A Comparative Approach to the Theory of Image in the Views of Ibn Arabi and Mulla Sadra

The principles of the mysticism of Ibn Arabi, the founder of the Image theory, had a great influence upon the Transcendent Theosophy of Mullā Sadra. This influence is so great that the theory of the immateriality of image and the mediation of the imaginal world can be described as the basic causes for the formation of the Transcendent Theosophy of Mullā Sadra. In other words, it is possible to treat the immateriality of the imaginal world and imaginal forms and their materiality in Peripatetic and Illuminationistic philosophies in the Transcendent Theosophy as the distinguishing feature which might separate “Transcendent Theosophy” from “Peripatetic philosophy” and “Illuminationstic philosophy”. In the present article, the theory of Image is treated as the most pivotal element in the mystical theory of Ibn Arabi and the Transcendent Theosophy of Mullā Sadra, and the nature and quality of the imaginal world and the faculty of imagination have been analyzed and examined.