A Study and Evaluation of the Foundations of Mulla Sadra s Theory of Ambiguity

A study of Mulla Sadra’s encounter with Qur’anic ambiguities reveals that, in his view, Qur’anic verses possess two inward and outward meanings and, when dealing with ambiguous verses, one must value their outward meaning and does not deviate from it. At the same time, he holds that the meaning of ambiguous verses must conform to the intellect and the traditions that have been correctly narrated from the Infallible Imams (a). In his view, the understanding of ambiguous verses is relative and depends on the intellectual capacity of people. Those who are firmly rooted in knowledge (the Infallible Imams (a)) know the whole meanings of ambiguous verses and, in fact, find nothing ambiguous about them. However, based on his monotheistic theory, Mulla Sadra believes that all levels of being, from the highest to the lowest, are ontologically hierarchical. Accordingly, it can be claimed that without interpreting ambiguous verses or resorting to the embodiment of the essence of the Necessary Being, one can preserve the outward meaning of Qur’anic verses through the semantic expansion of ambiguous terms and grasp their outward meanings. The strengths of Mulla Sadra’s theory concerning ambiguous verses generally consist of accepting the necessity of existence of ambiguous verses in the Qur’an, limiting ambiguities to ideological teachings, gradedness of the concept of ambiguity, limiting the complete perception and interpretation of ambiguities to the People of the Prophet’s House, accepting the method of the Infallible Imams (a) (Rasikhun) in dealing with ambiguous verses, acknowledging the gradedness or relativeness of understanding ambiguous verses, emphasizing the necessity of interpretation based on a method between analogy and agnosticism relying on rational principles and the teachings of the Infallibles (a), and interpreting ambiguities based on the semantic essence of words.