The Hermeneutic View of Shaykh Aḥmad Aḥsāʾī on Nature and Natural Phenomena; Based on the Verses of the Quran

The Shaykhi is one of those religious sects that did not completely separate itself from the surrounding world and always considered nature as a part of what should be taken into consideration. Shaykh Aḥmad Aḥsāʾī was one of the Muslim religious scholars of the first half of the 13th AH/19th AD century and the founder of the ideas of the Shaykhi Thought, who has left numerous works on various topics of faith, theology, philosophy, and jurisprudence. Paying attention to nature and phenomena of the world and its connection with religion and Sharīʿat is obvious in different Aḥsāʾī’s opinions. He has interpreted verses of the Quran that refer to natural phenomena and has given opinions about them and some issues such as the process of human creation, and the meaning of water, sky, and air. This kind of approach to nature can be seen in the works of his students and followers such as Sayyid Kāẓim Rashtī and Ḥāj Muḥammad-Karīm Khān Kirmānī, to the extent that these people have special treatises in natural sciences such as cosmology and medicine. This article tries to express Shaykh Aḥmad’s interpretations of some of these verses, so it can help us to know more and better the opinions and worldview of a prominent religious scholar and the founder of one of the influential sects in the Qajar era, whose ideas had fans at the time of the widespread entry of the manifestations western civilizations into Persia.