Search the Community

Allamah Tabataba’i

SubhanAllah, what a pious man he was. God bless all of our scholars. They are truly beyond any ordinary level. I am blessed to have heard of such scholars in this life. If only we all can live like them and follow their path to the path of the ahlulbayt a.s They truly motivate you! I am watching it in farsi so I do not know how much of the english subs are correct, although I am sure they are fine. (wasalam) Now subbed in English, this documentary explores the life and works of one Islam's most prominent scholars in the past century - Allamah Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai علامه سید محمد حسین طباطبائی‎ (1904 - 1981). His popular works include Tafsir al-Mizan, Afsar al-Arba'ah, Bidayat al-Hikmah, and Nihayat al-Hikmah. His contributions to the tafsir (exegisis), falsafah (philosophy) and tareekh (history) have had lasting impacts particularly within the world of Shi'a religious scholarship.

(a discussion following commentary on verse 15 of Surah Al Ma'ida) No doubt, man's is a life of reflection that requires perception and discernment; we call it faculty of thought. So the life is built on thought. It follows that the more correct and comprehensive the thought is, the more appropriate and sound the life will be. Whatever system a man follows and whichever path he treads upon, his good life is linked to, and bound with, proper thought; as much share it takes from that thought, that much uprightness it enjoys. Allah has repeatedly described it in His Great Book in different ways and various styles: Is he who was dead then We raised him to life and made for him a light by which he walks among the people, like him whose likeness is that of one in utter darkness whence he cannot come forth? (6:122). Say: "Are those who know and those who do not know alike?" (39:9). Allah will exalt those of you who believe, and those who are given knowledge, in high degrees (58:11)....therefore give good news to My servants, those who listen to the word, then follow the best of it, those are they whom Allah has guided and those it is who are the men of understanding (39:17-18). There are many such verses, which there is no need to quote here. Nobody has any doubt how Qur'an invites people to the correct thinking and exhorts them to proceed on the path of knowledge. Also the Qur'an reminds the readers that what it guides to is n way from among the ways of thinking. Allah says: Surely this Qur’an guides to that which is most upright (17:9); i.e. the religion, custom, or path that is most upright. In any case, it is the path of life and its uprightness depends on the uprightness of the way of thinking, as Allah has said: indeed, there has come to you a light and a clear Book from Allah; with it Allah guides him who follows His pleasure into the ways of peace and brings them out of utter darkness into light by His permission and guides them to the straight path (5:15-16). The straight path is that clear path which is free from contradiction and conflicts, i.e. neither it goes against the truth which one seeks nor its various sections point to different directions. Allah, in His Mighty Book, has not pin-pointed the correct and upright thought to which He calls His servants; He has left it to the common sense of the people, expecting them to use their natural reasoning power and the perception engrained in their minds. If you minutely study the Divine Book and meditate upon its verses, you will probably find over three hundred verses which invite people to contemplate, remember or ponder; or they teach the Prophet (s.a.w.) an argument to prove a truth or negate a falsity; as for example: Say: 'Who then could control anything as against Allah if He wished to destroy the Messiah son of Mary and his mother..." (5:17). Of the same genre are those verses which describe the arguments and proofs used by His prophets and beloved ones like Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa and other great prophets, in addition to Luqman (Lokman) and the believer from the family of Fir'awn (Pharaoh) and others, peace of Allah be on them all. For example: Their Messengers said: "Is there (any) doubt about Allah, the Maker of the heavens and the earth?" (14:10). And when Luqman said to his son while he admonished him: "O my son! Do not associate aught with Allah; most surely polytheism is a grievous iniquity" (31:13). And a believing man of Fir'awn's people who hid his faith said: 'What! Will you slay a man because he says: 'My Lord is Allah,' and indeed he has brought to you clear arguments from your Lord?" (40:28). Also, He quotes the magicians of Pharaoh as saying: They said: "We do not prefer you to what has come to us of clear arguments and to He Who made us, therefore decide what you are going to decide; you can only decide about this world's life; surely we believe in our Lord..." (20:72-73). Allah has not ordered His servants even in a single verse of His Book that they should blindly believe in Him, or in things sent by Him; or that they should tread on a path without thinking. He has often hinted to the reasons because of which He has laid down certain regulations and commandments (where a man has no way of knowing their detailed causes) describing some things which could be used as arguments; as He says: …surely prayer keeps (one) away from indecency and evil, and certainly the remembrance of Allah is the greatest... (29:45). O you who believe! Fasting has been prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may guard yourselves (against evil) (2:183). Allah does not desire to put on you any difficulty, but He wishes to purify you so that He may complete His favor on you, that you may be grateful (5:6). There are many other verses of similar nature. This thoughtful perception, i.e. the way of correct thinking which the Qur'an exhorts the human beings to use, on which it has based its call to truth, good or benefit or restrains from falsity, evil or harm - it is that perception which we know and recognize with our nature, which doesn't change or alter, and about which no man disputes with others. If there appears some dispute or discord about it then it is like a dispute in self-evident principles; it happens only when one or the both parties do not understand the true meaning of I lit* subject matter because of some miscomprehension. You may ask what is this path, which we are supposed to know by our nature. There is no doubt that there are some solid realities which independently exist and do not depend on our actions, like the realities of the genesis of the world and its end or mathematical, physical or other such principles. When we want to understand these matters we refer to basic principles, which are self-evident and are not subject to any doubt. Also, we take help from other principles, which are intrinsically attached to those self-evident principles. Then we arrange them in a particular way until we get the desired result. For example we say: A is B, and every B is C; therefore A is C. Or, as we say: If A is B, then C is D; and if C is D, then G is H. Therefore if A is B then G is H. Or, as we say: If A is B, then C is D; and if C is D, then G is H. But A is not H. Therefore G is not H. These patterns of logic and the principle matters described above are self-evident truths and no man of normal wisdom can have any doubt about them. If anybody doubts them, then it indicates some defect in his power of understanding, because of which it has failed to grasp these clear matters, as is generally seen about those who express doubts about self-evident truths. If we look at the doubts or uncertainties expressed against this logical way of thinking, we will see that when they want to reach at a result in their claims and objectives they too use the same principles laid down in the logic in its form, pattern and material; if we analyze their speech to the elementary premises used in them, they will turn into logical forms and principles. If somebody changes those premises or the forms in a way that according to logical principles would not lead to any result, the whole speech would become devoid of meaning and you will see that they would not like it. This is a clear proof that these people according to their human nature do accept the correctness of these logical principles, they submit to it and use it; they refute it with their tongues but in their inner selves they believe in it.