Abstract

The discussion of man and his soul is a discipline with such a long historical record that it has become the basis for a large number of theological issues, including the origin and resurrection. According to Ibn Arabi, the reason for denominating man as so is that he is at the level of perfection and, thus, the 'perfect man' means man, and other individuals merely possess a human form. Some have defined man as the 'rational animal'; however, in Ibn Arabi's view, inanimate bodies, vegetations, and animals are also alive and rational, since, as stipulated in the Qur'an, all things praise God.In his eyes, the reality of man is the same Lordly subtlety that God has breathed into man's body. This subtlety is the very heart which is an immaterial luminous substance and by which man's humanity is realized. Mulla Sadra, too, considers the 'rational soul' as man's reality but not in the sense used by gnostics for 'heart'.Rather, he views the body as the lowest level of the soul on the basis of trans-substantial motion and the bodily origination of the soul. Therefore, in Mulla Sadra's philosophy, the problem of the soul-body duality, which had troubled his predecessors to some extent, is removed.Mulla Sadra believes that the human soul is continually in advancement and development, and it is in the light of this motion that it can move from the level of intermediary imaginal immateriality, then to rational immateriality, and finally to a station beyond immateriality, that is, the divine station, which suffers from no limitation and has no quiddity.