نشریه خردنامه صدرا
پیاپی 80 (تابستان 1394)

The discussion regarding the problem of order in Islamic wisdom are classified under two titles: “book of creation” and “book of divine legislation/religion”. The book of creation explains and describes the necessary order dominating the world. The book of religion contains the rules which have been devised to grant order to Man’s process of perfection. The major feature of the book of religion is that it has been developed based on the idea of Man as a free-willed being. Therefore, it contains a collection of recommended rules rather than obligatory laws. In the Transcendent Philosophy, these two types of order match each other. Mulla Sadra, himself, refers to them as “genetic” and “religious” affairs. Based on this view, we can say that, even with regard to human and social laws, the order intended by Mulla Sadra is of the type of real and objective, rather than mentally-posited, affairs. In the Transcendent Philosophy, obeying religious teachings is considered to be the right path leading to human perfection. This is the same as obeying the principles dominating the system of being or, in ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s words, obeying fitrah or the primordial nature. This path and order are shared by all individuals and societies at all times and in all places and provide the possibility for happiness and living a social life for all human beings.

The kind of the relationship between existence and quiddity in the Transcendent Philosophy has been propounded in the discussions on the principiality of existence and the mentally-posited nature of quiddity. Mulla Sadra has explained this relationship in two ways. On the one hand, he argues that existence is originally and essentially realized, and quiddity is realized by accident and through the mediation of existence, with which it is eventually united. On the other hand, he believes that it is only “existence” which is objectively realized, and quiddity never steps into the realm of existence and is merely a mentally-posited affair which the intellect abstracts from existence. These two apparently different interpretations seem to have created a confusion among the researchers in this field. That is why some of them have accused him of contradiction, and some others have tried to justify this contradiction in a way. However, a reference to Mulla Sadra’s collection of works makes it clear that these two interpretations are not contradictory. When he states that existence and quiddity are realized by essence and by accident, respectively, he is referring to the nature of the existent, and when he negates the existence and realization of quiddity, he is referring to quiddity in separation from existence. In this paper, the writer has tried to clarify this point by reference to the works of Mulla Sadra himself.

Through clarifying the complex concepts in Aristotelian logic in his masterful commentary on all chapters of Aristotle’s Organon, as well as through his unprecedented innovations in the field of logic, particularly in his division of knowledge into “concept and judgment”, Farabi developed the Greek logical legacy in the world of Islam. In the present paper, the writers initially refer to and explore some of his ideas in the field of logic, such as the division of different types of knowledge into two categories of concept and judgment, his view of the particular and the universal and the origin of man’s knowledge, his division of universal concepts into the first and the second intelligible, his synthesis of Aristotle’s theory of predication with Porphyry’s five-fold universals, his definition of essentialism, his view of the inconsistency of modal negation with permissible negation, his specific theory of future possibility, his idea of induction and analogy, and his innovation regarding fallacy and the explanation and expansion of the different stand-points in this regard.

Faith and the quality of its relationship with the problem of rationality has always been one of the central problems attracting the attention of philosophers and researchers working in the field of the philosophy of religion. This has resulted in the development of some of the most important schools of philosophy and theology in the West and in the Islamic world. In this study, the researchers have tried to explain the place and role of the intellect in the system of religious beliefs based on the ideas of ‘Allamah Tabataba’i through a correct analysis and perception of the truth of faith and description of its major components and elements. ‘Allamah Tabataba’i believed that knowledge plays a fundamental role in the realm of faith and considered it to be the prerequisite for faith. Therefore, in order to explain the relationship between the intellect and faith, he argued that the intellect precedes faith. Moreover, owing to faith’s epistemological nature, he considered it to be one of the important achievements of the intellect. At the same time, by avoiding any extreme measure in this regard, he granted a supreme station to the intellect in the domain of faith and religious believes. He even introduced the truth of definite rational judgments as the basis for the truth of the religion. On the other hand, given the influence of faith over the human intellect and free will, ‘Allamah maintained that the believers can develop a deeper and more extensive perception of religious truths in the light of a faith-oriented life. Of course, he was never heedless of the perceptive limitations of the intellect in certain epistemological fields of religion and referred to them in some of his works, particularly in al-Mizan.

One of the most important ontological innovations of Mulla Sadra which exercised a huge influence over his philosophical and kalami thoughts was the theory of the trans-substantial motion. His magnificent discovery in this field demonstrated restlessness in the substance of the world and human beings and proved the existence of continuous motion and change in the essence of all material existents. This was a view which the majority of pre-Sadrian philosophers considered to be irrational and impossible. The extent of the influence of this theory is so vast that, even after some centuries of research, there is still some room for further study regarding its various dimensions. However, what has been discussed and written concerning the outcomes of the trans-substantial motion so far are generally limited to ontological and philosophical results, and little research has been carried out regarding the effects and uses of this theory in the kalami-religious field. Accordingly, following an analytic and qualitative method, after posing the problem meticulously and explaining this theory, the writers have examined the data related to the influence of this theory on Mulla Sadra’s kalami thoughts while emphasizing the innovative nature of the theory of the trans-substantial motion. Hence, the findings of this research are based on inference and focus on explaining the most important kalami and religious concomitants of the trans-substantial motion. These findings include the knowledge of God, description of the eternal dependence of created beings on God, demonstration of the temporal origination of the world, intellectual explanation of corporeal resurrection, philosophical justification of the doctrine of the embodiments of deeds, falsity of the notion of transmigration, innovative explanation of the nature of death, and clarifying the universality of revivification.

The particular gradation of the reality of being is one of the important bases of the Transcendent Philosophy. After proving it, Mulla Sadra demonstrated and explained some other problems such as the unity of being in its multiplicity, the trans-substantial motion, the argument of the righteous, and some other peripheral problems based on this principle. Early logicians and philosophers had accepted the conceptual unity of being in the sense that the concept of being is predicated on dissimilar referents, and that the referents of being differ from each other in terms of priority and posteriority, strength and weakness, quantity, and precedence and succession. Mulla Sadra proved that the reality of being, in its unity and essence, is the origin of all effects including these graded differences. Accordingly, being is a graded reality one grade of which is the Necessary Being, and the other grades of which, from the first emanated to the hyle, are the individuals and grades of the same reality. The present paper explores the historical background of the discussion of gradation as viewed by Ibn Sina and Suhrawardi. In doing so, through a brief examination of the arguments of each of these two philosophers, it focuses on Mulla Sadra’s judgment between them and then inquires into the basic principles of the discussion of gradation, that is, univocality and principiality of existence, and examines Mulla Sadra’s arguments for the demonstration of gradation. Finally, based on a rational and analytic defense of the standpoint of the Transcendent Philosophy in this regard, the authors have tried to respond to some of the objections to Mulla Sadra’s principles and arguments in relation to the gradation of being.

According to Shaykh Najm al-Din Kubra, “true life” is the same “spiritual life”; a life which entails leaving the outward and moving towards the inward, annihilating in Truth, surviving in the survival of the Truth, and retrieving the Truth from anything that has a sign of being and life. He is a wayfarer of the path of Sufism who, relying on his findings in this spiritual life wrote the treatise al-Usul al-‘asharah in order to guide other wayfarers. In this treatise, through drawing on revealed teachings and employing the traditions of the prophets and the friends of the Truth, he provides some instructions for those wayfarers who intend to reach this stage of life. He calls his voluntary path the “path of Shuttar”. This path is based on voluntary death and relies on 10 major principles: repentance, piety, trust, contentment, retreat, remembrance, attention, patience, vigilance, and satisfaction.
The voluntary death of the wayfarer commences with repentance. This principle is not only the “beginning of a second birth” but also the “necessary condition for continuing spiritual life”. Here, after performing the duties required by each station, the wayfarer will leave all abodes and stations behind through repentance until reaching the station of true Oneness. Such a wayfarer, who has managed to have a “second birth” through Almighty Truth’s providence, his mentor’s spiritual guidance, and his own endeavors, is reborn ornamented with divine morality after traversing various spiritual stages. Then, in the climax of this life, he attains the “station of union with and annihilation in the Truth”, which is the most supreme meaning of Oneness.
The fact that “voluntary death” stands at the basis of this treatise, in addition to from Shaykh’s initial acknowledgement, is clearly inferred from his insistence on the use of the word “exit” when explaining the 10 principles as well as from a comparison of this type of exit with “natural death”. Therefore, regarding the union of voluntary death as the basis of the path of Shuttar with the above-mentioned 10 principles, we can say that, based on the teachings of the treatise al-Usul al-‘asharah, Shaykh Najm al-Din has spoken of not only one voluntary death and birth but also of several other voluntary deaths and births each corresponding with one abode and station.