Farabi and Mulla Sadra on the Part of the Power of Imagination in Revelation

Some of the Islamic philosophers such as Farabi and Mulla Sadra supporting the belief in sacred and divine revelation began to give a philosophical explanation in the field. In philosophical explanation of revelation, revealed facts can be divided into two: general and particular, perceived respectively by the Prophet`s intellect and imagination. Both the philosophers when explaining Divine revelation have emphasized on the important role of the imaginary faculty for receiving particular revealed facts. Again, as they believed, the faculty of imagination can understand general facts of revelation by turning the facts to objective and imaginary senses. For the philosophers both, the source of general facts has been known to be active intellect But there may be found a case of difference when studying the philosopher`s views on the source of particular facts. As is understood by Farabi, the source of particular facts is the same as that of general facts. But for Mulla Sadra, the source of particular facts has been known as “imaginary universe.” Therefore, with regard to the importance of imaginary faculty in the phenomenon of revelation the author has attended to the compare the views of the philosophers in this field.