Transubstantial Motion and its Philosophical Consequences
Reza Akbarian, Tarbiat Modarres University, Iran
Abstract
Transubstantial motion (al-harakat al-jawhariyyah) is one of the most important philosophical issues in the history of Islamic Philosophy and has become closely associated with the name of Mulla Sadra. One must admit that the greatnessof this theory and its deep and widespread influence on the philosophical thought of Muslims is no less than that of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity in physics and Whitehead’s Process Philosophy in philosophy.
This theory provides the basis for Mulla Sadra’s world view. In the light of this theory, he presents a new philosophical explanation for the physical and metaphysical problems which include the temporal contingency of the world, the relationship between the permanent and the changing, the creation of the world, the perpetual creation, the relationship between the soul and the body, the resurrection of the body, and many different issues about resurrection. He also analyses and explains the process of motion and transformation, its spread and generality, together with its philosophical results and consequences, in a deep and meaningful way and from a very powerful and effective viewpoint.
As a comprehensive and unifying theory which deals with the origin (mabda), and the return (ma’ad) at the same time, it must be considered to be one of the fundamental and distinguished characteristics of Mulla Sadra’s theorising. This article is intended to explain and introduce the consequences of this theory and to determine the role of each in creating a new outlook in the domain of Philosophy. It also tries to shed some light on the history of the evolution of Tran-substantial motion and discusses the new ideas proposed by Mulla Sadra which have brought about a change in this theory.
The Place of the Theory of Tran-substantial Motion in Mulla Sadra’s Ontological System
Before the rise of the theory of Tran-substantial motion, scholars generally agreed upon the point that motion or change in the substance of an object is impossible. The ideas of the Islamic Gnostics and theologians who believed in perpetual creation can be viewed as compatible with this theory.1 But the one who has proposed this problem explicitly, and bravely insisted on proving, it is the most prominent philosopher of the Islamic world, Mulla Sadra. He considers motion nothing but perpetual renovation and renewal of the world in each moment. He concludes that not only accidents but also the very substance of the world is constantly in a state of motion and renovation.
Mulla Sadra’s words in defense of motion within the category of substance, and in proof of essential instability and instability in the essence of the whole material entities, are so deep and considerable that they still leave the field open for further research and weighty deliberation of their various angles. In his book, al-Shifa,2 Ibn Sina refers to the problem of non-subsistence of the subject and he attempts to explicitly refute the Tran-substantial motion and considers it impossible. In his opinion, the phenomenon which vaguely represents the extended Tran-substantial motion in fact lacks extension and is an interrupted process full of intervals which is under the control of a force beyond the domain of nature. With respect to the unity of the four causes, and using precisely the Aristotelian example about the creation of the individual human being and the evolution of his dispositions, Ibn Sina states:
And it thus undergoes metamorphosis and transformation until it is intensified and then disconnected. But on the surface, it gives rise to the mistake that it is a single journey from one form to another. As a result, it is assumed that there is motion within substance, while it is not so; rather, there are multiple motions and moments.3
The important and fundamental point in Ibn Sina’s words lies exactly within these moments of immobility. Ibn Sina considers moments of immobility as non-extended temporal moments like distances within which the Giver of forms grants a substance when the preliminaries are provided. In his opinion, the creation of human beings is not that different forms of sperm, coagulum, lumps of flesh, etc., are realized in the outside in the form of extended and continual motion. Rather, he believes that special quantitative and qualitative motions make the matter vulnerable to accepting form, and at a moment when this vulnerability reaches perfection, the Giver of form grants it. Hence, motion is not within the substance because substantial forms are not the products of motion; rather, they are created by the will of a creator beyond the internal activities of nature.
It is exactly at this point that Ibn Sina’s philosophy in particular, and Muslims’ philosophical thought in general, depart from Aristotle’s philosophy. Ibn Sina considers the agency of God to be a creative one. Aristotle has referred to this issue where he has explored the relationship between the sensible and changing world with pure actuality and considers pure actuality as the ultimate cause of being.4 Pure act is not the agent that causes the world. Contrary to the Islamic thought, the Greek philosophy is based on the idea that nothing comes into existence from non-existence; but existence only originates from existence. That is why in Greek philosophy the manner of the origination of beings from non-existence was not considered a philosophical problem; rather, the manner of the origination of existence from existence provided the basis for their scientific and philosophical explorations. In order to solve this problem, Aristotle has proposed the principle of motion as a fundamental issue in his philosophy.
It is within this philosophical framework that Aristotle directs the range of motions and movements towards the unmoved mover and calls him Theos or God, a being that lacks any kind of motion and change and is the essence of Perfection and sheer perfection itself; a God that necessarily lacks any kind of motion and change within its essence because of being pure perfection. This is because the motion and change necessary for obtaining a higher state of perfection and removing any imperfection from existence is limited.5
The logical requirement of such a statement, according to Aristotle, is not that God is the essence of existence and sheer existence. He does not discuss the relationship between the first cause and existence in his philosophy. Had Aristotle understood that God is the very existence itself, it would not have been possible to excuse him his negligence to accept creation. In his opinion, God, world and motion are all eternal and the Almighty God has not created the world. Such a God differs greatly from that of the Islamic God. Hence, the conversion of the Aristotelian God to the Islamic God is one of the greatest events in the history of philosophy; accordingly, the movement of Aristotelian philosophy towards the Islamic tradition and, afterwards, towards the Christian and western traditions has been changed.
In line with this fundamental and Tran-substantial change, there exist other transformations including the change in the Aristotelian idea of motion by Ibn Sina and also its new transformation in Mulla Sadra’s thinking. The world of Islam could never accept the Aristotelian idea of regarding an agent of cause within the nature of things and without any influence exercised by a metaphysical force. Rather, for Islam and its philosophers, creation has always been an important problem, which they attribute to the creator. Therefore, in order for the Aristotelian philosophy to be accepted by the Islamic world, parts of Aristotelian physics should have necessarily changed. Such a transformation, which can be regarded as a direct revision in Aristotelian motion, can be explicitly and emphatically found in Ibn Sina’s philosophy.
Ibn Sina speaks of two kinds of agent in Shifa: one is the agent as conceived by natural philosophers, and the other is the agent as conceived by theologians. For the natural philosopher (as noted in the world view of Aristotle), the agent is the source of motion and for theologians (as it is in the Islamic philosophy), it is the source of existence.
And this is because of the fact that by agent, divine philosophers do not simply mean the origin of motion, as is meant by natural philosophers. Rather, they mean the origin of existence and its conveyor like the relationship of the sublime creator to the world. However, the natural agent of cause does not convey any existence except excitement in one of the forms of excitement. So the conveyor of existence is the source of motion in physics.6
It is evident that such an agent, which is considered to be the source of existence and as the creator and giver of existence, fits neither into Greek nor Aristotelian philosophy.
Hence, as a result of the interplay of Greek and Islamic ideas, which are basically different, and by maintaining the dominance of Islamic thought over Greek thought, one of the major pivots of Aristotelian physics and metaphysics was invalidated and replaced by a mixture of Greek and Islamic thought. This idea, though a precise and praiseworthy one, confronted the philosophers with a problem that they were forced to solve by resorting to the theory of Tran-substantial and existential motion. This theory has been accepted and regarded as a new principle for philosophical explorations by Mulla Sadra.
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In Mulla Sadra’s philosophy, the Aristotelian natural motion and Ibn Sina’s gradational motion were substituted by the Tran-substantial and existential motion which originates from the source of everlasting Divine grace which is ever-graceful and ever-bountiful. Yet it should be taken into consideration that the source of grace does not cause motion but is the cause of perpetual and interconnected forms whose fruit is motion itself. Such a statement and thought is not compatible with Aristotle’s philosophy either with regard to its content or the relationship between the four causes. All motion, which Aristotle sees in the essence of nature and from nature, Mulla Sadra sees within the essence of existence and attributes to the Divine creative power.
In Mulla Sadra’s philosophy, the Aristotelian natural motion and Ibn Sina’s gradational motion were substituted by the Tran-substantial and existential motion which originates from the source of everlasting Divine grace which is ever-graceful and ever-bountiful. Yet it should be taken into consideration that the source of grace does not cause motion but is the cause of perpetual and interconnected forms whose fruit is motion itself. Such a statement and thought is not compatible with Aristotle’s philosophy either with regard to its content or the relationship between the four causes. All motion, which Aristotle sees in the essence of nature and from nature, Mulla Sadra sees within the essence of existence and attributes to the Divine creative power.
It is with respect to this point that Mulla Sadra’s philosophy drastically differs from that of Aristotle, since Aristotle has presented his discussions about motion in physics and through which he has reached the metaphysical distinction between sensible and non-sensible entities. In fact, Aristotle’s real goal in his philosophy is to explain nature, that is, the"where about" and "why about" of the sensible, observable and tangible world in which man lives and is constantly involved with. It is this major goal which in turn characterizes the nature of his metaphysics. That is, if it were not for the necessity of completing his natural philosophy in line with his world view, neither would the knowledge of metaphysics be necessary for him, nor would it be meaningful in his philosophical system. Therefore, Aristotle’s metaphysics is not an unrelated issue to physics and to the natural world; in other words, it is not beyond tangible and sensible facts.
Contrary to Aristotle, Mulla Sadra considers the issue of motion as being related to metaphysics, and explores it in his philosophy under the title of ‘division of existence into constant and becoming’. He uses a precise expression in his al- Asfar which indicates that the issue of motion is related to metaphysics. He states that: ‘motion is the renewal of event,not a renewed event,’ and says that ‘the permanence of motion for a renewed and mobile individual is not like the occurrence of an accident for a subject; rather, it is an "analytic accident" whose relationship with the subject is like the relationship of differentia to genus’.7 Sabzawari, in his commentary on al-Asfar, presents the following statement:
However, Tran-substantial motion, like the flux of nature, is not one of the accidents of the body; rather it is one of the principles of it, because the existence of nature is mobile and nature is the differentia of the body and prior to it. So this is particularization by the natural itself, and not after it.8
From the above discussions one may conclude that in Mulla Sadra’s view and that of his followers, motion and becoming are not in contrast with being in the sense of existence; rather, being is of two kinds. The first one is a kind of being which is constant and lacks a temporal dimension which is not measurable with temporal criteria and, hence, is not subject to change and transformation. The second one is the mobile being that possesses a temporal dimension which extends in the stretch of time and its being is the same as its becoming. According to rational proofs, such an entity is either essentially material or belongs to matter and is in unity with it in the same way that man’s soul is capable of motion and change as long as it has some kind of belonging and attachment to the body.
Mulla Sadra proves the existence of motion in the external world basically by means of rational proof and the rejection of Parmenidos and Zenon’s arguments and not by sense perception. In his opinion, motion is a philosophical secondary intelligible concept and not an essential one; and its discussion is a philosophical and metaphysical one, not a discussion within the field of empirical science. This is because he believes that the concept of motion is not attained through abstraction and generalisation by sense perception; rather, similar to other metaphysical categories; it is attained through the analysis and interpretation of percepts by presence. Thus, we perceive the existential motion and its extension overtime first by knowledge by presence and recognise the properties of motion by rational analyses in the form of a philosophical secondary intelligible concept. Then, through corresponding these properties to external objects, we recognise the existence of motion in the external world.
With respect to the point just quoted from Mulla Sadra, this fact can be explained in a different way as follows: since motion is one of the "analytical accidents" of existence, the mode of motion is not objectively separable from the object’s mode of existence; rather, what exists in the external world is merely a restless existence and an unstable essence, which is separate from other beings only through rational analysis. 9 What was said holds true with respect to all metaphysical concepts which indicate the various aspects of existence. As constancy or stability is not a property which may occur to a constant existence in the external world, motion is also not a property which may occur in the external world to a mobile existence either; rather, both count as concepts which indicate two modes of existence. As a result, in the Tran-substantial motion, according to Mulla Sadra, there is no need for an external subject since the very object itself, in every moment, is different from the same object in one moment before or one moment after. In other words, in the Tran-substantial motion, unlike in accidental motions, the motion and the mobile are identical. Of course, an ordinary mind which is not philosophically oriented takes it for granted that no motion in the external world is possible without a mobile being, and this is so because it is used to accidental and, specifically, spatial motions. However, after getting used to precise philosophical analyses, it would be clear that the need of accidental motions to a subject too is not because of their being "motion"; rather, it is because of their being "accidental". That is why even immobility requires a subject. Hence, after proving motion in the essence and substance of an object, and recognising the fact that the material existent itself does not remain the same in two successive moments, we understand that such a motion does not require the presupposition of an external subject and its external existence is the same as motion itself.
The Relationship between the Tran-substantial Motion and the Principle of the Primacy of Existence over Quiddity (Priorities of Existence)
Mulla Sadra’s argument for proving the Tran-substantial motion is based on the idea that the existence of an object comprises its whole and that quiddity is an imaginary or hypothesised entity. By accepting the priorities of existence, flux becomes a mode of existence, and the way of mobile beings’ coming into existence, which is nothing but their being, is conceived in a gradual and mobile manner. The question ‘In the Tran-substantial motion what becomes of the object itself?’ is a question arising from the priority of the quiddity approach. According to the priorities of existence, the existence of an object is the object itself and motion is the mode of existence. Nevertheless, in the theory of Tran-substantial motion, the object itself is the very mobile existence and not something which is in motion.
The formal substance, too, in its gradual increase in perfection, is a temporal unique being which is continual in one sense, and is connected gradually in another sense. A connected unit has a single existence. Existence for us and for all others with deep roots in theosophy is the same personal entity. If motion were not the single connected unit, the judgment that blackness does not remain constant in its gradual increase in intensity towards more black would be correct, and the same judgment would go through with the Transubstantial form at the time of its perfection, while it is not so. The mystery lies in what was already mentioned, that is, specific existence is fundamental for every object, and is determined by its own essence, and in spite of having entity and unity has it's degrees and stages.10
It has been mentioned that Mulla Sadra considers the individual unity of blackness in becoming more black which is acceptable for the opposite side and, despite its conjunctive transformation, he bases the survival of the individuation of substance on the same grounds. The basis in both cases is that the conjoined unit has a unique existence. In fact, the mobile being is a scattered and spread existence that is fulfilled in every moment simultaneously with the motion of its component parts. However, these component parts have a conjunctive unity and, as a result, an individual unity. That is why one can speak of the subsistence of a subject along with its Transubstantial motion.
The Reasons for Proving Transubstantial Motion
Mulla Sadra’s first proof for demonstrating motion in substance is based on the premise that the mobility and changeability of an object are not false attributes to be transferable from one thing to another. Such an event which is interpreted as the transference of accident necessitates that a phenomenon which is dependent upon other (outside) factors becomes dependent upon itself for a moment; and its ipseity, which is the very dependence upon other, abandons its dependence and becomes independent. This is a contradiction in premises. So, the relationship between the motion and the mobile is like the relationship between an object and its appearance. As a result, when a change takes place in an object because of the new conditions, the object itself becomes the source of change. That is to say, motion originates from the object itself, not from external factors. External factors only prepare the substance of the object to move, and thereafter, it is the substance of the object which is the source of motion.11
The second premise is that the substance of an object, which is the cause of motion and change, must itself be mobile and unstable and identical to change and motion. This is because, according to a philosophical principle, any constant effect has a constant cause and any changing effect has a changing cause. Given that substance is the cause of the motion of the accident, and the cause of motion itself must be mobile; why does one not believe that substance is essentially mobile?
Mulla Sadra has a more exact statement in this regard which originates from his view on substance and accident.12 Mulla Sadra’s view concerning the relationship between substance and accident differs from that of Aristotle and even Ibn Sina. With respect to existence, he regards accidents and attributes of every object as the stages and ranks of the existence of substance. The general assumption is that objects require their attributes in order to maintain their individuation and exclusive characteristics. However, according to the genuine principle of the principles of existence, in Transcendent Theosophy, these various attributes are not the causes of individuation, but the signs of individuation.
Another illuminationist argument holds that: ‘any corporeal substance has a mode of existence that necessitates accidents which are inseparable from substance... These are the same inseparable accidents which are called the individualising factors by the majority of philosophers, while the reality is that these are the signs of individuation’.13
The point is that different beings differ from each other in essence and by depending on their own specific existence,and it is because of the individuation of entity that their attributes turn out to be different and not the other way round.
Therefore, every existence is but one ipseity and that single ipseity has various appearances and faces. According to this idea, individuation is not imposed upon beings from outside; rather it originates from the very essence of the beings. Therefore, any attribute or accident in an object is exactly the attribute and accident of its specific existence and, as a result, the motion of the object is in fact the very ipseity of that object. In other words, the accidents and attributes of any object are the stages of the existence of substance with respect to existence. In this way the renewal of accidents is impossible unless through the renewal of substance; a renewal which is perpetual, conjunctive, and compatible with the maintenance of the individuation of the object and this is the very same as motion within substance.
With this point clarified, we now say: any corporeal individual in whom all or some of these individualising factors, like ‘time’, ‘quantity’, ‘position’, ‘where’, etc., are transformed. This transformation is the function of the transformation of the existence that necessitates it, and in a sense is the very same transformation of this existence. This is because the existence of any corporeal nature is inherently a continuous, quantitative substance having position, place and time. Thus the transformation of quantities, colours and positions cause the transformation of the individual existence of the corporeal substance. This is the very motion within substance, because the existence of substance is substance, as the same way that the existence of accident is accident.14
To prove the Transubstantial motion, Mulla Sadra presents another argument which is based on his view of "the reality of time". Mulla Sadra considers time as an invisible extension or a fourth dimension of material existence. From his point of view, the temporality of objects is the sign of a kind of extension in their existence. This indicates a deep and essential motion which never leaves the world in its previous disposition and which creates a new world in every moment.
Mulla Sadra’s words15 concerning the material entities being four-dimensional is quite explicit. In his precise analysis, bodies have two extensions: one on the scale of place and the other on the scale of time. The spatial extension is the cause of three geometrical dimensions and the temporal extension originates from the internal mobility of material beings. It is impossible to place something which is essentially unplaceable in a place, and it is also impossible to place something which is essentially unstable and restless in time. The effects of the passage of time upon something, at least, indicates that the thing is essentially ready to accept time. There are beings which are neither in time nor with time; rather, they are beyond time like God and pure non-material entities whose existence with respect to different times is identical. But a being whose existence is affected at different times and appears differently at each moment demonstrates the existence of a deep connection between its ipseity and time, not an accidental or superficial connection which is imposed from outside. Therefore, material beings cannot be conceived of as being essentially stable and unstable with respect to time.
So a sound Judgement states: that is impossible that one of the temporal and spatial things, with regard to its external existence and personal entity, keeps from the accomplishment of time and space and turns to become the constant of existence; that times are not different to it and different spaces are indifferent to it. Anybody who considers this viable has opposed the requirement of his own Judgement, and his appearance has challenged his conscience and his tongue his heart. Thus, bodies that bear different relations to time, i.e. past, present, and future, are renovated with regard to them: this must be because of a formal affair that is inherently involved in the integrity of their existence.16
Now it can be better understood why one cannot say that the world exists and time passes over it; rather, one must say that the world of the later moment does not exist and must come into existence. A correct conception of time indicates that time is neither something that passes over the world independently nor the claim that the world’s existence is meaningful. The world is nothing but a motion and since motion is a mobile process which gradually comes into existence, its parts do not all come into existence together. Therefore, the world of tomorrow will occur tomorrow; it is not the case that the world exists but its being placed in tomorrow is incumbent upon the passage of time. The passage of time is the passage of the world, not the immobility of the world and the passage of time over it. The passage of the world means the motion of the world and the motion of the world means its gradual origination, and its gradual origination means its coming into existence in every moment.
Nevertheless, Mulla Sadra considers the world, in the deepest sense, to be an existence dependent on and needful of other, and this dependence and need have penetrated deeply into its spirit and have entirely captured its existence. That is why Mulla Sadra considers the beings of this world as dependent beings whose existence is just their dependence and if they are deprived of this dependence for one moment, they will lose their existence. One cannot possibly present a deeper argument than this concerning the dependence of the created on the creator and the continual requirement of the world for a creator.
The Philosophical Consequences of the Transubstantial Motion
1- With regard to the discussion of Transubstantial motion in Mulla Sadra’s philosophy, the Aristotelian argument of motion has a more complete form and a richer content. For on the basis of this principle, Mulla Sadra presents both anew philosophical explanation for purposefulness of the world of nature and proves the need of the world for a creator, not in its appearance and states, but in its real existence and ipseity. Mulla Sadra states that the nature of all beings and their existence is the same as their desire for the first principle.17 As a result, these beings must have an intrinsic goal, otherwise it follows that the origination of this desire in their nature is purposeless and absurd, while ‘there is no vanity in existence and there is no suspension (ta’til) in nature’.18
According to the Aristotelian argument of motion, God (the first mover) has neither created nor maintained the world; rather, he simply brings about motion in the world. ‘Motion’ or ‘the first perfection’ in this argument is something that the mover gives to the moved. The work of the first mover is giving motion and mobility. Now, if somebody proposes the eternity of matter and states that matter is eternal, even though its attributes and accidents change, Aristotle’s argument of motion is not able to solve this problem. However according to Mulla Sadra’s Transubstantial motion, motion flows and circulates through the substance of objects and the changes in accidents and appearance have their roots in the essence and substance of objects. Hence, the need of the first mover has penetrated into the depth of mobile existence, and indeed their existence is the same as poverty and need. Therefore according to this philosophical principle, the story of the eternity of matter and the assumption of the need of the world of nature for a first mover only within the limits of superficial changes are absurd.
According to the theory of Transubstantial motion, Mulla Sadra explicitly states that the first mover is the creative cause and not the instigator of motion.
But there is an exact point here of which you will soon become aware. That is, there must inevitably exist an event apart from motion and the immovable which is inherently mobile and renewed. It is necessarily the source of motion and has a mover agent (by which it is meant the creative cause of the essence of the renewed itself and not the maker of its motion). This is because making does not penetrate between object and its essence (that is, the object is created together with its essence).19
Therefore, in the Transubstantial motion, instigation does not mean the creation of motion in an object by a mover (to put the existence of an object into motion); rather, here, instigation is the same as creation and origination. So, MullaSadra states that: the mover in the Transubstantial motion is the very creative cause (making the existence of an object) for whom mobility and instability are intrinsic. In fact, according to the theory of the Transubstantial motion, motion and the mobile being are the same in the external world, that is, the very transitory and mobile existence and the mobility and transition of motion are the prerequisites for the existence of a mobile being. ‘What is necessary for the existence of an external object does not penetrate between that object and its prerequisites with regard to the aspects of external existence’.20
Therefore, the making of a mobile being is the making of motion and mobility as well. It is not the case that motion requires a separate cause and maker, because motion is intrinsic in the mobile being and the mobile being does not have an ipseity without motion. It is not the case that motions will join the mobile at a stage after its realisation; rather, it is abstracted from the inside of its essence (i.e., from the inside of its existence), so that the mode of existence is the mode of mobility. Thus, it does not require a separate cause; rather, the making of the existence of a mobile being is the making of motion as well.
In this way one notes that Mulla Sadra does not confine the mover to the maker of motion in a composite making.
In general, the discussion of the cause of motion can be carried out at two different levels: one at the scientific level and the other at a philosophical one. At a scientific level, the quality of the emergence of motions and their dependence on each other will be explored, and at the philosophical level, motion is considered as a phenomenon requiring a cause. The method of philosophical explorations concerning the agent of motion is a different one. No matter how much science develops and provides justifications for the interpretation of motion, from the philosophical point of view many questions may still arise and one may ask what the creative cause and interpretation of the mobile existence is, and why and how such an existence partakes of mobility. Science seeks to gain more insight into the structure of an object, for example, whether it is simple or complex, and what the conditions of its transformation and change into another object are. But science does not tell us what motion is and what the existence of something should be in order to be moveable. It is the right of philosophy to speak positively or negatively in this regard.
2- Mulla Sadra uses different methods to prove the existence of separate forms in his works, one of which is the very method of the Transubstantial motion. He holds that due to being essentially renewable and unstable, every nature requires a mover that grants its existence through simple making (ja’l-e basit). The mover that grants existence must be a constant entity, separate from matter and even material properties, because it is impossible for the range of causes and effects to be infinite.21
There is no contradiction between this account of motion, which leads to the demonstration of separate forms, and the previous account, which proves the existence of a mover that grants existence. The previous account is based on the unity of the world of nature so that the world as an individual unit,22 whose parts are interconnected,23 constitutes a real unit as a whole.24 Nevertheless, it requires a creative cause to be granted existence so that instability and mobility be necessary and essential to it.
But the present account does not look at the world from this point of view; rather, it looks at every kind of nature with an independent view, and sees the world full of species whose existence is the very same as instability and restlessness. Accordingly, one can state that every mobile nature requires a non-material existence which is separate from matter and material properties, and since the species of the world of nature are of different types, so are the archetypes.
Mulla Sadra compares separate forms to the rays and beams of the light of the ‘First Necessity’ which are the ‘forms of the Knowledge of God; and there is no independent existence in itself for itself for them, and they are only a kind of existence whose essence belongs to Truth’.25 He also argues that: ‘Those intellectual beings, luminous ideas, and Divine Knowledge are always connected to their agent and goal, behold the beauty of their creator, and are obsessed by the Divine Ocean and the axis of the light of Oneness’.26
3- The Transubstantial motion is one of the most genuine philosophical interpretations of the fundamental concept of ‘creation continua’ (or perpetual creation) in the world of Islam. Throughout the history of Islamic thought, this concept has been interpreted in different ways by many thinkers. In addition to the atomistic philosophy of the Ash’arites which can be considered as an obvious and purely rationalistic approach to the problem, we are also dealing with Gnostics’ renewal of ideas which has been thoroughly explained by Ibn Arabi.
Taking what Mulla Sadra has proposed in this regard into consideration, every being in this world has essentially some existential need (imkan-e faqri). This statement means that every being in this world, by itself, is but nothingness or ‘Non-existence’. So if any being in the world is left to itself, it immediately moves towards its own denial. Thus, every object can only have a momentary existence, since in the same moment that it has been brought to the domain of existence, its own nature returns it to the domain of non-existence. The point that every being, due to its existential need, is inclined towards its own denial, is exactly the very same meaning of mobility and renewal. It is where, according to the theory of Transubstantial motion, we state that every material entity is changeable in its essence and substance; its existence at every moment is different from its existence at another moment; and the act of perpetual creation is ceaselessly granted by the absolute Divine essence. At the intersection of these two factors, i.e., the existential need of all objects and the perpetual effusion by the absolute metaphysical source, the concept of ‘new creation’ or ‘perpetual creation’ is realised.
One could not possibly talk more forcefully than this about the dependence of the created on the creator and the continual need of the world for a creator. The momentary character of the world obviously reveals its needful character. This indicates that the world is in transition and mobility not only in its appearance and states but even in its very existence and ipseity. Dependence and need have penetrated into the depths of its spirit and have captured its whole existence. Mulla Sadra takes the holy verse ‘koll-o youm-en Hova fi Sha`an’ 27 as a proof for demonstrating the truth of his statement.
Philosophers believed that the beneficence of the sublime truth is permanent and his effusion is uninterruptible... The statement of the sublime truth ("Every moment He is in a state of glory") is related to this issue. The concerns of the sublime truth are but his acts and the self-manifestations (theophanies) of his Names as mentioned before. The origination of an act from the perfect source is impossible and the relationship of the variable to the eternal constant is impossible but by the aspect of the perpetuation of renovation, termination, and graduation in creation and subsistence and by the conjunction of transformation and interruption in existence and annihilation - as is well-known by most philosophers - within motion itself. As it is stated, motion is a gradual ipseity that is created in an object after another object in the external world and is destroyed with an object after another object.28
God’s daily involvement in work is expressed in the best way in the theory of the Transubstantial motion. This is also the very specific philosophical meaning of ‘new creation’ which is stated in the holy Qur’an ‘Bal hom fi labsen men khalgh-en Jadid’ (Yet are they in doubt with regard to a new creation?).29
The problem of God, on the basis of such a conception of creation, will appear not as a problem but as an objective, evident, and obvious affair which one will face wherever he goes and whatever he sees. The closeness of the Truth to the beings, His dominance over the world, His knowledge over all events, His deep intervention in all affairs, and many problems concerning monotheism and God will receive an explicit meaning in this theory.
4- The quality of the relationship of changing beings which exist in the material world to God, who is essentially constant, is one of the most difficult problems of philosophy. After proposing motion within substance, Mulla Sadra considers this problem as being solved and states that: ‘That we say a contingent and changing effect requires a contingent and variable cause holds true only in the case of beings for which contingency and change are additional (non-essential) and occur to them from outside.’ A cause must deal with such beings in two ways: The first is to create the object itself, and the second is the production of motion in them. But the need of those beings that are essentially mobile and whose ipseity is the same as mobility to a cause is a simple and not a composite one. That is, their creation is identical with their mobility and creating them is like giving motion to them, because their being is just mobility and motion.
But we say that if the renovation of an object is not an inherent property of the object, it requires a renovator for its renovation. Also, if renovation is an inherent property of the object, the object, in its renovation, does not require a maker to renovate it; rather, a maker is required to create the object itself in a simple making, not a composite one, that penetrates between the made and the made-for. There is no doubt in the existence of an entity whose reality requires renovation and mobility; that, in our opinion, is nature, but motion and time for people. And every object has constancy and actuality and what the maker grants is the aspect of the constancy and actuality of the object.30
As such, whatever being which has a transitory ipseity and depends upon its own cause with regard to its existence receives from its cause only its very existence. That is, the creator does not grant motion to it; rather, he (the creator) gives itself to it. As a result, this created being is related to the creator with regard to the stability of its ipseity. However, this same existence whose relationship to God is one of stability, is just transformation and mobility itself. So it is possible for a being which is stable from one aspect and transformed from the other to become the source of transformation in the world. From Mulla Sadra’s point of view, it is the very mobile substance that becomes the connector of the change to the constant existence and that which is contingent upon the eternal.
5- One of the most important consequences of the Transubstantial motion is the demonstration of the temporal contingency of the world. According to the Transubstantial motion, all existence in the world of nature is essentially transformable and changeable, and all parts are continually in the process of creation and extinction. So the whole world, which is the sum total of its parts in a sense, with all that exists in it, is created in time.
The world, including whatever it holds, is a temporal contingent entity since whatever is within the world is precedented by non-existence in time. That is to say there is no ipseity amongst the personal ipseities except that its non-existence temporally precedes its existence, which temporally precedes its non-existence. On the whole, there is no body or material body, be it celestial or elemental, spiritual or physical, but that its renewal entity renovates and its existence and individuation remains constant.31
In addition, since there is ‘no whole but through the existence of its parts’,32 ‘so the world with all its parts, be it the heavenly spheres and stars, or be it simple or complex, is contingent and perishable. Whatever exists in it, at every moment of time, counts as another being and a new creation’.33 It is clear that according to this viewpoint, one cannot assume a starting point for the world, and there is indeed no necessity to assume a starting point because time originates from the world itself. It follows that there was no time before the creation of the world. So the question of when the world was created is an irrelevant and meaningless one. This question would be meaningful only if there were a flowing time independent of the world, and the world was brought into existence in one of its hours and moments. But since it is not so, and since time is an offspring of matter, is not independent of it, and comes after and not before it, one cannot ask about the time of the creation of the world. In fact, the whole world is located in ‘timelessness’, the same way that it is located in ‘placelessness’. One cannot ask where the whole galaxies are located, since when we consider the entire matter, there is no place outside it to determine the location of the world here and not there. The story of time is the same. When there is no time beyond the world, one can not say that the world is at this time and not at another time.Having a time is only applicable to the parts of the world and not to the whole world. Accordingly, it will essentially be purposeless to speak about the temporal contingency and pre-eternity of the world as theologians have been trying to do, to reject or confirm it.
6- According to the theory of Transubstantial motion, Mulla Sadra regards the soul as a product34 of the Transubstantial motion of the body. In the same way that fruit and branch are naturally located beside each other, the soul and the body enjoy such a natural and essential relationship, and in no way is their relationship a superficial and accidental one. On this basis, the body has the status of a background and ‘potentia’ with regard to the soul. It is not the case that the body generates the soul, and the soul is the effect of the body. The body only provides the conditions for the appearance of the soul. The soul is a special being that requires a material background both in genesis and in appearance, but in its survival and continuity it is independent of matter and material conditions. Mulla Sadra’s famous rule, which is recorded in his name in philosophical texts and indicates the above fact, is as follows: The soul is corporeal in contingency and spiritual in subsistence.
It means that the origination of the soul is corporeal and material but its survival and continuity are spiritual and non-material.
The truth is that man’s soul is corporeal in contingency (temporal origination) and domination, but it is spiritual in subsistence and intellection. Its domination upon bodies is corporeal, but its intellection of itself and of the essence of its maker is spiritual. Non-material intellects are inherently and actually spiritual, but natures in the world are inherently and actually corporeal.35
The distinction between the soul and other attributes of matter manifests itself at the point that the attributes of matter are always dependent upon the matter; they are found within matter; they remain dependent upon material objects, and they perish together with the extinction of the matter. In contrast, only the background of the appearance of the soul is material and it does not require a material carrier for survival. Accordingly, the material and non-material world directly follow each other and are the natural continuation of each other so that ‘human form is the ultimate stage of corporeal perfection and the first step of spiritual perfection’36. A similar statement can be found in Asfar: ‘At the time of origination, the soul is at the final stage of the evolution of material forms and at the first stage of the development of cognitive forms, and its existence at this stage counts as the final corporeal shell and the first spiritual core’.37
Based on this principle, each body possesses a soul that belongs absolutely to it, has come into existence within its background, and is the continuation of the material motion of that body. Accordingly, one should never think that each person has a soul which accompanies him from birth to death. The reality is not so; rather the soul gradually and hand in hand with the body comes into perfection and actuality and is developed with the help of his achievements and acts.
How absurd and shallow it would be to assume that the soul, with regard to its substance and essence, from the start of its dependence to body till the end of its subsistence, is a unitary entity (i.e. remains identical and constant). While you learned that the soul is sheer non-thing in the first stages of being, as it is said in the holy Qur’an ‘There surely came over man a period of time when he was a thing not worth mentioning’.38 The soul in its ascent reaches the active intellect.39
Another consequence Mulla Sadra draws from his theory is the rejection of the idea of reincarnation. Since the soul is the continuation of the body’s natural motion, it is not essentially reasonable to assume that one person’s soul turns to become another person’s soul. Each body in its Transubstantial motion seeks for and finds its own suitable soul. At the beginning, this soul is nothing, but gradually, and at the same time, harmoniously grows with the body and develops actuality and form. In this case, how would it be possible for a body to accept and conform to a soul which has been made, polished, cast, and grown to suit another body?
7- One of the problems of the theory of Transubstantial motion is the problem of resurrection. In no way does Mulla Sadra claim that by the Transubstantial motion can one explain and interpret all the details of the problem of resurrection which have been proposed in Divine religions and especially in Islam. What is intended is that the world, which is a motion, inevitably has a destination and goal and heads towards a direction in its depth and interior. This motion is the very coming into existence of the world. In other words, the world is created in such a way that heads towards an ultimate goal. This goal is not a place and location beyond the world itself. The source, destination and movement are the same here. The movement starts out from itself and moves within itself and reaches itself again. But this ultimate self is a stage higher than the starting self.
A great change occurs not only on the Earth but also in the whole world with the emergence of resurrection and a totally new world and scene appear. One can recognise here that the problem of resurrection is not confined to the Earth and human beings; rather, it is a cosmic event at the level of entire material entities.40
Mulla Sadra’s arguments concerning the issue of resurrection are not confined to the essential and Transubstantial transformation of the world; rather, they are related to human beings as well. He considers the world as a growing sapling which undergoes essential and Transubstantial transformation, continual decay, and origination until it ultimately leads to resurrection. Likewise, by presenting the deep inner motion in man, he demonstrates the Last Day and its certain and inevitable occurrence.
The soul in Mulla Sadra’s view is an independent substance that by Transubstantial motion passes through the different stages one by one until it becomes free from dependence on matter and potentia and achieves eternity in the realm of the intellect. Following some Gnostics, besides accepting the eternity of the rational faculty of the human soul, he maintains a kind of eternity for the faculty of imagination as well. Amongst the faculties of the soul, intellection and imagination are essential to the soul while vegetative and animal faculties are transferred through the body. According to him, on the Last Day, the power to create external forms will be granted to all souls and the parts of the body which seem to be external will be created from within the soul, so that the revivification of soul will really be accompanied by the revivification of the body. According to Mulla Sadra, this statement is another interpretation of the problem of the resurrection of the body which he prides himself on having solved.
Notes
1 Throughout the history of Islamic thought, the concept of ‘perpetual creation’ has been explained in different ways by Islamic thinkers. Gnostics believed in the ‘renewal of similars’, and agreed with the existence of renewal and transformation all over the world of possibility including substances and accidents. The Ash’arites, based on the rule of ‘the accident does not remain the same in two successive moments’, consider the forms of beings to be in continual change and transformation, in spite of the survival and constancy of their substances. Mulla Sadra and his followers propose the Transubstantial motion and accordingly conceive of the world with its substance and accidents as being in constant change and transformation. Mulla Sadra’s Transubstantial motion is more compatible with the Gnostics’ renewal of ‘similars’ than with the difference that the Gnostics believe in covering after uncovering forms (al-labs ba’d al-khla’), while Mulla Sadra believes in covering after covering (al-labs ba’d al-labs). This differentia implies that in the Sufi doctrine, at every moment, the universe is annihilated and recreated. However, in Mulla Sadra’s view, the form and matter of an existence become themselves the material for a new form and this process goes on continuously as if one were to put on one coat on top of another. See: Mulla Sadra, al-Asfar al-arba’ah , vol.3, 4th, Beirut, daro ehya al-toras al-Arabi, 1410 A.H., pp. 112-113; Taftazani, sa’ad al-din, shar maga’sid, vol.1, Mesr, 1305 A.H., pp. 181,319; Ashari, Abol-hasan, Mazahib al-Islamiyyin, vol.1, Mesr, 1389 A.H., p.710.
2 Ibn Sina, al-Shifa, Sama’e Tabi’iy, Qum, Maktabat al-Mar’ashi, 1405 A.H., pp. 123-124.
3 Ibid. 101.
4 Aristotle, Metaphysics, 12,8,1704a.
5 Ibid.12, 1-10, 1069a - 1076a.
6 Ibn Sina, al-Shifa, al-Ilahiyyat, p.257.
7 Mulla Sadra, al-Asfar, Vol.3, p.74.
8 Ibid. Ta’liqa, Mulla Ha’di Sabzevari, p.21.
9 Ibid.180; Ibid. Ta’liqa, Allamah-Tabatabai, p.69.
10 Ibid. chap.25, p.97.
11 Ibid. chap.26, p.101.
12 Ibid. Borhan mashragi A’khar, p.103.
13 Ibid. p.103.
14 Ibid. p.104.
15 Ibid. chap.33, Bahs va Tahsil, p.133.
16 Ibid. Vol.7, Maugef.10, chap.2, pp.290-291.
17 Ibid. chap. 24, pp. 273.
18 Ibid. chap.2, p.201; See: Vol.5, chap.2, p.204; Mulla Sadra, Mafa’tih al-Gaib, 12, pp.426-427.
19 Ibid. Vol.3, chap.12, p.39.
20 Ibid. chap.12, p.61.
21 Mulla Sadra, al-Shawahid al-Rububiyyah, ed. Jalal Ashtiyani, Markaz Nashri Danishkahy, Tehran, 1360 H.S. pp.244-245.
22 Mulla Sadra, al-Asfar, Vol.6, chap.8, pp.98-99.
23 Ibid. Vol.5, chap.17, p.342.
24 Ibid. Vol.6, Ta’liqa, Mulla Hadi Sabzavari, p.98.
25 Ibid. Vol.5, chap.2, p.202.
26 Ibid. Vol.3, pp.95-96.
27 The Qur’an, (Rahman, 29).
28 Mulla Sadra, al-Asfar, Vol. 7, chap.1, pp.281-283.
29 The Qur’an, (Qaf, 15).
30 Mulla Sadra al-Asfar, Vol. 2, chap. 21, p.68; See: Mulla Sadra, Mafatih al-Gaib, al-Meftah 12, pp.395-396; al-Asfar,Vol. 7, pp.285, 292.
31 Mulla Sadra, al-Mashaíir, ed. Hanri Corbin, Ketabkhaneh Tahori, 2nd, al-Manhaje.3, al-Mashair 3, p.64.
32 Mulla Sadra, al-Asfar, Vol.7, chap. 2, p.297; See: Ibid, chap. 1, p.287.
33 Ibid, chap.2, p.297; See: al-Mazahir al-Ila’hiiah, al-Maza’hir. 7, p.44.
34 The phrase ‘a product of Transubstantial motion’ must be perceived in its precise and special sense; and from the analogy of fruit and branch one must not wrongly assume that the soul, like a fruit, is dependent upon a branch and always feeds on it. The soul is like a ripe fruit that after ripening falls off the branch and starts out on an independent life for itself. See: Mulla Sadra, al-Asfar, Vol.8, al-Safar. 4, Bab.7, chap.6, p.390.
35 Ibid. Chap.3, p.347.
36 Mulla Sadra, al-Shawahid al-rububiyyah, p.223.
37 Mulla Sadra, al-Asfar, Vol.8, chap.1, p.328.
38 The Qur’an, (al-Insan or-Dahr, 1).
39 Mulla Sadra, al-Asfar, Vol.8, chap.1, p.328.
40 The holy Qur’an’s interpretations of considering resurrection simultaneous with great worldly events are far too explicit. (When the heaven becomes cleft asunder, and when the stars become dispersed, and when the seas are made to flow forth, and when the graves are laid open, every soul shall know what it has sent before and held back) (Infitar, 1-5).
