Breaking the Idols of Ignorance: Admonition of the Soi-Disant Sufi by Sadr al-

Din Shirazi, trans. M. Dasht Bozorgi, F. Asadi Amjad, ed. S. K. Toussi, 2007.
London: ICAS Press, xliv + 162 pp., £15.99 (pbk). ISBN: 978-1-904063-27-8

ALI HAIDER ABIDI

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

Breaking the Idols of Ignorance is a translation of Kasr al-Asnam al-Jahiliyyah,

one of tens of books and treatises composed by the renowned Islamic
philosopher Sadr al-Din Shirazi (979-1050 AH/ 1571-1640 AD), more
commonly known as Mulla Sadra. Whereas this book is one of Sadra’s shorter
works, it is one of the best, partly due to the advantage of it being one of his
later works, appearing even after the production of his magnum opus Al-
Asfar – which he refers to for extra reading (136).
Written originally in Arabic, Kasr al-Asnam al-Jahiliyyah is rendered here in
its first English translation as Breaking the Idols of Ignorance. It includes a
detailed introduction by the editor and a brief translator’s note, both of which
include summary reviews of the work. The translation itself employs
sophisticated language with a rich vocabulary that is lucid for advanced
readers but might not be conducive to the casual reader. This might be in
part due to the nature of the work that attempts to capture the author’s deep
insights into mystical, spiritual and philosophical matters. The translators
have also done a great job of referencing important Qur’anic verses, hadith,
and other sources referred to by the author, at one point even proposing a
possible correction (125). They have developed this final work after studying
multiple non-English renditions of the book and included the single-instance
portions as appendices.
The book begins with the Editor’s Introduction, which is a biographical
sketch of the author that outlines his life, studies, challenges, achievements,
contributions, intellectual campaigns and major works. It also places the book
in its proper context by outlining the political and social environment that
included competing interests of rulers, exoteric ulema (theologians/scholars),
extremist mystics, and mystically-oriented philosophers amongst others (xvi).
The introduction details the impact of these tensions on Sadra’s life, including
his decade-long retreat from public life, as well as his intellectual campaigns
against what he perceived as the extremities of his time – such as dogmatic
theology and unbridled mysticism. It sets the stage for Sadra’s book by
describing it as his campaign against the ‘creed of false mystics’ and
‘disgraceful, impious sophists’ (xxxvi). It finally concludes by summarizing the
main points of Sadra’s books.
Sadra’s book is divided into a Preamble, a Preface, and four essays. In the
Preamble, as well as throughout the book, he spares no effort in wielding a
barrage of criticism against false mystics (Sufis) from all angles:
metaphorical, explicit, philosophical, rhetorical, and argumentative –
accusing them of being novices, show-offs and confused folk who could really
use some advice. To one who does not agree with Sadra’s position, the heavy
dose of criticism might appear as too much or even ranting; however, Sadra
strives to justify his criticism via the explication, description, and analysis
that he formidably lays out throughout his book to back up his claims. He
cites the ‘evil’ emanating from the influence and existence of false mystics as
something that ought to be arraigned against, and presents this book as a
shattering of their idols of ignorance (10).
In the Preface, which itself forms a brief essay, Sadra introduces several
concepts that he later details out in the rest of the book. He discusses the
importance of achieving a high spiritual status reminiscent of a ‘holy soul’ or
‘an apostolic or saintly being’ (18), as well as the obstructions, failures, and
faults in achieving such a status. He concludes his preface by railing against
the idea of relying on sensory perception, instead emphasizing the
importance of the soul, its origin and return, its downfall in veiling itself from
its Lord via ignorance and evil deeds, and its ultimate redemption via
practicing (true) asceticism (22).
The four essays that follow are each, in their own right, independent
distinct wholes with their own theme-sets – despite being contiguous and
building upon their previous counterparts. However, several of the themes
recur within each and persist throughout the four essays. Each essay is itself
structured to begin with a brief summary of a few lines and is further sub-
divided into smaller sub-sections, each generally commencing with a line or
two of its own introduction. However, the introductory lines do not do justice
to the given section or essay because the great amount of detail packed
therein could not be described in a few introductory lines. Sadra goes beyond
the stated objective of each section, each essay, and the book as a whole. He
covers a lot more than what meets the eye in the summaries.
Sadra’s main theme in the first essay is knowledge. He delves into its
kinds, its perfection, distinction from show-off/sophistry, its grounding, the
harm of its absence, the ultimate result of its presence or absence, its
incumbency, its refreshing by sensory exercises (dhikr), knowledge of self-
discipline hinged on refined intellect, kinds of scholars and their attributes,
examples of sages and wise men, and elements of true and wise mystics. The
main theme of the second essay is spiritual knowledge and practice. He
delves into why spiritual knowledge is the best kind of knowledge, the impact
of morals and spiritual practices, the effects of practices on the heart and the
bestowal of divine grace, divine scholars as objects of creation, actions
inhibiting or promoting wisdom, divine grace upon the wise man who unlike
false mystics does not run after worldly position but is bestowed position
from God, and finally the signs and attributes of the lovers of God. The main
theme of the third essay is the attributes of the Righteous who are traveling
towards God and seeking Him – though have not yet attained the rank of the
‘near stationed’ (84). The idea is to fully adopt the attributes mentioned in
this essay in order to become amongst the closest ones. He delves therein
into the acts for purifying the heart, love and yearning for God, actions
carried out for the sake of God, worship of Him through knowing Him,
description of categories of theoretical and practical actions and devotions,
degrees of spiritual evils, proper use of rationality and intellect bestowed on
humans for acquiring truth and achieving their prime objective, the
wretchedness of evil deeds, the ultimate results of religious devotion verses
that of evil deeds, and discriminating between good and bad, and its various
kinds.
 As for the last essay, it doubles as both an essay and the conclusion which
Sadra might have originally intended to place as a separate section (10). This
essay admonishes the seekers of God. Therein he delves into the differences
between the curable and non-curable of the spiritually diseased people,
restraint from worldly benefit, simplicity of life in similitude to prophetic
asceticism, love of world versus love of God, illegitimate and legitimate
attractions to keep away from, the role of mind over the body and intellect
over inclinations, the pleasure derived from divine contemplation, the four
veils between God and the seekers, and the duties of the guide (shaykh) in
ensuring a satisfactory grooming of spiritual disciples – closing with finality of
success for successful training and striving.
The reason Sadra is able to compress so much knowledge within a short
work is due to the style he employs. His manner of writing is highly
structured and logical; it is full of hierarchies, categorisations, summary sets
and point-wise listings. One may also add equations such as: implications
(one thing leads to another), combinations (results on combining attributes),
and opposites (variance of opposing attributes). This allows him to convey a
wide amount of information succinctly, and this squarely places his book as a
ripe candidate for detailed exegesis.
Sadra employs his own style of interpretations and explications as well. He
engages in examination of core concepts from a variety of perspectives and
provides several different view-angles reminiscent of the hermeneutical
circle. He strongly vouches for methodological approaches such as coming
out strongly in support of critical analysis – railing against both insurgent
bigotry and adoption of ideas based on faith of teachers and what was picked
up in childhood (63), the importance of empirical evidence (as in indubitable
demonstration (64)), phenomenological-like stripping and abstraction (44),
the psycho-analytical approach of both angelic and satanic mental
‘visitations’ (77-80), and employment of critical thought by not rolling up the
‘mat of individual judgment’ and not ceasing the ‘movement of thought’ (45).
He also advocates an approach (which nowadays might be called anti-
positivist) that does not limit the human to the five senses – which he
designates as common with beasts – instead exhorting to the senses that
cannot be perceived (82); in other words: a metaphysical and analytical
approach, including spiritual. He proposes a centrist notion of exegesis and
textual analysis which makes use of both exterior and interior forms,
condemning both the ‘Literalists’ and ‘Esoterics’ – the former for looking at
the laws with a blind eye and the latter for shifting the significance of words
from what their exterior form necessitates (35).
Sadra exhibits a profound sense of confidence throughout the book and
manifests it in the manner of his bestowal of criticism and praise; his rebukes
are sharp and animated and likewise his applauds are eulogising. He
specifically singles out two supremely influential groups of people for
addresses, attacks, and extolling, namely, the mystics and the scholars. His
comparisons between the best and worst kind of each group reflects a
dichotomy of good and evil, heaven and hell. The ultimately pious Sufi is
described at times as the purpose of the universe and the fruit of creation
(112) while the ultimately wretched mystic is described as proud, liberal and
misguiding – a cause of extreme corruption worthy of being killed (34). As for
the scholars, the best of them – the divine scholar – is described as the primal
objective of creation (57) while the worst of them are described as those sold
to the desires of fame and leadership (99) and as severely diseased
physicians who increase the disease of their patients by deception (109). At
different points throughout the book, he provides references from Islamic
sources, renowned writers, and intellectuals to back up his arguments in
explicating the dichotomy.
Sadra is very apt at referencing, and his fluid meshing of sources in his
treatise signifies his advanced scholarship. He often references the Qur’an,
and he also has a good handle on the hadiths relevant to his subject
(spirituality); he is in fact critical of theologians who ignore the subject of
spirituality in favour of the nitty-gritty of (popular) Islamic law for the gain of
position and favour (116). He also quotes several Muslim intellectuals,
Ghazzali being one of the more often quoted; others include Balkhi,
Suhravardi, and Ibn ‘Arabi. He is very open-minded to knowledge gained from
any source – showering praise on several non-Muslim thinkers for their
contribution, including those he classified as hakim (sage, philosopher, wise
man) such as Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle (42-43). He even
includes a short, but powerful, treatise of Pythagoras (which the translators
ascribe to Hermes) as a sub-section (125-130) in the last essay of
admonitions. He frequently quotes adages and poetic-couplets where
relevant, and heavily uses metaphors, stories, examples, and analogies for
elucidation and further explication.
All in all, Sadra covers much ground and from several perspectives.
Besides the analytical, philosophical and methodological aspects, he also
allots a fair share of output to the devotional, emotional and eschatological
aspects. His essays are devotionally laced with divine praises, thanksgiving,
forgiveness and the attributes of God. Additionally there is much respect and
honour dedicated to the Prophet and to a lesser degree to saintly figures. At
an emotional level, his chidings, admonitions, warnings, and criticisms are
intense, while his adoration of divine grandeur and beauty and seeking
pleasure of the theoretical intellect (104) are ecstatic. A good amount of
space is also accorded to eschatological aspects which have their dedicated
sub-sections besides being weaved throughout the book. He speaks much
about pre-eternity, the after-life, heaven, hell, seeing God and basking in His
glory. In this vein he advocates total renunciation of the world (122) and
highlights the divine blessings upon asceticism (120); for instance by
referencing several examples of prophetic asceticism (117-118) found in a
sermon of Amir al-Mu’minin.
The ascetic nature of his work can be applied to his work itself. Apparently,
Sadra’s composition was not written with an intention of addressing the
public at-large. In fact, he had a very specific readership that he intended to
reach out to. It could be assumed from his treatise that Sadra was not out for
fame and glory, but just wanted to admonish those worthy of admonishment
– this is reflective of his undiplomatic manner of writing which would be
appreciated by only those willing to accept harsh criticism. Sadra divides the
non-saintly people between the spiritually diseased, yet curable, and the
spiritually dead. He says that admonitions and counsel cannot give life to the
dead, but can warn the drowsy and awaken the sleepers (114). The latter are
his intended audience. He further paints a picture that implies an extremely
diseased and corrupt world (135) wherein it can be assumed that most
people would be spiritually dead. It may well be argued that moral decay and
spiritual corruption has only worsened manifold over the four centuries that
separate Sadra’s time from ours.
In conclusion, Sadra’s book is both an intellectual masterpiece, and an aid
for spiritual elevation. It thus encompasses the oft-recurrent themes of
knowledge and mysticism expressed throughout the book. It can be used by
researchers of various fields in the humanities as well as by independent
religious scholars and intellectual laity who are seeking an enlightening
academic path to understanding ‘true’ mysticism. As such, the book is both
academically and practically applicable.