An Explanation of the Permanence and Annihilation of Beings Based on the Principles of Transcendent Theosophy

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Kokab Darabi ¹

Seyyed Morteza Hosseini Shahroudi ²

Abbas Javarshakian ³

¹ .Doctoral student of Hikmat Ta'alieh, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

² Professor, Department of Islamic Philosophy and Wisdom, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

³ Associate Professor, Department of Islamic Philosophy and Wisdom, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

10.22067/epk.2021.44126.0

Abstract

Mullā Ṣadrā, in accordance with his distinctive philosophical methodology, presents varying accounts of the notions of fanāʾ (annihilation) and baqāʾ (permanence) in different parts of his works. He considers the Divine Names and Attributes as permanent through the permanence of God Himself, whereas the intellects and the intelligible realm (ʿālam al-ʿaql) are described at times as enduring through divine preservation (bāqī bi ibqāʾ al-ḥaqq), and more frequently as enduring through divine permanence (bāqī bi baqāʾ al-ḥaqq). According to Mullā Ṣadrā, the human souls after departing from the material world sustain by means of divine preservation and attain true permanence (baqāʾ bi’l-ḥaqq) once they realize an authentically divine mode of being. Like other philosophers, he repeatedly characterizes the natural world as transient (fanī), given its features of temporality, change, and motion. However, drawing upon the collective insights of the transcendent philosophers and the mystics—and based on such metaphysical principles as the primacy of existence (aṣālat al-wujūd), the simplicity of existence (basāṭat al-wujūd), and the interpretation of causality in terms of divine manifestation (tajallī)—it can be concluded that all beings and every level of existence endure through the divine permanence of the Almighty. In this perspective, the notion of annihilation is ultimately meaningless, and even permanence through preservation loses its significance, for every existent subsists directly through the eternal reality of God.

Keywords

Annihilation

Permanence

Divine preservation of Beings

Mullā Ṣadrā

---

Authors retain the copyright and full publishing rights. This is an open access article distributed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

References

Qurān-i Karīm.

Mafātīḥ al-Jinān.

Abu al-Ḥusayn, Aḥmad ibn Fāris ibn Zakarīyā. Muʿjam  Maqāyīs al-Lugha. researched by ʻAbd al-Salām Muḥammad Hārūn. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1989/1368.

Aḥsāʾī, Aḥmad  ibn Zayn al-Dīn. Sharḥ al-ʻArshiyya. Beirut: Mūʾassisa al-Balāgh, 2005/1384.

ʿAlīpūr, Ḥasan. "Siyr Tārīkhī va Takāmulī Andīshih "Fanā" dar ʿIrfān Islāmī". Āyīn Ḥikmat. Yr. 6, no. 20 (2015/1393): 95-120.

Āmulī, Sayyid Ḥydar. Jāmiʿ al-Asrār va Manbaʿ al-Anvār. Tehran: ʻIlmī va Farhangī, 1989/1368.

Āshtīyānī, Sayyid Jalāl al-Dīn.  Sharḥ Muqaddamah Qayṣarī bar Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam. Qum: Daftar-i Tablīghāt-i Islāmī, s.d.

ʿAyn al-Qużāt Hamadānī. Abū al-Maʿānī ʻAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad.  Tamhīdāt. researched by ʿAfīf  ʿUsayrān, Tehran: Manūchihrī, 2008/1386.

Fārābī, Abū Naṣr al-Siyāsa al-Madanīya. Tehran: al-Zahrā, 1988/1366.

Faraghānī, Saʿīd al-Dīn. Mashāriq al-Darārī. Qum: Daftar-i Tablīghāt-i Islāmī, 2001/1379.

Ḥaydarī, Kamāl. Kitāb al-Maʻād. Sharḥ al-Asfār al-Arbaʻa li-Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, al- Beirut: Mūʾassisa al-Hudā li-l-Ṭabā ʿa va al-Nashr, 2014/1392.

Ḥusaynī Tihrānī, Sayyīd Muḥammad Ḥusayn. Mihr Tābān. S.l. Bāqir  al-ʻUlum, 2023/1402.

Ḥusaynī Tihrānī, Sayyīd Muḥammad Ḥusayn. Rūḥ Mujarad. Tehran: Hikmat, 1994/1414. 

Ibn ʻArabī. Muḥyī al-Dīn. Futūḥāt Makkīyah. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, s.d.

Ibn Manẓūr, Muḥammad ibn Mukarram. Lisān al-ʿArab. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, s.d.

Ibn Sīnā, Ḥusayn ibn ʻAbd Allāh. Sharḥ al-Ishārāt wa al-Tanbīhāt li-l-Ṭūsī (Maʿa al-Muḥākamāt). Sharḥ Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī, Qum: Daftar Nashr al-Kitāb, 1983/1403.

Murtaḍā Zabīdī, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad. Tāj al-ʿArūs. Ed. ʿAlī Shīrī, Chāp-i  Awwal, Beirut: Dār al-Fikr. S.d.

Muṭaharī, Murtażā. Dars-hā-yi Ilāhīyāt al-Shifāʾ. Tehran: Hikmat, 1991/1369.

Qayṣarī, Dāwud. Sharḥ Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam. S.l.: ʿIlmī va Farhangī, 1997/1375.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm.  Kitāb al-Mashāʿir. Translated by Badīʻ al-Mulk Mīrzā ʻImād al-Dawla, Tehran: Kitābkhānah-yi Ṭahūrī, 1985/1363.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. al-Ḥikma al-Mutaʻālīya fī al-Asfār al-ʻAqlīya al-Arbaʻa. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Tūrāth, 1981/1401.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. al-Ḥikma al-Mutaʻālīya fī al-Asfār al-ʻAqlīya al-Arbaʻa. Qum: Maktaba al-Muṣṭafavī, 1990/1368.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. al-Mabdaʾ wa al-Maʻād. Tehran: Anjuman Ḥikmat va Falsafah-yi Irān, 1976/1354.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. Al-Rasā ʾil. Qum: Maktaba al-Muṣṭafawī, s.d.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. al-Risālah fī Ḥudūth. Tehran: Bunyād Hikmat Islāmī Ṣadrā, 1999/1378.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. al-Shawāhid al-Rubūbīya fī al-Manāhij al-Sulūkīya. Ed. Sayyid Jalāl al-Dīn Āshtīyānī, Beirut: Mūʾassisa al-Tārīkh al-ʻArabī, 1997/1375.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. ʻArshiyya. Tehran: s.n. 1962/1341.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. Īqāẓ al-Nāʾimīn. Ed. Muḥsin Muʾayidī, Tehran: Mūʾassisah-yi Muṭāliʿāt va Taḥqīqāt Farhangī, Anjuman Islāmī Ḥikmat va Falsafah Irān, s.d.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb. Muḥashshī ʻAlī ibn Jamshīd Nūrī,  Muqaddamah va ed. Muḥammad Khwājavī. Tehran: Mūʾassisah-yi Muṭāliʿāt va Taḥqīqāt Farhangī, Anjuman Islāmī Ḥikmat va Falsafah-yi Irān, 1985/1363.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. Majmūʻah-yi Rasāʾil Falsafī Ṣadr al-Mutaʾallihīn. Tehran: Hikmat, 1997/1375.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. Sharḥ al-Hidāya al-Athīrīya (li-Ithīr al-Dīn al-Abharī). Ed. Muḥammad Muṣṭafā Fūlādkār, Beirut: Mūʾassisa al-Tārīkh al-ʻArabī, s.d.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. Sharḥ bar Zād al-Musāfir. Sharḥ Sayyid Jalāl al-Dīn Āshtīyānī, Qum: Būstān-i Kitāb Qum, 2003/1381.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. Sharḥ Uṣūl al-Kāfī. ed. Muḥammad Khwājavī. Muḥashshī ʻAlī ibn Jamshīd Nūrī, Tehran: Vizārat Farhan va Āmūzish ʿĀlī, Mūʾassisah-yi Muṭāliʿāt va Taḥqīqāt Farhangī, 1988/1366.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. Sharḥ va Taʿlīqah Ṣadr al-Mutaʾallihīn bar al-Ilāhīyāt al-Shifāʾ. Tehran: Bunyād Hikmat Islāmī Ṣadrā, 2004/1382.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. Tafsīr al-Qurān al-Karīm. Ed. Muḥammad Khvājavī, Qum: Bīdār, 1988/1366.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Ṣadr al-Dīn Muḥammad. al-Maẓāhir al-Ilāhīyah fī Asrār al-ʿUlūm al-Kamālīyah. Tehran: Bunyād Hikmat Islāmī Ṣadrā, 1999/1378.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Ṣadr al-Mutaʾallihīn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. Asrār al-Āyāt, ed. Muḥammad Khvājavī, Tehran: Anjuman Ḥikmat va Falsafah-yi Irān, 1982/1360.

Suhravardī, Yaḥyā ibn Ḥabash. al-Ḥikma al-Ishrāq. Sharḥ Maḥmūd ibn Masʻūd Quṭb al-Dīn Shīrāzī, ed. Najaf Qulī Ḥabībī, Muḥashshī Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Tehran: Tehran: Bunyād Hikmat Islāmī Ṣadrā, 2014/1392.

Ṭabāṭabāyī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn. Risālah al- Wilāyah. Qum: Mūʾassisah Ahl al-Biyt, 1982/1360.

Ṭurayḥī, Fakhr al-Dīn. Majmaʿ al-Baḥrayn. Ed. Aḥmad Ḥusaynī Ashkivarī, Tehran: Murtażavī. Chāp-i Sivum, 1997/1375.