Abstract

One of the most adroit commentators of Sadr-ul-Mutaallehin's views and transcendent wisdom, Aqa Ali has rendered new accounts of Mulla Sadra's philosophical principles. Unlike the majority of the transcendent wisdom advocates who merely and unconditionally approve Mulla Sadra's ideas,Aqa Ali has found fresh points in them and even makes critical comments on several phisophical questions raised by Sadr-ul-Mutaallehin.Aqa Ali is viewed as the initiator of comparative Islamic philosophy; he,for the first time,in his Badaye - ul -Heikam which is the most credited book on transcendent wisdom in Farsi,writes about how Muslim philosophers met post -renaissance philosophy.Among his other contributions. Aqa Ali's glosses on Asfar Arba'ah are best known. These glosses are themselves divided into three parts; part one is a separate treatise; part two which is not a seperate treatise is mainly concerned with the third and fourth journeys; and part three contains his interpretation of Mulla Hadi Sabzewari's commentaries on Asfar.Aqa Ali's Risalah fi-1-Tawhid is an epistle on the first part of the glosses and is now available to wisdom enthusiasts in the form of an independent treatise. This treatise itsetf comprises thirteen chapters in which Aqa Ali has done his best to create a clear and comprehensible picture of unity on the basis of the Quran. Like the book of Transcendent Wisdom, this treatise also begins with intellectual proofs and concludes mystically, implying that the Quran, gnosis and reasoning are what leads a philosopher to unity.