The Maxim of the Ultimately Simple in Mulla Sadra's Transcendental Wisdom and Its Comparison with  the Plurality in Unity in Ibn Arabi's Mysticism

According to Mulla Sadra, the right path that prophets have walked through is the true monotheism, which is based on the two principles of ‘unity in plurality’ and ‘plurality in unity’. For monotheists at that level of monotheism, people are not the veil of God and God is not the veil of people. In his works, Mulla Sadra tries to explain this right path with the maxim: ‘The ultimately simple is all things and is not any one of them’; the theme whose origins can be traced back to Plotinus and Ibn Arabi and his followers who have discussed it by interpretations such as ‘the plurality in unity’. In Ibn Arabi’s mysticism, God is the absolute being and the absolute being does not leave any space for the other, even in a dependent or related form of existence. This issue that is known as ‘personal unity of being’ has had the opportunity to be explained by Mulla Sadra. By expressing the well known saying that understanding the personal unity of being necessitates a level of understanding which exceeds the level of intellect, Mulla Sadra claims that he has been subjected to divine grace and that he has understood the personal unity of being at the level of intellect and has brought forward arguments for his claim in his works. The present article aims at stating the base of the ultimately simple and explaining it through two statements of ‘analogical unity’ and ‘personal unity of existence’. An effort is made to adjust this maxim to the Sufis’ sayings and to find the similarities and differences.