Statements at the Meeting of the Organizers of the National Conference on Hakim Tehran (the Late Aqa Ali Modarresi Zanouzi)

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Thanks be to God, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon our master Muhammad and his pure family, especially the Awaited One on earth.

Welcome, esteemed gentlemen, and dear scholars of the field of rational sciences. I am very grateful to Mr. Fayyazi, who is truly a blessed presence and has been able to establish and launch this collection in Qom, which, as you have mentioned, is very valuable. Fortunately, during the era of the Islamic Republic, rational sciences have flourished. Before the revolution, there was no news in Qom; when we were there, for instance, a class by Mr. Tabatabai had only a few dozen students; but now, for example, Mr. Jawadi, who has been active in this field for years, Mr. Misbah, Mr. Subhani, and their organizations in theological matters, and the multiple philosophy classes that I have heard exist in Qom, these are grounds for promoting and elevating rational sciences, which brings good news that such a foundation has been established.

The work that Mr. Fayyazi and the gentlemen mentioned, where a new argument or a new interpretation or a new proof for an established matter is presented, or a new refutation for a false claim is discussed, is very valuable and very good; these are the driving forces of rational sciences. One of the characteristics of the late Aqa Ali Modarresi is that he is a critic of Mulla Sadra, meaning he has advanced philosophy to this extent; he has critiques of Mulla Sadra. This work must be done; I do not want to refer to the critique of Mulla Sadra, but I want to say that the discussion of criticism and the introduction of new ideas, or what is called innovation in rational sciences, is a very important issue. Sometimes a school or a thought has several interpretations; as we see now, the Westerners are active in this area—because the Westerners in the field of propaganda and public relations are truly incomparable with us; they are much stronger and more advanced than us in this regard. For example, regarding Hegel, you see multiple interpretations of his words and the books and texts he has written—various understandings are expressed; this itself helps the advancement of thought, logic, and rationality in the field of rational sciences. Therefore, this work is very good, and I hope that, God willing, this collection that Mr. Fayyazi supervises, and Mr. Jawadi, Mr. Misbah, and Mr. Subhani also, as they mentioned, oversee or guide, will be advanced as strongly as possible; this is a very important and necessary task that must be done.

Regarding commemorations; this work is important. We should not look at commemorating someone like Aqa Ali Modarresi as merely introducing a great person; no, this is the introduction of a thought process, the presentation of a thought and a great thinker. You gentlemen wrote the title of the congress as Modarresi of Tehran, Hakim of Tehran; well, yes, he has been in Tehran and is the Hakim of Tehran, but the Hakim of Tehran is not only the late Aqa Ali Modarresi. As I was listening to you speak, several names of the sages who have been in Tehran over the past hundred years came to my mind; from Mirza Abolhassan Jalveh to Aqa Mohammad Reza Qomeshai, who is in the field of mysticism, to the late Heidaji, to the late Mirza Abdullah Zanouzi. Mirza Abdullah Zanouzi is his father, and Aqa Ali is his student; both are students of Mulla Ali Nouri of Isfahan. The late Mulla Ali Nouri is also one of those great figures in this field; these are individuals who revived Mulla Sadra's philosophy. Mulla Sadra's philosophy, after a period of time, faced severe attacks and declined; then some individuals emerged in Isfahan [and revived it], and all of them are in Isfahan; of course, many are not Isfahani; like him, who is not Isfahani, like many of the gentlemen and great figures whose names are mentioned; these are not Isfahani, but the center has been Isfahan; this indicates that Isfahan has been the center of rational sciences. Then this father and son—the late Mirza Abdullah Zanouzi and the late Aqa Ali Hakim—moved to Tehran, and then Tehran became the center of rational sciences. In any case, these are very great personalities; until recently, it reaches, for example, the late Amirza Mahdi Ashtiani, Amirza Ahmad Ashtiani, the late Shah Abadi. Amirza Mahdi is very famous, but Amirza Ahmad Ashtiani is not well-known as a Hakim; while he was a great philosopher and truly a Hakim; likewise, the late Sheikh Muhammad Taqi Amoli, who has a commentary on the Manzumeh—you have seen it—he was a Hakim; of course, he is a jurist, a great jurist, at the level of a source of emulation, but he is a Hakim, meaning he has expertise in rational sciences. In my opinion, these individuals should be brought out one by one from their corners of obscurity and anonymity and be introduced; they have ideas, they have matters to discuss.

Well, now you have printed the book Badaye' al-Hikmah of the late Aqa Ali Hakim here; well, someone must sit down and read this detailed book to understand what Aqa Ali says; how many people are ready to read this book? How many do you have who have the ability to do this? This requires the same [effort] that I mentioned regarding the late Mulla Sadra—and a small effort has been made, which is not bad—that a group or a committee should sit down and extract the essence of Aqa Ali Hakim's philosophy and say what he says, what his main point is. Once, His Excellency Mr. Jawadi showed me a book from Aqa Ali—if I remember correctly, it was a book or a treatise of his—that he said, 'Here he has said this in response to this matter'; now I do not remember that statement, but I know it was an important point. Well, these should be extracted, brought out from among his books or treatises. He apparently has a treatise on 'relational existence'; Aqa Ali Hakim has multiple treatises; they should sit down and compile these so that suddenly Tehran—which you say was the center of wisdom at one time—feels that he presented a deep and strong philosophical thought, for example, over a hundred years ago when he passed away—apparently around 1307 he passed away—such a thought was presented in Tehran; that is, it should be summarized and clarified, his school and his words and his foundations. And likewise, others who are present [like] the late Amirza Abolhassan Jalveh (may God be pleased with him); he has many annotations on the Asfar; he was also very good at writing. They say that he would write annotations wherever he taught different versions of the Asfar; one of these versions of the Asfar—which is a version with the handwritten annotations of the late Mirza Abolhassan Jalveh or Haj Mirza Abolhassan Jalveh; I do not know if he went to Mecca or not—came into my possession, and I donated it to the library of Mr. Misbah's institution, which should be there now and is presumably there. Well, he has something to say; you know that Mirza Abolhassan Jalveh is among the critics of Mulla Sadra, meaning he is one of those individuals who has arguments and critiques on many of Mulla Sadra's principles, just like Aqa Ali; he is the same; well, let us see what his words are; someone should extract these words, bring them out, and present them. These, in my opinion, are very important tasks that have been left undone; we have been late to think about these, and we must do all of these.

In any case, inviting our youth to rational sciences is very important; the attention of the seminaries to rational sciences, especially philosophy, is very important. Some of the esteemed and respected gentlemen who are highly regarded by us have raised objections that philosophy and mysticism lessons have increased in Qom; I told those gentlemen that if you remove philosophy from Qom, individuals in other places will take on the responsibility of explaining and teaching philosophy who do not have the competence and qualifications for this work; as we see now, some individuals who are recognized as philosophers outside of Qom and are prominent, their knowledge of philosophy is superficial; it is not that they do not have knowledge, but their knowledge is not deep, it is superficial; they have read something and are just repeating a term; well, this is not good; it is good that it remains in Qom, in the seminary. Tehran is the same; the seminary of Tehran, which was once the center of rational sciences, today, if the teaching of philosophy and rational sciences becomes prevalent there, this, in our opinion, will be something very good and useful, God willing.

I did not mention the name of Mirza Hashem Ashkouri here; or the late Sayyid Kazem Assar; of course, some of these taught at the university, some taught outside, these are later figures and their students, but those we mentioned are before this generation. Wherever the school of Tehran is mentioned, they want to refer to these gentlemen, meaning these father and son; of course, you did not mention the late Mirza Abdullah Zanouzi at all and did not pay attention; he must have works and his efforts—the late Mirza Abdullah Zanouzi—should be presented, because Aqa Ali is his student; these gentlemen are known as the school of Tehran.

In any case, we thank you gentlemen for the efforts you have made and the work you have started, this introduction of the faces of philosophy. God willing, may God bless your existence, and may the great philosophy teachers in Qom—who, thanks be to God, we see how abundant their blessings are—may God, God willing, support them, protect them, and continue their blessings. And also you gentlemen who are responsible for these tasks, may you, God willing, be among those who receive divine success and guidance, God willing. May you be successful.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings.