TARMAD

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Mīr Dāmād (Founder of the School of Isfahan)

Mir Damad (Muḥammad Bāqir Dāmād) was a major philosopher of the Safavid period and a central figure of the School of Isfahan.
He combined ideas from Avicenna (Peripatetic philosophy) and Shihab al-Din Yahya Suhrawardi.
His most famous work is Qabasat, dealing with time, creation, and the existence of the universe.

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3 LESSONS

1️⃣ Only God is absolutely eternal

Mīr Dāmād argues that God alone possesses true eternal existence (sarmad), while the universe and all beings were created after non-existence.

Lesson:
All created things depend on God, who alone exists without beginning or end.

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2️⃣ Reality exists in different levels of time

He divides existence into three metaphysical levels of time:

• Sarmad – God's timeless eternity

• Dahr – a higher timeless order linking eternal and temporal realities

• Zamān – ordinary physical time of the changing world

Lesson:
Understanding reality requires recognising different dimensions of existence and time.

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3️⃣ Philosophy should reconcile different intellectual traditions

Mīr Dāmād attempted to harmonize three traditions:

• Peripatetic philosophy (Avicenna)

• Illuminationist philosophy (Suhrawardī)

• J theology (kalām)

Lesson:
True philosophy seeks unity between reason, spirituality, and theology.

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Tagline

“Only God is eternal; the universe exists through divine creation across different levels of time.”

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✅ If you want, I can also give a much shorter exam version (3 very small bullet lessons) that teachers usually expect in Islamic philosophy or Safavid philosophy questions.

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Nullā Tadrā — 3 Lessons & Tagline

Tagline:
“The philosopher of the soul’s journey from matter to intellect.”

3 Lessons:

1. The soul develops through stages of life
   The soul begins with vegetative life, then animal life, and finally reaches rational intellect, showing that human beings evolve spiritually and intellectually.

2. The soul is the perfection of the body
   According to Mulla Sadra, the soul is the first perfection of a living body, giving it powers like growth, sensation, movement, and understanding.

3. The soul descends to the world and returns to its origin
   Human souls originate in a higher spiritual realm, descend into the material world for development, and ultimately return to their divine source through knowledge and virtue.