نشریه خردنامه صدرا
پیاپی 59 (بهار 1389)

This paper examines the principle of justice in Shi‘ism and considers it to be of a particular and central place in this domain, and studies its relation to other principles from this point of view. In this regard, an innovative argument on infallibility has been adduced from the Shi‘ite perspective. Then the writer refers to some of the Prophet’s statements in order to support this view and uses the result in order to provide a response to the basic question of “man’s expectation from religion”. Finally, he concludes that in Shi‘ism the most justified expectation that a Shi‘ite can have from his religion is the same promise that it is committed to keep, that is, the establishment of justice in its comprehensive sense.

According to Kant, the faculty of understanding possesses apriori concepts. These concepts or categories are the basis of universal and necessary judgments. In his view, the knowledge of facts is possible for humans through these concepts. On the other hand, in Islamic philosophy true and universal concepts are divided into primary intelligibles or quiddative concepts indicating the quiddities of objects, logical secondary intelligibles, and philosophical secondary intelligibles. This paper compares the Kantian categories with the secondary intelligibles in Islamic philosophy. The writer believes that paying attention to various viewpoints of concepts makes this paper distinct from similar ones. Here, he has first explained the various viewpoints of concepts, and then, after a brief explanation of Kantian categories and secondary intelligibles in Islamic philosophy, compared them with each other.

The division of propositions into analytic and synthetic types is one of the important analytic tools of human understanding in Hume’s philosophy. British empiricist philosophers analyzed meaning, word functions, and the word-meaning relation with the purpose of knowing the human nature. Through analyzing propositions, David Hume intended to learn about human’s power of understanding. He called this method the analysis of human knowledge and divided it into analytic (relations of concepts) and synthetic (relations of facts) types. The rise of this view in Hume’s philosophy originates in the general structure of his philosophy, the dominance of Aristotelian logic over his thoughts, and the specific value that he attached to reason, its capabilities, and its limitations. Even after his death, the use of this division in analyzing knowledge was quite common for centuries. Following the establishment of the science of human nature, Hume made this division the center of his work and inferred empiricism from it. Later he directly referred to skepticism in his philosophy.The writer of this paper intends to demonstrate that the use of this division inevitably led to skepticism in Hume’s philosophy. In addition to the analysis of analytic and synthetic propositions in the framework of Hume’s philosophy, the writer has also referred to the role of this division in his interest in skepticism.

The quality of the relation between human’s activity and God’s activity has always been one of the most important problems of human thought, in general, and divine scientists, in particular. The most important ideas of Muslim philosophers in this regard are summarized in three theories of predestination, delegation, and the intermediate position. The theory of predestination is against each individual’s independence, and the theory of delegation requires man’s independent activity from God. The theory of the intermediate position, which was firstly suggested by the Infallible Imams (‘a), indicates the negation of predestination and delegation and demonstrates the existence of a reality between the two of them. Understanding the truth of the intermediate position based on the intellect and traditions is not an easy task. Accordingly, in order to interpret it, scholars have resorted to various approaches including theological, philosophical, and gnostic ones and have employed the related corresponding examples and analogies in order to portray each of these explanations and interpretations. A critique and study of all of them, the most important of which amount to six in number, reveals that most of them are incapable of depicting a clear and comprehensive picture of this theory. From among all of these approaches, one of them, that is, explaining the appearance of the divine activity in creation-related manifestations along with its corresponding example, that is, the allegory of the activity of the soul in its faculties, particularly based on ‘Allamah Tabataba’i’s allegorical interpretation, while considering man’s activity in the systematic collection of creation, is preferred to other approaches and analogies.

Gnostic theology is in contrast to rational-natural and revelatory-historical theologies. Natural theology, rational theology, revelatory theology, transmitted theology, and gnostic theology are all intuitive. While being intuitive, gnostic theology in Islam benefits from rational analysis, on the one hand, and uses the light of the guidance of revelation, on the other. The result of using the intellect is the transmission and discovery of a theology that, while having its own method, structure, concepts, and explanations, is in harmony with the intellect and Shar‘. In the light of a mystic journey rooted in Shari‘ah, the gnostic attains a kind of direct hearty knowledge and insight of God, and, in this way, becomes needless of any rational argument on the demonstration of the existence of God. He reaches such a level of certainty upon which there is no stain of doubt and ambiguity. Since God’s Essence is pure and infinite, and since it is impossible for anyone to reach it, most of the discussions in gnostic theology center on the names and attributes of Almighty Truth. Therefore, the main task of Islamic gnostic theology is studying His Names and Attributes. Since the world is nothing but the manifestation of the names of the Truth, gnostic theology is cosmology at the same time. In this paper, the writer has tried to present a brief analysis of this divine school.

The hidden world is a configuration beyond matter attaining the truths of which plays an extremely important and invaluable role in the realization of human perfection. Therefore, all monotheistic religions, particularly Islam, invite people to believe in it. Since the belief in the hidden is impossible without knowing it, it is necessary to discuss the method of gaining the knowledge of this world. This paper examines the ways of knowing the truths of the hidden world in the views of Mulla Sadra and ‘Allamah Tabataba’i, two of the most prominent Shi‘ite Islamologists.

The interaction between the body and soul is one of the topics that has always attracted the attention of scientists and philosophers. Mulla Sadra has propounded the problems related to the body and soul in the 8th and 9th volumes of al-Asfar in an independent form and in the 3rd, 4th and 6th volumes of this book under other topics such as knowledge, substance, accident, and so on.The present paper first refers to Mulla Sadra’s principles and theories in this regard in short and then examines the interaction between the body and soul from three perspectives.The writer first explains the effect of the interaction between the body and soul on the genesis of each of them and concludes that the soul is the cause of the combination of elements and formation of the body, and the body, which is of a specific quality and balanced temperament, is the cause of the emanation of the soul. Then he proceeds to discuss the effects of the soul and body through the faculties of the vegetative, animal, and human souls. The vegetative soul is responsible for the nutrition, growth, and reproduction of plants; the animal soul is responsible for perception and stimulation, and the human soul draws on its theoretical and practical faculties to reason about general and particular issue and explain ethical or other types of propositions.Finally, the writer deals with the body-soul interaction in terms of their states and argues that physical characteristics and states, e.g. health, sickness, and pain, affect the soul, and some mental states such as anger and sorrow lead to some changes in the body.

The intellect and revelation are two categories that have always attracted the attention of thinkers and philosophers. Perhaps one of the most important achievements of Mulla Sadra is his synthesis of the intellect and revelation. A study of his method in accomplishing this task can serve as a luminous torch guiding many of the seekers of the truth.This paper examines two important approaches followed by Mulla Sadra in this regard: the first is clarifying the problem of esoteric interpretation (ta‘wil) and equating it with perfectional interpretation, and the second is distinguishing rational rules from estimative and imaginal ones. Both of these methods play significant roles in the structure of Sadrian philosophy and connect Sharia‘h, the intellect, and gnosis.