Al-Hikmat al-muta'aliyyah fi al-asfar al-arba'ah, vol. 7

The contents of this book, which is the seventh volume of the nine-volume series of al-Asfar, have been organized in four mawqifs (from the 7^th to 10^th mawqif). The seventh is on Almighty Necessary's being a Speaker and a study of God's Words and Book and the differences between them. This part consists of 15 chapters.

All Islamic scholars are unanimous considering. God's being a Speaker; however, there are some disagreements as to its quality among theological groups and Islamic philosophers. The Imamite and Mu'tazilite theologians maintained that language is among actual attributes, thus it is created and depends on the other. God's speaking takes place through creating sounds and letters in a place such as on a tree. The Hanbalites believed that God's words consist of a series of sounds and letters that are dependent on Him and are eternal and pre-eternal. They even believe that the cover of the Qur'an is pre-eternal. The Karamiyyah believed that God's language consists of some created sounds and letters which depend on God's essence. The Ash'arites believed in the "language of the soul" and considered it to be simple and dependent on God's Essence.

Mulla Sadra agrees with the ideas of neither the Ash'arites nor the Mu'tazilites in this regard. In his view, the truth of God's language consists of, rather, perfect words and the sending down of firm and metaphorical verses in the guise of words and phrase.

In the rest, from the eight to tenth mawqif, he discusses God's grace and the spread of the Necessary's blessing among all existents and issues such as good and bad, destiny and providence, emanation and innovation, the demonstration of rational forms in separation from matter, the subsistence and pre-eternity of the generosity and emanation power of the First Origin, and the continuity of His emanation.

The seventh volume of al-Asfar, with glosses by Sabziwari and edition, research, and Introduction by Dr. Maqsud Muhammedi, has been published under the supervision of Professor Seyyed Mohammed Khamenei, along with various indexes of the cited verses, hadiths, poems, etc., in 536 pages by the Sadra Islamic Philosophy Institute.