The Epistemic Justification of Immediate Knowledge of God from Sadra's Philosophy Perspective

The chief purpose of this paper is to argue for the possibility of immediate knowledge of God through knowledge by presence from Sadra’s philosophical perspective. This sort of immediate and direct knowledge can provide justification for belief in God. I shall show how knowledge by presence works in this regard, and how important the role of knowledge by presence is in a religious epistemology. Sadra as a famous Shi‘ite philosopher in his new philosophical school, al-Hikmat al-muta‘åliyah, on the basis of Shi’ite theology, has attempted to employ knowledge by presence to argue for the justification of immediate knowledge of God. I also shall deal with the criticisms of the immediate knowledge of God, that Sadra contended epistemically.