The discussion of divine activity and the quality of the creation of existents has always been a challenging discussion, and different thinkers have provided different views, each based on their philosophical thoughts. Among them, Mullā Ṣadrā has sometimes acknowledged
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The discussion of divine activity and the quality of the creation of existents has always been a challenging discussion, and different thinkers have provided different views, each based on their philosophical thoughts. Among them, Mullā Ṣadrā has sometimes acknowledged agent-by-foreknowledge and sometimes agent-by-self-manifestation regarding the quality of God’s Agency in his various works. These two apparently contradictory views have made the commentators of his works to try to reveal his ultimate intention. This paper, which has been written following a descriptive analytic method, discusses the views of Mullā Hādī Sabziwārī and Ḥassanzādeh Āmulī as two of the important commentators of the Transcendent Philosophy and concludes that, through referring agent-by-self-manifestation to providence in its general sense, Sabziwārī tries to reconcile these two views. However, with his particular interpretation of the Peripatetics’ view of God’s agency, Ḥassanzādeh Āmulī equates agent-by-foreknowledge with agent-by-self-manifestation. Nevertheless, the authors believe that the main basis of agent-by-foreknowledge that has persuaded Mullā Ṣadrā to acknowledge it is active knowledge. For this reason, by accepting agent-by-foreknowledge, he agrees with such affairs as the addition of knowledge to essence, which the Peripatetics have suggested in this regard. Accordingly, we can conclude from Mullā Ṣadrā’s different statements about the quality of divine agency that his view is based on active knowledge, which also exists in agent-by-foreknowledge. Hence, he speaks of agency-by-foreknowledge in relation to God’s Activity, which is consistent with agent-by-self-knowledge.
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