8/3/2019 Transcendent Philosophy of Mulla Sadra

1/2

Transcendent Philosophy

of Mulla SadraProfessor S.M. Khamenei

Unlike other heavenly books, the Qur'an involves some veryprofound and discussion raising verses and statements on theology,worldview, and anthropology. This Holy Book, from the very earlydays of the prevalence of Islam - when there was no word of Greekor Oriental philosophy - coulo^introduce a series of important philosophical issues such as God's knowledge, the meaning of HisWill and Attributes, the concepts of Divine Decree and Destiny, predestination, renunciation, life after death, resurrection, and theHereafter to the field of thought and philosophy. Moreover, it makesreferences to the quality of the creation of the material world, the birth of prime matter, the end of world, the annihilation of matter,and, basically, cosmology.

It is true that the collection of such verses and theirinterpretations, which had been given by the Prophet (p.b.u.h),Imam Ali (AS) and Muhammed's descendants, planted the seeds forthe growth of Shi'ite theology and, later, for the so-called science oftheology; however, it was not limited to theologians' use. The gateof knowledge and teaching in the Qur'an has always been open toall, as it became a source of inspiration for Mulla Sadra, too. Ourgreat philosopher, who always criticized theologians' ideas, viewedQur'anic verses and the interpretations given by Muhammed's(P.b.u.h) descendants with utter respect, relied on them, and wasinspired by their heavenly words.

The other point to be emphasized here is Mulla Sadra's powerof intuition in the sense of communicating with the hidden world andunveiling the realities. This was a power possessed by all prominentmasters of Ishraqi philosophy. In some of his books, Mulla Sadraemphasizes that he first perceives the truth of every philosophicaland rational problem through intuition, and then demonstrates it onthe basis of rational and philosophical arguments.

He claims that he is the only philosopher who has been ableto transform the issues that Ishraqi philosophers had perceivedthrough unveiling and intuition, and presented as undemonstratedtheories into logical and philosophical arguments. He does this soconversantly that even those who do not believe in intuitive per-

ception surrender to his ideas. As we will discuss later, a greatnumber of his well-known theories and ideas had been previouslystated by Ishraqi sages; however, they had not been philosophicallyproved.

Mulla Sadra has profoundly benefited from Peripatetic,Ishraqi, theological, and sophist schools of thought and can be saidto owe a great part of this knowledge to the masters of theseschools. Apart from the Qur'an, the Prophet (p.b.u.h), Imam Ali(As), and the Prophet's descendants, he has a deep-rooted belief in

8/3/2019 Transcendent Philosophy of Mulla Sadra

2/2

Muhyaddin, Ibn-Sina, Aristotle, Plotinus, Suhrawardi, Tusi, Sadr al-Din, Qiyath al-Din Dashtaki, Dawani, and pre-Socratic philosophers, particularly Pythagoras and Empedocles. He also agrees withQazzali's ideas concerning ethics, and favors Fakhr Razi's method ofanalyzing theological and philosophical problems; nevertheless, hedoea not consider them as philosophers and refutes their

philosophical ideas in many respects. However, in cases where heagrees with their views, he never hesitates to praise them, and, inorder to show his confirmation and acceptance of their ideas, hequotes from them verbatim, as if he himself has originally utteredthose words.

One of the sources of Mulla Sadra's philosophy is the pre-Socratic history of philosophy. The philosophers of that time mainlyconsisted of Ishraqi sages, who followed Oriental and Iranianancient philosophies to a great extent.

Generally speaking, unlike the case with Peripatetic philosophy, Mulla Sadra's sources of philosophy were not merelyconfined to the intellect, so that he would ignore other sources such

as revelation and inspiration. In the same way, he did not limithimself only to inspiration and illumination, so that, like gnosticsand sophists, he would regard the intellect as being incapable of the perception of realities. He even considered revelation as the mostimportant, valid, and reliable source of knowledge, and, as we men-tioned previously, he also attached too much importance to what canbe learnt from the Qur'an and hadith.

Mulla Sadra is one of the exceptional philosophers who hasgraded these sources. He believes that the first basis for accessingtruth is the intellect; however, he does not consider it as being capa- ble of solving the subtle problems of metaphysics. Therefore, a philosopher or sage should not stop halfway through seeking the

reality and deprive himself from intuition and using prophets' revela-tion.

He states that man's intellect confirms revelation, andrevelation completes the intellect. One who has a religion anddepends on revelation must accept the role of the intellect indiscovering the truth; likewise, one who follows the intellect andwisdom, must confirm and accept revelation. Intuition and illumina-tion can be demonstrated by means of argumentation and reasoningand, as a result, grant universality to personal experiences, exactly inthe same way that the hidden principles of nature could be proved byresorting to mathematical laws.

However, one must admit that the power of wisdom is

limited, but intuition and love have no boundaries and can aid man inattaining the truth. The vastness and breadth of Mulla Sadra'sdomain of views, and the plurality of the origins of his thoughtsgranted more freedom to him to expand the realm of philosophy. Asa result, there is no trace of different types of narrow-mindednesswitnessed in other schools of philosophy in his philosophy.