The Place of Tasting (Esoteric) Theosophy in the Early and Later Mulla Sadra's Thoughts

Mulla Sadra was greatly influenced by Allamah Davani during his early years of thought. The Al-Mabda’ wa Al-Ma‘ad , “the Beginning and the End” is a witness of this impact. Mulla Sadra has written the first section of the book according to principality of the quiddity and tasting theosophy. The present paper proposes to demonstrate the theory of tasting theosophy through four basic axes in Mulla Sadra’s al-Mabda’ wa’l-ma‘ad. oneness of the necessary being and the way of confronting the Ibn Kammuna doubt or the paradox of multiple necessary beings, entity of the necessary and the possibilities, along with abstracting a single concept from contradictory affairs are some of the principles which mentioned above. A systematic comparison between Mulla Sadra and Allamah Davani’s views on the unity of the necessary existence reveals that Sadra has been influenced by Allamah Davani in the theory of tasting theosophy and expressing its preliminaries. Interestingly, none of the interpreters and translators of the al-Mabda’ Wa’l-Ma‘ad, have mentioned this influence. They all have neglected the fact that, Mulla Sadra at the time of writing the book, was believing in the tasting theosophy.