A Critical Investigation of the Intellectual Efforts of the Muslim Theologians and Philosopher's Views Regarding the Issue of the Resurrection of Animals

This paper seeks to investigate the efforts of the Muslim theologians and philosophers with regard to the issue of the resurrection of animals from the two aspects of the rational possibility of resurrection and its reason. The answers provided by the theologians to the first question are varied. Some have considered the resurrection of animals like that of human beings as the rejoining of the scattered body parts, as they basically do not believe in any immaterial other than Allah; some others have denied the existence of an immaterial being in animals as they consider humans and animals to be in an equal level and so they have denied the resurrection of animals; and yet another group have tried to prove the existence of an immaterial being in animals through a proof based on induction. However, based on the philosophers’ view, the animal soul resides in the perceptive-imaginable level; this is why Farabi has taken the animal souls to be non-immaterial due to a lack of intellectual perception. In Avicenna and Sheik Eshraq’s works, there seems to be a duality with regard to the immateriality of imagination in which the stronger argument is the one that has denied the immateriality of imagination and, consequently, the immateriality of animal souls and their resurrection. By proving the immateriality of imagination, Mulla Sadra has taken a novel step towards the justification of the rational possibility of the resurrection of animals. With regard to the second question, the theologians have focused on the issue of countervalue which has been criticized due to incomprehensiveness. Allameh Tabatabaaii has also believed in a sort of obligation for animals through a discussion of freewill and intelligence in animals. Using the theological argument, Mulla Sadra has proved that all the creation will go back to their origin; otherwise, we will face inconsistency and contradiction. This research aims to show, by putting forth a novel perspective, that the resurrection of animals can be considered to be the resurrection of some human beings as animals on the judgment day which is, in fact, the failure of ascension from the animal level to the human level.