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Soul from the perspective of Mulla Sadras philosophy edited by Seyed G Safavi
Soul from the perspective of Mulla Sadras philosophy edited by Seyed G Saf avi has been published in the UK in 253 pages by the London Academy of Iranian Studies Press (LAISP). Mulla Sadra[i] (1596-1650) the greatest Muslim Iranian philosopher who is the f ounder of al-Hikmah al-Mutaaliyah (transcendent philosophy), by establishing new philosophical systems in the Islamic world in regards to the soul, of f ered new theories which have had signif icant consequences. Bef ore Mulla Sadra there were two main philosophical viewpoints regarding the human soul. One was the Platonic theory suggesting that the existence of the soul was eternal, spiritual and prior to the creation of the body (Timaeus). T he second idea belonged to Peripatetics f or which Ibn-Sina provided a thorough explanation. T his theory dealt with the immaterial or non-corporeal origination of the soul, along with the corporeal origination and creation of the body. However, Mulla Sadra presented an innovative theory in this regard. He proved that although the human soul ultimately becomes immaterial in its particular course of development, it is corporeal at the outset of creation and is born f rom the body. In Mulla Sadras view, the human soul is initially solid. Af ter the soul leaves the stage of solidity behind it turns into an embryo and reaches the vegetative stage (vegetative soul). Later it arrives at the animal stage (animal soul), and then, in the process of its real maturity, reaches the stage of human soul and becomes a rational soul. Af ter this stage, in the light of its ef f orts, practice, and rational and spiritual training, it can also achieve human maturity (which he calls the holy soul and the actual intellect). T his is a stage which only a f ew are capable of reaching. All these stages in f act represent moving in the same route in order to leave potency and enter actuality. Each succeeding stage is a potential f or the preceding one, and going through them means passing through grades of intensity, and moving f rom weakness to strength. However, the collection of these stages comprises the points of a line called human lif e and the line of development, which is f ormed on the basis of the principle of graded existence and the trans-substantial motion. It is essential to know that entering each stage does not mean getting away f rom the previous stage; rather, each higher stage, at all times, embodies and includes the weaker stages prior to itself , as well. T he rule here suggests that every strong existence according to gradation of existence embraces all the weaker existential stages bef ore it. Mulla Sadra disagrees with philosophers like Peripatetics who consider the soul a static substance which remains in the same state f rom the beginning to the end of lif e, and has no transsubstantial motion. Obviously, he also disagrees with people like Descartes who believe in the absolute separation of the soul and body. Like other Muslim philosophers, Mulla Sadra believes in the immateriality of the soul, but not in the sense intended by his preceding schools of thought. In his view, the immateriality of the soul is gradual owing to its ascending and developmental journey, and, in his own terms, due to its trans-substantial motion. T his motion leads to the bodys senility and annihilation; however, it is a motion towards rationality in the soul, and becomes more powerf ul and active day af ter day. T he developed soul, af ter separating f rom the body and becoming needless of it, ultimately, turns into the abstract intellect, and continues its lif e in a space which is more desirable than the material one. T his book consists of six sections. T he f irst section examines the philosophical views of Mulla Sadra and Descartes on Soul, in f ive main axis. T he Five axis include the f ollowing: 1. Exposition of Mulla Sadras philosophical view concerning the soul; 2. Exposition of Descartes view on the soul; 3. Examining points of similarity and dif f erence between the opinions of Mulla Sadra and Descartes; 4. T he distinct strength of Mulla Sadras theory; 5. T he Criticism of Descartes theory. T he f oundation of Mulla Sadras theory is the corporeality of contingency and the spirituality of subsistence in relation to the soul and the f oundation of Descartes theory is the real distinction between the substance of the soul and body. T he new theory of Mulla Sadra in regards to the soul led to the presentation of a philosophical proof f or proving physical resurrection, and the dualism of Descartes led to the collapse of his philosophical system. T he second section is on Mulla Sadras view of the nature of the human soul and its becoming,

a subject that has received extensive and detailed treatments in Mulla Sadras various writings such as the al-Asfar al-arbaah, al-Shawahid al-rububiyah, Kitab al-mabda wa al-maad and al-Hikmah al-arshiyyah. T he f ollowing treatment of Mulla Sadras view of the soul and its becoming involves both a discussion of his f undamental principles and ideas on the subject, as well as his masterly adoption and incorporation of principles and doctrines drawn f rom the sources of revelation, i.e. the Quran and Hadith, the intellectual illuminations and mystical unveilings of the Suf is and gnostics ( hukama), and the rational and logical conclusions of the philosophers. T he third section deals with the soul in Transcendent philosophy. In the philosophical traditions of the Islamic world as well, serious attempts have been made to present a science of the soul which is in accord with the spirit of Islamic philosophical sciences. In the Transcendent Philosophy, on the other hand, a version of science of the soul has been presented which both justif ies the concrete sphere of the immaterial and material soul and describes the souls becoming and seeking f or perf ection. In addition, it is f ully consistent with the components and overall structure of the Transcendent Philosophy. Based on the doctrines of principality of existence, motion in substance, bodily origination and spiritually subsistence of the soul, Mulla Sadra depicts the human soul and its station in such a way which is f ree f rom usual inconsistencies of philosophical traditions in this regard. At the same time, based on the Book and tradition, he opens a new window to human existence through which the existential dimensions of the human being are seen in correspondence and as being similar to the whole cosmos. T hough, in this way, Mulla Sadra has made uses of the Peripatetic and Illuminationist traditions of his f orerunners, his own innovations are unrivalled and exceptionally strong. T he f ourth section deals with one of the issues which conf ronted Mull sadr in his philosophical psychology, which was concerning the post-mortem status of the human soul. T he existing competitive conceptions on this issue were f our: (a) upon the death of the body the soul also dies together with the body; (b) reincarnation or transmigration of the soul attributed to Pythagoras and Plato and maintained by Ikhwn al-Saf , some Isml philosophers and Qutb al-Dn al-Shrz the commentator on Hikmat alIshrq of suhraward; (c) the soul will remain in the physical tomb and will have the f ore-taste of bliss or chastisement according to its deeds, and on the Day of Resurrection the elemental physical body will be resurrected together with the soul and recompensed physically. In the Islamic religious language it is phrased as mad jisman (bodily resurrection). T his was the interpretation of the Islamic religious revealed texts maintained by Mutakallimn (theologians) f oremost among them was al-Ghazzl; (d) the resurrection will only be the spiritual resurrection (mad rhn) and the recompense will be spiritual maintained by Avicenna and the Muslim Peripatetic philosophers. Mull sadr demonstrated the inadequacy of all the above positions pertaining to the posthumous state of the psychic non-physical being and its bodily resurrection on the basis of his philosophical premises which deal with his concept of matter and f orm, dif f erent levels of body, independence of the imaginative f aculty of the soul, the imaginal world (lam al-mithl) or barzakh (the intermediate world), substantial motion of the soul, and oneness and gradation of being. In this philosophy we f ind that he had reworked the writings of Ibn Arab and Suhraward on this issue, besides the Qurn, Hadth and the sayings of the Shiite Imams, he drew on a number of contemporary domains of knowledge such as psychology, medicine, religious experience of death and his personal spiritual experience. So his metaphysics of resurrection goes f ar beyond the competing theological interpretations and could serve as a key to understand the religious texts dealing with this issue and the death and af terlif e. In the f if th section the dichotomy of soul and spirit is considered philosophically. At the beginning of the research, the ideas of some scholars such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Ibn Sina, Mulla Sadra and others and their def initions regarding the soul are stated and then analyzed. In the second part of this research it has been tried to consider the relation between the soul and body in a new vision. T hen the problems and disputes between philosophers about the soul are expressed and it is concluded that most of these problems arise when the separation of the soul and the spirit is ignored. T he dif f iculties that ignoring this separation have created f or Sadras system regarding the soul are also shown. T he method f or resolving the disputes is also explained separately in each section. T he sixth section is in regards to the perf ectionary journey of the soul. T he soul is the f irst perf ection of the natural body, which is created, when the preparedness of the body becomes perf ect; it subsists, when it reaches its own perf ection. Hence, its disposal in bodies is corporeal while its intellection of its essence and its maker is spiritual. T his distinguishes it f rom the separated intellects, which are spiritual both in their essence and action, as well as f rom the natures, which are corporeal in both aspects. T he human soul has three modalities of perception: 1) T he natural modality, the locus of whose manif estation is the external and internal sense; 2) the modality of f ormal

apparitions, whose locus of manif estation is the internal sense; 3) the intellectual modality, whose locus of manif estation is the rational f aculty, when it is actually obtained. T he f irst modality is the locus of the potentiality and the sowing place of the spirits and the place, where intentions and belief s are grown, while the two other modalities are the abode of completion and of actuality, and the place gathering the f ruit. Hence, the soul is the subject (hmil) of the body and its f orm, not vice versa; and the body is a descendent level of the soul and an existential trace of the separated spirit, whose properties manif est themselves in the body. A human being (insne) is the totality of the soul and the body, i.e., the human being of the sovereignty (malakt) is the soul, while the moral (basher) human being is the body, both of them existing by the same existence. When the intellectual (noetic) existence is obtained, both of them become one thing. Hence, the real body is the bod, in which the light of sense and lif e is essential, not accident. T he relation of this body to the soul is that of light to the sun. When the soul reaches its perf ection and becomes the intellect in act (aql bi-l-fl), all its f aculties also ascend and reach their perf ection together with the souls essence. T he seventh section is in regards to the Mull Sadrs theories on existence and essence and the soul-body relationship are compared with those of Aristotle, Suhraward, al-Frb and Ibn Sn, revealing Sadrs radical departure f rom and reversal of their widely revered views. T he eights section is in regards to how Sadra reconciles his well-known principle the soul is corporeal by its temporal origination (hudth) and spiritual by its subsistence (baq) with the Shiite belief in the pre-existence of spirits to bodies the belief , which is an indispensable element of the Imamite doctrine. First of all, it should be noted that, unlike some early Shiite traditionalists (e.g., Ibn Babuyeh), Sadra clearly dif f erentiates between the terms nafs and rh. So, in the Asf r he of ten repeats that nafs (the soul) in the stricter sense of term, i.e., as long as it truly remains nafs, can only be spoken of as a temporally originated being, created together with (or rather as) the body, while rh (the spirit), if understood as the principle of nafs, def initely enjoys a kind of pre-existence to the body. T he ninth section is in regards to examine the nature, f unction, and degrees of the soul, with particular attention being given to the relationship between the soul and the body, on the one hand, and the af f inity between the soul and the spirit, on the other. Certain key aspects of the perspectives on the soul as f ound in the writings of Ibn Arabi and Mulla Sadra f orm the basis of this brief exposition on the dynamics that propel the soul, the very substance of the individual, towards the purely intelligible and spiritual realm, enabling it to become disengaged f rom the realm of matter in which it is accidentally enmeshed. T he objective analysis of the development of the soul, f rom a state of pure potentiality to spiritual actuality, is closely intertwined, in this perspective, with the spiritual means that bring about this actualisation; the relationship between spiritual practice and theoretical understanding is thus stressed in this section. T hanks to contributors of the book: Dr Z ilan Morris, Dr Kalbasi, Dr Peerwani, Dr Daf tari , Master Khajavi,Dr Dehbashi, Dr Eshots, Dr Waizi and assistant editor Seyed Sadreddin Saf avi. Seyed G Saf avi London Academy of Iranian Studies 1 Ramadan al-Mubarak 1432 2 August 2011 [i] Selected Bibliography Ashtiyani, Sayyid Jalal al-Din, Sharh-i hal wa aray-i falsafi-i Mulla Sadra (Mashhad, 1382/1962). Izutsu, Toshihiko, The Concept and Reality of Existence (Tokyo: T he Keio Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies, 1971). Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, Mulla Sadra and His Transcendent Philosophy (Tehran: 1997, 2nd edition). , Mulla Sadra: His Teachings in A History of Islamic Philosophy ed. by S. H. Nasr and O. Leaman (London: Routledge, 1996), Vol. I, pp. 643-662. Nasr and Leaman, History of Islamic Philosophy, Mulla Sadra: his Lif e and works, Hossein Z iai..Mulla Sadra: his Teachings, Seyed H. Nasr Rahman, Fazlur, Mulla Sadra Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol. 10, (New York: 1987), 149-153. , The Philosophy of Mulla Sadra, (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1975). http://www.mullasadra.org/new_site/english/mullasadra/works.htm. Saf avi, Seyed G, Perception according to Mulla Sadra, Salman Azadeh Publication, London, 2002. _, Mulla Sadra and Comparative Philosophy on Causation, Salman Azadeh Publication, London, 2003.

Contents Introduction [1] Philosophical comparison between the perspective of Mulla Sadra and Descartes on Soul Seyed G Saf avi [11] Mulla Sadra on The Human Soul and Its Becoming Z ailan Moris [31] Soul and its becoming in the Transcendent Philosophy Hossain Kalbasi Ashtari [51] Reincarnation or Resurrection of the Soul? Mulla Sadras Philosophical Solution to the Dilemma Latimah-Parvin Peerwani [75] Dichotomy of Human Soul and Spirit In a Philosophical Vision Aziz Daf tari [99] Soul, its Reality and its Perfectionary Journey in Mulla Sadras philosophy Muhammad Khjav [171] A Comparative Study on Mulla Sadras Philosophical Innovations Concerning Soul-Body Relationship Mehdi Dehbashi [193] Preexistence of Souls to Bodies in Sadras Philosophy Yanis Eshots, University of Latvia, Latvia [207] The Degrees of the Soul According to Ibn Arabi and Mulla Sadra Sayyid Husain Waizi, Iran [229] Index [245]

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