God and the World of Creation in Shaykh Ishrāq's View

In Shaykh Ishrāq’s cosmology, the world is divided into two sections of light and darkness and according to the principle of gradation of light certain ranks
are introduced among lights, which are different from each other in their intensity and weakness. After the world of lights, there comes the world of material bodies, which is pure darkness and there is no light (except for sensible vertical lights) in it. Separate study of each one of the ranks of the world in Shaykh Ishrāq’s View, the way that rank appeared, and its relation to the higher ranks of being, especially to God or the Light of all lights are the topics we have addressed in this article. Since for presenting a more accurate picture of Suhrawardī’s cosmology, his ontology is to be taken into consideration as well, we have considered some of important principles of illuminationist ontology, such as essentialism and gradation in quiddity and demonstrated how Suhrawardī’s viewpoint about the world is connected to his principles of ontology.