Ontological and Epistemological Approach to the World of Intellect from the Point of View of Sadr Al-Din Shirazi, Avicenna and Suhrewardi

The belief in the existence of the world of intellect as a real world independent from the matter and its rules and mentally-constituted is of a significant impact on human knowledge in Prepatetic philosophy, illuminationism and transcendent theosophy. According to Avicenna, human knowledge fails without a separated and sacred intellect and the process of knowledge in all of its stages needs emanation of such an entity. The relationship between the Soul and the Active Intellect is of action/passion structure. Active Intellect is on action while human soul is of passion. Keeping the place and role of the intellectual argument, Suhrewardi passes it and considers intuition and intellectual visions as the decisive proof. According to Mulla Sadra’s epistemology, human perception comes true through the relation which is established between the soul and this immaterial entity independent from human soul. The world of intellects, thus, plays a significant role in all existential and epistemic levels of Muslim thinkers. In this essay, we seek to assay the world of intellect in the domains of cosmology and epistemology using a descriptive-analytic method in the context of the works of such great men of thought as Avicenna, Suhrewardi and Mulla Sadra in order to reach a convincing answer regarding the question at stake.