The term “transcendent philosophy” refers to the concept of al-hikmat al-muta’aliyah that was used by sufis long before Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Yahya Qawami Shirazi, who is latter known as Sadr al-Din or Mulla Sadra (1571/ 1572 – 1628). Then the concept was developed by Mulla Sadra as a school of Islamic philosophy.
But according to Seyyed Hossein Nasr the thought of Mulla Sadra is theosophy rather than philosophy because it is not derived from discursive thought alone but is ultimately the fruit of a vision of the divine order, and this theosophy is transcendent in the true sense of the word because it derives from the knowledge of a world that transcends the ontological status of man in this terrestrial state of existence and stands above his everyday state of consciousness.[1]
Beside that the term al-hikmat al-muta’aliyah as a thought of Mulla Sadra comprises two terms, al-hikmat and al-muta’aliyah. Al-hikmat means theosophia and muta’aliyah means exalted or transcendent. The term he uses in his monumental work al-hikmat al-muta’aliyah fi-l-asfar al-‘aqliyyat al-arba’ah, that is known as al-Asfar.
The term al-hikmat al-muta’aliyah has come to mean the particular school of traditional theosophy formulated by Mulla Sadra, a designation that began in his own day and has continued to the present. It is most appropriate name for his school, not only for historical reasons, but also because the doctrines of Mulla Sadra are veritably both hikmah or theosophy in its original sense and an intellectual vision of the transcendent (the muta’aliyah) which leads to the transcendent itself. The school of Mulla Sadra is therefore transcendent theosophy both historical and metaphysical reasons.
To understand how Mulla Sadra defined the transcendent theosophy we must to turn to his definition of theosophy (al-hikmah) or philosophy (al-falsafah). He considers hikmah as the vehicle through which man becomes an intellegible world resembling the objective world and similar to the order of universal existence, and falsafah he defines the perfecting of the human soul to the extent of human possibility through knowledge of the essential realities of things as they are in themselves and through judgment concerning their existence established upon demonstration and not derived from opinion or through imitation.
In the definition of hikmah given by Mulla Sadra the concept of hikmah is identified with a wisdom or theosophy which is based on a purely metaphysical foundation reached through intellectual intuition and at the same time presented in a rational but not rationalistic form and making use of rational arguments. This theosophy also is related to realization, to the transformation of the being of the recipient of this knowledge. Furthermore we discover that the methods proposed for the realization of this knowledge are related to religion and cannot become accessible except by means of revelation.
Therefore there are three basic principles upon which the Transcendent Theosopohy stands: intellectual intuition or illumination (kashf or dhawq or ‘ishraq), reason and rational demonstration (‘aql or istidlal), and religion or revelation (shar’, or wahy). It is by combining the knowledge derived from these sources that the synthesis of Mulla Sadra was brought about.
This synthesis aimed to harmonize the knowledge that is accessible to man through the following means, namely sufism, the school of ishraq, rational philosophy (identified by Mulla Sadra with the Peripatetic school) and the religious sciences including theology (kalam).
Therefore mysticism is an important element in transcendent theosophy or philosophy. That is why Mulla Sadra’s teachings were related to those of the sufis, particularly to Ibn Arabi, Sadr al-Din al-Qunyawi, Abd al-Razzaq Kashani, Da’ud al-Qaysari and other masters of Ibn Arabi’s school.
If his teachings were to be compared and contrasted with theirs it could be said that the sufi metaphysics of these masters is the intellectualized version of their spiritual vision. In the case of Ibn Arabi especially this metaphysics present itself as so many strokes of lightning, each of which illuminates as aspect of the landscape of ultimate Reality.
These flashes of light are transformed by Mulla Sadra and also to a certain extent by such figures as Qaysari before him into a more steady and continuous light. Sadr al-Din seeks to present a more systematic metaphysical exposition to provide logical proofs and to explain aspects which the earlier sufi masters had passed over in silence or simply stated in brief form as a gift of heaven and the result of their spiritual visions.
There are no major points in which Mulla Sadra opposes the teachings of Ibn ‘Arabi as he opposes certain theses of the Peripatetics and the Illuminationists, except perhaps in the question of evil, and in the question of free-will and predestination, which he treats somewhat differently from Ibn Arabi. But he does discuss many points which are not touched upon by Ibn Arabi and his school but are implied by them.
In a sense Mulla Sadra provides both a more logical and systematic basis for the sufi metaphysics of the school of Ibn Arabi and a commentary upon and extension of his works. In fact, besides being one of the leading philosophers and theosophers of Islam Mulla Sadra mus also be considered one of the foremost commentators on Ibn ‘Arabi and his students.
Then if we compare the transcendent theosophy with the theosophy of the orient of light (al-hikmat al-ishraq) of Suhrawardi al-Maqtul we would find both a close rapport, already alluded to earlier, and certain differences which would aid our understanding of the transcendent theosophy itself. It could be said that Mulla Sadra realized more fully in his own being the ideal of the theosopher which Suhrawardi announced and strove to realize.
He succeeded more fully than Suhrawardi in providing a rational foundation for the knowledge that issues from spiritual vision. In this endeavour he owes much to Suhrawardi who was the first to take step in this direction, but Mulla Sadra followed this direction to its end and was able to deal with more questions than Suhrawardi and to explore some of them in greater depth.
But the both thinkers had points of difference. The most important difference is of course Mulla Sadra’s assertion of the principiality of existence (asalat al-wujud) in contrast to the princiality of quiddity (asalat al-mahiyyah) held by Suhrawardi. This difference leads in turn to a difference in view concerning the question of change and transformation, the gradations of being (tashkik al-wujud), eschatology, etc, which a close comparison of Mulla Sadra with those of Suhrawardi reveals.
In conclusion we can say that the transcendent theosophy is a new perspective in Islamic intellectual life based on the synthesis and harmonization of nearly all the earlier schools of Islamic thoughts, including sufism or Islamic mysticism. It is also a school in which the tenets of revelation, the verities received through spiritual vision and illumination and the rigorous demands of logic and rational demonstration are harmonized into a unity.
[1] Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Sadr al-Din Shirazi and His Transcendent Theosophy (Teheran: Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy, 1978), p. 57
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