The Cause of Death in the Views of Ghazali and Sadra, and the Evaluation of their Bases in Explanation of it.

Ghazali and Mulla Sadra are among the thinkers who have sought to understand the causes of death and have addressed this issue in their own philosophical discussions about the reality of the soul. Although they have different foundations in their views about soul, they give more or less similar ideas about the cause of human death. Some experts in this field believe that natural death is due to severe weakness of the body and malfunction of vital organs and the breakdown of its forces, but Mulla Sadra and Ghazali see the cause of death as a development and enforcement of the soul, not defect and destruction of the body. An important question to which the present paper tries to find its answer is that which of the above-mentioned theory is more consistent with the foundations accepted by these two philosophers, and can this theory be based on either of them? First, the anthropological viewpoints of each of them are explained, and then through analyzing, this will be investigated that which principles and foundations have succeeded in presenting his theory of the cause of death and has the ability to justify his theory.
There are several bases and principles in Ghazali and Mulla Sadra's philosoph views regarding soul, which play a central role in the cause of death, and it is important to pay attention to the similarities and differences between the two thinkers. The first is the view of each about the "nature and reality of the soul." From Ghazzali's point of view, the soul is an immaterial, rational substance, and Mulla Sadra accepts this, but equalizes it to one of the powers of the soul, which is known a rational power. So he doesn’t equalize it with all the nature and soul. This is because, in his opinion, soul is a substance which in some of its levels is material and some others od immaterial and only at the level of reason, it is an immaterial, rational substance. Another important principle is about the way in which the soul is created, according to the point of view of Ghazali, the soul from the beginning of the universe, was an immaterial being; (Rohaniyat al-Huduth). But in Mulla Sadra’s viewpoint, the soul at the beginning was a physical reality that gradually moves toward immaterial thing.
This is the case of Sadra's fundamental differences with Ghazali and with all the previous philosophers. The next pivotal difference is the occurrence of movement and evolution in the essence of the soul. In the philosophical discussions of Ghazali, he talks about stages of human evolution, and it is understood that he has in some way considered the intrinsic motion of the soul. Mulla Sadra also explicitly stated the gradual movement of man in a natural way, and explicitly called it the intrinsic motion of the soul. Thus, Ghazali and Mulla Sadra explain the uplift of the soul by its intrinsic motion, but this movement is consistent with the foundations of Sadra, not with Ghazali's basics. Sadra is helping to explain this from principles such as the trans-substantial motion, and that it has different levels and stages and that it has temporal contingency, but Ghazali is not equipped with such principles, and this leads him to fail to explain his theory. For this reason he claims that the soul can have intrinsic motion only if it is material and physical at the time of its creation not immaterial, because there is no movement in immaterial beings
The relationship between the soul and the body is the next major principle, and Sadra believes in this regard that, contrary to the general impression that the soul is derived from the body, it is the soul that makes the body existent and, in fact, the body is one of the outcomes of the existence of the soul, not the opposite. Ghazali also has a similar view and believes that this is a soul that is useful and grants the existence to the body, so essentially the soul is the principal and the body is its function. With the explanation that Ghazali and Mulla Sadra have shown from the relationship between the soul and body, it can be concluded that the origin of the separation of the soul from the body is not the end of the strength of the body and the extinction of instinctive heat and temperament, but the promotion and independence of the soul is the origin of this separation, and this promotion and independence is the result of the inherent movement of the soul.
After expressing the philosophical principles of Ghazali and Mulla Sadra in explaining the sould, one can explain the cause and quality of the occurrence of death from their points of view. The exploration in the works of al-Ghazali, shows that, although death is due to the shutting down of natural and animal powers, but what causes these powers to be shut down is the soul’s rejection to observe the body, the rejection is not the result of degeneration of Mizaj, but due to gradual evolution and perfection of reason, rational power and the human soul. Sadra also believes that the cause of the death is in the innate evolution of life and the upgrading of the existential level of man. By saying that the human soul has a steady and evolutional movement in its own substance and every movement has its ultimate goal, and each goal has an owner which will stop moving when it reaches its very end. The soul is moving towards its ultimate goal of acquiring power and talents - during the worldly life - and death occurs when all its talents are activated and no longer capable of acquiring any other power and talent in this life.
The result is that al-Ghazali's theory of the cause of death is similar to Mulla Sadra's theory in this regard, but compared to Mulla Sadra's theory, the theory of al-Ghazal differs in some bases as the following: One of Ghazali's important reasons in explaining the cause of death is that death is the result of the inherent motion of the soul and due to its upgrade. One of the main sources of Mulla Sadra's explanation for the cause of death is the intrinsic motion of the soul, and he believes that death is due to the uplift of the soul, which is the result of the innate motion of the soul. But the very basis that Ghazali makes in choosing such an explanation for death is the belief in the spiritual nature of the soul; that is, the combination of the inherent motion of the soul with its spiritual form, which is acceptable to Ghazzali, is impossible because Moving from the power to the action is possible only in material matter. In order to be able to move in the essence of the soul, we must believe in its materiality at the beginning of its conception, that is to say, we must consider the soul as the physical aspect of its creation, and this is the same as the accepted principle by Sadra. Consequently, death as the result of self-awareness is compatible only with the principles of Mulla Sadra, and there is an inconsistency between Ghazali's opinion on the cause of his death and his principles.