(Man’s Will in the Eyes of Islamic Philosophers (Avicenna, Mulla Sadra, Allama Tabatabai, Imam Khomeini

Just as affirming the existence of the “will” in the man is an axiomatic and conscientious fact, knowing the meaning and reality of the “will” is a complicated and difficult task. This is why despite the unanimous acceptance of the “will” among the thinkers, there is disagreement in interpretation and statement of its general nature.
Some Islamic philosophers maintain that the “will” is one of the mental qualities, and regard “disgust” as its opposite. Avicenna believes that willing something means imagining it. Indeed, he considers the “will” as the origin of action and believes that imagining incites a willingness in the imaginer. Mulla Sadra believes that the “will” is “strong eagerness for acquiring something favored, and it is the last part of the ‘adequate cause’”. Allama Tabatabai regards the “will” as a mental quality, but different from qualities such as knowledge and desire, believing that the ‘will’ accompanies action and cannot exist before or after it. The late Imam Khomeini considers the ‘will’ as one action among the actions of the soul.
The ‘will’ is a phenomenon that requires a ‘cause’. Mulla Sadra does not regard the cause of the ‘will’ to be the man’s will or his nature, for it leads to infinite regression or endless chaining. As Avicenna says: “The soul is a constrained being in the form of a free agent”. Thus, some have asserted that the cause of the ‘will’ is the external factors.