Muḥammad Zakariyyāʾ Rāzī restated the teachings of Īrānshahrī in a repugnant and heretical manner. The content of his [Rāzī’s] master and predecessor was placed in a frightening and deniable context, so that those who have not studied the texts of the ḥukamā (philosophers) might suspect that these concepts have been extracted by himself [Rāzī].
Ḥakīm Īrānshahrī, who has reiterated the philosophical concepts in a religious language in the Kitāb-i jalīl, Kitāb-i athīr, and others, has guided the people to the true religion and [has called for] the understanding of unity. ‘This much that we mentioned are the sayings of the group that considers space to have been eternal, such as Īrānshahrī.
Ḥakīm Īrānshahrī has said that time (zamān), aeon (dahr), and duration [muddat] are names whose meanings are derived from one substance. Time is a sign of divine knowledge, just as space is a sign of divine power, motion is a sign of divine action, and an existent being is a sign of God’s ability. Each of these four are limitless and eternal.
Īrānshahrī said that God, Most High, was always a creator (Ṣāniʿ), and there was not a time when He was not creating, such that His state of being noncreative would change to being creative. Since it is necessary that He always be creator, then of necessity that upon which His creation appears is eternal. His creation appears in matter, therefore matter is eternal. Matter is a sign for the apparent power of God, and since matter is not but in space and that [matter] is eternal, necessarily space is eternal.
Those fine words and subtle meanings [of Īrānshahrī] are placed in a deplorable context so that his followers, from nonbelievers to contemplatives, think that the statements all came from his scientific views.
Among the ḥukamāʾ [there are] those who said matter and space are eternal; they conceived of a substance for time and said that time is a substance, long and eternal. They rejected the opinion of those ḥakīms who conceived of time in terms of the movements of bodies. They said that if time were the number of movements.
of objects, then two objects in motion at one time would move in two different degrees. Ḥakīm Īrānshahrī has said that time, aeon, and duration are all names whose meanings are derived from the same substance. And time is a substance that flows and is restless, and the statement that Rāzī has attributed to Īrānshahrī says the same thing. He [Īrānshahrī] said that time is a transient substance.
Arab Philosophy or Islamic Philosophy: Persian Alternatives
