Ayeneh Ma‘refat
Year:2020 | Volume:19 | Issue:61 |Papers Count:7

According to Mulla Sadra, intellect, as a polysomic word, has six different meanings. For him, one of the most important meanings of intellect is the power of perception through which humans perceive objects. In addition, God, the Almighty, endows some human beings with the light that enables them to obey religious orders. Mirza Mahdi Esfahani considers intellect to be the light that God, the Almighty, bestows upon human beings after they reach puberty. Human beings lose the light when they fall in a state of anger or lust. To him, philosophical intellect is misleading. By explaining the attributes of intellect from Mirza Mahdi Esfahani and Mulla Sadra’ s perspective and pondering on the meaning of practical and theoretical intellect, the paper reveals commonalities between the two thinkers. These commonalities are found in some properties of practical intellect. In fact, Mirza Mahdi Esfahani asserts that Mulla Sadra's theoretical intellect is counterproductive. It is argued that the claims of some Promoters of the Separation School that Mirza Mahdi Esfahani considers this meaning as valid are incompatible with his statements.

The idea of creationism among Islamic theologians and in the Islamic tradition has a long history. The present study was an attempt to delineate Najafi Esfahani’ s views on the creation of mankind, and the inapplicability of the general rule of evolution among non-humans to human beings. By adopting the fundamentals of science, philosophy of religion and a specific hermeneutics, Najafi Esfahani concludes that the creation of human beings, as an exception to the general rule of evolution among non-humans, can be justified scientifically. He even considers the creation of mankind as a counter-example to Darwinist and Neo-Darwinist theories of evolution. From his viewpoint, one can differentiate between the creation of mankind and the evolution of non-humans, and consider creation as a special event. Najafi Esfahani critically analyzes the foundations of the atheist evolutionists’ beliefs, and prunes Darwin’ s theory from atheist connotations to acknowledge its scientific status as a theory in search of explaining the emergence of life on earth. The final outcome of his approach which is based on his assumptions originated from the philosophy of religion and science is that God created humankind and that the theory of evolution cannot be used as an explanation of the emergence of human beings.

Considering the definition of theology (kalam), providing proof for the necessity of prophetic mission seems to be necessary for a theologian (motakallim). Accordingly, Imamiyyah theologians are no exception. However, rationalistic critical analysis of Imamiyyah theologians’ arguments suggest that, contrary to their claims, their arguments are not purely rational and are based on empirical propositions. Confirming this hypothesis, which is the first hypothesis of this article, reduces the epistemological value of their argument from rational (a priori) to empirical (a posteriori). Having critiqued those arguments, we examine Mulla Sadra's argument of substantial evolutionary motion, and based on its principles, we begin to consider the necessity of prophetic mission. Our assumption is that, by using Mulla Sadra’ s principles, we can offer a priori argument for the necessity of the prophetic mission. Achieving this goal is the outcome of the second hypothesis.

Man’ s will, according to Avicenna, follows perception. Perception accompanied with implicit approval creates desire and volition emanated from desire stimulates body parts. Perceptions, states and the dominating desires of impulsive mind, which are mostly implicit, make will a causal necessity. Studies in neurology have led to some kind of determinism. Although the hypothesis of illusion of free will in the form of hard determinism as the result of Libet experiment has been criticized, this view in its moderate from, in accordance of Islamic philosophy, implies the causal antecedents of man’ s will. The outcomes and ethical conclusions of this view include the explanation of deliberate moral act, the role of morality and disposition, the role of biologic and physiologic causes of will, paying attention to the conditions under which one can be ethical or moral, and relativity in attributing people to good and evil.

The cognitive principles and non-cognitive context determine the formation of fundamental methodology of scholars’ theories. After Avicenna, Khajeh Nasiraldin Toosi has provided the most detailed discussion of house planning, though he has not directly dealt with the cognitive and methodological basics of such planning. The present study aims at explaining Khajeh Nasir’ s methodology in house planning. In specific, it tries to answer the following question: On what cognitive methodology Kahejh Nasir has relied in house planning? The methodology adopted by Khajeh Nasir in his house planning relies on various principles and methodologies including religiosity, civilization, wisdom, ethics, traditionalism and idealism which set the scene for proposing a set of injunctions, musts and must nots, and duties for organizing a prosperous ideal life. His cognitive methodology is an administrative guide for house planning consistent with achieving the worldly and hereafter prosperity. It puts emphasis on Islamic and traditional lifestyle. The present study investigates Khajeh Nasir’ s method in house planning through an analytic-descriptive method and explains its influence on lifestyle.

Ahmad Sobhi Mansour is considered as one of the most influential contemporary Qu’ ranic scholars who have tendencies toward Qu’ ranic adequacy. Based on some of the verses of the holy Qu’ ran, he tries to discredit the status of the Prophet, except for the dignity of the message, as well as the function of tradition in all religious areas. Adopting a library data processing and content analysis method, the present paper first presents some of Mansour's views and arguments and by drawing on numerous Qur’ anic verses tries to examine the adequacy of the holy Qu’ ran for the authority of divine legislation, limiting the scope of infallibility, limiting prophetic mission to proselytism and lack of validity of the traditions of the Prophet as the major intellectual foundations of Ahmad Sobhi Mansour. The paper concludes that the fundamental ideas of Sobhani Mansour are not comprehensive in the field of the holy Qur'an and the Prophet's tradition. It is argued that he has adopted a selective approach to the Qu’ ranic verses and applied his own interpretative method (the method of interpreting Qur'an to Qur'an). He has also not paid enough attention to the means of his theology and, as a result, in some cases he has contradicted himself.

The present study aims at investigating the nature of death based on the principles of Mulla Sadra’ s philosophy and its evaluation based on Quranic verses and traditions in order to prove the consistency of these two viewpoints. It is demonstrated that substantial motion explains the emergence of the soul from body in addition to explaining transformation of the soul into an entity independent of the body and its movement toward afterlife. In fact, natural death indicates the independency of the soul similar to unexpected death which means the weakness and decline of body's ability to accompany the soul. Adopting a documentary-analytical method, the present study provides findings which indicate that the essence of soul is moving towards the fixed appointed term in accordance with the actions and behaviors of the soul and the soul moves toward that end through its changes and developments. In contrast, sudden death indicates obstacles on the way of this movement and its incomplete realization.