INTELLIGIBLE LIFE

Muhammad Taghi Ja'fari (born 1923, Tabriz, Iran, and died 1998) was a contemporary sage and an expert in philosophy and Islamic knowledge. Ja'fari was familiar with Western culture and also with the needs of modern human being and the contemporary culture. He was indeed an original and innovative thinker. One of the most important innovations of this honorable master was that he, like Allameh Tabatabaei and Sayyed Muhammad Bagher Sadr, used the methodology of comparative studies for introducing Islamic knowledge to a generation who was thirsty for truth. Indeed, Ja'fari has left us a collection of invaluable works on Islamic teachings, philosophy of arts, aesthetics, literature, mysticism, the study of the Nahjulbalaghah, psychology, human rights and pedagogy. In addition to being an expert in philosophy, in Islamic mysticism and in Fiqh (jurisprudence), Ja'fari was familiar with the works and the ideas of classical Western philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. He was also versed in the works of modern philosophers including Descartes, Leibniz, Hume, Kant, Hegel, and contemporary philosophers such as Balzac, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Hugo, and modern-day physicists including Max Planck, and Einstein.