Israel,”
26 with the ÷ukamå˘, who in the later period were mostly also
Sufis and gnostics. ¡ikmah, therefore, continued its close relation with
Islamic esoterism and became identified in the context of Shi‘ism
with the “cycle of initiation” (då˘irat al-walåyah/wilåyah) following the
cycle of prophecy (då˘irat al-nubuwwah). M¥r Firdirisk¥, for example,
considers the ÷ukamå˘ as standing in the class immediately below the
prophets and writes: “The utmost extremity reached by the falåsifah
is the point of departure for prophecy.” 27
With S • adr al-D¥n Sh¥råz¥ (Mullå S • adrå), who achieved such a
vast synthesis of the various schools of Islamic philosophy and intellectuality,
the definition of ‘÷ikmah’ also reaches a fullness and synthetic
quality that embraces much that came before him. In one of his
famous definitions, which echoes in part the words of Plato, he writes:
“Falsafah is the perfecting of the human soul to the extent of human
possibility through knowledge of the essential realities of things as
they are in themselves and through judgment concerning their existence
established upon demonstration and not derived from opinion or
through imitation. Or if thou liketh thou canst say, it is to give intelligible
order to the world to the extent of human possibility in order
to gain ‘resemblance’ to the Creator, Transcendent is He.” 28 Similarly
in another definition he considers ÷ikmah as the means whereby “man
becomes an intelligible world resembling the objective world and similar
to the order of universal existence.” 29 Referring to the first principles
discussed in ÷ikmah Mullå S • adrå says: “It is this ÷ikmah that the
Blessed Prophet had in mind in his prayer to his Lord when he said:
‘O Lord! Show us things as they really are.’ ” 30 Moreover, he gives a
spiritual exegesis of the Quranic verse ‘Surely We created man of the
best stature, then We reduced him to the lowest of the low, save those
who believe and do good works’ (Quran, 95, 4–6) in this way: “Of the
best stature” refers to the spiritual world and the angelic part of the
soul, ‘the lowest of the low’ to the material world and the animal part
of the soul, ‘those who believe’ to theoretical ÷ikmah and those who
‘do good works’ to practical ÷ikmah.” 31 Seen in this light ÷ikmah, in its
two aspects of knowledge and action, becomes the means whereby
man is saved from his wretched state of the lowest of the low and
enabled to regain the angelic and paradisal state in which he was
originally created. ¡ikmah is, in his view, completely wedded to religion