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Mulla Sadra
Mulla Sadra was a philosopher who led the Iranian cultural renaissance in the 17th century of the Christian calendar. He is commonly regarded by Iranians as the greatest philosopher their country has produced.
Sadr ad-Din Muḥammad Shirazi, more commonly known as Mulla Sadra (b.c. 1571/2 CC [980 AH], Shiraz [now in Iran] – d.c. 1640 CC [1050 AH], Basra [now in Iraq]), was a Persian Twelver Shi'a Islamic mystic, philosopher, theologian and 'alim who led the Iranian cultural renaissance in the 17th century. Mulla Sadra is arguably the single most important and influential philosopher in the Muslim world in the last four hundred years.
Though not its founder, Mulla Sadra is considered the master of the Illuminationist (Ishraghi or Ishraqi) school of philosophy, a seminal figure who synthesized the many tracts of the Islamic Golden Age philosophies into what he called the Transcendent Theosophy or al-hikmah al-muta’āliyah.
Mulla Sadra brought a new philosophical insight in dealing with the nature of reality and created a major transition from essentialism to existentialism in Islamic philosophy.
Philosophical essentialism is the idea that the nature of things is invariable and constant. Essentialism posits that one must be able to describe an entity according to that which is required, or essential, to its nature and existence.
The main issue regarding essentialism in philosophy surrounds the essence of humans. What are we? What makes us different from other creatures? Is there anything that is essential to being human?
In ontology, the view that some properties of objects are essential to them. The "essence" of a thing is conceived as the totality of its essential properties. Theories of essentialism differ with respect to their conception of what it means to say that a property is essential to an object. The concept of an essential property is closely related to the concept of necessity, since one way of saying that a property P is essential to an object O is to say that the proposition "O has P" is necessarily true. A general but not very informative way of characterizing essential properties is to say that a property is essential to an object if the object cannot lack the property and still be the object that it is. Properties of an object that are not essential in this sense are said to be accidental.
Ontology is the branch of philosophy that studies concepts such as existence, being, becoming, and reality.It includes the questions of how entities are grouped into basic categories and which of these entities exist on the most fundamental level.
In Western philosophy, existentialism is a philosophy concerned with finding self and the meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal responsibility. However, in Islamic philosophy (especially in the Islamic philosophy of the philosopher Mulla Sadra), Islamic existentialism should not be too readily compared to Western existentialism. Islamic existentialism is a question of existentialist cosmology as it pertains to God, and thus differs considerably from the individual, moral, and/or social, questions at the heart of Russian, French, German, or American existentialism.
Mulla Sadra's philosophy ambitiously synthesized Avicennism, Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi's Illuminationist philosophy, Ibn 'Arabi's Sufi metaphysics, and the theology of the Sunni Ash'ari school of Kalam into the framework of Twelver Shi'ism.
Mulla Sadra's principle treatise is The Transcendent Philosophy of the Four Journeys of the Intellect (or The Transcendental Wisdom Regarding the Four Journeys -- al-Hikmat al-Muta'aliyyah fi'l Asfar al-Arba'ah), a treatise that is more commonly known as The Four Journeys. In The Four Journeys, Mulla Sadra attempted to prove the idea of the Unity of Existence by offering a new perspective on Peripatetic philosophy that was offered by al-Farabi and Ibn Sina in the Islamic world.
The Peripatetic school was a school of philosophy in Ancient Greece. Its teachings derived from its founder, Aristotle (384-322 BCT), and peripatetic is an adjective ascribed to Aristotle's followers. The Peripatetic school dates from around 335 BCT when Aristotle began teaching in the Lyceum. It was an informal institution whose members conducted philosophical and scientific inquiries. After the middle of the 3rd century BCT, the school fell into a decline, and it was not until the Roman era that there was a revival. Later members of the school concentrated on preserving and commenting on Aristotle's works rather than extending them. The Peripatetic school died out in the 3rd century CC.
The study of Aristotle's works by scholars who were called Peripatetics continued through the Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the works of the Peripatetic school were lost to the Latin West, but they were preserved in Byzantium and also incorporated into early Islamic philosophy. Western Europe recovered Aristotelianism from Byzantium and from Islamic sources in the Middle Ages.
Mulla Sadra was born in Shiraz, in what is now Iran, to a notable family of court officials in 1571 or 1572, In Mulla Sadra's time, the Safavid dynasty governed over Iran. Safavid kings granted independence to Fars Province, which was ruled by the king's brother, Mulla Sadra's father, Khwajah Ibrahim Qavami. Khwajah Ibrahim Qavami was a knowledgeable and extremely faithful politician. As the ruler of the vast region of Fars Province, Khwajah was rich and was held in high regard. For a long time, Khwajah had no children, but after much prayer and supplication, God gave him a son. The son was named Muhammad, but was called Sadra. Years later, Sadra was nicknamed "Mulla", that is, "great scientist".
Sadra was Khwajah's only child. In that time it was customary that the children of aristocrats were educated by private teachers in their own palace. Sadra was a very intelligent, energetic, studious, and curious boy and mastered all the lessons related to Persian and Arabic literature, as well as the art of calligraphy, during a very short time. Following old traditions of his time, and before the age of puberty, he also learned horse riding, hunting and fighting techniques, mathematics, astronomy, some medicine, jurisprudence, and Islamic law. However, he was mainly attracted to philosophy and particularly to mystical philosophy and gnosis -- spiritual knowledge or insight into humanity's real nature as divine.
In 1591, Mulla Sadra moved to Qazvin and then, in 1597, to Isfahan to pursue a traditional and institutional education in philosophy, theology, hadith, and hermeneutics -- the theory and philosophy of Qur'anic understanding and interpretation. At that time, each city was a successive capital of the Safavid dynasty and center of Twelver Shi'ite seminaries. Sadra's teachers included Mir Damad and Baha' ad-Din al-'Amili.
Mulla Sadra became a master of the sciences of his time. In his own view, the most important of these was philosophy. In Qazvin, Sadra acquired most of his scholarly knowledge from two prominent teachers, namely Baha' ad-Din al-'Amili and Mir Damad, whom he accompanied when the Safavid capital was transferred from Qazvin to Isfahan in 1006 AH/1596 CC. Shaykh Baha' was an expert in Islamic sciences but also a master of astronomy, theoretical mathematics, engineering, architecture, medicine, and some fields of secret knowledge. Mir Damad also knew the sciences of his time but limited his domain to jurisprudence, hadith. and mainly philosophy. Mir Damad was a master of both the Peripatetic (Aristotelian) and Illuminationist schools of Islamic philosophy. Mulla Sadra obtained most of his knowledge of philosophy and gnosis from Damad and always introduced Damad as his true teacher and spiritual guide.
After he had finished his studies, Sadra began to explore unorthodox doctrines and, as a result, was both condemned and excommunicated by some Shi'a ʿulamaʾ. He then retired for a lengthy period of time to a village named Kahak, near Qom, where he engaged in contemplative exercises. While in Kahak, he wrote a number of minor works, including the Risala fi 'l-ḥashr and the Risala fi ḥuduth al-ʿalam .
In 1612, Ali Quli Khan, son of Allahwirdi Khan and the powerful governor of Fars, asked Mulla Sadra to abandon his exile and to come back to Shiraz to teach and run a newly built madrasa -- a newly built religious school. Mulla Sadra devoted the rest of his life to teaching the intellectual sciences, particularly his own teachings on Transcendent Theosophy.
During his time in Shiraz, Sadra began writing treatises that synthesized wide-ranging strands of existing Islamic systems of thought at Khan School. The ideas of his school, which may be seen as a continuation of the School of Isfahan of Mir Damad and Shaykh Baha', were promulgated after Sadra's death by his pupils, several of whom would become sought-after thinkers in their own right. Mulla Muhsin Fayd Kashani (Mulla Sadra's son-in-law) and 'Abd Razzak Lahidji are two of the notable pupils of Mulla Sadra.
Although Sadra's influence remained limited in the generations after his death, it increased markedly during the 19th century, when his ideas helped inspire a renewed Akhbari tendency within Twelver Shiʿism. In recent times, Sadra's works have been studied in Iran, Europe, and America. He died in Basra after performing the hajj and was buried in the present-day city of Najaf, Iraq.
The Transcendent Philosophy of the Four Journeys of the Intellect (Hikmat al-muta‘aliya fi-l-asfar al-‘aqliyya al-arba‘a), known as The Four Journeys, is an extended compendium of Islamic philosophy written by Mulla Sadra. In his compendium, Mulla Sadra attempted to prove the idea of the Unity of Existence by offering a new intake and perspective on Peripatetic (Aristotelian) philosophy that was offered by al-Farabi and Ibn Sina in the Islamic world. The book explains Sadra's philosophy of transcendent theosophy.
Mulla Sadra's transcendent theosophy drew from Kalam wisdom, Ishraqi philosophy and peripatetic philosophy.
Kalam is the foreshortened version of "'Ilm al-Kalam" which means "science of discourse". Kalam is sometimes called "Islamic scholastic theology" or "speculative theology". Kalam is the study of Islamic doctrine. Kalam was born out of the need to establish and defend the tenets of the Islamic faith against the philosophical doubters. The Arabic term Kalam means "speech, word, utterance" among other things. There are many possible interpretations as to why this discipline was originally so named. One such interpretation is derived from one of the most divisive controversies from the second and third centuries after the Hijra concerning whether the "Word of God" (Kalam Allah), as revealed in the Qur'an, is an eternal attribute of God and, therefore, not created as opposed to the argument that the words were "created" in the sense of ink and sounds and, therefore, are not eternal. A scholar of Kalam is referred to as a mutakallim (plural: mutakallimun), and it is a role distinguished from those of Islamic philosophers, jurists, and scientists.
In Arabic, the word "asfar" means "journey". Mulla Sadra indicated four journeys of man. The book is sometimes referred to as Asfar. It is also sometimes referred to as Hekmate Motaalyyah.
Asfar is representative of the greater part of Mulla Sadra's philosophical scholarship. In its nine volumes, Asfar examines the philosophical opinions of the different schools of Islamic philosophy. Indeed, the compendium actually acts as a history of Islamic philosophies.
Mulla Sadra's work considers the nature of reality. It strives to connect essentialism with existentialism. Mulla Sadra's existentialism concerns cosmology as it pertains to Allah.
In the first volume of Asfar, Mulla Sadra focuses solely on an analysis of the concept of wujud ("being") and quiddity ("essence"). The first volume has four "journeys". The first journey is concerned with the ontology or the doctrine of being. The second journey is concerned with substance and accidents. The third journey deals with God and the attributes of God and the fourth journey is about the soul of man and a discussion of man, his destiny, death and resurrection.
In the tenth section of the third journey of Asfar, Mulla Sadra expresses his opinion on the creation of world. He clarifies the meaning of the word "universe" and its place in time. Mulla Sadra says previous philosophers' premises and conclusions about the concept of eternity are correct. However, he says, the eternity of the world is not derived from them.
Mulla Sadra advocates a pantheistic doctrine of existence. He also says that God must have a pure existence. Mulla Sadra points out the differences in his conclusions on this topic compared to those of Ibn Sina (Avicenna).
The expression al-hikmat al-muta’aliyah comprises two terms: al-hikmat (meaning literally, wisdom; and technically, philosophy, and by contextual extension theosophy) and muta'aliyah (meaning "exalted" or "transcendent"), The school of Mulla Sadra in Islamic philosophy is usually called al-hikmat al-muta’āliyah because the doctrines of Mulla Sadra are both hikmat or theosophy in its original sense and an intellectual vision of the transcendent which leads to the Transcendent itself.
Mulla Sadra brought a new philosophical insight in dealing with the nature of reality and created a major transition from essentialism to existentialism in Islamic philosophy. A concept that lies at the heart of Mulla Sadra's philosophy is the idea of "existence precedes essence", a key foundational concept of existentialism. This was the opposite of the idea of "essence precedes existence" previously supported by Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and his school of Avicennism as well as Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi and his school of Illuminationism.
For Mulla Sadra, "existence precedes the essence" since something has to exist first and then have an essence. This is primarily the argument that lies at the heart of Mulla Sadra's philosophy. Mulla Sadra substituted a metaphysics of existence for the traditional metaphysics of essences, giving priority Ab initio to existence over quiddity.
Mulla Sadra initiated a revolution in the metaphysics of being by his thesis that there are no immutable essences, but that each essence is determined and variable according to the degree of intensity of its act of existence.
In Mulla Sadra's view reality is existence, in a variety of ways, and these different ways look to us like essences. What first affects us are things that exist and we form ideas of essences afterward, so existence precedes essence. This position is referred to as primacy of existence (in Arabic: isalat al-wujud).
Mulla Sadra's existentialism is therefore fundamentally different from Western existentialism, i.e. the existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre. Sartre said that human beings have no essence before their existence because there is no Creator, no God. This is the Western meaning of "existence precedes essence" as set forth in Sartre's existentialism.
Another central concept of Mulla Sadra's philosophy is the theory of "substantial motion" (al-harakat al-jawhariyyah), which is based on the premise that everything in the order of nature, including celestial spheres, undergoes substantial change and transformation as a result of the self-flow (fayd) and penetration of being (sarayan al-wujud) which gives every individual entity its share of being. In contrast to Aristotle and Ibn Sina (Avicenna) who had accepted change only in four categories, i.e., quantity (kamm), quality (kayf), position (wad') and place ('ayn), Sadra defines change as an all-pervasive reality running through the entire cosmos including the category of substance (jawhar). Heraclitus described a similar concept centuries earlier ("everything is in a state of flux"), while Gottfried Leibniz described a similar concept a century after Mulla Sadra's work.
Although existentialism as defined nowadays is not identical to Mulla Sadra's definition, Mulla Sadra was the first to introduce the concept. According to Mulla Sadra, "existence precedes the essence and is thus principal since something has to exist first and then have an essence." It is notable that for Mulla Sadra this was an issue that applied specifically to God and God's position in the universe, especially in the context of reconciling God's position in the Qur'an with the Greek-influenced cosmological philosophies of Islam's Golden Era.
Mulla Sadra's metaphysics gives priority to existence over essence. That is to say, essences are variable and are determined according to existential "intensity". Thus, essences are not immutable.
Indeed, Mulla Sadra provides immutability only to God, while intrinsically linking essence and existence to each other, and to God's power over existence. In so doing, he provided for God's authority over all things while also solving the problem of God's knowledge of particulars, including those that are evil, without being inherently responsible for them — even as God's authority over the existence of things provides the framework for evil to exist. This solution provides for freedom of will, God's supremacy, the infinite nature of God's knowledge, the existence of evil, and definitions of existence and essence that leave the two inextricably linked insofar as humans are concerned, but fundamentally separate insofar as God is concerned.
Perhaps most importantly, the primacy of existence provides the capacity for God's judgment without God being directly, or indirectly, affected by the evil being judged. God does not need to possess sin to know sin: God is able to judge the intensity of sin as God perceives existence.
Another central concept of Mulla Sadra's philosophy is the theory of "substantial motion" (In Arabic: al-harakat al-jawhariyyah), which is based on the premise that everything in the order of nature, including celestial spheres, undergoes substantial change and transformation as a result of the self-flow (sarayan al-wujud) and penetration of being (fayd) which gives every concrete individual entity its share of being. In contrast to Aristotle and Ibn Sina (Avicenna) who had accepted change only in four categories, i.e., quantity (kamm), quality (kayf), position (wad'), and place ('ayn), Sadra defines change as an all-pervasive reality running through the entire cosmos including the category of substance (jawhar).
Mulla Sadra held the view that Reality is Existence. He believed that an essence was by itself a general notion, and therefore does not, in reality, exist.
To paraphrase Fazlur Rahman on Mulla Sadra's Existential Cosmology: Existence is the one and only reality. Existence and reality are therefore identical. Existence is the all-comprehensive reality and there is nothing outside of it. Essences which are negative require some sort of reality to exist. Existence therefore cannot be denied. Therefore, existence cannot be negated. As Existence cannot be negated, it is self-evident that Existence is God. God should not be searched for in the realm of existence but is the basis of all existence. Reality in Arabic is "Al-Haq", and is stated in the Qur'an as one of the Names of God.
Mulla Sadra's Commemoration Day is annually held in Iran at the first of Khordad (the third month of the Solar Hijri calendar).
Mulla Sadra (Sadr al-Din Shirazi) (Ṣadr ad-Dīn Muḥammad Shīrāzī) (Molla Sadra) (Mollasadra) (Sadrol Mote'allehin) is also the author of Divine Manifestations (Al-Mazahir al-Ilahiyyah fi Asrar al-'Ulum al-Kamaliyyah). Divine Manifestations is Mulla Sadra's final work on divine metaphysics. Written at the request of his students who wanted a concise and accessible summary of his philosophy, Divine Manifestations exemplifies the rational theology Mulla Sadra is famed for espousing. In Divine Manifestations, Mulla Sadra addresses the most gripping topics in Islamic theology in a thoroughly thought-provoking manner. This work represents Mulla Sadra's ultimate metaphysical perspective: it is interwoven with his innovative Qur'anic interpretation and is replete with commentary on, and indirect criticism of, the orthodox theology of his day. Combining both scriptural and philosophical reasoning, Mulla Sadra discusses the existence of God, God's attributes, God's acts, the Resurrection, and the nature of the non-material worlds.
Mulla Sadra was born into a noble Persian family. His life coincided with the reign of Shah Abbas the First. During the reign of Shah Abbas, Shi‘ism and the propagation of Islamic law, philosophy, and theology reached its pinnacle in Iran. Mulla Sadra devoted himself to the study of the intellectual sciences -- in particular, the philosophies of Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Suhrawardi, and the Neoplatonists, especially Ibn ‘Arabi. His intense studies of philosophy intimidated some of the orthodox jurists who held much political power and who regarded philosophy as a heretical activity. Due to the hostility of the orthodoxy to his serious pursuit of philosophy by the studying and teaching of it, Mulla Sadra was forced to leave Isfahan, where he had been studying, and move to a small village outside of the city of Qom. In exile, Mulla Sadra spent twelve years in contemplation and ascetic practices, which led to the strengthening of his intellectual intuition (dhawq).
Mulla Sadra is important in the history of Islamic philosophy for several reasons. First, his work, in particular his magnum opus, the al-Afsar al-arba ‘ah (The Four Journeys of the Soul), is a compendium of the history of Islamic philosophy. Having presented the ideas of his predecessors in great detail, Mulla Sadra goes on to offer a thorough examination and critique of their philosophical ideas. Second, Mulla Sadra consolidated the School of Isfahan, which his teacher Mir Damad had established. This philosophical school was a turning point in the history of Islamic philosophy in Iran and produced some of the greatest masters of Islamic philosophy. The philosophical tradition of the School of Isfahan that was perfected by such masters as Mulla Sadra came to be known as “transcendental wisdom” (al-hikmat al-muti‘aliya), a rapprochement of discursive reasoning, intellectual intuition and practical wisdom.
Mulla Sadra wrote three distinct types of works: commentaries on the Qur’an and hadith, polemical works, and philosophical treatises. His commentaries on various verses of the Qur’an, such as the verses on light, is an indication of his esoteric reading of the scripture. He also wrote a monumental commentary on the sayings of the Shi‘ite Imams, bringing out their more esoteric aspects. His polemics are directed towards the anti-nomian Sufis -- the Sufis who believe that they are released by grace from their violations of the religious law. Finally, there are the philosophical writings of Mulla Sadra, most of which were written for the intellectual elite and the learned scholars who had sufficient training in traditional Islamic philosophy.
Theology, which by the time of Mulla Sadra was well developed, relied on the same vocabulary as that of the philosophers. Mulla Sadra takes note of the similarity in the use of technical terms by philosophers and theologians and of their methodologies. The second point Mulla Sadra alludes to is that Islamic theology is developed, not as an independent branch of intellectual sciences, but as a discipline that is primarily concerned with Islamic law.
Mulla Sadra, in his treatment of kalam, adopts a two-pronged approach, arguing against the theological methodology on the one hand while affirming the truth of the objectives of the theologians on the other. Mulla Sadra demonstrates how and why it is that theological arguments fail to prove their purported conclusions while at the same time he is careful not to question the validity of the theological beliefs. In his work on the problem of eternity versus creation in time and the problem of bodily resurrection, Mulla Sadra brings some of the controversial positions of philosophers closer to the views of the theologians.
Mulla Sadra retains the general structure of the Ibn Sinan philosophy that asserts the existence of the Necessary Being and the gradations of Being that emanate from the Necessary Being. However, he departs from Ibn Sina by putting more emphasis on the centrality of a personal insight leading to the discoveries of the immutable principles of philosophy. It is precisely these experiences that serve as the foundation upon which Sadrian philosophy is established. Whereas Ibn Sinan principles are derived from discursive philosophy and his logic is based on rationalization of philosophical categories, Mulla Sadra’s “logic of transcendence” is derived from his mots -- his witty remarks -- inward and his noetic -- formal -- insight. Mulla Sadra refers to these principles as the “Principles of Oriental Philosophy” (Qa‘ida Mashraqiyah) and “Transcendental Principles” (Qa‘ida Laduniya).
Mulla Sadra was profoundly influenced by the mystics of Islam, both by theoretical and practical dimensions of Sufism. With regard to theoretical Sufism, Mulla Sadra was highly influenced by Ibn ‘Arabi, the great Andalusian mystic. In fact, a great number of the technical terminologies that Mulla Sadra uses are borrowed from Ibn ‘Arabi and his massive commentary upon Islamic gnosticism. In particular, Mulla Sadra finds Ibn ‘Arabi’s treatment of such issues as human understanding of the experience of the divine and the various problems associated with that understanding to be quite illuminating.
As to the practical aspects of the Sufi path, Mulla Sadra endorses asceticism as part of the path of knowledge while he rejects the excesses and the antinomian practices of the Sufis.
Mulla Sadra divides knowledge into two types -- that which is learned by sense perception or instruction and that which is learned through intellectual intuition, a mode of knowledge marked by directness and the absence of mediation. The knowledge that is learned through the senses or instruction itself is divided into the traditional divisions of knowledge most commonly held by the Peripatetics, namely, theoretical and practical. The theoretical sciences consist of logic, mathematics, natural philosophy, and metaphysics; practical wisdom includes ethics, politics, and economics.
Mulla Sadra goes on to subdivide the sciences, leading to a unified theory of knowledge, which despite the multiplicity of different branches of knowledge leads the intellect to that knowledge of unity that lies at the heart of Sadrian philosophy. This view of knowledge (hikmah) integrates various modes of knowing, including that of practical wisdom, since knowledge for Mulla Sadra is not only informative but also transformative.
Mulla Sadra, whose encyclopedic knowledge of Islamic philosophy provided him with the basis for illuminating analyses of the philosophical ideas of his predecessors, makes three major contributions to the field of Islamic philosophy. They include (1) his commentary on Being, leading to the Doctrine of the Unity of Being, (2) his account of the occurrence of change in motion, known as “Substantial Motion,” and (3) his theory of the unity of the knower, the known, and knowledge itself.
Mulla Sadra takes issue with Suhrawardi, the founder of the School of Illumination, and his own teacher Mir Damad, reversing their scheme based on the principality of essence (mahiyyah) over existence (wujud). He argues that existence is the primary and principal aspect of an existent being and that essences are accidents of Being. Furthermore, Existence or Being (which for most of the Islamic philosophers, including Mulla Sadra, are the same) has an independent existence, whereas essences are contingent upon Being and therefore without a reality of their own.
Regarding the classical divisions of Being, Mulla Sadra accepts Ibn Sina’s division of Being into necessary, contingent, and impossible. Mulla Sadra also elaborates on copulative and non-copulative Being. Copulative Being is that which connects the subject to the predicate such as in “Socrates is a philosopher.” The term “is” here has a twofold function -- a copulative one, which connects the adjective of being a philosopher to Socrates, and a second one, namely, the existential function, which alludes to the existence of an existent being, in this case Socrates. Mulla Sadra, who is interested in the latter use of “is,” argues that “is” in the corporeal world is always copulative except for the Being of God, who is pure and without essences.
Mulla Sadra accepts Plato’s concept of archetypes as the “master of species” (arbab al-anwa’). According to Mulla Sadra, the corporeal world as a level of Being derives its characteristics from the archetypal world. The separation of the corporeal world from its archetypal world leads to the principle of “the possibility of that which is superior” (Qa‘ida imkan al-ashraf), a principle for which Mulla Sadra is known. This principle entails that for everything that journeys from the imperfect to perfect in the material world, there is its cosmic counterpart in the incorporeal world.
Mulla Sadra’s criticism of the Illuminationists goes beyond the priority and principality of existence over essence and includes the theory of hylomorphism -- the theory that physical objects result from the combination of matter and form. Accordingly, matter manifests itself in various domains of existence according to the ontological status of each level. Whereas the world of objects is immersed in the lowest level of matter, the soul belongs to a higher level of matter suitable for it. This process continues until it culminates in the intelligible world, where realities are completely free from matter.
Mulla Sadra is unique in the history of Islamic philosophy in that he allows for motion to exist in substance (al-harakat al-jawhariyyah). This is a deviation from Ibn Sina (Avicenna), who considered motion in substance to lead to a continuous change and the loss of that which constitutes the identity of a thing.
Mulla Sadra uses a number of arguments in support of his theory of the existence of motion in substance. When an apple has become ripe, it is not only the accidents that have changed, but the substance of the apple must have changed as well. In fact, when a potentiality becomes actualized, Mulla Sadra argues, it signifies a change both in accidents and in substance. Mulla Sadra states that for every change that occurs in accident, there has to be a corresponding change in substance, for accidents depend on their substance for their properties. Therefore, change in an apple is an example of the created order and signifies several points: first, that the world is like a river that is constantly in a state of flux; second, change occurs out of necessity and nothing remains the same except God; third, this change is not an accident in the universe, but is part of its very nature. This change, according to Mulla Sadra, acts as a force that moves the universe towards becoming; becoming is fundamentally a spiritual journey that all beings yearn for and accounts for both the ripening of an apple as well as for the yearning of the human being for transcendence.
Mulla Sadra uses the notion of Substantial Motion to shed light on the concept of time. For Mulla Sadra, as for Aristotle, time is the quantity of motion, except that for Mulla Sadra the change in quantity is the quantity of change in substance. Time is not to be viewed only quantitatively but has an ontological aspect as well. Motion in substance is also the measurement of the perfection and therefore has a purpose and direction, and carries a sense of necessity with it.
The fact that all things are in motion and that motion goes from less perfect to more perfect is an indication for Mulla Sadra that the entire universe is yearning for the ultimate perfection -- yearning for God. This view also means that, in some sense, the universe is conscious of its own state of being and yearns for an eventual unity with its origin. Since Substantial Motion also means that the identity of the object in question is always changing, Mulla Sadra concludes that this type of motion brings about a type of creation at every given moment. In other words, God through Substantial Motion creates the universe instantaneously at every moment. The Reality of God manifests itself through creation, which then goes through successive creations.
What Mulla Sadra was trying to achieve was to bring about a rapprochement between the Peripatetic who argued for the eternity of the world and the theologian view who insisted on creation ex nihilo. According to Mulla Sadra, the world, as an extension of God, has always existed, but yet it was created in time that ceases to exist, and is then recreated.
The unity of the knower, the known, and knowledge is deeply embedded in the Sadrian philosophy. Since God’s essence and Being are the same and all things emanate from God, God is at once the knower, the known, and the knowledge.
From the above it follows that in order for any person to achieve a similar status, one has to achieve unity with God. The reverse is also true: anyone who attains the knowledge of unity is in his or her very being the knower, the known, and the knowledge; in knowing unity, one has become unified. It is for this reason that Mulla Sadra’s al-Asfar al-arba ‘ah (the Four Journeys of the Soul) alludes to the spiritual journey of the soul from the time that it departs from God until it achieves unity once again.
Mulla Sadra not only offers complex philosophical arguments but also uses gnostic imagery as a mirror representing Divine Essence within which God witnesses the essence of all things. Although Mulla Sadra never explicitly states that unity with God is the necessary condition of knowledge, the thrust of his philosophy is such that this notion is implied.
Mulla Sadra and his teachings were a turning point in the history of Islamic philosophy. One of the greatest achievements of Mulla Sadra was the training of several students who themselves became masters of Islamic philosophy and propagators of Sadrian philosophy. Among Mulla Sadra's disciples are ‘Abd al-Razzaq Lahiji, Mulla Muhsin Fayd Kashani, and Qadi Sa‘id Qummi.
Sadrian philosophy, which had gone through a period of decline, was once again revived in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Iran by such notable figures as Sabziwari, Ali Nuri, Ahsa’i, and the Zunuzi family. The teaching of Mulla Sadra and his students was well received by the Islamic philosophers of the subcontinent of India, and some of his books became the official texts of traditional schools. Islamic philosophy today in Iran and the eastern parts of the Islamic world is still under the influence of Mulla Sadra and his teachings.
Some of the major ideas fostered by Mulla Sadra include the following:
* There is a unity of Being.
* Being has an independent existence, whereas essences are contingent upon Being and are without a reality of their own.
* There is motion in substance.
* Becoming is a spiritual journey from the less perfect to the more perfect.
* God is the ultimate perfection.
* There is a unity of the knower, the known, and knowledge.
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A Partial Bibliography
Bloch, Ernst (2019). Avicenna and the Aristotelian Left, New York City, New York: Columbia University Press.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripatetic_school
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mulla-Sadra
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