This is considered his magnum opus. It is the longest and most complete exposition of his philosophy that brings together all topics related to the perfection of the soul. It is divided into four “displays” (ʿarż) arranged in an ascending order according to the four kinds of things in the universe: corporeal bodies (ajsām), which are acted upon (kardahā); agents or souls, which do the acting (konandahā); concepts or known things (dānestahā); and knowers (dānandagān). Javedan-nama This comprehensive work is his most specifically Islamic treatment of his favorite themes; it is the only work of certain ascription to him outside the letters that quotes and comments on Quran and Hadith(Prophetic Sayings). Other works Madarej al-Kamal () Rahanjām-nāma - () In three discourses this work explains self-knowledge as the road to human perfection. Resāla dar ʿelm o noṭq () Sāz o pīrāya-ye šāhān-e pormāya () Mabādī-e mawjūdāt-e nafsānī Āyāt al-ṣaṇʿa fi’l-kašf ʿan maṭāleb elāhīya sabʿa - Brief discussion in Arabic of the intellect, soul and the body. Philosophy He wrote during a period when several figures were bridging the gaps between philosophy and sufism. His major concern is to explain the salvific power of true knowledge, i.e., self-knowledge, or knowledge of the Self (ḏāt or howwīyat, God Himself viewed as the center of man’s being). His philosophy is an autology ()(Persian: ḵhod-šenāsī). That is: "To know oneself is to know the everlasting reality that is consciousness, and to know it is to be it.". His ontology is interconnected simultaneously with his epistemology, because according to him, full actualization of the potentialities of the universe can only take place through the self-awareness of human beings. This ontology can only be realized by the training of the human soul, or education in the widest sense of the term. His view of the structure of the reality is succinctly explained in the beginning of his work Rahanjām-nāma. Sample Poetry A quatrain: Suppose you run the world as you like, then what? You read life's book to the end, then what? You have your way for hundred years--- then a hundred more, then What? References and notes Sources The Heart of Islamic Philosophy: The Quest for Self-Knowledge in the Teachings of Afdal al-Din Kashani. By William C. Chittick. New York: Oxford University (2001) See also 12th-century Persian-language poets 13th-century Persian-language poets Persian spiritual writers Sufi poets Mystic poets 13th-century Iranian philosophers 12th-century Iranian philosophers