Levels of Wajud Part-2

Actually the founder of these philosophical views is Al-Sheikh Akbar Mohiyudeen Ibn e Arabi r.a but an Imamian Sadar ud Din Sherazi r.a known as Mulla Sadra presented these thoughts by establishing a school Al-Hikmat e Muta`liya. Imam Khomeini r.a was also from this Philosphical School (Mashrab) and studied and taught the very School during whole of his life.

Initially I am presenting an introductory extract (20 lines only) from book
Mulla Sadra’s
Transcendent Philosophy - written by Brother of Rehber e Muazzam Ayatollah Dr. Seyyed Mohammed Khamenei (image below)


Note: On demand complete book can be mailed to individual.
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Before explaining this principle, it is first necessary to define some technical terms. The first term is ‘wujud’ in Islamic philosophy, which is equivalent to‘being’ and ‘existence’ in English. While actually an existing thing (like tree, Man, horse etc.) look like is called Quiddity (Mahiyat) or its external realization (Soorat e Kharji)


Existence is the only thing that is needless of demonstration, and that everyone perceives instinctively either in his essence or in practice and through experimentation. There is nothing more obvious than existence, and everything is realized in the light of existence. The natures of every living being indicate that its ‘existence’ dominates it and the world surrounding it. There is no definition for existence, and it can only be perceived by means of insightful (Wajdani) knowledge and internal personal feelings. It is the very ‘reality of existence’ that has filled the world; of course, we sometimes perceive the ‘concept of existence’ (only in the mind); however, we should not mistake it with the reality of external existence, because their characteristics are different from each other and sometimes lead man to confusion.

Although ‘existence’, itself, can be called a ‘thing’, it actually grants existence to things and makes every thing a ‘thing’. There is a reason why ‘existence’ has been understood as ‘light’ (Noor); when light shines to anything, it lights up and individuates it (that thing), and makes it stand out among other things. Existence, by itself, is only one thing; however, the quiddity (Mahiyah) of things in the world are various and of different types. lifeless bodies, vegetations, animals, and humans are all different from each other. Each type possesses certain distinctive limits and borderlines which comprise the essence (real meaning) and reality of existents. In fact, each existent has a specific pattern for itself which is called quiddity in philosophical terms. Existence can be viewed from two perspectives. On the one hand, we abstract the concept of existence from the presence of objects, that is, the existing external quiddities in the world – although different from each other – and maintain that these or those objects exist, that is, possess existence. If we view objects ordinarily (rather than philosophically), we assume that the reality of objects is the same as their quiddity rather than their existence. As a result, we say that we have extracted existence from the presence of objects. If quiddity is identical with the objectivity of objects, it seems that existence lacks reality and is, rather, a mental phenomenon. On the other hand, closer inspection reveals that, quite the opposite, it is the quiddity of objects which is a mental phenomenon, is located is the mind only…… (to be continued Insha Allah)
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