A Review of Sabzawari's Innovation in the Temporality of Universe: Nominal Temporality

he theory of nominal temporality, which is one of Sabzawari's innovations, has undergone three stages in his thought. To explain the doctrine, Sabzawari's words have some ambiguity, complexity and contradictions. The first stage has been generally noticed by the commentators of Sabzawari's works. Given these stages and his three interpretations of nominal temporality, the contradiction between his different words is explained. The present article reports, analyses and reviews these triple levels or interpretations. In the first stage, the intention of "name" in "Nominal Temporality" is objective name (versus verbal). In the second stage, the intention is objective name, but he did not regard all objective names as nominal temporal things; rather, some names –like the most beautiful names (al-asma' al-husna)- are eternally nominal. In the third stage, the intention of name is not an objective one, rather only quiddities being in mind.