Philosophical Explanation of Revelation from Farabi to Mulla Sadra

Revelation is one of the most important doctrines of religion that draws attention of philosophers as any other thinkers. According to Islamic philosophy, the source of all knowledge and agent of its emanation is Holy Spirit or angel of revelation and the receiver of revelation is the intellectual faculty of Holy Prophet who due to his natural capacity and existential perfection can be united with Active Intelligence and thus receive the knowledge. The most important and controversial problem about revelation among Islamic philosophers is the way the angel of revelation could be seen. In Peripatetic system of Farabi and Avicenna Active Intelligence is identified with angel of revelation and its vision is understood as Prophet’s imagination reflecting the existential reality. By discovering the world of discontiguous Imagination or “suspended Archetypes” as Master of Illumination called it, Illuminationist and Transcendent theosophies, however, proved to be a turning point in philosophical explanation of revelation. According to this theosophical school angel of revelation is the greatest among horizontal dominant Lights and so the archetype of human soul with whom the pure soul of Prophet, having removed all material preoccupations and physical veils could be united and thereby receive the truths. Angel of revelation has manifestations in the Imaginal World that make it possible to be seen by the soul of Prophet. It comes down, as it were, from its intellectual and luminous reality and manifests itself in one way or another in the world of Imagination so that it could be seen by Prophet.