Abstract

Islamic philosophers have an idea about the object of knowledge and the mode of its relation to the subject which enjoys certain advantages both at the level of the appearance and the different levels of its growth and development. This idea in its most sublime form belongs to Mulla Sadra. In his view the highest levels of recognition are attained when the knower or the subject completely unites with the known or the object, and when their identities become one and the same thing.Mulla Sadra, who bases his system of metaphysics on the idea of "the unity of the reality of existence", considers "existence" the most sublime object of knowledge. He believes that a real knowledge of "existence" is acquired through a specific type of intuition. However, since in his philosophy he deals with both "existent" and "existence", moves from "existent" to "existence", and presents a new interpretation of "existent" in the light of existence, he absolutely rejects the idea that the knowledge of "existence" is merely obtained through mystic intution. He always emphasizes that the knowledge of "existence" is obtained either through presential contemplation or reasoning and on the basis of their effects and concomitants.His view of the knowledge of existence through intellectual analysis in the domain of speculation might appear greatly presumptuous and strange, since he rejects Ibn-Sina and Farabi's idea concerning the "accidental nature of existence" and claims that a reality which is the signification and reference of the "human existent" is completely different from the signification of other propositions.In his view, "human", which is the logical and grammatical subject of this proposition, is not a subject in the outside but the predicate. The real subject is the "reality of existence" and all quiddities are nothing more than accidents which make a single reality bound to numerous objects.As long as man's perception is limited to his daily and routine experiences, the intution of this reality would not be possible.There should be awakened a completely new awareness in man's mind so that he would be able to perceive the world in this way.From a metaphysical point of view, Mulla Sadra resorts to trans-substansial motion, and through believing in the "unity of the knower and the known", he views the growth and transcendence of human knowledge as depending on its existential intensification and perfection and internal and essensial development, during which the perceiver goes beyond its existential level and reaches the existential level of the perceived. Accordingly, Mulla Sadra succeeds in proving a reality which plays a significant role in the discussion of the relationship between the subject and object and eliminating the distinction between the subject and object of knowledge. The main purpose of this paper is to explore the above-mentioned principle to discover its roots and to show that Islamic philosphers and gnostics follow a specific approach in this regard.