Sarmaya-yi iman (book)

Sarmāya-yi īmān (Persian: سرمایه ایمان) written by Mulla ʾAbd al-Raziq Lahiji Qumi is a well-known book concerning usul al-din (the principles of the religion), written after another well-known book by the same author on the same subject-matter called "Gowhar murad". The book is structured in 5 parts in accordance with the 5 principles of the religion. In this work, Lahiji avoids citing various views on the issues in question and tries to avoid abstruseness. One feature of the book is its formulation of the arguments in a logical form.

The Author

ʾAbd al-Razaq Lahiji was a pupil of Mulla Sadra and his son in law, though he had Peripatetic tendencies in his philosophical thoughts and criticized Mulla Sadra's Transcendent Philosophy. He has left works such as Shawariq al-ʾilham which is an exposition of Khwaja Nasir al-Din Tusi's Sharh al-tajrid, commentaries on Khwaja's Al-ʾisharat, commentaries on Khufri's Al-Taʾliqat, Gowhar murad, and Sarmaya-yi iman. His son, Mirza Hassan, the author of Jamal al-salihin, was one of his pupils. Lahiji has a significant role in philosophizing Islamic theology or kalam. He taught in Qum, and died there in 1072 AH (1661).

Motivation for Writing the Book

In the introduction of the book, Lahiji talks about his motivations for writing the book: a friend of his had read his Gowhar murad and found it difficult to comprehend for the novice, thus he asked him to write an essay concerning religious beliefs that suits the novice, and yet presents the essential issues of religious beliefs in a discursive manner. Lahiji wrote Sarmaya-yiiman in response to this request.

The Relation between Sarmaya-yi iman and Gowhar murad

Though some biographies have claimed that Sarmaya-yi iman is a summary of Gowhar murad, others argue that the former is an independent book from the latter in having reorganized the issues. There are issues discussed in the former that have not come under consideration by the latter. In some cases, Sarmaya-yi iman presents new formulations and arguments absent in Gowhar murad.

Features of the Book

Brevity

Lahiji wrote Sarmaya-yiiman as a book with a simple language that suits the novice. He has formulated the issues in a simple, non-abstruse way. Except for some few cases, the book has avoided citing other theologians' views.

Logical Formulations of the Issues

The book presents theological and philosophical arguments in their logical formulations. In the introduction of the book, Lahiji has committed himself to mention only the arguments which are the strongest of all, and to present them in the first form of syllogistic deductions or in the form of modus ponens.

Innovations

There are some innovative, and sometimes groundbreaking researches, in this book that are not introduced or discussed in the other works of Lahiji:

• Lahiji's view concerning goodness (husn) and badness (qubh): he takes the propositions involving goodness and badness, such as the proposition justice is good, to be self-evident propositions. However, he does not take this position to be in opposition with the view of philosophers according to which such propositions are popular or commonsensical propositions (mashhurat), since, in his view, there are aspects of such propositions that make them self-evident and other aspects that make them commonsensical.

• In his response to objections about the problem of predestination (jabr) and free will (ʾikhtiyar), Lahiji allegedly provides innovative responses.

Content of the Book

Sarmaya-yi iman is a short introduction to all Islamic beliefs. The book is written after Gowhar murad in order to modify and simplify it so as for it to suit the beginners.

The book considers propositions involving goodness and badness as self-evident propositions. In order to reconcile the claim with the view of philosophers according to which such propositions are popular or commonsensical ones, Lahiji claims that propositions can be subsumed under different such modalities as discursive (burhani), dialectical (jadali), commonsensical (mashhurat), self-evident (badihiyyat) and so on from different aspects. This is an innovation of Lahiji to which Muhammad Husayn Gharawi points in his Nihaya al-diraya.

Parts of the Book

Unlike Gowhar murad, Sarmaya-yi iman is similar to the third part of Tajrid al-ʾitiqad in its structure, parts, chapters, and issues. And in some cases it reiterates the same issues as those discussed in Tajrid. The book has an introduction and 5 parts in accordance with the 5 principles of the religion.

• The first part (al-bab al-ʾawal): monotheism (tawhid) containing 10 chapters:

Chapter 1: the notions of existence (wujud) and nonexistence (ʾadam)

Chapter 2: on the existence of the necessary being

Chapter 3: on the necessary being …

Chapter 4: some properties of the necessary being

Chapter 5: some issues of causation …

Chapter 6: the notions of incidence or createdness (huduth) and pre-eternity (qidam) …

Chapter 7: the reason why contingent beings need a cause …

Chapter 8: the proof of the necessary being

Chapter 9: on the rejection of partners (sharik) for the necessary being

Chapter 10: the attributes of the necessary being.

• The second part (al-bab al-thani): justice (ʾadl) containing 8 chapters:

Chapter 1: the goodness and the badness of acts

Chapter 2: on the rejection of evils (shurur) and badness in case of the necessary being

Chapter 3: the problem of creating actions and a reply to the problem of predestination (jabr)

Chapter 4: the problem of evil and the issue of predestination and fate (qaḍa wa qadar)

Chapter 5: the wisdom (hikma) of God

Chapter 6: the goodness of obligation (taklif)

Chapter 7: the necessity of grace (lutf) for God

Chapter 8: the necessity of the better (ʾaslah) for God

• The third part (al-bab al-thalith): prophecy (nubuwwa) containing 5 chapters:

Chapter 1: the goodness of sending prophets by God and its rational necessity

Chapter 2: the necessity of the infallibility (ʾisma) for the prophets

Chapter 3: how to know the truth of the prophets …

Chapter 4: on the prophecy of our prophet Muhammad bn. 'Abdullah

Chapter 5: the superiority of the prophets over angels (malaʾika)

• The fourth part (al-bab al-rabiʾ): imamate, containing 5 chapters:

Chapter 1: the notion of imamate

Chapter 2: on the necessity of Imam's infallibility and superiority (ʾafḍaliyya)

Chapter 3: the determination of Imams after the Prophet (s)

Chapter 4: how to know other Imams (a)

Chapter 5: the Occultation (ghayba) of Imam Mahdi (a)

Chapter 6: on the unjust leaders (imams) and the necessity of disassociation (tabarra) with them

• The fifth part (al-bab al-khamis): resurrection (maʾad), containing 5 chapters:

Chapter 1: the truth of the resurrection and the return [of the dead]

Chapter 2: on the awards and punishments

Chapter 3: on the faith (iman), Islam, unbelief (kufr), vice (fisq), and hypocrisy (nifaq)

Chapter 4: on the rejection of the foiling (ʾihbat) of actions by God, the possibility of God's remission (ʾafw), and the truth of shafaʾa (intercession)

Chapter 5: the necessity of repentance (tawba), and the enjoining of the virtues and the forbidding of the vice (al-ʾamr bi almaʾruf wa al-nahy ʾan al-munkar)

Publications and Prints

The book was printed once in Bombay and once in Iran both containing some mistakes and distortions that have been corrected in the new version published by the efforts of Sadiq Larijani in Al-Zahra Publications.