Mul·lā "al-Muḥsin" "al-Fayḍ" al-Kāshānī''' (1598–1680; ) was an Iranian Twelver Shi'i Muslim, mystic, poet, philosopher, and muhaddith (died c. 1680 ᴄᴇ).
Life
Mohsen Fayz Kashani was born in Kashan to a scholarly family renowned for its learning, Fayz started his education with 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 died 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 scriptural moral concerns with Aristotelian, Platonic schemas and illuminationist 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.
Before his death, an earthquake struck the city of Sherwan in Iran. During the same year, the town of Mashad was also victim to an earthquake of high intensity. The rule at the time had happened to be traveling through Kashan and became greatly worried over the loss of life and infrastructure that had occurred. He soon began to seek answers from among those who were claimed to be the wisest in the city. Eventually he came across Mohsen Fayz Kashani and asked for an answer. Kashani is reported to have said, "There is a spate of earthquakes because of you. You may not know, but it is proven through the traditions of the Infallibles that frequent earthquakes will come when bribery is practiced in the courts of law."
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.
His other works include 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 al-Sharayi (The Keys of Islamic Law), Asrar-o-ssalat (the secrets of the prayers), Elm-ol yaghin (certain knowledge) on the principles of the religion, Kalimát al-Maknúnah (Hidden Words) 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. He was one of the first to present the revolutionary idea that Islamic prayer does not necessarily have to be in Arabic.
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.
