A Study of the Principles of Physical Resurrection in Ṣadr al-Muti’allihīn’s Works

Physical resurrection is undoubtedly one of the most challenging ideological discourses in the history of our theological and philosophical thinking and Ṣadr al-Muti’allihīn, with the help of the principles emerged from his own philosophical system, has been able to prove and rationally and philosophically explain it. Mullā Ṣadrā’s eschatology is focused on proving three notions: first, proving the objectivity of the Otherworldly and worldly body; second, proving that the Hereafter is of the soul’s establishments and resulted from its creativity; third, proving the ascending course of the soul. The main issue of this article is that, regardless of the great consistency seen in the image of physical resurrection in various works of Mullā Ṣadrā, the number of the principles used by him in these works have been varied, consisting of six to twelve principles. The important question is: What are the principles needed by Mullā Ṣadrā for setting forth the theory of physical resurrection and why are their numbers varied inṢadrā’s works and whether the difference of the principles noticed inMullāṢadrā’s works is the result of the specific field of discourse in that work or the difference has really been basic; in other words, given this difference, has any changes been made in the theory of physical resurrection? The present article seeks to give an accurate explanation of these principles and to make a comparative study of them in various Mullā Ṣadrā’s works, concluding that the secret of the increase and decrease of these principles lies in such factors as his books being brief or detailed; also, several of the principles being combined in some of MullāṢadrā’s works can be considered as a significant and key point. It is indisputable that the involvement of all these principles in provingṢadrā’s theory on physical resurrection is not the same; some of them areṢadrā’s general philosophy principles, some others are the basic premises that undertake to prove important issue, and some others are considered as representing ranks of the soul and its ascending course.