Roles of the Affective and Voluntary Spheres of Faith in its Bilateral Relationship with Moral Acts in Mullā Ṣadrā’s View

Faith is a truth which, in addition to cognition, embraces human feelings and will. That is why thinkers have provided different cognitive, affective, and voluntarist views of faith, each emphasizing one of these realms. The quality of the unity of faith with act has a long history and has provoked several different views. Following a descriptive-analytic method, the author has tried to explain and analyze Mullā Ṣadrā’s standpoint in this regard in this paper. His view of the nature of faith has often been introduced based on the identity of faith and cognition. However, he believes that faith is a kind knowledge within the heart which, in addition to cognition, entails human feelings and will. His emphasis upon the role of devotional love in the realm of affections and that of faith-related sincerity in the realm of free will has resulted in presenting an acceptable explanation of the quality of the unity of faith and act within his philosophical framework. In this way, through its spread in the realms of feeling and will (love and devotion), faith leads to moral act and is also influenced by such acts in its own turn. Therefore, a mutual relationship is established between knowledge and moral act through the mediation of feelings and will. In other words, faith guarantees the performance of moral acts, which, in turn, reinforce one’s faith.