Human Soul: A Supreme Example of God in the Transcendent Philosophy

One of the aspects that has been referred to in the Transcendent Philosophy for attaining the knowledge of God through the knowledge of the soul is that the human soul is a supreme example of God. This means that God has created the human soul similar to Himself in terms of essence, attributes, and acts so that the knowledge of the soul could function as a means of attaining the knowledge of God in these three realms. However, it is noteworthy that God Almighty is pure from a like. Therefore, an example is different from a like. A careful study of Mullā Ṣadrā’s works reveals that he followed this theory seriously and tried his best to grant it a demonstrative nature. However, he never introduced it in a coherent and well-defined manner in a book or a chapter but dealt with its different dimensions in different chapters and works in relation to other discussions. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce this theory and the related interpretations in a coherent form. After some preliminary explanations regarding the Sadrian supreme example theory, this paper examines and analyzes the most important dimensions of the soul as an example of God and the related analyses in order to identify the most significant aspects of this feature of the human soul.