Transcendent Theosophy

Transcendent theosophy is one of the two disciplines of Islam that was founded by Mulla Sadra and exists till date. Mulla Sadra dealt the doctrine with an intellectual point of view and the philosophy could be considered transcendent for its metaphysical aspects and a new epistemology. The ontology of Transcendent theosophy is found to be important to Islamic philosophy. Mulla Sadra created the transition of essentialism to existentialism in Islamic philosophy. Existentialism was popularized by Jean Paul Sartre only in the 20^th century. Unlike Transcendent theosophy Jean Paul Sartre said that existence preceded essence and was supported by Avicennism.

Philosophy of Mulla Sadra

Mulla Sadra argued that something has to exist before having an essence. He substituted metaphysics of existence for metaphysics of essence. The revolution created by Mulla Sadra in metaphysics that essence is determined by the intensity of act exuded by the essence gained popularity. Mulla Sadra’s existentialism is therefore different from that of Jean Paul Sartre. Another concept of Mulla Sadra’s Transcendent theosophy is the substantial motion. According to this thought, everything in the universe including celestial spheres go through transformation and penetration of being gives them an individual entity. While Aristotle and Ibn Sina identify changes only in quantity, quality, position and place, Sadra observes change in the all pervasive reality. According to Mulla Sadra, Theosophy is the vehicle through which “man becomes an intelligible world resembling the objective world and similar to the order of universal existence”.

The primacy of being, its dynamic characteristics, the concept of change and the subsequent muslim philosophy were explored by Mulla Sadra. Mulla Sadra’s meta-philosophy existence speaks about the sole constituent of reality and rejects essence in external world. Existence is internally communicated dynamic process that involves unity and diversity. His works on this aspect include the primacy of existence, the systematic ambiguity of existence, substantial motion, epistemology and methodology.

Details about Transcendent theosophy could be found in Mulla Sadra’s book, Asfar (The four journeys). The mysticism of Sufism was on its peak when Mulla Sadra had been working on Transcendent theosophy. The four intellectual journey or Asfar deduces a radical conclusion that existence-essence relationship. Existence is neither a constituent nor necessary attribute of essence and therefore it must be an accident. Mulla Sadra achieved the fusion of four philosophical journeys in his Asfar. The Transcendent theosophy was a revolutionary aspect in the Islamic school of thought and Mulla Sadra and his explanation about the intensity of existence in the systematic ambiguity opened new perspectives. Mulla Sadra adopted the philosophy diligently to replace quiddity with existence, which he considered as the sole reality.

Questions:

• What’s thought of Mulla Sadra about theosophy?
• What is meant by Asfar, Which was the book name by Mulla Sadra?