Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

Shining Sun; In Memory of ‘Allamah Tabataba’i (A Translation of “Mihr-i Taban”)

Author: Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Husayni Tehrani
Translator: Tawus Raja
Publisher: ICAS Press
Category:

• Translator’s Introduction
• About the Book
• About the Author
• Closing Remarks
• Notes
• Part One
• 1. Introduction
• Notes
• 2. Memorial
• My First Encounter with ‘Allamah Tabataba’i
• A course on philosophy by ‘Allamah Tabataba’i
• ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s style of teaching
• ‘Allamah’s Review of the philosophical and mystical letters of Sayyid Ahmad Karbala’i and Shaykh Muhammad Husayn Gharawi Isfahani
• ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s eminence in knowledge and practice
• ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s spiritual master: Ayatollah Qadi
• ‘Allamah’s reverence and passion for Ayatollah Qadi
• ‘Allamah’s mystical education under the tutelage of his master, Mr Qadi
• The late Qadi’s style in spiritual training
• The virtues of Ayatollah Qadi
• The ancestors of the late Qadi and ‘Allamah Tabataba’i
• ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s brother and their childhood
• ‘Allamah’s wife
• ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s approach to philosophy
• ‘Allamah’s philosophical views
• The need to learn philosophy
• The verses of the Qur’an suggest the absolute unity of Allah
• Imam ‘Ali’s sermons concerning God’s absolute unity
• ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s discussion on God’s absolute unity
• ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s annotations on Bihar al-Anwar by ‘Allamah Majlisi
• The cessation of ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s annotations on Bihar al-Anwar
• Two of ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s annotations on Bihar al-Anwar
• ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s effort to unite the philosophies of the Orient and the Occident
• The composition and methodology of the al-Mizan exegesis
• The merits of al-Mizan over other exegeses
• Al-Mizan in Islamic schools and academic societies around the world
• Al-Mizan should be taught in the theological schools
• ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s interviews with Henry Corbin, Chair of Shi’a Studies at Sorbonne
• ‘Allamah’s publications
• ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s manners, ethics, and modesty
• ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s approach to mysticism (Sufism)
• ‘Allamah’s conduct and his attainment of divine realities
• ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s poetic talent
• ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s epics and odes
• ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s modesty toward the Infallibles
• ‘Allamah’s patience in difficulties
• Our men of knowledge have always endured insufficient livelihoods
• The reason for ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s immigration to Qum from Tabriz
• Ayatollah Burujirdi’s message to ‘Allamah and ‘Allamah’s reply
• ‘Allamah was a guard and refuge for the students
• Intellect, conscience, and religion
• The Qur’an and Hadith on the necessity to follow the intellect
• The Qur’an and hadith on the necessity to follow the heart and conscience
• Intellect, heart, and religion characterise the same reality
• The necessity to follow the intellect, spirit and religion in the Qur’an, narrations and supplications
• ‘Allamah Tabataba’i was a master of intellect, heart, and religion
• ‘Two parties break my back: an impudent scholar and an ignorant worshiper’
• Imam ‘Ali’s sermon in describing ‘men whom no purchase or sale distracteth from the remembrance of Allah’
• The states of ‘Allamah Tabataba’i toward the end of his noble life
• The passing, funeral and burial of ‘Allamah Tabataba’i
• Notes
• PART 2
• Introduction to Part Two
• Notes
• 3. Qur’anic Discourses
• ‘He frowned and turned away * Because the blind man came to him.’
• Verses of Chapter 74 (al-Muddaththir) about Walid ibn Mughirah
• The second reason why ‘He frowned and turned away’ does not refer to the Messenger of Allah
• Tiwal (‘lengthy’), mi’in (‘hundreds’), and mufassal (‘extended’) chapters
• Mutashabih (analogous) and mathani (repeated)
• Chapters with disjointed (muqatta’ah) letters
• The Messenger of Allah was himself a miracle
• The meaning of ahqaf
• The verse, ‘And of the earth like them’
• ‘And His Throne goes back on water’
• ‘Then a wall will be set up between them...’
• In the Qur’an, ni’mah always refers to wilayah
• Ni’mah and na’im mean wilayah
• ‘For the benefit of you and your livestock’
• The Qur’anic addresses starting with qul (say)
• Ayat al-Kursi is just the first verse
• ‘Say: each behaves according to his formation’
• ‘Truly man was created intolerant..... save those that pray’
• Intercession is for the believers with major sins
• Prophet Abraham’s asking forgiveness for his uncle, Azar
• Azar was Prophet Abraham’s uncle and not his father
• The extermination of the tribe of Thamud and the people of Madyan
• Notes
• 4. Philosophical Discourses
• An intellectual discussion in refutation of the Trinity
• The Qur’an’s rejection of the Trinity
• The contradiction between unity and trinity
• Real unity and plurality cannot apply to the same subject
• The true sense of God’s unity of Essence
• The philosophers’ gradation of being concerning God’s unity
• Gradation of being and unity of the gnostics
• Gradation contradicts the absoluteness of God’s existence
• The personal unity of God’s existence
• Aversion of the infidels’ hearts from God’s unity
• ‘Rivalry in worldly increase distracted you * Until you visited the graves’
• The problem with gradation of being
• Gradation of being and tawhid of the gnostics
• Real tawhid is only that of the gnostics
• The reality of God’s unity
• Adequate elucidation on the gradation and unity of being
• God’s Essence transcends all names, identities, and determinations
• What is meant by manifestation (tajalli)?
• ‘The soul is bodily in origination and spiritual in subsistence’
• Man’s creation originates from the earth
• The stages of man’s transformations in transubstantial motion
• Man’s arcs of ascent and descent toward perfection
• Subsistence of permanent archetypes in God’s Essence upon annihilation
• The meaning of ‘inniyyah’ in Hallaj’s poem
• The verse, ‘Say: my Lord hath only prohibited indecencies, whether inward or outward’
• Every immaterial species is unique
• Gabriel’s unity and his connection with the many beings of this world
• Annihilation, immolation, nonexistence, and relinquishing one’s determination
• All beings proceed to annihilation; there is nothing but Allah; ‘There is no he but Him’
• If the Permanent Archetypes are eradicated, a being cannot exist in God
• ‘Allamah’s own poems regarding annihilation in God
• Annihilation and the burning of the butterfly and the mother in fire
• The realms of blackness, imagination and whiteness prostrate for Allah, Exalted He is
• Gnostic ideas of Muhyi al-Din, Ibn al-Farid, and Hafiz Shirazi
• Subsistence of the noun upon annihilation
• There must be a Zayd when we say, ‘Zayd became annihilated’
• ‘And thou threwest not when thou threwest, but Allah threw’
• Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyyah and the subsistence of the Permanent Archetypes upon annihilation
• Transformation of the quiddities, and ‘Whose is the kingdom today? It is Allah’s, the One, the Dominant’
• The verse, ‘And unto Him you are overturned’
• There is some subject in every type of annihilation, and that is the Permanent Archetype
• Annihilation is one’s obliteration in God’s Being, removal of the determinations, and God’s observation of His own beauty
• The true unity of God’s Essence is beyond all confinements
• The ‘known provision’ of mukhlasin
• The impermanence of physical and spiritual imposed movements
• Notes
• 5. Mystical Discourses
• ‘Unless through revelation or from behind a veil or by sending an emissary’
• Revelation of the Qur’an to the Prophet
• The different types and stages of revelation were due to the different states and circumstances
• ‘And he speaketh not out of desire * It is naught but a revelation that is revealed’
• Imam ‘Ali’s dream of Hadrat Khidr and his teaching of the Greatest Name
• The late Qadi and tawhid
• Monotheistic states of the late Qadi
• God’s Unity of Actions
• The Prophet’s station of subsistence after annihilation
• The marvels (irhas) of the Imams
• The Imams’ playing games in childhood
• The rise of Imam Mahdi
• Notes
• 6. Scientific Discourses
• The creation of the angels and the Holy Spirit
• The spirit and the angels
• The first thing that Allah created
• The impact of supplication and the role of the angels in its acceptance
• Barzakh is for everyone
• The realm of barzakh starts right after one’s death
• Heaven and hell currently exist
• The speaking of ruwaybidah and the emergence of Ya’juj and Ma’juj
• The Messenger of Allah was also the prophet of the jinn
• The science of abjad Letters and its branches
• Tayy al-ard and the beginning of Chapter Ta-Ha
• The late Qadi’s inquiry about Prophet Solomon’s flying in the air
• The stages of tayy al-ard and its reality
• ‘The name should delight you’; ‘And truly of his followers was Abraham’
• Hurr al-’Amili: ‘The Prophet’s knowledge is inherited from the previous prophets’
• The universality of the resolute prophets (ulu al-’azm)
• Prophet Moses was sent to Pharaoh, a non-Israelite
• Attributing actions to the Supreme Truth; ‘So that Allah may know who supporteth Him and His messengers unseen’
• All actions are subject to God’s permission and decree
• Allah attributes actions to people, but denies their independence
• Notes
• 7. Historical Discourses
• Abrogation in the Noble Qur’an and its possibility based on the religion and the intellect
• Islam as the abrogator of the other religions
• The scribes of revelation
• The different recitations of the Qur’an are narrated from the Messenger of Allah
• ‘The King of the Day of Judgment’ is more inclusive and pertinent than ‘The Owner of the Day of Judgment’
• Compilation of the Qur’an by ‘Uthman, and the death of Ibn Mas’ud
• The Qur’an of Imam ‘Ali
• Why is the name of Imam ‘Ali not mentioned in the Qur’an
• The Qur’an has not been distorted
• The displacement of the Verse of Purification
• The change of qiblah, and the Prophet’s qiblah in Mecca
• Revelation of the Torah to Prophet Moses
• Revelation of the Gospel to Prophet Jesus
• The Apostles of Prophet Jesus, and monasticism
• Prophet Joseph was a mukhlas
• Platonism
• Notes
• 8. Epilogue
• ‘Allamah’s endurance of allegations and difficulties in the way of Allah
• ‘Allamah’s brilliant ode on loving Allah
• Notes
• Notes on Prominent Figures Cited in the Book
• Glossary of Key Transliterated Terms