Ostad Elahi, Knowing the Spirit, trans. by James Winston Morris (New York: State University of New York, 2007), viii + 158 Pps., $20.95.
Ostad Elahi (1895-1974) was born in Iran and was equally renowned as a master musician, distinguished jurist, and a remarkable philosopher and Spiritual teacher. James Winston Morris, the translator of this text, is Professor in the Department of Theology at Boston College, and is the author and editor of many books regarding Islamic thought. In this text, Elahi intends to generate a bridge between the intellect and Spiritual experiences, as well as a bridge between the world’s major religions. This book is an extremely concise and short summary of philosophical ideas regarding the Spirit
Elahi’s technical language, characteristic of later Islamic philosophy, Spirituality, and theology, was familiar to his original readers, but many of his allusions and assumptions are difficult to follow in today’s environ. Thus, the translator’s introduction is invaluable, as it provides a considerable amount of essential contextual and background information. The introduction by Morris also provides a brief overview of Elahi’s life and works, and outline of the particular assumptions of his original audience that would be confusing to contemporary readers, and a brief list of the original developments in Spirituality, psychology, and Spiritual ethics that this work provides. Elahi typically begins with universal rational arguments, then he transitions to mention relevant allusions to Spiritual phenomena, only to then conclude with his own direct Spiritual observations, a methodology that is reflective of the philosophical school of Mulla Sadra.
Elahi contends that knowing the Spirit presupposes knowing the creator of the Spirit, defining what the Spirit is, establishing the immortality of the Spirit, and clarifying the subject of the Gathering and Reawakening (40–41). The meaning of the expression ‘the Return’ is the process of Spiritual perfection. The process of perfection includes the transposition of each person’s Spirit from the material world to the intermediate world, Elahi avers.
In chapter one, Elahi attempts to establish the existence of the divine artisan by summarizing arguments based upon tradition, the intellect, and the evidences of the senses. In chapter two, Elahi sets out to define the Spirit and explain how the Spirit was created. In defining the Spirit, he asserts that is that which is the life-source for each being, as well as the originating basis for all natural forms. He contends that nothing can be alive and maintain itself as a living being without being endowed by the Spirit (57–58).
Chapter three sets forth the meaning of the following terms: the ‘Gathering’, the ‘Reawakening’, the ‘Returning’, and the ‘realm of the Return’. Elahi defines th ‘Gathering’ as the bringing together of the dead on the Day of the Rising. As Elahi uses the term, the ‘Reawakening’ refers to the coming back to life and giving of life to the dead after the rasiing up of their bodies. The ‘Returning’ refers to the coming back to the realm of Return, where the realm of ‘Return’ refers to the realm of the other world. He contends that the duty of every being is to strive and go to every length to pass through the various stages of gradual perfection (65). Chapters three through seven are formally eschatological sections that regard the ‘Return’, the destiny, and the perfection of the human Spirit; the parallelisms between cosmological and eschatological themes within these chapters, though assumed within this text, are explicit and central within the Qurˊan. Moreover, chapters four through seven each explicate one of four groups of believers: 1) those who believe in a purely bodily Return, 2) those who believe in a purely spiritual Return, 3) those who believe in a harmonization of both a bodily and spiritual Return, and 4) those who propound the process of spiritual perfection.
In a most interesting chapter seven, Elahi elucidates the rewards and punishments for good and bad actions by noting, firstly, that our earthly actions have consequences in this world as well as the next life. Second, good actions are rewarded ten times over, whereas bad deeds only receive a single, equivalent punishment. And third, the qualities and quantities of the pleasures and pains in the eternal realm of the Return are indescribable.
In sum, the emphatic universality of both the subject and presentation of Knowing the Spirit points the way to unsuspected bridges between different civilizations and religious traditions, indeed to the prospect of an inclusive ‘science of Spirituality’ based on the common ground of each person’s Spiritual life and experience. The most important topics covered within this title, in my humble opinion, are the intermediate world, gradual perfection, and the various spiritual stages. For those who are well versed in Islamic philosophy, this book would be an illuminating read. For those who are not well versed in Islamic philosophy, it will be tedious reading, but nevertheless profitable.
Bradford McCall
Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA