
The book consists of two main parts. The first part includes an introduction and a memorial focusing on 'Allamah's life, and the second part is a series of discussions that the author of the book, Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Husayni Tehrani had with the 'Allamah. The discussions are based on the Noble Qur'an. Even though both the author and 'Allamah Tabataba'i are among the top Shi'a figures of the twentieth century, the book is not based on Shi'a narrations in particular.
- Shining Sun - In Memory of ‘Allamah Tabataba’i
- Translator’s Introduction
- Part One
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Memorial
- My First Encounter with ‘Allamah Tabataba’i
- A course on philosophy by ‘Allamah Tabataba’i
- ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s style of teaching
- ‘Allamah’s Review of the philosophical and mystical letters of Sayyid Ahmad Karbala’i and Shaykh Muhammad Husayn Gharawi Isfahani
- ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s eminence in knowledge and practice
- ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s spiritual master: Ayatollah Qadi
- ‘Allamah’s reverence and passion for Ayatollah Qadi
- ‘Allamah’s mystical education under the tutelage of his master, Mr Qadi
- The late Qadi’s style in spiritual training
- The virtues of Ayatollah Qadi
- The ancestors of the late Qadi and ‘Allamah Tabataba’i
- ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s brother and their childhood
- ‘Allamah’s wife
- ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s approach to philosophy
- ‘Allamah’s philosophical views
- The need to learn philosophy
- The verses of the Qur’an suggest the absolute unity of Allah
- Imam ‘Ali’s sermons concerning God’s absolute unity
- ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s discussion on God’s absolute unity
- ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s annotations on Bihar al-Anwar by ‘Allamah Majlisi
- The cessation of ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s annotations on Bihar al-Anwar
- Two of ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s annotations on Bihar al-Anwar
- ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s effort to unite the philosophies of the Orient and the Occident
- The composition and methodology of the al-Mizan exegesis
- The merits of al-Mizan over other exegeses
- Al-Mizan in Islamic schools and academic societies around the world
- Al-Mizan should be taught in the theological schools
- ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s interviews with Henry Corbin, Chair of Shi’a Studies at Sorbonne
- ‘Allamah’s publications
- ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s manners, ethics, and modesty
- ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s approach to mysticism (Sufism)
- ‘Allamah’s conduct and his attainment of divine realities
- ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s poetic talent
- ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s epics and odes
- ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s modesty toward the Infallibles
- ‘Allamah’s patience in difficulties
- Our men of knowledge have always endured insufficient livelihoods
- The reason for ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s immigration to Qum from Tabriz
- Ayatollah Burujirdi’s message to ‘Allamah and ‘Allamah’s reply
- ‘Allamah was a guard and refuge for the students
- Intellect, conscience, and religion
- The Qur’an and Hadith on the necessity to follow the intellect
- The Qur’an and hadith on the necessity to follow the heart and conscience
- Intellect, heart, and religion characterise the same reality
- The necessity to follow the intellect, spirit and religion in the Qur’an, narrations and supplications
- ‘Allamah Tabataba’i was a master of intellect, heart, and religion
- ‘Two parties break my back: an impudent scholar and an ignorant worshiper’
- Imam ‘Ali’s sermon in describing ‘men whom no purchase or sale distracteth from the remembrance of Allah’
- The states of ‘Allamah Tabataba’i toward the end of his noble life
- The passing, funeral and burial of ‘Allamah Tabataba’i
- PART 2
- Introduction to Part Two
- 3. Qur’anic Discourses
- ‘He frowned and turned away * Because the blind man came to him.’
- Verses of Chapter 74 (al-Muddaththir) about Walid ibn Mughirah
- The second reason why ‘He frowned and turned away’ does not refer to the Messenger of Allah
- Tiwal (‘lengthy’), mi’in (‘hundreds’), and mufassal (‘extended’) chapters
- Mutashabih (analogous) and mathani (repeated)
- Chapters with disjointed (muqatta’ah) letters
- The Messenger of Allah was himself a miracle
- The meaning of ahqaf
- The verse, ‘And of the earth like them’
- ‘And His Throne goes back on water’
- ‘Then a wall will be set up between them...’
- In the Qur’an, ni’mah always refers to wilayah
- Ni’mah and na’im mean wilayah
- ‘For the benefit of you and your livestock’
- The Qur’anic addresses starting with qul (say)
- Ayat al-Kursi is just the first verse
- ‘Say: each behaves according to his formation’
- ‘Truly man was created intolerant..... save those that pray’
- Intercession is for the believers with major sins
- Prophet Abraham’s asking forgiveness for his uncle, Azar
- Azar was Prophet Abraham’s uncle and not his father
- The extermination of the tribe of Thamud and the people of Madyan
- 4. Philosophical Discourses
- An intellectual discussion in refutation of the Trinity
- The Qur’an’s rejection of the Trinity
- The contradiction between unity and trinity
- Real unity and plurality cannot apply to the same subject
- The true sense of God’s unity of Essence
- The philosophers’ gradation of being concerning God’s unity
- Gradation of being and unity of the gnostics
- Gradation contradicts the absoluteness of God’s existence
- The personal unity of God’s existence
- Aversion of the infidels’ hearts from God’s unity
- ‘Rivalry in worldly increase distracted you * Until you visited the graves’
- The problem with gradation of being
- Gradation of being and tawhid of the gnostics
- Real tawhid is only that of the gnostics
- The reality of God’s unity
- Adequate elucidation on the gradation and unity of being
- God’s Essence transcends all names, identities, and determinations
- What is meant by manifestation (tajalli)?
- ‘The soul is bodily in origination and spiritual in subsistence’
- Man’s creation originates from the earth
- The stages of man’s transformations in transubstantial motion
- Man’s arcs of ascent and descent toward perfection
- Subsistence of permanent archetypes in God’s Essence upon annihilation
- The meaning of ‘inniyyah’ in Hallaj’s poem
- The verse, ‘Say: my Lord hath only prohibited indecencies, whether inward or outward’
- Every immaterial species is unique
- Gabriel’s unity and his connection with the many beings of this world
- Annihilation, immolation, nonexistence, and relinquishing one’s determination
- All beings proceed to annihilation; there is nothing but Allah; ‘There is no he but Him’
- If the Permanent Archetypes are eradicated, a being cannot exist in God
- ‘Allamah’s own poems regarding annihilation in God
- Annihilation and the burning of the butterfly and the mother in fire
- The realms of blackness, imagination and whiteness prostrate for Allah, Exalted He is
- Gnostic ideas of Muhyi al-Din, Ibn al-Farid, and Hafiz Shirazi
- Subsistence of the noun upon annihilation
- There must be a Zayd when we say, ‘Zayd became annihilated’
- ‘And thou threwest not when thou threwest, but Allah threw’
- Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyyah and the subsistence of the Permanent Archetypes upon annihilation
- Transformation of the quiddities, and ‘Whose is the kingdom today? It is Allah’s, the One, the Dominant’
- The verse, ‘And unto Him you are overturned’
- ‘There was Allah and there was nothing other than Him, and now it is as it has always been’
- There is some subject in every type of annihilation, and that is the Permanent Archetype
- Annihilation is one’s obliteration in God’s Being, removal of the determinations, and God’s observation of His own beauty
- The true unity of God’s Essence is beyond all confinements
- ‘The glass is delicate and so is the wine’
- The ‘known provision’ of mukhlasin
- The impermanence of physical and spiritual imposed movements
- 5. Mystical Discourses
- ‘Unless through revelation or from behind a veil or by sending an emissary’
- Revelation of the Qur’an to the Prophet
- The different types and stages of revelation were due to the different states and circumstances
- ‘And he speaketh not out of desire * It is naught but a revelation that is revealed’
- Imam ‘Ali’s dream of Hadrat Khidr and his teaching of the Greatest Name
- The late Qadi and tawhid
- Monotheistic states of the late Qadi
- God’s Unity of Actions
- The Prophet’s station of subsistence after annihilation
- The marvels (irhas) of the Imams
- The Imams’ playing games in childhood
- The rise of Imam Mahdi
- 6. Scientific Discourses
- The Qur’an is easy to understand; the difficulties and complexities relate to its hidden meanings
- The creation of the angels and the Holy Spirit
- The spirit and the angels
- The first thing that Allah created
- The impact of supplication and the role of the angels in its acceptance
- Barzakh is for everyone
- The realm of barzakh starts right after one’s death
- Heaven and hell currently exist
- The speaking of ruwaybidah and the emergence of Ya’juj and Ma’juj
- The Messenger of Allah was also the prophet of the jinn
- The science of abjad Letters and its branches
- Tayy al-ard and the beginning of Chapter Ta-Ha
- The late Qadi’s inquiry about Prophet Solomon’s flying in the air
- The stages of tayy al-ard and its reality
- ‘The name should delight you’; ‘And truly of his followers was Abraham’
- Hurr al-’Amili: ‘The Prophet’s knowledge is inherited from the previous prophets’
- The universality of the resolute prophets (ulu al-’azm)
- Prophet Moses was sent to Pharaoh, a non-Israelite
- Attributing actions to the Supreme Truth; ‘So that Allah may know who supporteth Him and His messengers unseen’
- All actions are subject to God’s permission and decree
- Allah attributes actions to people, but denies their independence
- 7. Historical Discourses
- Abrogation in the Noble Qur’an and its possibility based on the religion and the intellect
- Islam as the abrogator of the other religions
- The scribes of revelation
- The different recitations of the Qur’an are narrated from the Messenger of Allah
- ‘The King of the Day of Judgment’ is more inclusive and pertinent than ‘The Owner of the Day of Judgment’
- Compilation of the Qur’an by ‘Uthman, and the death of Ibn Mas’ud
- The Qur’an of Imam ‘Ali
- Why is the name of Imam ‘Ali not mentioned in the Qur’an
- The Qur’an has not been distorted
- The displacement of the verse ‘Today I perfected your religion for you’
- The displacement of the Verse of Purification
- The change of qiblah, and the Prophet’s qiblah in Mecca
- Revelation of the Torah to Prophet Moses
- Revelation of the Gospel to Prophet Jesus
- The Apostles of Prophet Jesus, and monasticism
- Prophet Joseph was a mukhlas
- Platonism
- 8. Epilogue
- Notes on Prominent Figures Cited in the Book
- Glossary of Key Transliterated Terms