Allameh Muhammad Taqi Jafari on the Characteristics of Intelligible Life as Human Transcendent Goal and the Ways Leading to It

As primordial human instincts, teleology and foresight have always persuaded man to investigate on the secrets of the phenomena of the world, cosmos and his own existence. If man was not a questioner by his nature and human mind was not of a teleological bent no problem would ever be solved. By proposing the pattern of intelligible life as the ideal human life, Allameh Muhammad Taqi Jafari interprets the philosophy of human existence based on a fundamental shift from the ordinary life to an intelligible life. Intelligible life is a conscious life which canalizes deterministic and pseudo-deterministic forces and activities of natural life into the course of relative evolutionary goals through the development of liberty which flourishes in human will as it would assist human self, which is gradually developed in this process, to realize the Ultimate Telos of Life, i.e. participation in general cosmic movement toward Supreme Perfection. Perfectionism, consciousness of the noble truths of existence, breaking the reign of quantity and entering the sphere of eternity are among the key characteristics of intelligible life. This article seeks to depict Jafari's view of the transcendent goal of human life and the ways leading to it.