The Ideal Body from the Perspective of Sadr al-Muta'allehin

According to Sadr al-Muta'allehin, the soul of man is an abstract ideal being that is corporeal and has stages and levels of analogicity and unity at the same time as multiplicity. One of the levels of this being is the ideal body. Using the descriptive-analytical method, the present paper seeks to introduce the characteristics of the ideal body and how it relates to the elemental body and soul according to Sadr al-Muta'allehin. This research coherently and systematically presents all that Sadr al-Muta'allehin has stated about the ideal body in his works. According to Sadr al-Muta'allehin, the ideal body is invisible, immortal, and attached to the soul; it iconically indicates the properties and essences of the soul. The ideal body is united with the soul and the main body in the sense that the soul firstly and foremostly manages and governs the ideal body, and will be with man in the worldly life, purgatory (Barzakh) and the hereafter.