نشریه انسان پژوهی دینی
پیاپی 27 (بهار و تابستان 1391)

Mulla Sadra, regards existence as something simple and gradual. Rather, he believes that human being have one identity. It is, however, of simplicity and gradation both. For him there are close relation between the stages of soul and the degrees of existence and perceptions. As a result of this relation, every one of human perceptions connects with one of degrees of existence. The knower, in Mulla Sadra, unites with the known and with the active intellect. Then all of existents become the constituents of his essence and man’s relation to them is the same as the relation of the soul to the body. Therefore, it can be said that human being in the every level of knowledge have the same level of existence and his/her world is his/her perceptual data.

Each historical period contain a special conception about God, man and the world by which it is distinguished from the others. At the beginning of Modernity, western man has accepted a new conception toward these problems. Relation between ethics and religion within Modernity, depend on such conception. While in the prior periods, especially in the Middle age, ethics had been known to be depended on religion. Philosophers of Modernity tried to extend their humanistic and secular views to ethics and religion. Immanuel Kant as the highest teacher of Modernity played a key role in the project. At first viewed the two essential concepts of religion, God and Free will, not to be epistemological. Then he formed his philosophy of ethics on the basis of autonomous and in this manner the two main concepts was degraded. Thus Religion and religious thesis reduced to a mere inner concept of no influence in the world. Yet as is described in the paper on Islamic teachings, fundamental defects have been found in the system of Kantian ethics. It has shown that there can be no room for ethics to independent from religion.

According to philosophers, the soul is an immaterial essence that can be perfected by knowledge and action. But how does the soul perfect through knowledge and action? What is the way of perfection? Furthermore, is such perfection stopped by death or does its life continue after death? In this paper, I will explain Avicenna’s answers to these questions. Also, I will examine the problem of the perfection of immaterial essences. If the soul is immaterial, then it must be unchangeable and unmovable. Such being the case, why do philosophers have viewed it to be developing and changing? Avicenna’s answer to this question is based on his view about immovability of essence and changeability of accidents. This answer will be examined in this paper.

According to Heidegger human existence is not encapsulated and limited in itself, rather it is a transcendental existence which is standing out in the world. This ecstasy is rooted in the deeper relation between human existence and Being. In Heidegger philosophy this necessary relation between man and world is an essential element in the existential structure of man. That is why he uses the term Dasein for calling such entity. Referring to Mulla Sadra’s philosophy one can reach to a deeper and more fundamental analysis of transcendental structure of human existence. According to Mulla Sadra human existence is a relative entity. Its existence as a finite entity is wholly dependent on infinite and absolute being; accordingly, although man is existentially finite, its existence is wholly toward unlimited and infinite being. According to Mulla Sadra, this contradictory state of human existence is the foundation for his transcendental structure and it’s existential orientation to the outer world and it is the ultimate basement for the existential relationship between man and world.

Whenever we are discussing the nature of faith, we often have a classification based on the object of faith. Accordingly, faith is generally either propositional or non-propositional. It means that if faith belongs to one or several propositions, its nature is also propositional and a kind of knowledge. But if the object of faith is a real thing or person, the nature of faith is related to such feelings as affection, and loyalty. Through examining the prerequisites of this distinction, the following study intends to show that this classification has some formal and logical problems. Secondly, it is not strong and qualified enough to clarify the nature of faith. The second part of the article classifies faith according to the soul aspects into three groups of evidential, volitional, and emotional faith. Later, it provides some examples of Christian and Moslem philosophers and theologian's ideas regarding every kind of faith. Consequently, the paper comes to this result that determining the nature of faith based on soul aspects is a much more defensible choice than classifying based on the object of faith.

In the evolution of Muslim’s philosophical thought, it was Sadr Al-Motaallehin who overcame many of complexities in philosophical studies on the soul and presented a new outlook. It is clear that Mulla Sadra’s philosophical psychology has been depended upon his special principals. The present research, therefore, is to explain the effect of Sadra’s theory of substantial movement, as one of his main philosophical principal, on his problems in the field including occurrence and continuity of human soul, the proofs supporting its uniqueness, its manner relation to body, the relation of soul to its powers, its connection to active intellect, the unity of knowing and the known, natural and arbitrary death, transmigration of soul, immateriality of imagination and corporal resurrection.

The purpose of this research is to examine the similarities and differences in the meaning of forgiveness in perspective of the Holy Quran and Psychology. This is done based on library and content analysis method, a kind of Quran to Quran interpretation. The results showed that the word aafw, means "not take revenge against the transgressions of others by a person who has the right to revenge.” has the closest meaning with the word forgiveness. Both views on the impact of forgiveness in peace, enhancing psychological well-being and life satisfaction are emphasized. However, the holy Quran introduces benefice, fazl. as the reason of f orgiveness in addition to mentioning the relation of it with other variables. The holy Quran also conditions forgiveness to some factors, and with its other worldly direction has created the most motivation in its believers.

Imam Ali (a) has paid special attention to human awareness of death and the necessity for remembering death. He attempts to lead man to a high degree of self-knowledge and meaningfulness of life through a comprehensive understanding of death. As is considered, death is essentially interrelated to life and, therefore, every lack of correct knowledge toward the former would affect human self-knowledge, and in such a state, one fail to have a right understanding of life, neither negatively nor positively. In this way, permanent attention to death and being inspired by the sayings and deeds of men of remembrance is the very manner upon which one can attain a considerable understanding of death and everlasting world following it in earthly life. Such a right knowledge of death would lead man to understand his life as something meaningful.