The Stages of Destiny and Providence in Mulla Sadra’s View and its Relationship to Divine Knowledge

Since long ago, the reality of ‘destiny and providence’ has been the focus of presenting various views and discussions among the thinkers of philosophy and theology. Mulla Sadra is among those philosophers who have stated the reality of destiny and providence. By presenting a new and different design, he believes that ‘destiny’ (Qazaa) is the scientific and rational realities of all beings essential to Almighty God’s essence and is considered as a part of the divine realm. Mulla Sadra believes that God’s creative foreknowledge, which is a simple synoptic truth, is turned into objective foreordinations through stages of ‘Umm al-Kitaab (the Mother Book), Lowh Mahfuz (the Guarded Tablet), and Lowh Mahw wa Ithbaat (the Tablet of Effacement and Affirmation). Using religious themes, Mulla Sadra regards the home of the Quran’s seven heavens to be the Tablet of Effacement and Affirmation wherein the scientific foreordinations for the ideal being is determined. In the present article, while stating the stages of destiny and providence, the relationship between ‘destiny and providence’ and the Quran’s seven heavens has been stated.