The Relationship between the Hereafter and Meaning of Life in Mullā Ṣadrā’s Philosophy

Some people believe that death renders life meaningless, and a limited and mortal life is not worth living, especially if it entails hardships and pain. In contrast, through demonstrating the immortality of the soul, Mullā Ṣadrā maintains that there is no quiddative limit either for the truth of being or for human beings, and human life is not limited to the world of matter. Man’s motion begins with worldly efforts; however, it continues with death, and true and supreme life is attained in the light of death. Life will have its complete meaning provided that it attains immortality in the hereafter. Mullā Ṣadrā defines some mediocre and supreme purposes for human beings and believes that the level of happiness depends on the level of soulish perfection. He also argues that Man’s reality is mirrored in their theoretical intellect, which brings about true happiness. Moreover, he believes that the motion of practical intellect on the route to happiness paves the way for the transcendence of theoretical intellect. According to Mullā Ṣadrā, the world is a symbol of purgatory, which is a symbol of the hereafter. For him, the world and the hereafter are the same graded existence; they do not have any conflict with each other, and the hereafter represents the world in its most perfect form. Resurrection means attaining a kind of ontological openness and reaching an intellectual level which is the same true stage of Man’s existence. At this stage, all human beings will have a common grasp of the meaning of life; nevertheless, the true and maximum meaning will only be available to those who have attained the supreme stages of existence and the level of immateriality.