Gowhar-i murad (book): Difference between revisions

* Part three: knowing God's commands, which requires one to know the messengers and preservers of God's commands—that is, issues of prophecy (nubuwa) and Imamate. This part includes 4 sections:

4. Knowing the awards and punishments of obedience and disobedience—that is, the resurrection and afterlife.

The organization is inspired by mystical thoughts in which a Sufi starts from knowing him or herself and ends in knowing God.

Works in kalam are not usually concerned with ethical and mystical issues. But Gowhar-i murad is considerably engaged with such issues. Lahiji is obviously under the influence of mysticism and Sufism introducing their doctrines in his formulations of issues in kalam. One might regard Gowhar-i murad as a philosophical-mystical book in kalam.

One virtue of Gowhar-i murad is its precise explication of philosophical and theological terminologies. In each issue Lahiji starts with an astute illustration of the terminologies involved in the issue, and then concerns himself with the formulation of the problems and the arguments.

In Gowhar-i murad, issues of philosophy and kalam have been discussed in a simple and yet precise way.

Gowhar-i murad is not merely a book concerning Islamic-Shiite kalam; it is also a book on Islamic philosophy. The author of Riyaḍ al-ʾulamaʾ has mentioned the book under those concerning Islamic philosophy.

It is as a result of Lahiji's particular view about the nature of kalam that he introduces philosophical issues into it. Therefore, Gowhar-i murad should be considered as a philosophical-theological work. And given the mystical tendencies of Lahiji in the formulation of issues in the book, it might even be considered as philosophical-mystical kalam or theology.

===Innovative Theories and New Researches===

In addition to providing a summary of early views in kalam, Gowhar-i murad contains some innovative theories in philosophy and kalam.

Lahiji has presented new ideas in issues such as "types of incidence (hudūth) and types of nonexistence", "the problem of divine will" and "the problem of essential priority".

Lahiji does not take the Quran to be a miracle for all people; he maintains that the Quran is only a miracle for the intellectuals, researchers and scholars who know the principles of the religion and the disciplines related to the Arabic language. The laymen, in his view, are unable to comprehend the miraculous nature of the Quran, since "they do not know philosophical disciplines and the subtleties of the Arabic language", though on the basis of the Quranic challenge  or [[tahaddi]], "since nobody can meet the challenge, the miraculous nature of the Quran will be evident for the laymen too".

Fayyaḍ Lahiji holds that at the beginning of his creation, the soul of the Prophet (s) is in the position of the Active Intellect (al-ʾaql al-faʾal) from which knowledge emanates, and at the end, he is in the position of the First Intellect (al-ʾaql al-awal). That the Prophet's soul is in the position of the Active Intellect in the beginning of his creation means that he is aware of everything.

In Gowhar-i murad, Lahiji did not deal with some issues and problems that were discussed in early works in kalam, such as [[Tajrid al-ʾitiqad]]. For instance, he does not discuss issues such as the punishment of children in the afterlife, livelihoods (ʾarzāq), prices (ʾasʾār) (the issue of whether prices of the goods are determined by God or by people and whether people or the governments have the right to determine prices), and the times of deaths (ājāl).

There are many manuscript copies of the book, and it has frequently been printed in lithography and typewriting. The Congress of the Tribute for Lahiji has published Gowhar-i murad with a preface by Zayn al-Abidin Qurbani.

“When this book was finished and this desired jewel [gowhar-i murad] came out from the sea of potentiality to the coast of actuality, it looked very precious to me—regardless of the fact that I am the author of this book, I can say that this is a unique book. For this book includes main problems and major issues that are precious to scholars, and it is a sum of the thoughts of early and late thinkers. It is formulated so as to provide the novice with comprehendible contents, it contains researches helping the intermediary learners to rescue from perplex, and it contains criticisms that provides high-ranking scholars with a stock of critiques and philosophical thoughts unaffected by imaginations and confusions.”

“The precious book, Gowhar-i murad, written by the late philosopher ʾAbd al-Razaq Lahiji—may God bless his soul—is a desirable exquisite book, and is unique as a book on religious problems and divine wisdom.”

And [[Sayyid ʾAli Qaḍi Tabatabaʾi]] writes:

“The best-known work of Lahiji is Gowhar-i murad which is written in Persian in a fluent and pleasant style. It is one of the most precious Persian book on the principles of the religion, divine wisdom and Islamic beliefs.”