This incomplete treatise is a part of what was intended to be Section 3 of a larger work () in the field of (), i.e., philosophy of law. This was penned most likely during the pre-Iran period of the Shaykh’s life, when most of his jurisprudential works were written. Many of the Shaykh’s positions on issues of fundamental philosophical importance, such as his rejection of both the () of the word ’ as well as the () of ’ can hardly be appreciated without reference to his underlying philosophy of language. This work is thus critical for anyone seeking an accurate understanding of certain fine points in Shaykh Aḥmad’s philosophy.

This relatively short text constitutes a synopsis of the metaphysical and cosmological system of the Shaykh. The original consists of 12 chapters referred to as (). I have discussed its chronology in Hamid (1998, pp. 56–59), where I estimated it to have been written around 1224–25/1809–10. Upon further investigation, that has to be revised: Although there is room for even further research on the matter, was apparently completed sometime during the Winter of 1223–24/1808–09. After completing his own commentary on this work, he added seven more (see below).

Commentaries or extended notes on the have been written by at least three students of the Shaykh: Mullā Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad Naṣīr Gīlānī, Mullā Kāẓim Simnānī, and Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn Shahristānī. But the most famous commentary is, of course, the one written by Shaykh Aḥmad himself (number five in this list of major works).

Began in Yazd and completed in Kirmanshah on the night before the Tenth of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, 1230 (February 1815); he also completed an addendum exactly ten days later. In four volumes, this is Shaykh Aḥmad’s longest, most famous, and most controversial book. It is a commentary on a particularly long (), that is, a formula recited when one visits the grave of the Prophet, his daughter Fāṭimah, or one of the Twelve Imāms . A visitation may also be read from afar by anyone seeking spiritual communion with one or more of these figures. The particular visitation commented upon by Shaykh Aḥmad is the by the Tenth Imam ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Hādī . Philosophically it is one of the most profound of this genre, covering various facets of the dialectics of the pristine Shīʿī cosmology and anthropology of (). Drawing upon a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary expertise, brilliantly sewn together in a dense but consistent fabric, Shaykh Aḥmad’s massive commentary constitutes the most extensive and profound elaboration of this concept in the history of Muslim civilization.

Apparently begun almost immediately after finishing , this work was completed in Kirmanshah on the Fifth of Rabīʿ al-Thānī, 1230 (March 1815). It is a piercing critique of the theological epistemology of Mullā Muḥsin Fayḍ Kāshānī, the disciple and son-in-law of Mullā Ṣadrā. The point of departure for the discussion is Mullā Muḥsin’s theory of the nature of God’s Knowledge of His creation. The perceived harshness of some of the Shaykh’s criticisms (Khwānsārī 1938, Vol. 1, p. 223) was used by some of his enemies to (falsely) claim that he had declared Mullā Muḥsin to be an unbeliever. Mullā Hādī Sabzawārī (d. 1797/1878) wrote a short treatise restricted to some critical remarks on a few of Shaykh Aḥmad’s introductory comments (Sabzawārī 1997, pp. 579–601).

The Shaykh completed this work on the Ninth of Shawwāl, 1233 (August 1818). As the title indicates, this book is an elaboration of his philosophical epitome, . After its completion the author penned another seven observations to be appended to the original twelve. , along with the additional seven observations, together constitute a broad overview of the philosophy of Shaykh Aḥmad. Mullā ʿAlī Nūrī, the most prominent professor of Mullā Ṣadrā’s school at that time, wrote a set of annotations on . We will say more about this in Section 4.2.

This work is the first extensive commentary by Shaykh Aḥmad on an entire book of Mullā Ṣadrā; it was completed on Ṣafar 27, 1234 (December 1818). In the Shaykh makes reference to (and vice versa); it is clear that he worked on both projects concurrently. As indicated by the title, this is a study of , in which Mullā Ṣadrā’s presents his ontological metaphysics of existence, with applications to theology and cosmology. The commentary of Shaykh Aḥmad critiques this, and he compares and contrasts it with his own dialectical metaphysics of existence and essence and its application to problems in theology and cosmology. This work is in some ways Shaykh Aḥmad’s most difficult work in philosophy proper. It is also masterpiece in the art of critical commentary with lots of fresh and original contributions, such as a subtle yet incisive critique of the Aristotelian (and scholastic) logic of predication; ideas that Mullā Muḥammad Jaʿfar Lāhījānī, a student of Mullā ʿAlī Nūrī who wrote his own commentary on , calls ().

This work is the second of Shaykh Aḥmad’s two major commentaries on the writings of Mullā Ṣadrā; it was completed on Rabīʿ al-Awwal 27, 1236 (near the beginning of February 1821). This is the author’s longest and most famous work after . It is an extensive, critical commentary on (); a summary of the Mullā’s theology, cosmology, psychology, and eschatology. Not quite as difficult as but no less profound and original, this commentary contains some of the most extensive discussions of eschatology to be written in Islāmic philosphy after Mullā Ṣadrā’s own section on this topic in his .

Apparently never completed, this is in all likelihood the last major book penned by the Shaykh. It makes reference to the seven additional () mentioned above; the short time frame in which the appeared after the previous two books makes it very unlikely he wrote before . Its theme is a critique of the general practice of scholastic philosophers and theologians to define things out of existence via analytical reductionism. Here, as elsewhere, Shaykh Aḥmad identifies and drives home what Alfred North Whitehead would later call . This work also points to the priority the Shaykh gives to objective logic over ontology, as we will discuss later (in Subsection 4.2). The first half of this work takes on scholastic theology in the tradition of Naṣīruddīn Ṭūsī and Fakhruddīn Rāzī. The second half of this book includes a critical commentary on an entire () of the theology portion of Mullā Ṣadrā’s . The constitutes one of the best illustrations of Shaykh Aḥmad’s original and iconoclastic approach to the entire scholastic tradition of () and () preceding him.