A Spiritual Journey from Plotinus to Mulla Sadrā

Al-Asfār al-arba‘at al- ‘aqliyyah (“Four Intellectual Journeys”) is among the issues discussed both in gnosis and al-hikmat al-muta‘āliyah (transcendent philosophy). Gnostics believe that a wayfarer makes four journeys, using a gnostical method. Divine philosophers, too, believe that philosophical matters are kinds of rational and reflective journeys. Therefore, Mulla Sadrā organizes philosophical guestions within Four Journeys, based on a fact that reflection is a kind of mystical journey, but a mental one. Gnosis and divine philosophy has a feature in common and some differences. The common feature is that both aim at knowledge of God.The present paper aims at explaining and analyzing a spiritual journey from gnostical and philosophical perspective. Relying on viewpoints of such thinkers as Plotinus, al-Ghazzāli, Ibn ‘Arabi and Mulla Sadrā, it explains common features and differences in an aforementioned matter.