Word 15: Philosopher is the one who has been given true self-knowledge by God

Word 15: Philosopher is the one who has been given true self-knowledge by God

Self-knowledge is the principle of wisdom. Here, true self-knowledge means intuitive self-knowledge which is different than intellectual and reasoning self-knowledge. Anyone who obtains intuitive self-knowledge attains the knowledge of God Almighty.

Philosophy is a Greek word (φιλοσοφία, Philosophia), meaning lover of knowledge. In ancient Greece, some people called themselves sophists and considered themselves matter in science. In contrast to these people, it was Socrates who considered himself a philosopher, meaning I seek and love knowledge and wisdom.

In addition, there was another group of people who denied the truth and said that there is nothing in the universe, and from here the science of logic began to respond to their false arguments. For example, these people were arguing and proving that you are a horse. These people showed a horse to other people and ask if it was a donkey? People replied, No. Then they questioned: what is this? People said, a horse. Then they asked, are you a donkey? People answered, No. Then, they said, you are a horse because you are not a donkey.

While logically and rationally, to get the correct conclusion, we must have a comprehensive sentence and a partial sentence. In the above example, it is not correct to say, “everything that is not a donkey is a horse”, because both parts are partial sentences, and the correct conclusion cannot be achieved by two partial sentences. Here is one true example: Everyone who has a beard is a man (Part 1: comprehensive sentence), and because you have a beard (Part 2: partial sentence), then you are a man.

Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, and their true followers considered themselves philosophers, meaning, lovers of knowledge. Sheikh Ishraq (RA) said, “In a divine vision, I spoke with the soul of Aristotle. I said the names of some philosophers of my time and asked him what he thought about them. He did not answer my question. Then I asked about “Bayazid Bastami” (great Islamic mystic), and Aristotle answered that these people are the real philosophers”. Philosophy is the knowledge of the truth of things. True mystics have reached it through intuition. Allameh Hassanzadeh in “Word 122” of the book “1001 Words” wrote different definitions of philosophy from different people.

Philosophy is self-knowledge.

 – Mulla Sadra: Philosophy is to be like God to the extent of human strength.

 – Mulla Sadra: Philosophy is the perfection of the human soul by achieving and knowing the truths of beings as they are, and knowledge of their existence is based on research and argument, not on suspicion and imitation.

– Mulla Sadra: Philosophy is the perfection of the human soul by knowing the rationale principles of the universe according to the human ability to be like God.

 – Avicenna: Philosophy is the knowledge of the existence of “Essential Existence” (God), which is also called the First, as He knows Himself because the human intellect cannot achieve this, so in fact, the wise is only Almighty God.

 – Mullah Hadi Sabzevari: Philosophy and wisdom is the perfection of the human’s soul in both knowledge and practice as much as it is possible for humans.

– Mullah Hadi Sabzevari: Philosophy and wisdom is the knowledge of things as they are in God’s knowledge as much as human strength.

 – Kendy’s treatise: Philosophy means love of wisdom and philosopher means lover of knowledge.

 – Kendy’s treatise: Philosophy means remembrance of death, which means the death of lusts in human beings because killing lusts is the way to virtue and salvation.

– Kendy’s treatise: Philosophy is the principles of all knowledge.

 – Kendy’s treatise: Philosophy for humans is self-knowledge

 Mulla Sadra: Philosophy is the knowledge of the eternal existence of objects and their purpose as much as human strength.

 Mulla Sadra: Wisdom is the cause of all things. God’s wisdom has created the universe.

Dastor O’lama: Philosophy in Greek means to be similar to the “Essential Existence” (God) as much as human strength to study eternal happiness.

Prophet Muhammad (S) said: “God, show me things as they are”.

“Our Lord! Verily, it is You Who will gather mankind together on the Day about which there is no doubt. Verily, Allah never breaks His Promise” (Al-Imran: 9).

This verse has two meanings, one is that there is no doubt about the occurrence of the Day of Judgment and the second is that the Day of Judgment is a day when there is no doubt. Doubt is related to ignorance and in any world where there is ignorance, there is also doubt, but in the world that is pure knowledge, doubt cannot be imagined.

 For example, when you see a light from a distance at night, you doubt whether it is a fire, a lamplight, or a motorcycle light because you do not know, you will have doubts. If you love or dislike someone, you have no doubt about it. There will be no doubt in the resurrection. In the resurrection, there is only pure truth and knowledge, but in this worldly life, we have darkness and light.

 Sometimes one philosopher proves one thought and theory is correct but the next philosopher rejects it and yet another rejects his theory. In this world, man doubts what is right. The great scientist Fakhr-e Razi (Suni Scholar) had doubts in his late life, saying that I doubted everything from the beginning to the resurrection. Ibn Arabi wrote a letter to Fakhr al-Razi in which he said, “One of your friends who is also my friend honestly told me that you were crying. When he asked the reason for your crying. You replied: for 25 years, I believed that something was right, but after all these years, I realized that it was not right, and now I have come to believe that all my opinions might be like that”.

Intellectual reasoning makes people doubt, but if it is accompanied by an intuitive and divine vision, this doubt will be removed. Man must reach an intuitive and divine vision in which there is no doubt. Every being is a manifestation of truth, and the truth must be witnessed in those manifestations.

One of the instructions that Ayatollah Ghazi gave to his students was to always remember death. The more you remember death, the smarter you are. The one who remembers death does not see profit and loss only in worldly life.

Prophet Muhammad (S) said, “The remembrance of death removes lusts in the heart”.

A tradition said, “Go to the cemetery when you are very happy or very sad”.

We have in the hadith that said, “You should make yourself according to the divine or God morality”, that is, become like the Almighty God in attributes as much as you can.

All praise is to God to the extent that He deserves it.