Philosophical Foundations of Sadr Al-Motaalehin in the Face of Belief Contradiction in the Unity of Being

Mullā Ṣadrā’s attempt to reconcile philosophy and mysticism has faced him with several difficulties, of which some are noticed by him and some could be explained according to his taste and principles. One of the difficulties is the incompatibility of the mystical theory of Unity of Existence with the law of contradiction. This perception of presence, which claims the oneness of creatures with the Creator and at the same time their duality, challenges the logical-philosophical law of noncontradiction.The purpose of this paper is to answer the question of what solution could Mullā Ṣadrā have for such a problem. Although he has emphasized on the theory of Personal Unity of Existence in his late works, it seems that the theory of Analogical Unity of Existence –despite Ṣadrā’s lack of clarification– was a solution from his side to get rid of this problem. The authors’ descriptive method and critical analysis, however, indicates the insufficiency of this theory for solving this paradox. The logic of belief, also, cannot be a a solution for this problem. The authors, finally, have shown that on the basis of Mullā Ṣadrā’s principles in the issue of mental existence, the rule of impossibility of coexistence of two contradictories in immaterial worlds has been narrowed down and the possibility of coexistence of some incommensurable things is available in that arena. This way, he can solve the paradox of the unity of existence. All in all, it is clear that Mullā Ṣadrā neither wanted nor - –considering his intellectual foundations– was capable of accepting dialetheism and the violation of the law of noncontradiction.