Abstract
In this article, Suhrawardi’s evidences to prove the idea of essence nobility in his Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq was examined by taking into account the interpretations of Qutb al-Din al-Shīrāzī and Shams al-Din Shahrazūrī and Sadra’s criticisms on the book was presented. Avicenna developed the Aristotelian distinction of being and quiddity to its final limits and included this distinction among the main topics of Islamic philosophy. Suhrawardi, with his objections to Avicenna, took the issue into the category of primary controversial issues, on the other hand Mullā Ṣadrā responded to some criticisms of Suhrawardī in his talikāt that had an effect in turning the discussion in favor of Avicenna. Especially the problem of whether being or quiddity has the primacy was clearly put forward by Mīr Dāmād and his student Mullā Ṣadrā, and the discussion continued in this line.
Suhrawardī and his commentators have criticized the Peripatetic (Mashshāʼī) philosophy in many ways, while forming the Ishrāqī system. It is obvious that these criticisms made a very important contribution to the development of Islamic philosophy. In addition, although Suhrawardī claimed to have established a new system, it is clear that the Ishrāqī community used the Peripatetic foundations. For example, the debate on being and quiddity in the Peripatetic philosophy has turned into the doctrine of the vertical and horizontal lights in Ishrāqī philosophy. Suhrawardī replaced the concept of being with the concept of light with accepting that the distinction between being and quiddity is only a mental distinction, and claimed that the primacy in the external world belongs to the quiddity. Accordingly, the concept of being is one of the mental universal concepts that have no external reality. Furthermore, this concept is too far from having an external reality to reveal metaphysical truths, since it is widely used by the Peripatetic philosophers to include bodies. Because, metaphysical beings such as God, light and angel cannot be grouped under the same denominator with dark entities like bodies.
Suhrawardī and his commentators argued that if the primacy of being is accepted, it would renders the distinction between necessary being and contingent being meaningless while talking about the existence of contingent beings would actually mean an infinite regress of contingent beings.
Mullā Ṣadrā's criticisms of Suhrawardī had significant contribution to Islamic philosophy. According to him, the claim of that “being is a mental concept that has no external reality” originates from the inability to grasp the truth of being. Because he confused it with other universal concepts that have no external reality, the reason is that he did not pay attention to the special position of the concept of being, that caused him not to see that the same assessment can be made for the concept of light. However, the being that creates the external world should not have any special quiddity in terms of its truth so that it can give reality to all other creatures.
Mullā Ṣadrā claimed that the idea of distinction between necessary being and contingent being will disappear with the acceptance of being nobility that derived from the inability to understand the modulated structure of the being. In other words, according to him, existence of being as the ultimate reality does not prevent its appearance and emanation at different levels. So, the contingent beings express the level of existence in a hierarchy. If existence of a being has strength, intensity, wealth and perfection, its contingency decreases as much. According to Ṣadrā, quiddities cannot be characterized by existence and non-existence in terms of their identicalness. In terms of their appearance in the external world, the quiddities can only emerge depending on being. In this sense, the quiddities do not have an ontological status of their own. This acceptance would invalidate the claims regard to an infinite regress of regeneration of the contingent beings. According to Ṣadrā, the claim that "in case of accepting the aṣālat of being, being would require another being and it will require another one" originates from not understanding that the being itself self-exists and not in need of anything else to exist. In order to the infinite regress of being in the mind, it is sufficient to end the mental reputation at any point. In sum, according to Ṣadrā, there is only one being who’s its existence is in itself and necessary. The contingents are nothing but dependent states and results of the emanation from the Necessary Being. In this case, being is the primary, and the quiddities are states dependent on the being.