Effects of Ideal Immateriality in Islamic Philosophy

A significant problem in Islamic philosophy is investigating the various dimensions and aspects of immateriality in the view of philosophers. One of the most important problems in the discussion of immateriality is the acceptance or rejection of Ideal immateriality, which has been one of the major concerns of Islamic philosophers in the course of history. Among them, Peripatetic philosophers accepted the world of intellects and rational immateriality by denying the Ideal world and Ideal immateriality and considered the faculty of imagination to be material. However, Suhrawardī and Mullā Ṣadrā tried to demonstrate the Ideal world based on their own philosophical principles. Suhrawardī believed in the disjunctive Ideal world, while Mullā Ṣadrā believed in the connected Ideal world and the immateriality of the faculty of imagination in addition to the disconnected Ideal world. The present study aims to examine the effects of Ideal immateriality in Islamic philosophy and its role in resolving philosophical intricate problems. Here, the authors have investigated eleven effects of Ideal immateriality in different philosophical fields including the resurrection of incomplete and average souls; lack of the need to study the spheres and accepting reincarnation in the discussion of resurrection; demonstration of corporeal resurrection; a correct and rational interpretation of vanity of sin, immateriality of animals’ souls and their resurrection; subsistence of particular perceptions after death; the link between the world of intellects and the material world; an accurate interpretation of the Holy Prophet’s dreams, unveilings, and ascent; a correct interpretation of the state of death, purgatory, and the hereafter; the interpretation of jinn in Illuminationist philosophy, and the subsistence of issuing forms for the soul.