The central gesture
The Kitāb al-mashāʿir is a concentrated treatise, at times austere, but of immense reach: it is the heart of Mullā Ṣadrā's metaphysics laid bare. Everything in it is brought back to a single question — that of existence (wujūd).
The word of the title, mashāʿir, designates the "organs of perception," the penetrations: the book is a series of graspings, of breakthroughs, by which the intelligence touches, one after another, the truths of being. It was through this book that the West discovered Mullā Ṣadrā: Henry Corbin translated and presented it in French in the 20th century.
The key concepts (made plain)
- Existence before essence — The founding thesis. What is real, first, is not what a thing is, but the pure fact that it is. Essence is only an abstract cut; existence is the concrete, living reality.
- Unity and gradation — Existence is single — there is only one "being" — but it unfolds in degrees. It is a single light, from the palest reflection to the dazzling source.
- Penetration rather than definition — One does not define existence: it is that by which everything else is defined. One can only perceive it — hence the title. The book teaches one to see, not to reason upon words.
- A metaphysics that engages — To grasp that existence holds primacy is not an abstract exercise: it is to change one's gaze upon oneself and upon the world. The most technical thought issues, in Mullā Ṣadrā, in an inner transformation.
The architecture of the work
The treatise advances by successive penetrations — short sections that establish, one after another, the properties of existence: its reality, its unity, its gradation, its relation to essence, and finally the knowledge of the Necessary Being. An ascent, landing after landing, towards the source.
To read it
It is the shortest and densest text of Mullā Ṣadrā — demanding, but of great rigour. Corbin's translation, accompanied by his commentary, makes it a practicable doorway. To be read alongside The Wisdom of the Throne, which shows its fruits.
Resonances
- The author: Mullā Ṣadrā
- The translator and conveyor: Henry Corbin
- The other works: The Four Journeys, The Wisdom of the Throne
- The Real and its degrees — see the theme