Ontology of the Spirit of Meaning in the Holy Qur’ān in Mullā Ṣadrā’s View and its Impact on the Discussion of the Quality of Coining Words

The principle of “coining words for the spirit of meaning in the Holy Qur’ān” in Mullā Ṣadrā’s works is closely related to his philosophy. Therefore, considering the Sadrian ontology as the basis, one can learn about the ontological applications of the meanings of words and, thus, the quality of attaining the knowledge of them. In Mullā Ṣadrā’s view, the world, the Qur’ān, and the holy prophetic existence are three dimensions of the world that share a single and simple existence at the level of their “unfolded existence”, “immediate divine word”, and “Mohammedan truth”. They have dispersed at the level of the lower kingdom and are manifested in the form of the world of particular Ideas, the verbal Qur’ān, and the existence of the Holy Prophet (ṣ), respectively, and then descend to the world of matter. Mullā Ṣadrā believes that each lower level is an example of a higher level, and words are not an exception to this rule. In order to access the highest level of divine words, one should employ the principle of coining words for different types of meanings (absolute and general). Mullā Ṣadrā’s definition of spirit of meaning conforms with his definition of the natural universal and Platonic Ideas. The application and generalizability of the spirit of meaning in comparison to the natural universal originates in the limitedness of quiddity, while, in comparison to Platonic universals, it originates in existential amplitude. A comparison of the spirit of meaning and natural universals indicates that coinage of words is a human phenomenon, and the criterion for coining each word is the truth.