The outcome of man's enthusiasm for moving towards perfection is triggering a change in the nature of appetite and anger faculties and their turning into luminous faculties. In a wayfarer, appetite turns the difficulty of wayfaring and ascetic practice into pleasure.[1] It also changes the violence of anger into hatred of sins and obstacles on the way towards perfection. Moreover, instead of a Peripatetic version of balance, which is negative and prevents other faculties from indulging in excessive and dangerous acts, it creates an affirmative balance. In other words, the anger and appetite faculties provide two wings for a transcendent human being provoking and helping his rational soul to pursue his substantial wayfaring towards his divine source and end. This difference between the Peripatetic and Transcendent philosophies is too great to be ignored.
Mulla Sadra has derived the balance point between Aristotelian positive and negative extremes out of a psychological hypothesis and granted it a philosophical form. In contrast, Aristotle sees the balance point between the maximum (strongest) and the minimum (weakest) not a type or degree of the appetite or anger faculty and inside either of them but a kind of freedom from them.[2]
For example, Aristotle refers to the balance between two vices of "self-indulgence" and "frigidity" as chastity and virtue. However, Mulla Sadra calls it self-freedom and the soul's power and control for being free from the prison of lust and appetite.
In Mulla Sadra's school, "wisdom" is the same voluntary human behavior and ability that enables him to dominate his instincts and free himself and his rational faculty from the chains of the two faculties of appetite and wrath. It is also the intermediary between excessive behavior and extravagance, on the one hand, and negligence in using natural faculties, on the other hand.
That is why observing the rules of wisdom promotes man from the level of animality to the peak of humanity. In Plato's words, it leads man from the horizon of nature to the "horizon of the intellect" and is called ethics. "Purification" and "piety" in the language of the Qur'an and hadith also refer to observing wisdom at all levels of life, which is a dynamic conduct all through one's life rather than the static point indicated in the Peripatetic ethics.
In Mulla Sadra's school, life - which is man's bed of ethics - is the same trans-substantial, dynamic, scientific, and epistemological motion and not something dependent on body temperature, heart beats, and blood-circulation. Here, life is defined based on two pillars of theory and act.
Man's knowledge and his understanding of the world and its realities prepare him for doing good acts and developing good ethical behaviors and habits. They also grant him practical perfection and turn him into a scientific world corresponding to the objective world. The practical wisdom obtained from this theoretical wisdom and employment of those worthy habits pave the way towards happiness, perfection, and luminosity for a wise human being.
By adopting the word "transactions" (mu'amilat) from Ghazzali, Mulla Sadra maintains that ethics is the heritage of transactions. This is because when people move ahead in such transactions (practical wisdom) following their own free will and intentions, some habits (in the sense of fixed behavioral moulds) are formed in their nature and some virtues are offered to them that guide them upwards to the level of generous and wise human beings.[3]
In addition to the element of free will in human beings as a means for attaining virtue, Mulla Sadra refers to another element which is the divine emanation. This element is given as a gift to human beings and is the same as divine success and confirmation.
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As we see, unlike Aristotle, Mulla Sadra does not see virtue to be an outcome of maintaining balance between the two levels of over-indulgence and negligence in employing the appetite or anger faculty. Rather, he argues that true virtue, like the trans-substantial motion of matter, is dynamic and gradable, and each level of which is a virtue comparing to its previous level.
Family Administration in the Transcendent Philosophy
Wisdom, which begins with thinking, theorizing, and rationality (and is called theoretical wisdom) leads to practical wisdom through a natural and inevitable relation. This is because the human nature, and even that of other intelligent beings, acquires the knowledge of nature and employs it in practice to its own benefit. For example, by knowing about the nature of fire, he tries to avoid its threatening aspects. Accordingly, any philosopher in the real sense of the word seeks to systematize his own affairs and the human society. Of course, in order to organize society, one should start from its smallest unit, that is, family.
Sociologists believe that family is the cornerstone of a society. Thus if we wish to establish a firm and desirable society, we should first form a solid and unshakable family. Therefore, following the divine nature and being inspired by the divine religion, after ethics, which is at the core of self-making and preparing for managing the family and society, philosophers have devoted an important place to family management or the so-called household administration[4] and tried to clarify the significance of the solidity of family constitution.
In the holy and divine Shari'ah, as well as in other heavenly religions, self-making is accomplished through performing certain tasks, such as saying prayers, fasting, alms giving, going on Hajj pilgrimage, and participating in jihad or Holy War, and studying ethics. The administration of family, political society, and small and big communities is done through observing jurisprudential rules. Such rules discuss the relationships among people, different commercial transactions, and commitments, on the one hand, and the laws of managing societies regarding political affairs, international relationships, judicial affairs, market rules, punishment, and penal affairs, on the other hand. That is why the divine religions and the Prophet's legacy can be considered to be the origin and source of practical wisdom.
The family, whether of the nuclear type (in its sociological sense) or in its "extended form", which sometimes results in the development of big communities such as tribes, depends on two important bases: the man or the father and the woman or the mother of the family. On a large scale, the father is known as the head of the tribe or the council of Shayks (the grey-bearded men of the tribe). The concept of family includes different levels, ranging from the small and nuclear family to the big national family.
The pair of a man and woman, who have been created for each other, in addition to their natural role of reproduction and preservation of the next generation, have to take on the duty of training their children and preparing them for entering the society and conforming themselves with it. Accordingly, based on the division of social tasks in a family, the man and woman have their own specific shares in performing this duty.
In a religious and Islamic family, the relationships between the husband and wife is not merely a legal and bilateral one. Rather, it has three pillars with the third one being the presence of God and His permanent supervision of this legal, psychological, and ethical relationship. Thus a family is like a triangle the apex of which is Almighty God, and the two angles along whose base are the husband and wife. This tripartite relationship is necessary for the stability of a desirable family. The duty of devising laws for married life, supervising it, and judging its related problems belongs to Almighty God; the management of the affairs outside the house is with men, and the management of internal affairs is with women. However, their common affairs are managed based on counseling with each other and mutual agreement and satisfaction, as well as God's satisfaction. In sum, a family is run on the basis of a series of the aforementioned tasks and bilateral relationships between the three sides of this triangle, including those between husband and wife, those between wife, God, and her duties, and those between the husband, God, and his own duties. From another point of view and based on a dhawqi interpretation, we can call the man the head of the family and the woman its heart. This is because the survival of the heart depends on the head's administration, and the survival of the head (brain) depends on heartbeats. These two elements are the origins of each other's spiritual life and the bases underlying the stability of family structure and sustenance of household affairs. In other words, house is a small city the head of which is the man, and the internal manager of which and the man's assistant is the woman.
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Abstracts
A Critical Study of Fayyadi's Formulation of 'Allamah Tabataba'i's Argument of the Righteous
The argument of the righteous (burhan-i siddiqin) is the name of a kind of argument in which the middle term is the absolute being or reality itself. 'Allamah Tabataba'i has a specific interpretation of this argument that has been formulated in different ways. In this paper, the writer explains Fayyadi's formulation of 'Allamah Tabataba'i's argument of the righteous and then criticizes it. Here, the writer also demonstrates that this formulation is in contrast to the surface meaning of 'Allamah's words. Moreover, he argues that it has remained essentially unfinished and cannot be considered a successful interpretation of the argument of the righteous.
Key Terms
argument of the righteous 'Allamah Tabataba'i
Fayyadi philosophical theology
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An Introspective Analysis of Faith in Mulla Sadra's Interpretation of the Qur'an
Although faith constitutes the core of religious discussions, it holds its specific place in interpretive and kalami-philosophical discussions, and different scholars have dealt with it from different perspectives. Mulla Sadra also tackled the central problem of faith in his interpretation. He founded his philosophical system, the Transcendent Philosophy, based on a thorough examination of various Islamic philosophical trends. However, in his interpretation, he was in a better position to provide a comprehensive view of this topic. The analysis of faith in Mulla Sadra's interpretation manifests his transcendent approach. Here, the writer explores Mulla Sadra's methodology in this regard.
Given the kalami origin of the problem of faith, Mulla Sadra initially examines various kalami and religious views of this issue based on three kalami features: assent by heart, verbal affirmation, and practical action. From among them, he only sees assent by heart as a factor involved in the nature of faith. At the final stage, he presents a fundamental and transcendent analysis of faith in which he considers it an introspective truth and treats it like other inner affairs. This analysis consists of four parts: In the first one, faith is examined with respect to three areas of knowledge, state, and practice. In the second and third parts, by separating the two "initiation" and "return" processes, he explores the quality of the successive order of these two processes with regard to each other and acknowledges the superiority of the process of return and, as a result, knowledge. At the final stage, he distinguishes "transactive knowledge" from "unveiled knowledge" and considers the acquisition of unveiled knowledge as the main purpose of knowledge seekers.
Key Terms
Mulla Sadra Mulla Sadra's interpretation
faith assent by heart
introspective analysis processes of initiation and return
transactive knowledge unveiled knowledge
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A Comparison of the Views of 'Allamah Tabataba'i and Mulla Sadra about Corporeal Resurrection
In the Islamic philosophical-kalami tradition, corporeal resurrection has always been one of the most complicated problems. In fact, the philosophers and mutikallimun before Mulla Sadra either failed to explain it or provided an irrational explanation for it. Following Mulla Sadra's presentation of a rational account of corporeal resurrection, which was in conformity with Shar' (religious law), most of the philosophers after him agreed with his theory. Nevertheless, some scholars who did not find his interpretation in conformity with Shar' expressed their disagreement with his view. Here, 'Allamah Tabataba'i, as an advocate of the Transcendent Philosophy, has said nothing about the quality of corporeal resurrection explicitly. Accordingly, some consider him an opponent of Sadrian corporeal resurrection, while some others consider him a follower of Mulla Sadra in this regard.
A study of 'Allamah Tabataba'i's epistemological geometry manifests the truth that he believed in the notion of corporeal resurrection as intended by Mulla Sadra. This is because, firstly, the philosophical, interpretive, and gnostic principles of 'Allamah Tabataba'i and Mulla Sadra are in agreement with each other. Secondly, 'Allamah has expressed neither any disagreement with Mulla Sadra's theory of corporeal resurrection nor any agreement with that of others.
Key Terms
corporeal resurrection philosophical principles
interpretive principles gnostic principles
Mulla Sadra 'Allamah Tabataba'i
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Explanation of Gnostic Theophanic Locutions in the Epistemology of the Transcendent Philosophy
Ambiguity and contradiction of expression are among the most important features of gnostic theophanic locutions in the field of epistemology. In Mulla Sadra's view, the clarity or ambiguity of gnostic intuition is directly related to the extent of the gnostic's soulish gradedness and sincerity of innermost in the process of the union of the intellect and intelligible and Shar'i ascetic practice. Accordingly, he sees the rise of ambiguity in intuition as a product of the lack of gradedness of the gnostic's soul and also the lack of Shar'i ascetic practices, which leads to possible manipulations of affirmation and errors and diversions in this process. Regarding the problem of contradiction, based on his ontological principles, Mulla Sadra considers theophanic locutions a contradictory category due to their inclusion of their claims of immanence and unity with God's essence, which necessitate duality in the essence of external objects. Based on the features mentioned above, he explicitly introduces theophanic locutions as the plight of religion and religious beliefs. However, based on his own epistemological principles, he tries to exonerate the gonstics believing in the Unity of Being, such as Bayazid and Hallaj, from this charge. On the basis of the tasha'un (modes) relationship between the Truth and creation, Mulla Sadra believes that these gnostics' experience of annihilation means forgetting themselves and their I-ness or egoism and paying their complete attention to God's Essence. The probable shortcoming of theophanic locutions lies in the fact that these gnostics have experienced the highest level of the union of the intellect and intelligible, which necessitates the same union by essence and by accident. However, such an experience cannot be qualified with unity and immanence, which are the basic features of sufis' theophanic locutions.
Key Terms
theophanic locution intuition
contradiction annihilation
unity
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A Study of the Relationship between the World of Pre-Existence and Platonic Ideas in Mulla Sadra
Ali Muhammed Sajedi[5] and Maryam Soleimani[6]
According to al-I'raf Chapter: 172 of the Qur'an, known as verse of Mithaq (pledge), before his presence in this world, man had witnessed in an immaterial, simple, and all-intuitive realm some pure truths, following which he acknowledged the divinity of his God. However, after his fall in the human world and attachment to the body and cover of nature, he buried those pure jewels in worldly oblivion. This point is manifested in the works of Plato, the Greek divine philosopher, in his theory of the "Ideas" and the "theory of reminiscence". The question rising here is: Can we find a relationship between the world of pledge (world of pre-existence) and Platonic Ideas, which have played an important role in explaining the differentiated knowledge of Almighty Truth of other than Him?
The present research investigates the view of Mulla Sadra, the founder of the Transcendent Philosophy, in this regard following a descriptive-analytic method and intends to provide his response to the above question. In his view, the quality of man's presence in that world was like the presence of his soul (spirit) in the world of intellects or the world of divine knowledge before its attachment to the body. At this level of being, he enjoys intellectual unity and all particular plural souls in an epitomized and simple form.
Therefore, in Mulla Sadra's view, the world of pre-existence is the divine area (world of divine knowledge). Based on this idea, he justifies the theory of reminiscence and equates the world of pledge with Platonic Ideas. It is necessary to note that Mulla Sadra initially explains the theory of Platonic Ideas based on his own philosophical principles (particularly the principles of the principiality, unity, and gradedness of being) and then, as discussed in this paper, confirms it as an indication of the world of pre-existence.
Key Terms
Plato Mulla Sadra
world of pre-existence Platonic Ideas
immutable essences intellectual configuration
theory of reminiscence
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Corporeality of other than God in Islamic Kalam
Islamic kalam is the fruit of the efforts of early mutikallimun in the history of Islam. From among the main teachings of Islamic kalam, the immateriality of God, on the one hand, and corporeality of what is other than Him, on the other, enjoy particular importance. They are in fact two of the few issues that are almost shared by all kalami schools, especially those in early Hijri centuries. The Mu'tazilite, Shi'ite, Ash'arite, and other kalami schools of thought all agree with the immateriality of God and corporeality of other than Him. This unanimity is rooted in their religiosity since they believe that attributing "immateriality" to other than God may undermine the foundations of God's Oneness and weaken the pillars of theology. Accordingly, mutikallimun introduce what is other than God as corporeal things (whether subtle or dense) and consider the "immaterial" to be a perfect truth and an absolute needless being.
This theory is the basis of some major kalami teachings. The negation of anthropomorphism and immaterial worlds (such as the world of intellects) is among the negative aspects of this view, while the corporeality of angels, createdness of the world, annihilation of the world, and corporeal resurrection are among its affirmative aspects.
Key Terms
mutikallimun school of corporeality
createdness of the world annihilation of the world
corporeal resurrection immaterialityy
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Ontological Principles of Mulla Sadra's Anthropology
This paper is intended to investigate the effects of Mulla Sadra's most important philosophical principles on his anthropological discussions. In line with this purpose, the writers have presented six philosophical principles which Mulla Sadra has employed in explaining ontological issues, and almost 20 of such issues have been discussed based on these six principles.
The writers have initially explained each of these principles in short and referred to the important points in relation to each of them. Then they have examined their places and applications in anthropological discussions from Mulla Sadra's point of view. As a result, they have argued that he has philosophically analyzed and explained many anthropological problems based on his own ontological principles and succeeded in establishing a profound relationship between his own particular principles in philosophical ontology and anthropological discussions (so far as they can claim that the basic principles of Mulla Sadra's anthropology are based on the principiality of existence). Moreover, the writers hold that, based on this particular relationship, he has managed to remove many of the intricacies and difficulties of anthropological problems which some philosophers have failed to solve or presented certain contradictory ideas about. They emphasize that he has even revealed some novel and innovative dimensions of anthropological discussions. Besides, by clarifying the relationship between Mulla Sadra's anthropological discussions and ontology, the writers have also explained his claim as to man's being the essence of existence (based on ontological principles) in this paper.
Key Terms
principiality of existence gradation
trans-substantial motion soull
intellect and intelligible anthropology
[1]]. Perhaps the famous Epicurean school, which sees pleasure as essence, refers to the same idea.
[2]. Mulla Sadra, al-Asfar, supervised by Professor Seyyed Mohammed Khamenei, edited by Reza Akbarian, vol. 9, p. 116, Sadra Islamic Philosophy Research Institute.
[3]. Mulla Sadra, Kasr al-asnam al-jahiliyyah, supervised by Professor Seyyed Mohammed Khamenei, edited by Mohsen Jahangiri, p. 78, Tehran: Sadra Islamic Philosophy Research Institute, 2002.
[4]. Economia in Greek, from which the word economy has been derived.
* Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Kalam, Research Institute of Hawzah and University, e-mail: shirvani@rihu.ac.ir
** Assistant Professor at Hakim Sabzivari University, e-mail: alavismk@yahoo.com
*** Associate Professor, Islamic Azad University, Fasa Branch, e-mail: mohseneizadi@yahoo.com
**** Associate Professor at the Department of Islamic Philosophy, Islamic Azad University, Bandar Abbas Branch, e-mail: mnejati1361@yahoo.com. This paper reports on a research funded by the Research Office of Islamic Azad University, Bandar Abbas Branch.
[5]. Assistant Professor at Shiraz University, corresponding author, e-mail: msajedi@roze.shirazu.ac.ir
[6]. MA in Islamic Philosophy and Kalam, Shiraz University.
[7]. PhD in Islamic Philosophy and Kalam, Islamic Azad University, Tehran-Science and Research Branch, corresponding author, e-mail:ghojavand@yahoo.com
[8]. Assistant Professor at the Department of Islamic Philosophy and Kalam, Islamic Azad University, Tehran-Science and Research Branch.
[9]. Associate Professor, Theology Department of Isfahan University.
[10].MA in Islamic Philosophy, Isfahan University, corresponding author, email: cdkf.Isdfd@yahoo.co.in