صدرالدین شیرازی

Explaining Sadra's principles based on psychology and using descriptive analytical method, we propose an illuminating explanation of death and try to deal with the fact that the soul has "light" essence in the higher world and "fiery" essence in the lower world, and that the origin of material and physical forces for everything is in the Hereafter. By generalizing the meaning of death, Sadr al-Din Shirazi introduces a new concept, which is the annihilation of the inferior being in the higher being. He expresses the flow of death in the whole body of the universe, and finally concludes that the universe inwardly has a constant variety of decay and actuality, and that the truth of death is the separation of the attributes, not the essence. In addition, he believes that the basic rule in the emergence of death is the destruction of the apparent structure of the world, according to which, the fiery existence of the soul is extinguished by Azraeli blowing and the soul enters the holy world.

As one true issue documented by the verses of the Qur’an and many traditions, general perception of all beings has called the attention of Muslim intellectuals.  Transcendent philosophy has taken valuable steps in the course of explanation of the presence of perception in all beings; however, the arguments for incorporeality of knowledge has proven a serious obstacle to the demonstration of such a claim.Having adopted a critical approach and a descriptive-analytic method, the authors went to show that those arguments fail to prove an obstacle to the claim. As per the findings, those arguments fail to prove that all kinds of knowledge are conditioned by incorporeality and thus they cannot be an obstacle to the general perception in all beings. When such rational obstacles are gone, we can resort to the revealed arguments for the general perception in all beings, although rational arguments for the claim are insufficient.

Sad al-Din Dashtaki, and following him, Mulla Sadra Shirazi maintains that all real compositions are unified. After a short review of Dashtaki’s thesis, we concentrate on Mulla Sadra’s version. Mulla Sadra believes that Dashtaki’s version is not coherent and he declines the existence of real parts. We will argue that Mulla Sadra’s objections do not work and furthermore, all things said and done there is no difference between these two versions of the thesis of unified composition. If there is any difference, it is about their theory of existence, not about their theory of composition. Sad al-Din Dashtaki, and following him, Mulla Sadra Shirazi maintains that all real compositions are unified. After a short review of Dashtaki’s thesis, we concentrate on Mulla Sadra’s version. Mulla Sadra believes that Dashtaki’s version is not coherent and he declines the existence of real parts. We will argue that Mulla Sadra’s objections do not work and furthermore, all things said and done there is no difference between these two versions of the thesis of unified composition. If there is any difference, it is about their theory of existence, not about their theory of composition.

In the analysis and semantics of the words of religion about the attributes of God, Molla Sadra believes in semantic commonality and gradation of existence. In addition to the semantics of the attributes of God in the interpretation of Heaven and Hell and the issue of bodily resurrection and in general in the language of religion, he has advanced in the realm of resurrection with the same view and method and has tried to explain the bodily resurrection and related issues such as the torment of the grave and sirat (the path), without facing common doubts. According to Molla Sadra, the story of the descent of Adam and Eve from Heaven is also tied to the language of religion in the realm of resurrection. He considers Adam's sin to be related to the fourth position of the descending arc of man before the beginning of life on earth. In his view, man's disobedience was not an external event, but the Quran, considering the humankind, mentions one of the characteristics of his nature. However, several verses of the Quran, referring to the deception of Adam and Eve by Satan and the revelation of their nakedness after disobedience, have questioned this interpretation and explicitly mentioned it as an external event, to the extent that the verses maintain that the couple tried to cover their ugliness by foliage. The importance of this issue is because so far no one has criticized Molla Sadra's interpretation of Adam's paradise and his disobedience, from the perspective of the language of religion. This article explores the issue by using a descriptive-analytical method and library sources.

There have always been two viewpoints on the human rights in the history of Western philosophy: some philosophers adhere to Natural Law, while the others follow Positive Law. Among modern philosophers, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, and among the contemporary ones, Lon L. Fuller and John Finnis, are known to be followers of natural law.Positive law refers to the rights established by the legislator and recognized through interpersonal conventions and contracts; people and states may establish or lift them. As a matter of fact, this kind of law is focused on a set of rules and regulations which gains force through guarantee and acceptance of social institutions and governs a certain community during a specified time frame.Natural law, with its characteristics, i.e. universality, necessity, and stability, began to popularize in the West in the third century AD, but it is rather newly-established among Islamic scholar. It constitutes the origin of many governing rules in communities, so this topic deserves considerable debate and discussion by Islamic scholars.Rights, observance, setting up justice, and preventing injustice are of utmost importance in Islamic teachings; they also influence many religious acts, and Islamic doctrines strongly enjoin it and emphasize its moral, legal, and ideological necessity.Undoubtedly, the concept of human rights is one of the modern challenges facing Islam in comparison with the West, and it is going to take a more serious form in the future.The current paper did not search for strong and weak points of the theory of rational decency and obscenity and natural human rights and did not pass any judgment thereof; this paper aimed to analyze the ideas of Sadr al-Din Shirazi (Mulla Sadra) as the founder of transcendental philosophy/theosophy, esp. the theory of decency and obscenity, and sought to answer the following question from his viewpoint: In Mulla Sadra’s opinion, are decency and obscenity rational and inherent? If so, is it possible to attribute the belief in natural human rights to him? The Study of these items from the viewpoint of Mulla Sadra and the analysis and evaluation of them will provide answers to above questions.The current paper focused on proving the following line of argument based on its multiple premises:Premise 1: Duties/obligations bring rights with them.Premise 2: Duties are congeneric with their rights. For instance, if a duty is conventional, its interrelated right will be conventional too, and if it is religious, i.e. originating in a divine command, the interrelated right will be religious too, having its roots in a divine command and providence.From Mulla Sadra’s perspective, duties, decencies, and obscenities are inherent.

Mulla Sadra believes that rights accompanying duties are inherent, incorporated in the center of reality.  Apophatic interpretation of the duty as it is necessary to respect the freedom/ liberties of humans (It is decent to respect the freedom of humans.) consists in: “Humans should not be deprived of freedom.” (It is obscene to deprive humans of the freedom.) This duty is interrelated with a human right: humans enjoy the right to freedom.

Methods and Material:

we did this within the framework of Mulla Sadra’s perspective on ethical values. The data were gathered through library research and the conclusions were reached using a logical, deductive method.

Although the discussion of rights is apparently different from the discussion of ethical values, these two topics can be linked according to some views; the foundations raised in one area can be extended to another, and we may conclude that although Mulla Sadra did not expressly state his acceptance of natural human rights, his ideas were in conformity with Inherent Natural Rights based on evidence and rational reasoning taken from his moral views.

This paper used sufficient evidence to show that the theory of Mulla Sadra chosen in this regard was rational and inherent decency and obscenity. Regarding the question of Mulla Sadra belief in rational or inherent decency and obscenity, this paper answered that he believed in inherent, and not divine, decency and obscenity, in terms of ontology (real/outside world and universe of permanent positiveness) and believed in rational decency and obscenity in terms of epistemology (understanding and proving), not religious decency and obscenity. Ash’aris supported divine and religious decency and obscenity, but Mulla Sadra said this view would dispel wisdom, reason, and religion. In relation to understanding decency and obscenity and the intellectual ability of humans, Mull Sadra maintained that only a perfect human was able to grasp the inherent properties of acts not all people.In addition, different views on the contradiction and interrelation of rights and duties were covered, and it was proved that most scholars approved the existence of a relationship between natural human rights and belief in inherent and rational decency and obscenity. Only those who accept inherent decency and obscenity may support natural, innate rights, because the duties are congeneric with their interrelated rights. Thus Mulla Sadra who was a moral realist and believed in inherent decency and obscenity and considered all duties, decencies, and obscenities inherent would adhere to inherence or naturalness of rights.In summary, Mulla Sadra believed that humans, qua humans, enjoy universal, necessary, fixed rights which result from their nature and character, unaffected by time and space. These rights which are in total coordination with creation and universe are called Natural, Inherent, or Innate rights.Although Mulla Sadra did not mention explicitly the inherent decency and obscenity of duties and the inherence and naturalness of humans rights, it is possible to deduce these two points from his theoretical foundations and some views plus supporting premises.

Belief in the immortality of the people of Hell is an issue that has been raised by philosophers, theologians, and thinkers, as well as the holy sharia. The immortality of the people of Hell means that they will live forever in Hell and the hereafter; it indicates that some of them will be in Hell forever and will be deprived of the blessings of God and will be in constant torment. The question of this research is: What is the meaning of immortality of the people of Hell from the perspective of the verses of the Holy Quran? And what is the interpretation of Sadr al-Din Shirazi on the verses related to this subject? Regarding immortality and permanence in torment, some objections have been raised, including the opposition of immortality and permanence in torment to the vast divine mercy, God' justice and divine nature. Using a descriptive-analytical method and based on inferential reasoning, this research examines the immortality of the people of Hell in fire from the perspective of verses and hadiths and while clearing up this theory, explains Molla Sadra's theory and revises it.

Adopting new foundations in transcendental wisdom, Mulla Sadra has developed renewed viewpoints toward study of the soul. He has offered new explanations for souls’ life and quality of its creation and laid a proper groundwork for portraying the evolution of soul between death and resurrection by picturing the souls’ life through examples and generalizing the substantial motion to substantiality of the soul. Authors are to answer whether any analysis of evolution and nature of the soul can offer a philosophical explanation for the purgatorial evolution of the soul. It is concluded that although Mulla Sadra has adopted inconsistent positions toward the evolution of soul and refrains from definitive agreement with the obstacles toward any explanation for evolution of soul between death and resurrection, philosophical foundations of his transcendental wisdom enjoy potential capabilities for logical explanation in this regard. In addition, he has implicitly confirmed the purgatorial evolution of soul in his commentaries and his theological and philosophical views.

Learning rational sciences particularly philosophy plays a significant role in man’s life. In their oral and written works, many philosophers have tried to deal with different dimensions of the issue explaining the necessity to learn philosophy. As a prominent Muslim philosopher, Mulla Sadra has his own particular explanation. This article aims to critically and analytically shed light on the above explanation. Some of Mulla Sadra’s premises seem to be incorrect; the necessity to learn philosophy is undeniable, though. Philosophy is the only means to answer man’s fundamental questions and to clear man’s intellectual doubts. A better understanding of the Qur’an and traditions and the truths of the world owes to philosophy.