8/13/2019Belhaj, Abdessamad -- The Triumph of Mercy- Philosophy and Scripture in Mull� Ṣadr� by Mohammed Rustom

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The Triumph of Mercy: Philosophy and Scripture in Mull adrby Mohammed Rustom (review)

Abdessamad Belhaj

Journal of Shi'a Islamic Studies, Volume 6, Number 3, Summer 2013,pp. 363-365 (Article)

Published by ICAS PressDOI: 10.1353/isl.2013.0027

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8/13/2019Belhaj, Abdessamad -- The Triumph of Mercy- Philosophy and Scripture in Mull� Ṣadr� by Mohammed Rustom

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Journal of Shi‘a Islamic Studies Summer 2013 · Vol. VI · No. 3

The Triumph of Mercy: Philosophy and Scripture in MullÁ ÑadrÁ byMohammed Rustom, 2012. Albany: State University of New York Press,

xii + 243 pp., 80.00. : 978-1-43844-341-6 (hbk).

A B D E S S A M A D B E L H A J

Catholic University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

This book is based on a PhD dissertation submitted to the Universityof Toronto in 2009. It contains seven chapters, three appendixes, abibliography, and three indexes (covering Qur’anic verses, hadith s, names,and terms). The author argues that Mulla Sadra’s Qur’anic hermeneuticsmarks ‘the first time in the history of Islamic thought that a philosopherhad undertaken such a wide-scale commentary upon the QurÞÁn’ (3).

What the author means by philosophy in his book is mystic thought.This claim is interesting all the more so because a gap exists in researchin the field of mystic Qur’anic hermeneutics. However, the authorendeavours to support this thesis with a clear and compelling argument.The volume is torn between being a title on mercy, Mulla Sadra’s mysticviews, and Qur’anic hermeneutics. In my view, the author should havechosen one of these topics to develop rather than tackling all of them in170 pages. Inevitably, the author had to select a preference; he devotedmost of his efforts to describe Mulla Sadra’s mystic thought. The latter isunveiled through Mulla Sadra’s commentary on Surat al-Fatihah. As forthe problem of mercy, it is treated only in few pages, when dealing with

soteriology (101-105); little is said about Qur’anic hermeneutics.Accordingly, the seven chapters give an overview of Mulla Sadra’s

ontology. The first chapter, entitled ‘QurÞÁnic hermeneutics’, is dedicatedto the relationship between the Qur’an and being. In such a chapter, thereader would expect a discussion of the rules of exegesis applied by MullaSadra in his commentary. If the exegete does not explicitly present theserules, then the researcher has to deduce them from the commentary itself.The author did not tread any of these paths. Instead, he discusses Mulla

Sadra’s view of being. The second chapter on formal considerations isquite informative as it traces the sources of Mulla Sadra’s interpretationof Q. 1. Indeed, the author displays critical sense here showing several

8/13/2019Belhaj, Abdessamad -- The Triumph of Mercy- Philosophy and Scripture in Mull� Ṣadr� by Mohammed Rustom

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Book Reviews

ideas and even paragraphs Mulla Sadra reproduced from Ibn ‘Arabi(d. 1240 ) without acknowledging the source. By the same token, the

author is also able to criticize Mulla Sadra for compiling so many materialsin his commentary. However, in the following chapter on metaphysics, theauthor resumes the exposition of Mulla Sadra’s views on divine essence,largely based on Ibn ‘Arabi’s interpretation of divine names. The samestands in the fourth chapter on cosmology where the author discusses Ibn‘Arabi’s idea on the Perfect Man as perceived by Mulla Sadra. Althoughthe reader might enjoy reading these flashes of mystic thought, it is stillnot the topic announced in the introduction. The author entitles the fifth

chapter ‘Theology’ while it discusses the divine essence and the PerfectMan. Both topics were covered previously in metaphysics and cosmology.The sixth and the seventh chapters are dedicated to soteriology while, infact, they discuss, mostly, being and the divine essence.

The author’s method is philological, based on the description,translation and identification of sources. Sometimes, he providestranslations of important passages of Mulla Sadra’s commentary.Usually, he paraphrases translated passages and does not proceed to theanalysis of concepts or to a constructed argument. Mulla Sadra’s mysticthought – non-systematic by nature – leads the way. The author’s voicebecomes louder only when he identifies the sources of Mulla Sadra, atask which he achieves with success. Additionally, three appendixes areincluded. The first contains translations from Mulla Sadra’s Mafatihal-Ghayb, and contains a few passages on the notion of allegoricinterpretation ( ta’wil ), as endorsed by mystics. Calling this Mulla Sadra’stheory of Qur’anic hermeneutics, as did the author, is an overstatement.This could have been a chance to take Mulla Sadra’s commentary for

what it is, an esoteric exegesis.The translated passages display mystic views of the Qur’an in relation

to man, God, and the universe. At best, Mafatih al-Ghayb is a reflection onthe Qur’an and not on the rules to interpret it. The next appendix consistsof 18 pages of key texts translated from Mulla Sadra’s commentary of al-Fatihah. Finally, the author presents in eight pages the passages MullaSadra borrows, without citing the source, from Ibn ‘Arabi’s al-Futuhatal-Makkiyyah .

The bibliography is rich; major works of Mulla Sadra and Westernliterature on Islamic mysticism are used. However, the scarcity of sourcesof Qur’anic commentary, especially Sufi commentaries, strikes the reader.

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For example, no traces are to be found of Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami(d. 1021), ‘Abd al-Karim b. Hawazin al-Qushayri (d. 1074), Ruzbihan b.

Abi Nasr al-Baqli (d. 1209), or Najm al-Din al-Kubra (d. 1221). Needlessto say that any study of Sufi commentary without the above mentionedexegetes is deficient. The author misses here the opportunity to putMulla Sadra’s commentary in its most legitimate environment, Sufiexegesis. To benefit from this book, the reader should forget about theauthor’s insistence on Mulla Sadra’s identity as a philosopher. In itsplace, one should keep in mind that Mulla Sadra’s commentary bearsall characteristics of a Sufi tafsir ; no systematic views, logic, or linear

arguments should be anticipated.In sum, this book is an excellent introduction to Mulla Sadra’smystic thought as it appears in his commentary of al-Fatihah. Aboveall, the author explains clearly Mulla Sadra’s concept of being inrelation to scripture. Additionally, this book is a fine philological work.Nevertheless, it largely does not expand our knowledge of Mulla Sadraor of Qur’anic mystic exegesis. Rather, it should be considered as astep towards further historical and analytical study of Mulla Sadra’scommentary of the Qur’an.