Corporeal Origination of the Soul: A Comparative Study of the Views of Mullā Ṣadrā’s Commentators

Mullā Ṣadrā considered the soul corporeal at the stage of origination and spiritual at the stage of survival. In his view, corporal matter gradually moves through the levels of perfection in the light of its trans-substantial motion until it reaches the level of immateriality. This was considered a revolutionary theory in the history of Islamic philosophy. Given the significance of this problem, Mullā Ṣadrā’s commentators have paid particular attention to explaining the soul’s corporeal origination in Mullā Ṣadrā’s view; however, they have not always been unanimous in their ideas in this regard. Generally speaking, when explaining the meaning and nature of the corporeal origination of the soul, the commentators of Mullā Ṣadrā’s works can be divided into three groups: some of them believe that the word corporeal in this theory refers to the natural body; some others have interpreted it as something that bears a strong relation to the body, and the third group provides a general meaning for this word including both the natural body and immaterial existent. The main purpose of this study is to analyze and explain the views of these three groups and, thus, clarify the real meaning of the corporeal origination of the soul based on an analytic-descriptive method.