Demonstration of Change in Metaphysical Worlds Based on Two Different Foundations

Several problems have been produced in the process of philosophy’s interaction with religious theorems. One of the new discussions that has attracted great attention during the last decades pertains to purgatorial and otherworldly perfection of the souls. On the one hand, based on the principles and explicit theories of most philosophers and Mullā Ṣadrā’s words, the perfection of the soul after its separation from the elemental body is impossible. On the other hand, some sentences in Qur’anic verses and Islamic traditions refer to the perfection of the soul in metaphysical worlds. Such differences have persuaded researchers and thinkers to find some solutions. Following an analytic-inferential method, this paper seeks to provide an answer to the question of whether the soul is subject to any change and motion after its separation from the body based on both common philosophical principles and Mullā Ṣadrā’s gnostic approach. The findings of this study indicate that, based on philosophers’ principles, changes in the states of souls after death is an acceptable view of the type of sequence of forms and manifestation of developed habits and forms in the world of nature. Moreover, according to a gnostic reading of the Transcendent Philosophy, changes in metaphysical worlds are certain and of the same type of change in the material world. However, in this approach change and motion are not used in their common philosophical senses and are, rather, used in the sense of departure from undifferentiation to differentiation and manifestation. In this way, the authors provide a rational explanation of change and motion in this paper relying on philosophical principles and through presenting a new definition of motion.