THE WISDOM OF THE THRONE  Al-Hikmat al-‘Arshiya by Mulla Sadra) An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mulla Sadra

(Sadr al-Dīn al-Shirāzī)

Dr. Fazlur Rahman

This is one of the pioneering works on the life and works of Sadr al-Dīn Shirāzī (1572-1640), one of the greatest Islamic sages and philosophers, and marks the dawn of a wider perspective on Islamic philosophy; a perspective that corrects the classical view held in the West that Islamic philosophy constituted a passing phenomenon and was merely a bridge between the late antiquity and the Latin High Middle ages. It provides a scholarly and serious introduction of Mulla Sadra against the backdrop of the rich Islamic philosophic tradition; presents his essential teachings in a contemporary idiom; aims at a critical and analytical statement of his philosophy primarily con­tained in his monumental work Al-Asfār al-Arba‘a and shows that Sadra’s system, despite certain inner difficulties, is a highly original one revealing the extraordinary intellectual calibre of its author. The present work will further stimulate sorely needed philosophic research into this hitherto little explored but rich field of Islamic thought.

In thirteen densely written chapters the books covers all the fundamental issues of Ontology, Theology, Psychology and Eschatology (Man and his Destiny) as elucidated by Mulla Sadra in his magnum opus.