Compassionate and Satanic Inner Thoughts from the Viewpoint of Mullā Ṣadrā’s

Document Type : علمی پژوهشی

Authors

• Riḍā Akbarī
• Hādī Riḍā’īyān

10.22067/philosophy.v43i1.11267

Abstract

According to Mullā Ṣadrā, inner thought (khāṭir) in terms of a message, has three main components: 1. Sender of the message, 2. Content of the message, 3. Recipient of the message. Compassionate inner thought is a message that is sent by the angel and is called inspiration, characterized by driving a person toward good; i.e., to actualize the faculties according to the judgment of the intellect and in a moderate way. Satanic inner thought is a message sent by the Satan, is called temptation, and drives man toward evil; namely, it makes him deal more with some of his faculties and actualize him in an immoderate way. With his sublime state of being, i.e. his level of intellect, man relates to the angels and receives compassionate inner thoughts; and with his lower state of being, i.e. his level of imagination (wahm), he relates to the devils and receives satanic inner thoughts. There are two groups of causes for receiving inner thoughts: 1. Divine causes: the divine cause for receiving compassionate inner thought is called tawfīq (success) and the cause for receiving satanic inner thought is called khidhlān (abandonment); 2. Human causes: it means the behaviors and actions that if desirable and based on intellect, they would make man prepared for accepting divine inner thoughts, but if they are undesirable and based on lust and fantasy they would make human soul vulnerable to accepting satanic inner thoughts.

Keywords: Mullā Ṣadrā, compassionate inner thoughts, satanic inner thoughts, success, abandonment, principality of existence, connective gradation of existence, absolute existence, necessity of existence.

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