وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الرُّوحِ قُلِ الرُّوحُ مِنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّي… ﴿الإسراء: ٨٥﴾
رساله عرشیه در ابطال تناسخ
Author: Allāmah Sayyid Ḥashmat ʿAlī (d. 1354 AH / 1935 CE)
از: علامه سید حشمت علی
Translation and Commentary: Syed ʿAlī Aṣdaq Naqvī
ترجمه و تعلیقات: سید علی اصدق نقوی
About this treatise
The transmigration of the souls, called al-tanāsukh in Arabic, is one of the key theological debates that occurred in early Islam. Dharmic religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism seem to uphold this view and link the cycle of birth and rebirth with the theory of karma. Islam does not accept the theory of karma nor reincarnation since it has an alternative view of the afterlife. The author seeks to refute the arguments of those who believe in reincarnation and present the Islamic view of the nature of the soul and what happens after the soul leaves the body. This treatise has been mentioned in a Persian book which references Persian books that have been authored and published in the Indian Subcontinent.
It is a very engaging and philosophically dense work that requires a deep understanding of Islamic philosophy to comprehend. The title of the word is ʿArshīyyah, which comes from the word ʿarsh, referring to the throne of God. The Islamic philosopher Ibn Sīnā had his own book called al-Risālat al-ʿArshīyyah. Ibn Taymīyyah had his own al-Risālat al-ʿArshīyyah, and Mullā Ṣadrā also wrote a work called Risālat al-Ḥikmat al-ʿArshīyyah. Many philosophers have given arguments for the existence of the soul, such as Ibn Sīnā’s famous floating man experting as well as others. However, this treatise does not delve into that topic and only discusses the modality and nature of the soul and its relation to the body as well as the key issue of reincarnation. The treatise is partially in Arabic and partially in Persian. I have tried to find the original sources for quotations and reference them where possible as well as explaining certain matters that I felt needed clarification due to the confinement of the English language. In some places, the Arabic I have included may have a few differences from the one in the text since the author is quoting another source, and when I went back to the source being cited, I found that the printed edition today reads a bit differently. Despite this, the differences are negligible and do not cause a change in the meaning and mostly involve either small errors of transcribing or small diacritical differences.
Syed ʿAlī Aṣdaq Naqvī
[1] Kitāb shināsi-yi āthār-i Fārsi-yi chāp shuda dar shibh-i qāra, vol. 1, p. 238 & 311.
يسئلونک عن الروح قل الروح من امر ربي و الحمد لله
که رساله شريفه و عجاله منيفه من تصنيف فاضل جليل وعالم نبيل قطب فلک العلوم مرکز دائرة الدرايات و الفهوم کاشف المشکلات العقلية فاتح المعضلات النقلية زبده للمتکلمين قدوة الافاضل الکاملين جناب مولانا السيد حشمت علي ايده الله بلطفه الخفي و الجلي
موسومه به
عرشيّه
در ابطال تناسخ
بفرمايش خان صاحب عالي مراتب جليل المناصب قدوة الروساء العظام عمده الکبراء انفحام سرکار فيض آثار جناب خان بهادر خان بابا خان صاحب اکسترا اسستنت کمشنر بهادر دام اقباله و ضاعف اجلاله
دار مطبع رفاه عام لاهور بزيور طبع محلي کردند