According to al-I‘raf Chapter: 172 of the Qur’an, known as verse of Mithaq (pledge), before his presence in this world, man had witnessed in an immaterial, simple, and all-intuitive realm some pure truths, following which he acknowledged the divinity of his God. However
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According to al-I‘raf Chapter: 172 of the Qur’an, known as verse of Mithaq (pledge), before his presence in this world, man had witnessed in an immaterial, simple, and all-intuitive realm some pure truths, following which he acknowledged the divinity of his God. However, after his fall in the human world and attachment to the body and cover of nature, he buried those pure jewels in worldly oblivion. This point is manifested in the works of Plato, the Greek divine philosopher, in his theory of the “Ideas” and the “theory of reminiscence”. The question rising here is: Can we find a relationship between the world of pledge (world of pre-existence) and Platonic Ideas, which have played an important role in explaining the differentiated knowledge of Almighty Truth of other than Him?
The present research investigates the view of Mulla Sadra, the founder of the Transcendent Philosophy, in this regard following a descriptive-analytic method and intends to provide his response to the above question. In his view, the quality of man’s presence in that world was like the presence of his soul (spirit) in the world of intellects or the world of divine knowledge before its attachment to the body. At this level of being, he enjoys intellectual unity and all particular plural souls in an epitomized and simple form.
Therefore, in Mulla Sadra’s view, the world of pre-existence is the divine area (world of divine knowledge). Based on this idea, he justifies the theory of reminiscence and equates the world of pledge with Platonic Ideas. It is necessary to note that Mulla Sadra initially explains the theory of Platonic Ideas based on his own philosophical principles (particularly the principles of the principiality, unity, and gradedness of being) and then, as discussed in this paper, confirms it as an indication of the world of pre-existence.
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