A Critical Study of Isfahani’s View on Bodily Resurrection

The question of bodily resurrection is one of the controversial topics about which Muslim thinkers have presented different opinions. Mohammad Hossein Gharavi Esfahani is one of the greatest thinkers and Shia scholars, who, influenced by the thoughts of his master Agha Ali Hakim, has put forward a distinct and considerable account of bodily resurrection which is in contrast with Mulla Sadra’s view. Esfahani, based on principles such as the initial belonging of the rational soul to the vaporous soul, the unity between the vaporous soul/body and the rational soul, the preparatory causality of the vaporous soul for the rational soul and the efficient causality of the rational soul for vaporous soul, the return of all existents to God in The arc of the ascent, as well as the particular influence of dispositions on the body, has argued that human bodies return to their rational souls in hereafter. In this article, Esfahani’s principles and arguments are criticized. Among the objections, the most important of which are as follows: misunderstanding of animality in the definition of human, inaccurate understanding of the causal relationship between soul and body and how they affect each other, inconsistency with the principle of impossibility of bringing back of an annihilated thing, and not paying attention to the role of imagination faculty in the explanation of bodily resurrection.