The Central Importance of Spiritual Psychology in Ṣadrā's Philosophy

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Mullā Ṣadrā's central issue of ʿilm al-nafs – to which he devoted one and half volumes of his nine volume Asfār – is the principle of bodily advent of the human soul and its spiritual survival through its lifetime undergoing substantial movement until the soul achieve the stage of immateriality. The evolution of the soul toward immateriality can be perfectional development toward divinity or – although spiritual – but an imperfectional movement toward Satanic end. The perfectional movement of the soul can be completed only if the soul enjoys the entire stages and realms of the existence from the lowest to the highest and from the material to the immaterial realms until it gradually becomes conscious of aspects of its existence and other realities, Divine Knowledge, moral virtues and the inner aspects of the sharia. This theory can open a new horizon to a kind of 'positive mysticism' in which asceticism and solitude is not recognised as part of true mysticism. This vision can form a basis for a new ethical and practical philosophy in Islamic philosophy, which we have cued in this article.