Mûllā Ṣâdrā’s Four Innovative Principles in Al-Shâwāhîd al-Rûbūbîyyâh for rejecting Mûtâkâllîmūn’s theory of the mere spiritual perfectibility in the world of Purgatory

Using a descriptive and analytic method, the present paper has analyzed the rejection of Mûtâkâllîmūn’s theory of the mere spiritual perfectibility of man in the world of Purgatory, based on the innovative principles of Mûllā Ṣâdrā’s Transcendent Philosophy in Al-Shâwāhîd al-Rûbūbîyyâh. In this paper, we have tried to examine and explain the concept of purgatory perfectibility and to emphasize on the realization of purgatory perfectibility from the perspective of the Qur’an and the Islamic traditions, based on the certain religious doctrines. Then, we have considered “the true perfection of the Soul”, which is an inner journey “from Self to the Self”, and on this basis, we have examined the conflict between the views of Mûtâkâllîmūn and the Ṣâdrāean Transcendent Philosophy about the definition of the true reality of man and its degrees. Finally, we have discussed on the rejection of Mûtâkâllîmūn’s restricting the perfectibility to “the intellectual and spiritual perfectibility”, based on Mûllā Ṣâdrā’s four ontological and epistemological principles about the possibility of practical and bodily purgatory perfectibility, which include “the agency of the rational soul and its essential sufficiency”, “the place of the souls in having the most subtle substantiality and the most intense spirituality”, “the perfections and the sovereignty of the faculty of imagination in the world of Purgatory”, and “the subtlety and lightness of the rational soul”.