نشریه خردنامه صدرا
پیاپی 88 (تابستان 1396)

Since Farabi’s time, the division of possible beings into quiddity and existence is considered to be the most important difference between them and the Necessary Being. Existence is neither identical with possible essence, nor one of its parts or effects. Accordingly, possible beings consist of essence and existence, which occurs to it. Farabi was the first to propose an idea of the combination of existence and quiddity; an idea which does not clearly discriminate between the subject and the object. Apparently, Ibn Sina expanded the same view; however, there are some traces in his philosophy which can pave the way for moving from external accidence to analytic accidence. Commentators of Ibn Sina have presented different interpretations of his idea of the ontological relationship between existence and quiddity, two of the most important of which are the ones supported by Suhrawardi and Mulla Sadra. In the interpretation favored by Suhrawardi, the relationship between existence and quiddity is similar to any other relationship between accidents and their subjects. However, in Mulla Sadra’s interpretation, the essential difference between existence and other accidents is greatly emphasized. Here, the relationship between existence and quiddity has been promoted from “affirmation of something for something” to the “affirmation of a thing” and, as a result, Suhrawardi’s objections to Ibn Sina are removed. In this paper, after presenting and demonstrating the presuppositions of Ibn Sina’s theory, the author refers to and examines the above-mentioned two interpretations.

Sadr al-Din Qunawi’s Miftah al-ghayb, as the first book on theoretical gnosis, provided the basis for theoretical or philosophical gnosis. This is because Ibn Arabi, who is known as the father of Islamic theoretical gnosis, did not have enough time for doing so, thus it was Qunawi who accomplished this task. Alongside the Peripatetic and Illuminationist schools of philosophy, Qunawi founded a school that can be called philosophical gnosis. In spite of his pessimistic view of theoretical intellect, Qunawi acknowledged that unveiling and gnostic taste agree with the theoretical intellect at all stages because they find no contradiction in the proofs of this kind of intellect. Nevertheless, he believes that the perception of such proofs is beyond the capabilities of human imagination. Qunawi tried to reconcile gnostics’ principles of unveiling and philosophical theories. In developing many of his views, he benefitted from Ibn Sina’s al-Isharat and, particularly, Khwajah Nasir al-Din Tusi’s commentary on this book. As a result, one can equate the philosophical language used by Qunawi with that used in the Peripatetic philosophy, particularly with the language employed in Ibn Sina’s al-Isharat, which plays a significant role in granting a philosophical nature to Qunawi’s gnosis.

The principiality of existence is the basis of the Transcendent Philosophy. Mulla Sadra has demonstrated this principle based on solid arguments and used it as the foundation of his other philosophical principles. Although this issue was not raised in the time of Ibn Sina, one could ask if it could be traced in his words. Another related question here is whether any sound evidence demonstrating the existence of this principle could be found in Ibn Sina’s thoughts so that there would remain no excuse for interpreting his philosophy based on the principiality of quiddity. This study is intended to provide a number of strong proofs in favor of the considerable influence of the principiality of existence on Sinan philosophy through resorting to the statements made by Mulla Sadra and Ibn Sina. In order to confirm his intended principiality of existence, Mulla Sadra refers to Ibn Sina’s words. In fact, many of his views reveal his belief in the principiality of existence, and there are some direct references to this point in his works. Here, the author will try to present and explain the proofs testifying to the truth of this claim within the borderlines of the conducted study.

Although the terms “philosophy” and “wisdom” are usually used interchangeably, this paper aims to demonstrate that in Islamic philosophy wisdom has a more elevated meaning than philosophy. Based on the definition of wisdom, it deals with concepts such as knowledge of God, assimilation to God, and perfection of the human soul. Thus wisdom bears a close relationship with the behavior of a sage (hakim) and is in conformity with his faith and act. As the life of Muslim sages testifies, unlike a philosopher in the common sense of the word, a hakim’s end is to change into a rational world.
Clearly, in the contemporary world, in which most schools of philosophy emphasize skepticism and relativism, one cannot speak of wisdom but can talk about various philosophies. Recent schools of philosophies, more than leading Man towards certainty, keep them far away from it and abandon them in an ocean of doubtful thoughts. Accordingly, wisdom is the lost commodity of all the human beings who seek for certainty.

In the view of some philosophers, philosophy has been reduced to mental wayfaring and conceptual exchanges. In contrast, based on certain practical aspects, some other philosophers consider philosophy to be the same as ontological wayfaring. In Mulla Sadra’s view, philosophy reflects the process of the perfection of the human soul in an essential and graded sense in the light of ontological wayfaring rather than in a quantitative or qualitative sense. He maintains that the end of philosophy is to become similar to God, and this similarity is realized through attaining all-inclusive knowledge and becoming separate from corporeal things. Assuming the sameness of philosophy and wayfaring results in pluralism in philosophizing, limitless philosophizing, separation of epistemological promotion from ontological promotion, methodological pluralism, and go togetherness of the purification of the soul and philosophy. Based on equating philosophy with wayfaring, Mulla Sadra tries to organize the structure of the Transcendent Philosophy based on the model of the four-fold journeys.

Life shows its true face to those human beings who, in search of a response to the question of “their own ontological philosophy”, come up with an answer which can lead them to the path of growth and transcendence. In the view of Islamic philosophers, the relationship between God and human beings is similar to that between a master and a servant. Accordingly, in addition to His program for and purpose of the creation of creatures, God has the responsibility of training and guiding them. Philosophers believe that, in the process of training human beings, desirable models are those who have succeeded to attain the expected perfection of their own species in the light of divine blessing and, as perfect human beings, have managed to bear the responsibility of guiding others to the right path. In Sadrian philosophy, based on some principles such as the principiality of existence, gradedness of being, and the trans-substantial motion, all existents are moving towards the cause of all causes (genetic worship) on the path of creation, which has emerged in the process of the creation of the world. Here, because of their specific place in the order of being, human beings are capable of stepping on the path of religious law and, by modeling the perfect Man and through benefitting from theoretical wisdom and employing practical wisdom, reach the highest peak of their existential perfection, which is the same divine servitude (meeting the Lord) or religious worship. In Mulla Sadra’s view, the keys to attaining such a station are wisdom and love of freedom.

The principle of nobler possibility is one of the important principles of Illuminationist philosophy. Suhrawardi paid particular attention to this principle and sought to substantiate it in most of his works. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the principle of nobler possibility and the principiality of existence. Accordingly, the authors found it necessary to provide some answers to the following questions: Is the famous argument for the principle of nobler possibility which has been propounded in the works of Suhrawardi and his followers based on the principiality of quiddity? What is the standpoint of Mulla Sadra, as the founder of the philosophical principle of the principiality of existence, regarding the mentioned principle and the related argument? Has anyone ever presented an interpretation of the principle of nobler possibility based on the principiality of existence? What are the strengths and weak points of the interpretations of this principle and the related arguments? On the other hand, some objections have been advanced against this principle which can be removed based on the fundamental principles of the Transcendent Philosophy. For example, Muhaqqiq Dawani has referred to a problem regarding this principle which Mulla Sadra has resolved relying on the principiality of existence and the related principles. His response could provide the basis for a different interpretation of the principle of nobler possibility, which has been tackled in this paper.