Immateriality of Imagination in the Transcendent Philosophy

One of the most important issues in the field of Islamic philosophy and gnosis is the problem of imagination. This is because the world of imagination is the highway of unveiling and intuition in gnosis, and midway between the world of immateriality and the world of nature in philosophy. One of the books in which the writer has dealt with and discussed the category of imagination from a gnostic and philosophical point of view, particularly, from that of the Transcendent Philosophy, is the book Immateriality of Imagination in the Transcendent Philosophy.

This book consists of six chapters. In the first chapter, the writer briefly explores the world of imagination in accordance to the view of its founder, Ibn Arabi. In the second, the principles of Mulla Sadra's philosophy are propounded so that the place of the immateriality of imagination is recognized in his system of thoughts. The third chapter discusses imagination in the arc of descent and the process of ontological development, and the fourth deals with man's soul in the arc of ascent. Here, it is considered to be a compound faculty of imagination that is capable of promoting its rider from a potential material mode to the highest level of the Names and Attributes of God. That is why the nature, function, and place of imagination are examined in this chapter.

In the fifth chapter, Mulla Sadra's use of the immateriality of imagination as the master key to removing some philosophical intricacies such as mental existence, intermediate existence, and corporeal resurrection is explained. Finally, in the sixth chapter, the writer deals with the intermediary role of the perfect man as a supreme and perfect example of intermediary station. She also explores certain categories such as revelation, inspiration and epistemological illuminations of perfect man's creative imagination, and the actualization of the divine will at the level of divine vicegerency or the most supreme level of epistemological ascent in the perfect man's motion towards the station of annihilation in God and surviving through God.

The book Immateriality of Imagination in the Transcendent Philosophy by Dr. Maryam Sani'pur has been published in 198 pages by the Sadra Islamic Philosophy Institute.