Mulla Sadra and the problem of plagiarism; a reevaluation of apologies

Mulla Sadra and the problem of plagiarism; a reevaluation of apologies

Mulla Sadra, or Sadr Al-din Muhammad Shirazi (c. 979/1571-1050/1640) is the founder of Hekmate Mota'liea school of thought and one of the most important Shi'a philosophers in Iran during three past centuries. He attempted to synthesize the rival schools of thought in his period. The result was bringing into being a new synthesis that later was known as Hekmate Mota'liea or the "Transcendent Philosophy" or as some contemporary thinkers prefer, "Transcendent Theosophy". He was prolific author and wrote many significant books, including Al-Asfar Alaqliea Al-Arba'a, or the Four Intellectual Journeys.

More than one hundred years agoAbo Al-Hassne Jelwe, an Iranian philosopher and a famous exponent of Ibne Sina's philosophy, revealed Mulla Sadra's huge indebtedenss to other philosopher's works, without acknowledging it properly.

The problem was that Mulla Sadra had borrowed the exact words, sentences, paragraphs, and in some cases the whole chapters of famous thinkers' works, such as Al-Ghazzali and Al-Razi's books, while he did not mention them appropriately or citing them correctly. So, he was accused of committing plagiarism, by his opponents. To invalidate this accusation, his followers and defenders tried to justify, or in some cases rationalize, his deed by proposing some apologies. According to one of them, for example, plagiarism was not a morally wrong in his period, and according to the other, the borrowed sentences and sections were trivial information and common knowledge, not genuine thoughts.

The author of this paper, first of all, has gathered and classified these apologies into six types. Secondly, has attempted to show that all them are insufficient and cannot prove anything in Mulla Sadra's interest. Finally, the author has come to the conclusion that the accusation of plagiarism that is launched against Mulla Sadra is still powerful and cannot be defeated easily.

This paper (in Farsi)  is published in: Ayeneh-ye- Pazhoohesh, vol. 22, no.5,  Des 2011-Jan 2012.

Rumi and the Soul-Making of Evil

I delivered this speech at "Figurations and Conceptions of Evil in Different Religious Contexts," Interdisciplinary and Interreligious Workshop at the Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, 19-21 September 2012.

Rumi and the soul-making of evil

 

Prof. Seyyed Hassan Eslami Ardakani, URD, Qom, member of faculty

  

Jalal al-din Muhammad al-Balkhi, or as he is well-known in the West "Rumi," is one of the greatest mystical Persian poets. He actually represents the mystical interpretation of Islam and tries to give a unified understanding of its teaching from a Sufi outlook. As a mystic and Sufi thinker, Rumi has much in common with Muslim philosophers and theologians, but at the same time he has his authentic way for dealing with Islamic teachings and confronting problems he faces as a thinker.

His impact and heritage is so deep and profound that after more than seven hundred years of his death (indeed he passed away in 1273 A.D), no thoughtful Muslim can ignore his mystical poems. For instance, in the contemporary Iran, most people of letter and educated persons, even those who oppose mysticism strongly, quote his poems in their writings and use them orally. His impact is not confined to Persian-speaking world; Quite the contrary, his fame and impact is spreading throughout the world.

To solve the problem of evil and to answer some relevant questions, Rumi combines theoretical and philosophical thoughts and arguments with metaphorical and poetical language and then he puts them in long poetical narrations and old fables. As a result, any sophisticated reader can appreciate his thoughtful assertion, while ordinary readers can enjoy his poems and accept his claims.

In my paper, I have discussed Rumi's approach for confronting evil, and have come to a conclusion summarized as below:

1. Good and evil have one origin and are created by one God. So, the Magians, or Zoroastrians, who believe in two sources for good and evil, are mistaken.

2. Evil is willed by God, and without his will no evil would appear in the world.

3. There is no absolute or pure evil in the world and even the worst evil that we can imagine, is in some respect good. At least it is good for itself. In short, good and evil are inseparable.

4. Therefore, good and evil are relative and to name one particular thing as good or evil depends to our outlook. For instance, the poison of the snakes look evil to us, as humans, but it is doubtless good for them and a vital element of the snake life.

5. Furthermore, some sorts of evil are useful for our self-purification.

6. Besides, evil, in some situations, can be a warning from God to us, inviting us to pause and think about our deeds and behaviors.

7. Some sorts of evil, is within our own nature as humans. Indeed, many of wrongdoings are brought in the world by our choice. Since, our souls, as Rumi describes, are sleeping dragons by our actions we awaken them and bring evil to the world. 

8. And finally, Rumi invites us, as adult persons who seek spiritual development and evolution, to welcome all kinds of evil which we face in our lives and look at them as opportunities and instruments for self-actualization. From this viewpoint, evil is a gift sent to us from God, in disguise.

Ethics and Gender in ‘the best women virtues’ Hadith

Ethics and Gender in ‘the best women virtues’ Hadith

Seyyed Hassan Eslami Ardakani, URD, Qom

Are men and women different in main moral virtues? There is a famous Hadith, attributed to Imam Ali (P.B.U.H) that states, “The best women virtues are the worst men virtues: pride, meanness, and cowardice”. Based on this accepted saying, some Muslim scholars have defended the ethical difference between men and women. This article tries to asses this Hadith and its trueness in seven sections. In the first section, the differences between narrations of this saying in various old Hadith books are reported. The second section reports and analyzes what the interpreters have told about this Hadith. In the third section I deal with the scientific foundations of this allegedly biological and social separation between two sexes. The fourth section deals with the so-called feminist ethics and tries to show that we can not base ethics on sexual differences. In the fifth section I have argued that this Hadith can not be defended by other ethical Hadiths and Quranic teachings. The six section traces the content of this Hadith in ancient Greek, Persian, and Arab cultures to show that it is not really Imam Ali’s saying. In the seven and final section I recommended three basic principles to deal with the Hadiths concerning women. The conclusion of this essay is that this Hadith is forged and attributed wrongly to Imam Ali.        

Keywords: Islamic ethical virtues, feminine virtues, feminist ethics, ethical Hadiths, masculine virtues.

This paper is published in: ULUM-I-HADITH; FALL 2008 - WINTER 2009; pp.47-87. (Downloadable in Farsi)

The status of Research Ethics in Persian Books on Research Method: A critical assessment

abstract

Academic circles have believed that science and ethics cannot be separated, so the students are taught to learn research ethics and apply the rules of ethical conduct in their term papers and theses or dissertations. From this point of view, the writer of this paper conducted a research on the research books that are written in Persian, to discover the amount of presence of research ethics in these books and the coverage of the issues facing the students in the process of their research. The result shows that the positivistic approach concerning the distinction between facts and value is still dominant in most of these educational books, and they have not freed themselves from this positivistic heritage. In the end, the writer has proposed a solution for overcoming this ethical and educational problem.

Keywords:

Persian Research ethics, Academic Research, the fact/value problem in research books.

published in Metodology of Sicial Science and Humanities, 2012, Issue 69

Also see:

 My selected essays on research ethics (Farsi)

Human Cloning in Catholic and Islamic Perspectives

This book is produced from my PhD thesis. It was defended on June 30^th, 2005.

It has won awards, such as Farabi International Award.

.Click on the below link or HERE to see an abstract of it

مقاله «شیخ بهایی و مسئله حق طلبی و گمراهی»

این مقاله در کتاب ماه دین، شماره 168، مهر 1390، منتشر شد. 

اگر کسی حق طلبانه در جستجوی پاسخ سوالی برود، گزینه های مختلف را بررسی کند، اما در نهایت به گمراهی افتد، آیا معذور است؟ این مقاله صحت استناد این مدعا به شیخ بهایی و ایراداتی که به مدعای شیخ بهایی گرفته شده بررسی و به آنها پاسخ داده شده است.

میتوانید متن مقاله را دریافت کنید.

دریافت
عنوان: شیخ بهایی و مسئله حق طلبی و گمراهی
حجم: 1.41 مگابایت

پ.ن.: دوستانی درباره این مقاله نظراتی دادند که میتوانید توضیحات من را اینجا ببینید.

مقاله «کتاب نخواندن با وجدان آرام» (متن کامل)

کتاب نخواندن با وجدان آرام

دکتر سید حسن اسلامی

 

خواندن هر کتاب بدی، برابر با نخواندن کتاب خوبی است. هنگامی که آمار کتاب‌های منتشر شده به گونه فزاینده‌ای رشد می‌کند و در برابر فرصت مطالعه کاهش می‌یابد، مسئله انتخاب کتابی که باید خواند جدی‌تر می‌شود.