Abstract

As the title suggests, this paper presents a comparative study of the commonalities and differences between the Illuminationist philosophy and Transcendent Theosophy. The writer has tried to make a comparison between the significance of "light" in Suhrawardi's philosophy and that of "existence" in Mulla Sadra's school of thought. To accomplish this task, he has also made some references to Ibn-Sina's ideas and the differences between his ideas in this regard and those of these two philosophers.The author believes that in certain cases Suhrawardi considers the Peripatetic principles as being valid; however, he does not favor their fundamental principles. The most important book of this philosopher, hikmat al-ishmq, is a philosophical book, whose principles have been devised through using a series of intellectual reasons based on necessary propositions. The Illuminationist philosophy, on the one hand, is in conformity with the school of the principiality of existence in denying the metaphysical difference between existence and quiddity, and on the other hand, it stands against this school in emphasizing the mentally-posited nature of existence and the principiality of quiddity.