One of the Shi‘ite thinkers whose scientific contributions have rarely been explored is Mullā Muḥammad Kaẓim Hezārjarībī Astarābādī (died in 1234 AH). He was one of the Shi‘ite scholars of the late Zand and early Qajar periods who conducted several scientific studies in different fields of theology, particularly on Islamic beliefs. Hezārjarībī’s works have never been published; however, a great number of his manuscripts in Persian and Arabic are available today. His writings and translations have played a significant role in the dissemination and expansion of the Shi‘ite culture and philosophy. When composing, he always paid attention to the point that his writings should be readable by all the people interested in the field of theology, and that is why most of his works are written in Persian. Following a descriptive-analytic method and relying on library resources, particularly, a number of critically corrected manuscripts, the authors of this paper aim to investigate the nature and content of Hezārjarībī’s most important discussions regarding theology. The findings of this study demonstrate that, in his view, theology is intrinsic while Islam is not. In order to prove the existence of God, he resorted to a variety of proofs such as possibility and necessity, order, and fiṭrah (human nature) arguments. Moreover, he tried to provide the correct meanings of some divine attributes such as will, justice, and wisdom to remove some theological ambiguities.
Manuscript profile
