Mohsen Fayz Kashani

Muhsen Feyz Kashani^[1] (Persian: محسن فیض کاشانی) was an Iranian Muslim poet, philosopher and muhaddith (d. 1680).

Life

Mohsen Fayz Kashani was born in Kashan to a scholarly family renowned for its learning^[1], Fayz started his education his father, Shah Morteza. His father owned a rich library which benefited Fayz. When he reached the age of twenty, he travelled to Isfahan for further study. However, after a year in Isfahan, he moved to Shiraz to study Hadith and Fiq (Jurisprudence) under Majid Bahrani, one of the leading Shi'ite scholars of his time. Bahrani passed away a few months later and Fayz returned to Isfahan where he joined the circles of great scholar Shaikh Bahai and studied philosophy under Mir Damad. After performing the hajj, he stayed a short time before returning to Persia.

Upon his return he found a new master, Qom Molla Sadra who taught him in different disciplines. Sadra taught him for eight years, studying ascetic exercises and learning all of the sciences. Sadra gave Fayz one of his daughters to marry, they later had a son named, Muhammad Alam al-Huda, who followed in his fathers footsteps. Fayz is said to have produced works that mixed Islamic scriptual moral concerns with Aristotelian, Platonic schemas and illunminationist mysticism- a rationalist gnostic approach.(Rizvi) Some of his works brought him bad attention, he was criticized by Unlama for not using the Idjma in questioning jurisprudence, such as the legitimacy of music and the definition of impurity. One of Fayz students later blames him for encouraging his students to listen to music.(Chittick)Fayz taught at the Molla'Ábd-Allah madrasa and led Friday prayer in Isfahan. After an unknown period of time Fayz returned to Kasan where he later died in the year 1680.^[1]

Works

He was a prolific writer in both Persian and Arabic, with a bibliography of more than a hundred and twenty titles. One of his famous work is Mohjat-al-Beyza which is entirely rewritten of the Ihya' ulum al-din (Revival of Religious Sciences), the great work by al-Ghazali, from the Shia point of view. Another of his great works, 'Ayn al-yaqin, The Certitude of the Eye-witness, is a personal synthesis which complements his great commentary on the Quran.^[2]

His other works are Abwab-ol-Jenan (the doors of the Paradise), the comment of Safi ,the comment of Asfi, Wafi (on exposition of Usul Kafi), Shafi, (the thing which cures), Mafati'h (The keys), , Asrar-o-ssalat (the secrets of the prayers), Elm-ol yaghin (certain knowledge) on the principles of the religion, The exposition on astronomy, Safina-to-nejat (the ship of relief), the exposition on the Al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya, Tarjomat-ol salat (the translation of prayer)(in Persian), The translation of Taharat (the purification mentally and physically), Translations of the ideas, The "list of the sciences" and Divan of poems. There are some 13000 lines of poems in his works.^[3]

A thorough bibliographic study has shown that Fayz wrote 122 works for a total on over 550,000 lines; of these, about forty have been published. He wrote some 20,000 verses of Persian poetry, mostly in Sufi style, and thirty Persian prose works.

See Also

• List of Iranian scientists and scholars

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} H. Algar, "FAYŻ-E KĀŠĀNĪ, MOLLĀ MOḤSEN-MOḤAMMAD" in Encyclopaedia Iranica [1]
2. ^ Corbin (1993), p.344
3. ^ Biography

References

• Achena, M. "Fayḍ-i Kās̲h̲ānī." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman; , Th. Bianquis; , C.E. Bosworth; , E. van Donzel; and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2011. Brill Online. Augustana. 06 April 2011 Web.

• Algar, Hamid. "Fayz-E Kasani, Molla Mohsen-Mohammad." Enclyclopedia Iranica. 1999. Web.

• Chittick, W.C. "Muḥsin-i Fayḍ-i Kās̲h̲ānī, Muḥammad b. Murtaḍā." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman; , Th. Bianquis; , C.E. Bosworth; , E. van Donzel; and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2011. Brill Online. Augustana. 06 April 2011

• Cole, Juan. Iranian studies. Taylor & Francis, Ltd., 2004. Print.

• Corbin, Henry (1993 (original French 1964)). History of Islamic Philosophy, Translated by Liadain Sherrard, Philip Sherrard. London; Kegan Paul International in association with Islamic Publications for The Institute of Ismaili Studies. ISBN 0710304161. 

• Rizvi, Sajjad. Iran: journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies. British Institute of Persian Studies, 2007. Print.

Persondata
Name	Kashani, Muhsen Feyz
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	Kashan, Iran
Place of birth
Date of death	1680
Place of death