The Priority of Knowledge of the Lord over Knowledge of the Soul in Mullā Ṣadrā’s Transcendent Philosophy

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Hojjat Asadi

Shahid Motahhari Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.

10.22067/epk.2025.93406.1439

Abstract

A well-known dictum among Muslim thinkers holds that knowledge of the Lord (maʿrifat al-rabb) is contingent upon knowledge of the soul (maʿrifat al-nafs). Many Muslim philosophers employ self-knowledge as a proof for the knowledge of God. However, according to the philosophical principles of Mullā Ṣadrā, knowledge of the Lord can be obtained from knowledge of the soul only if causality is understood as a real existential relation between cause and effect. Even in this case, attaining divine knowledge through self-knowledge is not free of difficulty. But if causality is taken—as in the more precise interpretation—to mean the manifestation and self-disclosure of the Divine Essence in its modes and loci, then existence is but a single, unique, and individuated reality, and all multiplicity consists of its manifestations. Under this understanding, it is no longer possible to attain knowledge of the soul without prior knowledge of the Lord, such that one could then transition from self-knowledge to knowledge of the Lord. This is because, in addition to the fact that deriving knowledge of the cause from the effect—given the soul’s created and contingent nature—cannot yield certainty, all divine manifestations and contingent quiddities, including the human soul, possess an identity of pure relationality (ʿayn al-rabṭ) to their Principle. As such, that which is pure relation possesses no independence in any respect. This study analyzes and explicates Mullā Ṣadrā’s views with the aim of presenting the correct account of how knowledge of the Lord and knowledge of the soul are acquired. Its conclusion is that one must transition from knowledge of the Lord to knowledge of the soul, not the reverse; and it is in this way that the propter-quid demonstrations for the Necessary Being are secured.

Keywords

Knowledge of the Soul

Knowledge of the Lord

Causality

Pure Relationality

Transcendent Philosophy

Subjects

• Islamic Philosophy and Kalam

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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).

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