ماهنامه معرفت
سال بیست و دوم شماره 7 (پیاپی 190، مهر 1392)

The present paper seeks to elucidate Imam Sajjad's "whispered words of utterly poor". Man's absolute perfection is realized through his servitude. The reality of servitude means man's servanthood and inherent poverty; that is, the Most High God is the Owner of everything. The philosophy of setting down in Shariah such acts of worship as prayers, Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), fasting, etc is a testimony to man's inherent poverty and the Glorified God' absolute ownership. Furthermore, glory, respect and the whole wealth belongs to none but God. Man's transgression and rebellion in this world result from his distance from God and his feeling that he is in no need of God. Imam Sajjad's "whispered words of the utterly poor" testify to man's inherent poverty and need of God confirm this belief.

Delving into 'Allamah Misbah's lectures and written works, the present paper describes and analyzes such issues as the relationship between this world and hereafter, constant need for religion, all-comprehensiveness of Islam, and the aim and domain of religion as the theological foundations of his novel view on religious science. 'Allamah Misbah believes that man is essentially and constantly need of religion, and as the last divine religion, Islam is an eternal religion. An intra-religion study shows that religion is not intended to explain external realities and the descriptive issues of the very human and natural sciences are not essentially part of the religion, because the main mission of religion is showing the way of perfection- nearness to God- by demonstrating explaining the rules governing man's volitional acts. However, the special attention given to the aim and domain of religion shows that religion is present in all the fields of human life, including natural sciences and different branches of human sciences such as management, philosophy, politics, etc. Consequently, these sciences can be truly referred to as religious sciences.

Muslim thinkers present different arguments to prove the unity of the Most High God. The argument from mutual hindering is of special position because it has rational and transmitted support. Martyr Motahhari puts forward this argument in addition to such arguments as argument of interval, argument through unity of universe, argument of limitlessness of the Most High God's essence and argument from prophecy in an attempt to negate the plurality of the Necessary Existence and prove the unity of the Most High God. The difference is that he tries to propose a novel and different exposition to answer some of the problems which other expositions cannot solve. Using a descriptive-analytical method, the present paper seeks to expand martyr Motahhari's view entitled "philosophical exposition" and criticize and examine the validity of his exposition and its compatibility with the Quranic verse 22 in the Chapter "The Prophets".

Contrary to the common assumption, all divine philosophers do not consider human soul as absolutely immaterial. Contrary to Aristotelian and Illuminationists, Mulla Sadra believes that the soul's existence has various stages and in some stages it is material and immaterial in others; that is, the soul is something in which materiality and immateriality are inseparable and harmonious. The idea of the existence of material and immaterial beings, at least, in Islamic philosophy is unquestionable. However, the possibility of material-immaterial existence is the product of transcendental philosophy and can only be substantiated through its foundations. Using a descriptive-analytical method, the present paper touches on some of the preliminary principles upon which the correct understanding of the mode of material-immaterial existence of soul is based.

The question of "substance and accident" is one of the important philosophical issues because all the creatures or all possible creatures are classified under these two categories. This issue has different dimensions including the quality of relationship between substance and its accidents which enjoyed special importance. Using a descriptive-analytical method, the present paper seeks to specify Mulla Sadra's view about demonstrating the nature of this relationship and briefly compare it with Avicenna's view by reviewing and comparing Mulla Sadra's different words. Avicenna holds that the relationship between substance and its accidents is a causal relationship and believes in the existential duality of substance and accident, while Mulla Sadra proposes, in addition to causal relationship, two other kinds of relationship between substance and accident: the relationship between condition and place or subordinate and subordinated and the relationship between dignity and the dignified. In fact, Mulla Sadra originally considers that substance and accident are two separate things and each of them is related to the other. However, he gradually reduces the distance between substance and its accidents so that in his third view, influenced by his final view on causality, he excludes the existential duality of substance and accident and defines accidents as states of substance. In Mulla Sadra's final analysis, the external type of accident changes into an analytical type of accident.

Some opponents of Islamic philosophy think that philosophy is a harmful and destructive science which lacks any positive function and scientific and epistemic benefit. Therefore, they hold that all other Islamic sciences are independent of philosophy and "reject" the idea that it influences and contributes to these sciences. The present paper believes that Islamic philosophy is a very "useful" and "influential" science and has several functions in different epistemic fields. One of these functions is establishing affirmative ontological and epistemological principles of theology (Kalam). Theologians have made distinct the need of theology for philosophy and its positive and "useful" function in theology by borrowing the "principle of the impossibility of infinite regression" from philosophy, as the affirmative ontological principle of theology, and "the principle of possibility of attaining definite knowledge compatible with reality" as the affirmative epistemological principle of theology. A descriptive-analytical method is used in this paper.

One of the most important issues in metaphysics, in its particular sense (theodicy) is proving the Necessary Being and origin of the world. Avicenna is one of the thinkers who introduces in his various books some philosophical proofs for the existence of the Most High God. Using an analytical-descriptive method, the present paper seeks to arrange and review these arguments. This review is useful for researchers of theology. This research which refers to Avicenna's works presents four proofs for the existence of God as follows: Siddiqeen argument, the argument from contingency and necessity, the arguments of motion and the argument of extreme and intermediate. Among these four proofs, the Siddiqeen argument is superior to the other arguments introduced by Avicenna.

Using a library survey and an analytical method, the present paper investigates Gabriel Marcel's view on the anthropology in existentialist philosophy. He pursues the path of mystery, secondary contemplation and self-reflection to recognize man's reality and believes that the basic condition for one to be human is one's existence in this world and that man's life is contingent upon his relationship with other people. He also holds that the relationship between "I and you", in relation to others, exists in a kind of relationship, that is, the relationship between absolute "I and you", i.e. God. He takes into consideration some of man's fundamental characteristics such as freedom and free will, love, loyalty and hope to attain a more ostensible recognition of man's reality, and considers free will in all man's acts as an axiom and as a category of mystery.

The problem of the difference among the ranks of science or, in other words, the difference between general perception and particular perception is an instance of the difference between Mulla Sadra's view about the important issue of "science" and that of the preceding philosophers, most importantly Avicenna. The philosophers preceding Mulla Sadra have an alternative conception of the difference between general perception and particular perception due to the way they view the nature of science which to them has a psychic manner. On the contrary, Mulla Sadra has another conception of ranks of perception due to the philosophical foundations of his particular view on the nature of science. Using a descriptive-analytical method, the present paper touches on Mulla Sadra's and preceding philosopher's views on the process of perception and their proposed principles in this regard, and concludes that the philosophers who came before Mulla Sadra, specially Avicenna, believe that "particular" turns into "general" through "abstraction", while Mulla Sadra believes that "particular" changes into "general" through "transcendence". Of course, the principles adopted by Mulla Sadra and the evidence he introduces are unique.