Mullā Ṣadrā’s Arrivers in the Heart (al-Wāridāt al-Qalbiyya)

It is increasingly difficult after Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) to differentiate the aims of the Sufis from those of the philosophers. Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1050/1640) offers a fine example of a thinker who synthesized the Sufi and philosophical methodologies in his voluminous writings. In Arrivers in the Heart he combines the precision of philosophical reasoning with the recognition (maʿrifa) of God and self that was central to the concerns of the Sufi teachers. In forty “effusions” (fayḍ) of mostly rhymed prose, he provides epitomes of many of the themes that he addresses in his long books. These include the concept and reality of existence, the Divine Essence and Attributes, God’s omniscience, theodicy, eschatology, the worlds of the cosmos, spiritual psychology, divine and human love, disciplining the soul, and the nature of human perfection.

A Mughal Treatise on Essence and Existence

This article presents an annotated translation of The Equivalence between Giving and Receiving (al-Taswiya bayna al-ifāda wa-l-qabūl), a short Arabic treatise on essence (dhāt) and existence (wujūd) composed by the South Asian philosopher-Sufi Shaykh Muḥibb Allāh Ilāhābādī (996–1058/1587–1648). Although modern scholarship has habitually referred to Muḥibb Allāh as an ardent defender of the doctrine of waḥdat al-wujūd (“unity of existence”) associated with the figure of Ibn al-ʿArabī, such generalized formulations fail to do justice to the uniqueness of Muḥibb Allāh’s intellectual contributions. Most authors who had set out to provide a philosophical defense of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s teachings – including the well-known likes of Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī, ʿAfīf al-Dīn al-Tilimsānī, ʿAbd al-Razzāq Kāshānī, Dāwud al-Qayṣarī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī, Mullā Ṣadrā, and so on – had tended to prioritize a philosophically utilizable formulation of wujūd or “existence.” Muḥibb Allāh, in notable contrast, favors a presentation of the divine Reality in terms of “pure essence/quiddity” (dhāt/māhiyya maḥḍa), at times going to considerable lengths to uphold his alternative formulation. Such a strategy of argumentation is uncommon amongst philosophical defenders of Ibn al-ʿArabī, the distinctiveness of which is further enhanced by Muḥibb Allāh’s peculiar mode of disputation, which straddles the line between metaphysics and natural philosophy/physics. The Taswiya occasioned at least sixteen commentaries and refutations; this translation benefits from consulting the earliest of these, composed by Mullā Maḥmūd al-Jawnpūrī (d. 1062/1652) and Khwāja Khwurd (d. 1073/1663), as well as three later commentaries by Ḥabīb Allāh Paṭnaʾī (d. 1140/1728). Most significantly, this translation makes extensive use of Muḥibb Allāh’s own Persian auto-commentary, the Sharḥ-i taswiya, which is a critical aid for deciphering the author’s at times opaque manner of expression and argumentation.

Considering Divine Providence in Mullā Ṣadrā Šīrāzī (d. 1045/1636): The Problem of Evil, Theodicy, and the Divine Eros

Despite the extensive work on the Safavid thinker Mullā Ṣadrā Šīrāzī (d. 1045/1636) nowadays in metropolitan academia, certain areas of philosophical and theological concern remain understudied, if studied at all – and even then, there is little attempt to consider his work in the light of philosophical analysis. We know of a venerable philosophical tradition of analysing the question of providence as a means for examining questions of creation (ex nihilo or otherwise), the problem of evil, determinism and free will, and the larger question of theodicy (and whether this world that we inhabit is indeed the ‘best of all possible worlds’). I propose to examine these questions through an analysis of a section of the theology in al-Asfār al-arbaʿa (The Four Journeys) of Mullā Ṣadrā (mawqif VIII of safar III) and juxtapose it with passages from his other works, all the while contextualising it within the longer Neoplatonic tradition of providence and evil. The section of the Asfār plays a pivotal role in outlining a wider theory of divine providence: following the analysis of the Avicennian proof for the existence of God as the Necessary Being and her attributes, and before the culmination on the emanative scheme of creation (or the incipience of the cosmos – ḥudūṯ al-ʿālam), Mullā Ṣadrā discusses the question of divine providence where one can clearly discern the influence of previous thinkers on him, namely Avicenna (d. 428/1037, al-Šifāʾ and Risālat al-ʿišq) al-Ġazālī (d. 505/ 1111, Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn), and Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240, al-Futūḥāt al-makkīya). The section can be divided into four discussions: defining providence as well as the nature of good and evil, accounting for the ‘presence’ of evil in the cosmos, the ‘best of all possible worlds’, and erotic motion of the cosmos as well as the erotic attraction of humans for one another and back to their Origin. What emerges, however, is an account of providence that is subservient to Mullā Ṣadrā’s wider ontological commitment to the primary reality of being, its modulation and essential motion – the tripartite doctrines of aṣālat al-wuǧūd, taškīk al-wuǧūd and al-ḥaraka al-ǧawharīya – and fits within his overall approach to the procession of the cosmos from the One as a divine theophany and its reversion back to the One through theosis. Thus, an analysis of providence and evil demonstrates that underlying significance of Mullā Ṣadrā’s metaphysical commitments to a modulated monism.

Konsep Al-‘Ilm dalam Studi Pemikiran Filsafat Mulla Sadra

This paper is a literature review of Mulla Sadra's thoughts on the concept of ilm al-ilahī to complement the western epistemological discourse which is considered to eliminate the spiritual aspect in philosophy. This paper aims to explain the meaning, purpose, and urgency of Ilm al-Ilahī to add paradigms and individual behavior in Mulla Sadra's perspective by referring to one of his magnum opus entitled al-Hikmah al-Mutāliyah fī al-Asfār al-Aqliyyah al-Arba'ah. . By using the philosophical descriptive method, it is concluded that al-'Ilm al-Ilah' in Mulla Sadra's philosophical systematics explains the significance of the paradigm and individual behavior to achieve ultimate perfection through the actuality of the soul. The soul in Mulla Sadra's view is the substance of human existence that experiences a movement from potential to actuality by involving the existence of reason and the five senses as the basic building of Islamic epistemology. The result of this paper is that the western epistemological discourse has not yet explained spiritual knowledge in human existence, while Mulla Sadra's significant role is to complete it by adding the spiritual side that is neglected in western discourse.Abstrak: Tulisan ini merupakan telaah pustaka pemikiran Mulla Sadra mengenai konsep ilm al-ilahī untuk menyempurnakan wacana epistemologi barat yang dipandang telah menghilangkan pengetahuan spiritual dalam peradaban filsafat. Tulisan ini bertujuan menjelaskan makna, tujuan, dan urgensi Ilm al-Ilahī untuk menyempurnakan paradigma dan perilaku individu dalam perspektif Mulla Sadra dengan merujuk salah satu magnumopusnya yang berjudul al-Hikmah al-Mutāliyah fī al- Asfār al-Aqliyyah al-Arba’ah. Dengan menggunakan metode deskriptif filosofis dihasilkan kesimpulan bahwa al-‘Ilm al-Ilahī dalam sistematika filsaat Mulla Sadra menjelaskan signifikansi paradigma dan perilaku individu untuk mencapai kesempurnaan hakiki melalui aktualitas jiwa. Jiwa dalam pandangan Mulla Sadra merupakan substansi keberadaan manusia yang mengalami pergerakan dari potensial menuju aktualitas dengan melibatkan eksistensi akal dan pancaindra sebagai bangunan dasar epistemologi Islam. Hasil dari tulisan ini, ialah menyempurnakan wacana epistemologi barat yang dipandang belum menjelaskan pengetahuan spiritual dalam eksistensi manusia melalui studi pemikiran Mulla Sadra.

Application of Gadamerian Hermeneutics in Medicine based on the Meaning of Mulla Sadra's Truth

Hermeneutics has been introduced as a science of Tafsīrand Ta’wīland this science emphasizes human understanding. Various fields related to the fields of human life and human civilization are the fields of study of this science. the different realms of hermeneutics in the field of medical science requires special delicacy and precision; because any inconsistency of the doctor's understanding with the truth of the disease puts the patient at risk of death. The present article, by descriptive and analytical methods, has applied Gadamerian hermeneutics based on Mulla Sadra's explanation of the truth with the topics of medical hermeneutics. Gadamerian method of medical hermeneutics has paid special attention to understanding the disease due to the importance of human life, and according to this method, both the physician and the patient participate in achieving the nature of the disease according to a dialogical and two-way model. Understanding the truth of the disease follows understanding the truth of the human body; and since the truth of the body, according to Mulla Sadra, depends on the truth of the soul and it also depends on the origin of the universe, which has infinite perfections, then the truth of the human body is unlimited. In short, the physician and the patient proceed through a dialogical relationship to a layer-by-layer understanding of the truth of the disease.

Substantial Motion: from Mulla Sadra's Philosophy to Physics

Substantial motion is Mulla Sadra's philosophical innovation in material existence. Since the four fundamental interactions are the major topics of physics, in this comparative study, substantial motion is tested based on physical achievements. The study aimed to find answers to the following questions: do the achievements made in physics strengthen or weaken the theory of substantial motion? If science strengthens it, which physical interactions are examples of substantial motion? Based on the results of the physics, how can some of the accidental changes be considered as Substantial motion? Mulla Sadra proved that material existence has a constant inherent fluidity. Three centuries later, quantum physics proved the dynamism within matter. Mulla Sadra showed that accidental motion is the cause of substantial motion. Similarly, science confirmed that any change in the properties of an object results from the internal interactions of the matter and the object. Furthermore, any motion in an object occurs along with the exchange of the particles carrying force. Accordingly, internal transformations in the matter including the intermolecular, intramolecular, atomic, and subatomic (at elementary particles and quarks level) are subsets of the substantial motion.

Do We Go Back to Where We Came From? Mullā Ṣadrā's Philosophical Exegesis on the Paradise of Adam and the Promised Paradise of the Afterlife

The cosmological location and identity of the Paradise in which Adam and Eve dwelled and from which, we are told in Q. 7:22 and 24, they were sent down to earth after giving in to Satan’s temptation and approaching the forbidden tree, has long been a controversial issue among exegetes and theologians. Ṣadr al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm b. Yaḥyā Qawāmī Shīrāzī Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1050/1640), a flag-bearer for the philosophical and mystical exegesis of the Qur’an, is one of those who has engaged with this question. The subject is important because it is closely connected with several important anthropological Qur’anic topics: the philosophy of the creation of humankind and their earthly abode; the states of human existence before earthly life on this world, and in the descending journey to it; as well as the connections between these states and those following death and in the ascending journey. An analysis of Ṣadrā’s approach to the issue of Adam’s Paradise has implications for both our appreciation of his philosophical understanding of the Qur’an and his methodology, as well as a clearer understanding of his contribution to Islamic philosophical thought. Mullā Ṣadrā took the view that the location of one Paradise on the descending arc of the circle of being, and a second on the ascending arc of this circle, indicate the stages of human existence before and after this world. He believed that these two Paradises suggest the same reality, though from two different aspects; the first shows the inward and indistinct aspect of the human soul while the second represents its outward and distinct side.

God, Cosmos, and Humanity: Muslim Perspectives on Divine Providence

The very notion of divine providence is inextricably linked to our conceptions of Islam. After a consideration of a more scripturally founded model of divine providence and indeed of how we might understand the reality of Islam, I will examine the dominant model for understanding divine providence articulated in the philosophical and theological traditions: the account in Avicenna and Mullā Ṣadrā in which providence explains how and why creation comes about and how we can explain the existence of evils. What are the implications of these historical models for us today in a world of even greater uncertainties, ambiguities, and randomness?