Manifestation of Sadrian Philosophy in Imam Khomeini’s Glosses on Qayṣarī’s Introduction

The fourth chapter of Qayṣarī’s Introduction to Ibn ‘Arabī’s Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam discusses substances and accidents following a gnostic approach and is mainly intended to explain the merciful soul. However, there is also an extensive discussion of gnostics’ merciful soul using a philosophical language. Imam Khomeini has criticized Qayṣarī’s explanation in a commentary based on the Transcendent Philosophy. At the end of the same chapter, Qayṣarī has mentioned some points about the meaning of individuation and its types. In another commentary, Imam Khomeini has provided an accurate explanation of different types of individuation using a gnostic language. This meaning of individuation and its types as discussed by Qayṣarī has been almost completely propounded in the third chapter of the fourth level of general affairs in al-Asfār, which reflects the great influence of Ibn ‘Arabī’s gnostic tradition, in general, and Qayṣarī’s Introduction, in particular, on Mullā Ṣadrā’s philosophy. In Qayṣarī’s view, accidents must function as the differentia of substances while, in the view of Mullā Ṣadrā and, following him, Imam Khomeini, Substance is the differentia of substance and not accident. Qayṣarī believes that sometimes individuation is the same as essence and sometimes an addition to it. Nevertheless, Imam Khomeini maintains that individuation does not essentially apply to the essence of Almighty Truth because it is among the effects of attributive manifestations. However, what enjoys the oneness of all individuations is the supreme name and perfect Man. The main purpose of this paper is to provide an accurate explanation, analysis, and criticism of Qayṣarī’s Introduction and Imam Khomeini’s commentary on this work. Imam Khomeini has criticized Qayṣarī in one commentary based on the Sadrian philosophy and, in another one, has discussed his own standpoints based on, in fact, a part of al-Asfār.