Body in Suhrawardi's Philosophy and MullaSadra

Islamic philosophers, like their Greek predecessors, have discussedthe essence and quiddity of the body. Suhrawardi and Mulla Sadra,among the others, have proposed some ideas concerning the natureof the body and its characteristics. Suhrawardi considers the body inthree different stages: first, following the Peripatetic philosophy, hedefines it as a subsistence composed of "form" and “matter". Thenhe moves to regard it as mere magnitude. Finally, Suhrawardidefines the body according to his own illuminative principles as thecomposition of attributive light and dark substance. Sadra,according to his principle of the "principality of Existence", sees thequiddity of the body as something composed of matter and form,but its true reality is nothing but existence. In this paper, we arguethat there is not any contradiction between Suhravardi's differentviews depending on everystaye since each of them is proposed in aspecific context. On the other hand, we show that Sadra's existentialphilosophy, necessarily concludes to a result which the real essenceof the body is nothing than existence. Final section, we make somecomparisons between the views of these two great Muslimphilosophers