فصلنامه حکمت اسلامی
پیاپی 6 (پاییز 1394)

The fact that essences are directly and without any medication predicated of objective realities and the fact that such predications end up in tautology with the subject and predicate having the same instance caused philosophers from the time immemorial to think instinctively that objective realities are nothing other than essences- an interpretation known in later centuries as "fundamentality of essence". Based on this instinctive understanding Suhrawardi tried to prove that existence was respectival, having no instance in the real world and no real image [in mind]. His endeavors led philosophers to believe that essence was fundamental and essence respectival. Mir Damad has however touched the probability that existence be fundamental and essence respectival. He dealt with it as mere mental consideration, believing that it was false. Contrary to all his preceding philosophers, Mulla Sadra, being under the influence of mystics and relying on intuition, proposed that the latter that is the fundamentality of existence and non-fundamentality of essence was the right option. He proved his theory with the help of several arguments, considering thus essence as having nothing to do with the external world and freeing thus intellect from the clutches of essence. By doing so, he made new discoveries and solved many problems that were not solved previously. Most post-Sadrian Shiite thinkers agree with Sadra approving of many of his views. Among these thinkers, is Mudarris Ali Zynoozi, a powerful commentator of transcendental theosophy. The present article is an attempt to give an image of his version of fundamentality of existence.

According to Zynoozi resurrection is no doubt physical. Physical resurrection does not however depend on imaginary body nor does it depend on the return of soul to its physical body. Zynoozi presumes that the stages of existence are connected with each other when they descend and that the realities of existents return to a superior realm when they ascend. He also believes that soul and body are in a state of unificatory union. Based on these principles he says that after its relation is cut off with its respective soul, body continues moving until it reaches the stage where it is able to receive a soul suiting the next world. When man was first created it was again his body that reached the stage of receiving an immaterial soul after undergoing some substantial movement. According to him, man does not lose his material dimension in the coming world. The coming world is instead a stage of being that includes all other existential stages. The soul that is the outcome of substantial movement reaches a stage of perfection where it is able to retrieve the details of its past. The next world is the place of junction and disjunction, brevity and details. Having undergone certain changes, man's material dimension will be present in the next world.

After many scholarly tussles, philosophical thoughts eventually overcame Asharite thoughts causing their extinction among Shiite philosophers. Though there is presently no room for Asharism and its equivalent, Akhbarism due to the presence of rich Sadrian heritage and its well-behaved and knowledgeable scholars, intellectual residue however causes some big names to pick up Asharite thoughts. Among things they exploit to create skepticisms is the issue of physical resurrection. From among the transcendental theosophists, Zynoozi, the founding theosophist is also the target of distortion. The illusion that has given rise to such skepticism is: since Zynoozi gives a new version of Sadrian physical resurrection therefore he is an easy prey, he can be easily, out of animosity, distorted. Ashtiyani, a contemporary theosophist, is criticized for being critical of Zynoozi's theory. A review of fundamental opinions expressed by Zynoozi and a review of the outlines of professor Ashtiyani's critique of him let us know about the truth showing that the claims made by the anti-philosophical circles are baseless.

The problem of soul and body and their relation is a challenging issue with a wide domain, attracting philosopher's attention from the time immemorial. The problem emerges because the question arises how immaterial human soul is related to his material body, forming thus a single existent. Having innovated new philosophical principles such as fundamentality of existence, gradation of existence and substantial movement, Mulla Sadra gave a new and unprecedented structure to philosophical issues including the issue of soul. Based on the bodily creation of soul, progressive substantial movement, unificatory composition of matter and form, he deems that the relation between soul and body is a unificatory relation. As long as man is thus experiencing elemental life, he will have a reality of many degrees. He is material as well as immaterial to the extent that body is the lower degree of soul and soul is the higher degree of body. As man however lives on he gives up immateriality keeping up its positives alone in the stage of imaginary body. Zynoozi is one of the most careful Sadrian commentators. He explains Sadra's principles and views, though his way of explanation is somewhat different from that of Sadra. He believes that the combination of human essence from genus and differentia, the combination of rational soul from different degrees and finally the combination of soul and body are instances of real composite, though the combination of the forms of human organs with their matters is an instance of natural combination – though not essential natural combination. He believes that the interaction between soul and body is mutual. Soul is the determining cause of body and body the preparing cause of soul. Though after death, this mutual interaction comes to an end the particles of a person's body look after the soul of that person. They will finally reach it. The present article studies the opinions of these two philosophers in a comparative way.

Muslim philosophers believe that natural universals exist in the external world with the existence of their instances. They, on the other hand, hold that fundamentality lies with existence or essence. Some are of the view that the conviction that natural universals exist in the external world is compatible only with the conviction that fundamentality lies with essence. The fact of the matter is however that the fundamentality of existence or the identicalness of essence with existence is not incompatible with the belief that natural universals exist in the external world. Peripatetic philosophers believe they are compatible.

Intermediate world is the spiritual dimension of this world indicating some sort of familiarity with this world. That is why it has some of the features of this world. This world, the intermediate world and the next world each forms a stage of human existence. Man is in fact an existent that has graded stages, such that his intermediate world is stronger than his present world and his next world is stronger than his intermediate world. Man's evolutionary movement begins with his bodily creation, ending up in material-imaginary, imaginary and finally intellectual being. Since Mulla Sadra assumes that the intermediate world is primarily caused by imaginary faculty he says that there is oneness between power and perception. If a person is able to conceive the bounties of Paradise, he will be able to have them together with the feeling of pain or pleasure they produce. He needs however to create the grounds for such powers and perceptions beforehand when he is this world.