The necessity of knowledge of self for proper comprehension of divine knowledge in Mulla Sadra's view

Abstract EN

One of the ways to know God is to acquire self-knowledge.

This kind of knowledge is intuitive and in complete harmony with the soul of the mystic because it arises from the depth of our being.

This kind of knowledge of God is as old as the history of mankind.

There are different versions of the give and take between these two kinds of knowledge, the introduction to most of which is a comprehensive study of self and being.

This paper, in an analytical way, seeks to explain the threefold narrations contained in Mulla Sadra's books.

1.

Intuiting God through the intuition of the soul and the intuition of the truths of the creatures that are embodied in the active intellect.

2.

Intuiting God through the connection and association of the soul with its powers and actions, and paving the process from the creative self to God as the ultimate creator, 3.

Intuiting God through man's position as a caliphate and that the caliphate is a sign of the believer.

This kind of self-reflection has two consequences: intuitive knowledge of the presence of God and the limited knowledge of the existence and qualities of God, not his essence.

Summarizing Mulla Sadra's narrations in relation to knowing God through self-knowledge and associating Sadra's analysis and interpretations with the knowledge of the presence of God are the main findings of the present study.